Santa Overboard by Carolyn McBride

Santa Overboard is a contemporary fiction book about a group of friends and the area they live in. This is a cute fast story with no real conflict or action, other than minor occurrences.
Pros. Fast story. Some cute points. Liked the prayer sessions at the end of their beach gatherings. I liked the way the women are coming together to create businesses that can support each other and the town they live in. I enjoyed the group of friends. I like that it centers on a different age bracket than twenty something’s and brings in some of the issues that are associated with that age. I liked the mention of traditions and the family cookbook. I liked Deke again in this book.

Cons The Covid storyline. I understood the last book because it was the reason her mom passed away, but continuing it in this one was too much. The timeline also didn’t match with the last book. In this book she is talking to her brother and he says he can’t come for Thanksgiving because he was just there in the spring when their mother died. The book also mentions the trial from the previous book. If she died in the spring, and everything was closed until June and later with Covid, how was the court case heard so quickly, maybe my timing is off but I felt like the timeline was much longer in the Cicada Spring.. I didn’t pay attention to the blurb of the book and thought it was a cozy mystery, that aside I would have liked it had it centered more around the holidays. Instead it fell flat. Had I not read the previous book, I would have no connection to the characters in this book at all as no development is made here. The Santa Overboard was minor compared to the continuous mention of Covid. It pulled away from the story and was just unnecessary.

Overall I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series, especially if Covid remains a central theme. If that had be.en left out, the book would have been better.
I enjoyed the narrator, which kept me listening.

This book was really quick to get through. Mildly entertaining, but not too exciting.

I appreciated the strength of the female friendships and the normalcy of their entrepreneurial activities.

Most of the romantic books I read are about younger ladies, so this story about a middle aged group was a nice change of pace for me.

I felt like the resolution of the conflict with the boyfriend was too rushed. It didn’t feel realistic that all would be resolved with one gesture.

The constant talk of his mustache and covid was giving me the ick…

I thought this would be a really cute book for people to read in December but unfortunately it turned out to be underwhelming and nothing to write home about.

Little plot, hard to connect to characters in anyway and wasn’t really invested in our main couple.

The narrator's voice was pleasant, so I think this worked well as an audiobook. However, there were a lot of side characters for such a short piece and too much going on, so it was a little hard to follow as a result. Although I liked that the MC was older because it's a nice change of pace, I was not at all a fan of her reaction to hearing that Deke was going to be gone during the holidays (to volunteer as he has done for the last 17 years - I mean seriously? Who does that?) and quite frankly, at that point, I felt like telling Deke, dude, go find someone who actually values you because she does not. So.... no, this book didn't really work for me overall, but there was some humor and it did have some holiday feel-good vibes, so I bet other people will like it.

This book ended up really surprising me! It was such a nice and cozy read, full of Christmas vibes and traditions.

In my opinion, the main characters seemed pretty realistic. They had life problems and worries I could relate to. I also really enjoyed the Ucranian character's passages explaining some Christmas traditions they have there. I think it added a nice diversity touch to the story.

The only down part for me was the amount of COVID references throughout the book. I believe the story is based a few years ago, which seems appropriate and relevant, but it does bring back not so good memories. It ended up sounding a bit exhausting.

I really enjoyed the audiobook narration. Although the male lines/speech style seemed a bit cringy sometimes, it was a nice experience overall.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars.

I listened to this audiobook and from the off I just knew it wasn’t going to be for me, I didn’t like the characters or the plot line particularly or the way it was written if I’m being completely honest. I didn’t find myself warming to anyone throughout and just didn’t really get the point of it all, I’m really not a fan of the miscommunication trope which didn’t help either. Overall, I didn’t hate it, and it had the odd redeeming moments but I won’t be recommending it.

Thank you to @netgalley for the Advanced Listening Copy- all opinions are my own.

Who can resist the cover of Santa Overboard: A Potomac Shores Holiday by Carolyn McBride? It is colorful, vibrant, action-packed and funny. The book itself didn’t come across that way to me; it doesn’t sound the way it looks. This novella is the second in the Potomac Shores series. The cover of the first book, The Cicada Spring, looks more like what reading the book feels like and I think they would have done better by having them match.

I love that the main character, Katie, is 51 years old and has kids in college. I like that we have apple cider in the crock pot and make Christmas cookies. Katie has old friends, new friends and a boyfriend Deke- there are many, many people and names in this book and while it is standalone, it may be beneficial to read them in order.

I read other reviews and readers thought writing about Covid was “too soon”. I didn’t feel that way at all, but I kept a tally and know going into it that you are going to hear the word pandemic at least 12 times, Covid 5 times, lockdown 5 times, as well as quarantine. vaccinations and social distancing each a couple of times. If that is not your thing- be warned, although it didn’t bother me one bit.

I think there is a type of person that likes this kind of book. It reminds me of the book The Seaside Sisters by Pamela M. Kelley, where it’s a little low energy, slow moving, maybe a bit boring. A lot of tell, don’t show. In The Seaside Sisters, the game cornhole was fully explained. In this one there were many lessons about the history of the area, places in the area, historical figures, The Nutcracker, and birds. There was even “in x year… this happened.” I’m guessing people talk like that, and those are the people who would like this book.

It was read by Maria Marquis, who sounded right for the role.

3/5 stars
3 hours 55 minutes at 1x on audio
Door: off page
Locations: Occoquan, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC area

NetGalley Arc

This was a cute story about female friendships but unfortunately it’s set during the covid pandemic while I struggle with in books. But I did find the author used in a good way to support the story/plot.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author/publisher for a copy of this audiobook.

I am still getting into audiobooks however, the narrator did a great job. This story was not one that I would recommend. It didn't give much of a holiday vibe that I was expecting and it mentioned the pandemic way too many times for my liking. It was like they were focusing on that plotline more than the characters or giving them a life not revolving around it. It was hard to get into the story but still wanted to finish it.

A sweet story full of Christmas cheer. Katie is has had a rough go of it. A daughter at college, a three time divorcé and the loss of her mom have her questioning everything. After suffering through the trying times of COVID she is trying to find her way. In this new world. Christmas traditions old and new , great friends and a new love will see her through. There is light after dark. Thank you to NetGalley for this free advanced copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily

what a cute holiday short read. I loved the characters and the story.. The ending is perfect. I even learned a little science reading this.

3.75 stars

This was a really cute, sweet, later in life romance/holiday story. The women in this series are great and it made me wish I had read the other books in this series before venturing on to the holiday novella of this world, but I wasn't too lost. You can tell there's a lot of history between these people and this book give a nice gloss over to give you the jist of what you needed to know, but it left me wanting. I'm almost certain that the wanting was my fault for not starting at the beginning.

This is the perfect light fluff that I imagine people want to read around the holidays and if you're caught up on this series, it'll be a great Welcome Back to check in on all your favorite characters.

Maria Marquis did a wonderful job narrating. She really gave Katie character and a sense of wonder.

Thank you, NetGalley and Make Waves Press for the ALC.

I enjoyed this book, but it didn’t capture much of a Christmas vibe. It wasn’t as funny as I’d hoped, and the “Santa falling overboard” part was a minor aspect of the plot. The pandemic was mentioned too often for my liking, which made it harder to stay engaged. While I don’t mind pandemic themes, this felt excessive. On the bright side, the narrator was excellent and made the audiobook enjoyable.

Thank you to Carolyn McBride, NetGalley and Make Waves Press for an Audio Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Carolyn McBride, NetGalley and Make Waves Press for an Audio Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This short story (under 200 pages) was a refreshing read from the usual holiday romance novels. The main characters were not college/late 20's which was a nice change from the usual books of this genre.

Aside from the characters, the story itself was hard to connect with. The constant mentions of the pandemic made it that much harder to enjoy the holiday escapism aspect books often bring and snapped me back to reality every time it was brought up. This aspect was entirely not needed in my opinion and did not add any depth or substance to the story.

I would be interested to read more from this author if this element was left out of her future novels but unfortunately this brought my rating down at least one full star.

The narrator however was very easy to listen to which made for a very enjoyable listening experience! I would search out more audio books narrated by Maria Marquis for the future!

Santa Overboard was a quick, easy listen. The narrator did a great job, but I think I was missing something by picking up this little novella without reading its predecessor. I'm deep in pull ups and preschool schedules, so I don't think a story focusing on single or widowed women with grown children really landed its target in me.

Because of that, I don't think it's really fair to comment too much on the plot line because I don't think I'm a great person to evaluate the happenings of women in completely different stages of life - especially ones I've never been through.

But I will say that in 2024, finally on the other side of Covid being a global pandemic, I was very very very very tired of hearing about vaccines and vaccinations and Covid and that was one of the parts of this book I disliked the most.

This is a cute Christmas novella and it's part of the Potomac Shores series. This a a stand-alone story, you do not need to have read book one to enjoy this, although I liked this so much I will go back and read book 1, The Cicada Spring. This was a fun romance with and older couple. I enjoyed hearing about Washington DC's Christmas traditions, and other Christmas folk stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Makes Waves Press for the advanced listener copy. Narrator Maria Marquis was a please to listen to. This sweet novella will put you in the Christmas spirit.

I love a good holiday book. However this fell flat for me. The plot was lacking, to many side character to follow and a lot of Covid referencing which is fine but was a bit repetitive.

I listened to this as an audiobook. It's a single narrator in third person POV. The narrator spoke well and had a good pace. The FMC is a woman in her 50's with at least one college age child. This is a refreshing departure from all the romance books with women in their early-twenties.

Even though it was quite short, I only got to about the halfway point until I couldn't listen anymore. There was little to no plot progressing in all that time. There was a lot of COVID talk, which *some* is fine because we all lived through it, but it was a downer, and a lot of times it seemed shoehorned in for some reason. It started to feel like a PSA. In 9 chapters, hardly anything of interest happened, and I couldn't give it the benefit of the doubt any longer. And, I'm sorry, the FMC has been married and divorced 3 TIMES, and I'm supposed to be invested in this budding relationship (that came to be in another book entirely)? In the chapters I read, there was hardly anything transpiring between them.

I never DNF books, and I feel bad, but it is what it is.
1.5 ⭐ but I'm rounding to 2 on the chance that the second half of the book really takes off!

I listened to an advanced copy of this book, and these are my honest thoughts. Thank you to NetGalley and the author.

I enjoyed this short read! I have yet to read the first book but I am glad the first few chapters had a recap of what happened. I did get a little anxious just from the covid references and the midlife crisis vibes I got from the recap but after those chapters it got better! There definitely needs to be a trigger warning for the covid mentions for those like me and the MC that were affected. I did enjoy this read and the ending!! I was not expecting the fake Santa to be Larry! That was such a surprise! Cant wait to see what happens next and go back to read the first book!

Oh my lord do I have strong feelings on this book.

Okay so like it was cute. A small town, a bunch of divorcees and widows, romantic trouble in paradise, happy ending, finding oneself, opening up a little bookstore… etc.

BUT MY LORD THE AUTHOR MENTIONED COVID IN EVERY CHAPTER. It’s like the book’s foundation was covid and this reader is just not about that. Like everywhere you turn it was “I dated this guy during lock down” or “now that we’re vaccinated” or “we get to see our families after 2 years.”

Like it was a cute story and all but honestly I was sick of the covid references. It ruined the plot for me honestly. Idk who the targeted audience was because I don’t know a single person who wants to relive the covid years.

Alright writing and a happy ending but man I would have enjoyed it so more (and the book would have been much shorter) without the endless references to the pandemic.