Love Overboard by Kandi Steiner
Finn Pearson was the one that got away. The boy who kissed her like they had forever, then left without a word. But now he’s the chef in her new crew, and the cameras are watching their every move, innocent, or not.
Even on a superyacht, there's nowhere to hide from the past. Every stolen glance, every whispered argument, every lingering memory threatens to ignite what never fully burned out. And as the tension spills into their day jobs, even the dinner service is spiraling into disaster.
They’ve crashed before… but could eight weeks at sea be their second chance to get it right? Or will it be the storm that finally sinks them for good?
Review: Thank you to Arndell and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Ember is excited to have finally landed a job as chief stewardess on a Mediterranean superyacht, including the fact that the ship is the star of a new reality TV show, meaning their every move will be caught on camera. But as she arrives on board, she learns that an ex from a few years back, the man who had broken her heart, has been hired to be the ship's chef. And his current girlfriend is also on ship. And what she thought would be a drama-free 8 weeks turns out be anything but that, and the cameras are trained on her at every turn.
This is based on the reality show Below Deck and while I've never watched that show, the reality show aspect of this book was fun. I liked that each chapter starts with an interview between the TV show crew and one of the ship's crew and gives a little preview of the action we'll see in that chapter. The fact that cameras and mic are on Ember and Finn through every interaction up the ante a lot in this second chance story. All of the various guests on board the ship for short stays was another fun element. Each group of guests have different requests and has the ship staff jumping through hoops to keep them happy. There are a lot of mishaps, including kitchen snafus and unhappy guests at times, which kept tensions high.
There is undeniable history, tension, and lots of unresolved feelings between Ember and Finn. Finn's current girlfriend also being stuck onboard leads to lots of scenes and drama. There is a lot of content for the camera crew! However, the pacing of this book felt off to me. It took until close to 60% of the way into the book for me to fill like the action was really picking up. When it did, it REALLY picked up!! The last forty percent were really fast. But it felt like a slow slog to get to that point.
Watching reality television is such a guilty pleasure, but it also relies on petty feelings, drama, and manipulation of the way events are portrayed to keep the audience's attention. And it is often pretty trashy. And in this sense, it was hard to translate this premise to a rich novel with lots of emotional depth. However, the author did do a good job in the final chapters of trying to emphasize the difference in how Ember and Finn were edited for the show and perceived by their shipmates and the reality of their love story. That being said, I do think I would enjoy this so much more on audio with the duet narration and full cast that would bring this to life and make it feel more like listening to a reality show.
Stars: 3
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