This was fine. Not the best, not the worst; a bit bland and ultimately forgettable.

While this is a romance, I’d say it’s more general fiction than romance, as it centers around a young woman trying to come to terms with the death of her fiancé by suicide. If that sounds like a heavy topic for a romance, it’s because it is.

It is handled well. I can only imagine how painful it would be to be in Anna’s shoes and this is primarily a book about her processing her grief and learning how to move forward with her life. One day she walks out of her job and her life and decides to take her sailboat on a 1700 mile trip through the Caribbean that she was planning with her fiancé.

Along the way, she hires Irishman/sailor Keane to support her on her journey, but he is battling his own demons after losing his leg in an accident and struggling to find work. The story follows these two individuals to beautiful locations around the Caribbean while they both attempt to move on.

The reason I didn’t love the book is because it felt like it had absolutely no tension of any kind. Even though the central themes are around grief, this is a feel good and lighthearted book. There are no conflicts, limited romantic chemistry, and no real depth in processing grief. I would expect both characters to feel anger and sadness mixed with the elation of exploring such beautiful locales. But everything is just bland.

Overall, I don’t think the writing is very sophisticated. Just because it’s a romance doesn’t mean there can’t be depth. There’s a lot of secondary characters, but no meaningful relationships. Everything was solved too easily and I would have preferred to read less about each island they visited in lieu of some real depth from the side characters.

Anyways, I could go in depth about how the narrative is lacking, but it’s not meant to be that type of book. It’s the first in a 3 part series and I bought the whole thing on book outlet, so I will pick up the next one, The Suite Life (which I read is the best one). It’s great if you want a feel good travel book, but don’t expect any real depth. Show don’t tell!