Trish Doller

I accidentally read the second book about the Beck sisters before reading this first one. It didn’t make any difference. This was also very good. Ten months after the death of her fiancé, Anna sets out to complete the sailing trip they’d planned. After a treacherous first night she arrives at the first stop realizing she can’t do this alone. She hires Keane (a professional sailor) to help.

They’re both struggling with very different losses and living lives that are different than they had planned. Of course each turns out to be just what the other needed. It’s predictable but a good entertaining contemporary romance with a bit of adventure along the way as they sail the Caribbean.

There are discussions of suicide as noted at the beginning of the book. It’s a special kind of grief for the survivors of such a loss and this book is about healing from that grief.… (more)

Reading Off the Map is a bit like an erratic road trip, darting from one destination to another too quickly without enjoying the scenery. Carla and Eamon, lovers at first sight who end up on a spontaneous road trip on their way to a wedding, cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time—but there’s something that just falls flat for me in this romance road-trip read. I really, really wanted to like this one because the first one in this series, Float Plan, was a favorite of 2021 and one I still think about years later.

In this story, though, there are some definite things that work, like the Ireland setting, an emotional dad-daughter relationship, and a wanderlust motif. But because a big part of this story is a dad with early-onset Alzheimer’s, and since my dad passed away from the same disease, reading about fictional characters with dementia usually ends up making me angry (probably a big reason this book is about 3-stars for me). Often in books and movies, most forms of dementia are usually portrayed as this soft fading of memory, and I have a hard time not projecting my own experience. To me, dementia is not quiet; it’s not soft; it’s not fading into the shadows of your own mind. To me, it’s violent, sharp edges that cut deeply and unexpectedly—full of sun-downers and hallucinations and losing much more than just memory.

I do love the way Doller mixes sensitive and humorous issues in her books, and I think this could be a book that’s right for readers who enjoy instant connection romance (there’s no slow-burn here) where the characters are focused on forging their own path—off-road detours and all.… (more)

“But I’m starting to understand how sadness and happiness can live side by side within a heart. And how that heart can keep on beating” (248).

When you begin reading some books, you’re anxious to get through it, curious about what will happen. With other books, from the first few pages, you know you don’t want the book to ever end, savoring each stage of the story. This book is the latter kind. This book has so much of what I want in a summer read: heart and struggle, emotional rawness, but also fun, breezy things like sailing the Caribbean (definitely on my bucket list) and a hot, Irish love interest with emotional baggage of his own. It is the perfect mixture of depth and romance: A book that deals so tenderly with suicide and grief and healing from tragedy, but also includes so much life and beauty and joy alongside the sadness.

I love Anna’s journey through the Caribbean archipelago—all the lessons she learns about coming to terms with grief and accepting kindness from strangers and new friends and finding contentment and happiness in the beauty of people and places.… (more)

Although this is the third book of the Beck Sisters series, it can be read alone. The previous two books add background and history to the plot.

Carla Black goes to Ireland to be maid of honor at her friend Anna’s wedding to Keane Sullivan. She meets Eamon Sullivan, the best man, at a pub where he is tasked with picking her up at the airport. Instead of them going to help Keane and Anna with wedding plans they go rouge. The two hit it off immediately and literally “go off the map” on their own adventures.

They eventually meet up with Anna and Keane for a mini adventure before joining the anxious family ready for a wedding! Will single girl, fly by the seat of her pants, Carla be wooed into reconsidering her thoughts in marriage? Does Carla and Eamon’s relationship end in Ireland?

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for allowing me to read and review this complimentary digital copy. All comments are expressly my own honest and unbiased opinions.… (more)