Cape Heartbreak by Jenny Coen
And a skipper determined to ruin her plans.
Lucy Santos has spent years pushing people away. But with her beloved restaurant on the brink of closure, she’s also desperate for a fresh start. So when her father sends an old treasure map from prison, Lucy is determined to follow it and she doesn’t need anybody’s help—except for someone to sail the boat.
That’s when she hires Angus Fletcher, the charming sea captain and savvy opportunist, who she happened to have a one night stand with. He’s arrogant, has a questionable past, and won’t let Lucy forget about their night together, as much as she insists it meant nothing.
With other treasure hunters hot on their trail, their quest becomes far from easy. Especially when Lucy finds out Angus has secrets of his own.
Too bad they’re trapped together on a small boat—forced to battle the sea, the bad guys...and their feelings for each other.
Cape Heartbreak is a standalone adventure romance, filled with nonstop action, morally gray characters, humor, and spice. Click ‘Buy Now’ to go along for the ride!
Review: Thank you to author Jenny Coen for the ARC, which is out on November 19th!!
Lucy is struggling to keep her restaurant afloat when she receives a treasure map from her estranged dad who is in prison. Desperate to track down the funds to help her restaurant survive, she sees this as an opportunity and hires a sea captain to help take her dad's boat in pursuit of the promised treasure. But she isn't expecting the hired man to be none other than Gus Fletcher, a charming sea captain with a questionable past - that she just so happens to have had a one-night stand with.
This book has great 1980s adventure movie vibes - think Romancing the Stone. I loved that Gus is Australian and Lucy is Colombian and that they both have complicated family dynamics. The two have some great forced proximity scenes onboard the boat where they get to know each other better, not to mention bonding over the high-stakes hijinks they find themselves embroiled in.
I think a few elements that didn't work as well for me are a ME problem, not the book problem. I struggle with books where the characters get together immediately and/or have casual hookups straight out of the gate just because it typically feels like it kills some of the tension for me. The author did a good job of creating tension between them after this one-night fling, but I still struggled with this. After this hot night together, it was hard to believe that she was as annoyed and put off by him as she claimed, since there was no real reason for her to feel that way other than she wanted it to be a one off event.
I also am too much of a coward haha. I just kept thinking about HOW insanely and absolutely paralyzed by fear I would be in this scenario with bullets flying and bad guys chasing me and having to leap into water if I couldn't swim. It was difficult for me to suspend my disbelief that Lucy wasn't more scared and was able to just sing karaoke, flirt with Gus, show up to fancy parties in other countries despite all that was going on, especially considering she is a chef and not someone hardened by a past life of crime. I think if there had been less gunshots being fired (which feels SO extreme in terms of risk) that I might have bought into it more.
I also thought there were a few elements that I wish were more fleshed out. Gus in particular has a very shady past but we get very few details. It seems he is a major player with a shady past. While Lucy's dad has a shady past, she has lived an honest life, and it sort of pained me to see her fall in with someone so morally gray. While the hope is that he leaves all that behind him, it's hard to really know what will happen while she's falling for him and they don't talk about it all enough to really get clear answers.
I also thought the pacing of this felt a tad off. It was SO fast paced that it was easy to miss some great lines. It felt like they were just dropped in there and then the characters swiftly moved on so you don't really get to absorb the emotional impact of the feelings shared. There was no lingering over anything.
I think this would be an outstanding movie. I could so see this on the screen. The combination of adventure/treasure hunting plot and steamy romance would translate so well to the screen and I think some of the issues I had would be less problematic in a shortened film format.
I also loved the epilogue of this! SO fun that we get some scenes from Gus's POV and also get a glimpse of the characters 6 months after the end of the book. I thought the conclusion of this tied the story up in a really satisfactory way and I was really happy with the ending.
I was honored to read this debut. The cover is beautiful. The characters are hot. The premise is so fun!
Stars: 3.5
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