I usually love audiobooks but I struggled to listen to this one. I'm going to buy the book on publication day because I absolutely adore this authors work and I know I will love it.

This is truly awful. A big part is due to the narrator who sounds like an older man, narrating the POV of a woman and sounding like a stilted and uncomfortable pantomime dame in doing so. A younger female narrator may have made this story more bearable.

The story itself is pure cheese! The dialogue is very old fashioned and repetitive. The sex scenes are really cringey and the main characters claimed to love each other but had so much emotional baggage, neither of them actually told the other - in that respect, they behaved like 12 year olds!

And then they found a pirate map…

1 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I usually don’t like third person narative, but on audiobooks it’s okay..unfortunately this audiobook didn’t helped at all. The book is all over the place. I wanted the story to focus on Zara and Saint. But it was like I was reading a book about multiple main characters and that’s a thing I definitely didn’t enjoy. For me it was not a good book and personally I didn’t liked it. The story could have been better, it has potential. But I think if it was a first POV maybe it could’ve had more interesting scenes.
Thanks NetGalley for this audiobook copy!

This book explores the journey of two characters, Zara and Saint, who hook up shortly after breaking up with their previous partners and whose paths cross later in Catalina Cove. What will the impact of the forced proximity be on their relationship, considering that they are both very set on not opening their heart up to anyone again?

Personally, this was not for me. I do enjoy a light-hearted romance to listen to; but in this case, I found it very irritating, mostly because the characters, both grown adults, had 1 bad romantic experience each and resolved to close off their hearts forever. I'm sure lots of people do this and I find it incredibly immature, and I felt the same way about the characters - in general, it makes me feel uneasy when entertainment perpetuates immature behaviours, however commonplace they might be: it could normalise it to the eyes of the reader and (involuntarily) dissuade them from seeking help to grow out of it.
I also find it icky how the main way to convey the chemistry between the characters was the overuse of the word 'sexual' in all of its combinations - it was not sexy to me.
Having said that, it did have enjoyable elements: it started strong with a steamy scene that set the tone for the whole book and promised more (THAT was sexy as hell); the seaside setting; I especially enjoyed the secondary storyline of the romance between two older characters, the way they interacted felt very true to how an older couple might do, and felt very wholesome all around.

Unfortunately, this narrator did not work for me and I could not get past the first few chapters. I will seek out the physical book to see if I can get further into the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.