Trish Doller - Off the Map

Carla Black’s life motto is “here for a good time, not for a long time.” She’s been traveling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn’t do love and she doesn’t ever go home.
Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he’s the one who’s lost his sense of direction. He’s unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out—literally.
Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend’s wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love - if only they choose it.

Comment: In 2022 and 2023 I've read the first and second books in this Beck sisters trilogy. Those two books had a Beck sister as protagonist and since I liked both (what a coincidence both were entries I chose for the TBR challenge), I've decided to read this third one. 

The protagonist is a friend of Anna (book #1) and now that I've read it, my conclusion is that is isn't necessary or, perhaps, the author should have written it with a different goal in mind.

In this story we meet Carla Black, an adventurous woman who loves to travel, something she started enjoying since a child, when she went with her father to many places. Recently, her father started to show signs of dementia and has asked her to keep traveling so that she doesn't need to see his deterioration. Although she is in constant contact with her stepmother, her father's carer now, she still feels she might too far, something she only really realizes when she's in Ireland, for her friend Anna's wedding. Still, she promised and her friend asked Eamon, one of her future brothers-in-law, to give Carla a ride to the wedding location and Eamon and Carla hit if off right away. But it seems they are in different places in their lives now, could this be wrong time, wrong place for them?

From the beginning - and this isn't a very big novel - I was not "feeling it". The musings and feelings of readers can be tricky to describe but I bet any other reader recognizes this notion anyway, and this story just didn't grab me like the other two did when I read them. In part I think it might be because this isn't exactly in the same lines as the others but my initial impression was also not very positive because, unlike the other novels, Carla and Eamon don't seem to need time to develop a connection between them.

This quick decision doesn't have to be a problem, but I was not keen on seeing they decided to sleep together only a few hours after seeing each other for the first time. I know it can happen but it made me see them as impulsive characters I don't have much in common with. It also seemed they wanted to treat this situation as something casual and temporary until Carla leaves, but at the same time we obviously know the idea is for them to realize they could have future if they wanted and if they could compromise on the things they think are locking them to a place.

I wasn't too fond of the method used to deal with the geographical issue between them. Eamon is in Ireland and Carla will go back home to spend as much time as possible with her father. This situation isn't conductive to a larger than life romance but that is precisely what their "connection" seems to indicate anyway. I think this whole situation would not feel as superficial as it did, to me, if the story had more pages for some things to be developed better or if the focus was not on Carla being there for Anna, but on Carla alone and her father's situation (with, perhaps, with a romance with someone else too).

The way things were, Carla seemed to be someone who cannot be stuck in one place, meaning her decisions to stay anywhere would always feel second choice. Eamon isn't developed much beyond the basic but, of course, I got the feeling he was there as a prop for Carla, a means for her to weight in what was happening and not as an actual love interest that had to exist for her to consider anything. Since they were intimate so soon I had the exact opposite reaction and saw their relationship as not deep enough. Also, despite the vocabulary used to express how in sync they were, I saw them as individuals who were brought together on purpose and not as individuals who had to be together because they made sense in this specific scenario.

Perhaps this story could be a novella instead, without romance? I keep thinking about different ways this story could be told and that could be easier to appreciate. I think I also got the author's intention, the whole opposition of what one thinks they want vs real life placing challenges ahead and so on, but unlike what happened in other similar books, this one didn't seem to convince me the journey was worth the end. This is a romance, so anyone can imagine that a HEA does happen.

Before that happens, Carla has to deal with her father's illness. I won't spoiler things but let it be said there were other paths I thought the author would use instead of the one that was picked. This part was the one I felt the emotions presented were the most authentic and I would really have preferred the story to be more about this situation than about Carla "finding herself". Still, the story is what it is and I think I will not think of this book with warm feelings... thankfully it wasn't a big story because it really didn't contribute as much to the Beck sisters "universe" as I hoped.

Grade: 4/10

TBR Challenge: Trish Doller - The Suite Spot

Rachel Beck has hit a brick wall. She’s a single mom, still living at home and trying to keep a dying relationship alive. Aside from her daughter, the one bright light in Rachel’s life is her job as the night reservations manager at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach—until the night she is fired for something she didn’t do.
On impulse, Rachel inquires about a management position at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, Rachel packs up her daughter and makes the cross country move.
What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, moody man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel. Especially one that’s barely more than foundation and studs. It’s not the job Rachel was looking for, but Mason offers her a chance to help build a hotel—and rebuild her own life—from the ground up.

Comment: For the month of February, the TBR Challenge theme is "getaway". It's true one could go many directions, but I've chosen something where the main character moves to a new (distant) place, mainly for work, but also as a way to escape an apparent stagnated situation.

In this second installment in the Beck sisters series by author Trish Doller, we focus our attention on Rachel, sister to Anna (from book #1). Rachel is older and feels as if Anna has had it easier in life, despite the tragedy of her fiancé. Now that Anna seems to have moved on, Rachel feels even worse, her job is a good one but everything else seems to go badly and now even her amazing daughter stops her from having less positive thoughts once in a while. However, her bubble pops when the most unfair of reasons causes her to be fired but thankfully, a new job offer goes her way and she decides to move from Florida to Ohio, to work at Kelleys Island, where a brew hotel needs a manager. Things aren't as simple as they seemed when she accepted, but Rachel feels this project will be good for her and her daughter and the fact her new boss isn't hard on the eyes also helps. Will Rachel finally find stability for her life?

This is the second book by the author I pick for the TBR post. I did like Anna's story, which I had read last year, mostly for the setting. This time the setting is again special - an island with a hotel oriented towards those who like beer - and I was interested in seeing how the fact Rachel would be "getting away" to a new job and place and reality would affect her development as a character.

I think the goal was well achieved by the author, in fact. I liked Rachel as a character and how she goes from believing she would not find fulfillment in life (in whatever shape that would be to her) to finding a small community which accepts her, a job she likes and takes satisfaction from, a new leaf for her own feelings and, of course, a new love. I mean, down to its basics, this is pretty much the dream and in real life things rarely go as smoothly. The author has decided to add a few small twists to this, and the focus is most definitely on Rachel's personal and emotional growth, so the plot is very character-focused and the complications at the end felt a little staged, as if something had to happen so things wouldn't be so easy.

I can't fully judge, but in terms of emotional journey I think this was a good and healthy portrait of how to go on with life with small steps - OK, except moving so far away! - so that Rachel could feel more confident with herself and the choices she made. Rachel describes herself as "fat" at some point and we do have indication others see her this way as well, and this is one of the reasons why she isn't always as confident as she would want, and it was something that affected her romantic decisions, including why she slept with the father of her daughter. Going to a new place where no one seems to point the finger at her is probably a little unrealistic but of course I liked that this also helped her feel more assertive.

The daughter is a cutie, not one of those precocious children who speak as if they're teenagers or adults but I feel her presence wasn't just a prop to advance certain things. Rachel's relationship with her mother and sister isn't perfect either, as if they read each others's thoughts or something, but I liked that whatever issues they had weren't too hard to deal with or that by talking something positive came out of it. The secondary characters were also key enough to help Rachel feel she belonged and that she could achieve the things she wanted, without much antagonism. Even her work at the hotel felt like it clicked quite easily, not only because she is skilled but because what was happening wasn't a closed situation.

As for the romance, I liked that the author took time to set up Rachel and Mason as employee and boss but the dynamics aren't weird at all because of how the setting and the work itself was planned. I felt like they started of as polite strangers, aware of each other's limits in what was acceptable or not and then progressed to show how they became friends. It does help that the work they had to do allowed for small steps of getting to understand each other, and that makes the relationship feel it developed slowly.

I've mentioned that there are some difficulties towards the end of the story, an issue which didn't seem possible to become one, does. I confess it felt like a sudden choice made by the author just to add some drama, because it didn't really feel as if it had to be a problem for Rachel and the path the took. It helped to reinforce that what she had found was the best for her, but considering the kind of emotional development everyone who mattered had gotten, this felt unnecessary.

All things considered, I liked this one a little bit more than the first. Of course I feel like trying the third book too, featuring friends of these characters, perhaps.

Grade: 8/10

TBR Challenge: Trish Doller - Float Plan

Since the loss of her fiancé, Anna has spent the last year foundering on land, shipwrecked by her grief and inability to move on. But when a reminder goes off about a trip they were supposed to take, she impulsively sets off in their sailboat, intending to complete the planned voyage around the Caribbean that Ben had mapped out for them.
But after a treacherous night's sail and a brush with an ocean tanker, she decides she can’t do it alone, and hires a professional sailor to help her get to Puerto Rico. Much like her, Keane is struggling with a very different future than the one he had planned, and he can’t refuse her offer. Together they find a way to rebuild their lives and the possibility of new love.

Comment: The theme for the April TBR challenge post is "location, location, location". It does seem any pick would be pretty easy, after all, all stories take place somewhere. I chose a book from last year specifically because the story would happen on a boat, on route through the Caribbean islands! Better location than this....maybe, but not easy!

In this story we meet Anna, right at the moment she is about to start her journey sailing through the Caribbean islands bookmarked by her former boyfriend Ben, who has committed suicide. Anna is finding it difficult to deal with this and after an year she feels that she needs to do something radical, even if that means letting go of a lot, such as her job and the worries about Ben's family contesting his will. Perhaps she will find some sort of closure if she sails and sees the spots they planned until the very last destination. What Anna wasn't counting on was on the cliche that time and a physical change of scenery might be key to make her mind feel its moving on as well...

I had not read any reviews before starting the book, I only knew the heroine would be on a boat, which means the main reasons for the journey weren't very clear but let me say the beginning does set the mood and throughout the whole story, there was this sense of...desolation, and not just because of the theme. It made me think of something that doesn't have a solution, only ways to make it doable or easier to deal with.

Although we only know about Ben's suicide, Anna keeps thinking about him during the whole book. This is understandable, especially if she is trying to complete a task that had been thought to bring them even closer, but in terms of sequence, from a bad emotional place into healthy memories or self healing, I'm not certain I finished fully convinced Anna got there...

The plot is quite an adventure, one I both wish I could emulate and that I would dread just considering it at all. It was clear the author researched both how boats work, which possible issues they could have, she looked at the islands we often only hear about in movies or other books, and she certainly looked into mental health and similar subjects. This does feel like a very detailed and busy story but it's all presented to the reader as if organic, naturally part of what is happening and I went through it quite pleased with the things I was learning.

Anna is a complex character but part from her mourning, pretty much all her actions and reactions feel believable for the situations she faces. I think she did seem to be very confident more often than not and in that regard, especially thinking about some problems she found, I can't tell if it was optimism or plot decisions to make the story more appealing, but some things felt easy, and I can only imagine we would all find convenient help and/or friendly people at the exact moment we would need...

Anna decides that a big part of the voyage would be too hard for her skill level in sailing, so she hires someone to go with her. That's how Keane, the love interest, comes to the picture. Keane is also quite complex, because he was a professional sailor who had a physical problem and now no one hires him so we also have to see him, at times, deal with his own issues. That's why, in part, I feel this was too desolate, both protagonists don't have it easy. However, sounding contradictory, it was also good they weren't one dimensional and I was quite interested in them, individually.

The romance is quiet, slowly developed and perfectly suitable for the physical journey they did; as the boat went further along, so did their feelings and emotions, and in terms of falling in love I was more or less convinced. I'm just not certain about the after...perhaps the next book, featuring Anna's sister, might have some mention of what happened to Anna, for I feel the end was a bit too... vague.

Going back to the location subject...well, it was a treat I'd say, to check google and see where the islands and places mentioned were. What fun to think someone can do it, that people really plan their lives like that. It was also great to know some specific details about each island, so the location wasn't just a prop, or an exotic choice, clearly we could get a good idea of how each island could be "described". Sometimes, I would even feel slightly nostalgic, as Anna would leave an island, so I felt I was leaving too and there's a certain weird feel when we think we are leaving and with us go the feelings and memories we stored there, isn't it?

To summarize: I liked this book, more for the boat voyage and the details, the little things linked to it and the obvious emotional journey that Anna and Keane have at the same time. However, the romance was a bit too forthright I think, for the type os issues both had. Although close proximity could be an item to bear in mind.... oh well, I do think I'll try the other book at some point.

Grade: 7/10