3.5 Star
All Corinne has ever wanted was the role of clarinetist for the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra. The clarinet, and working to master it, is all she has left of her father, who abandoned the family when she was a little girl. But after failing to clinch an open spot in a heated audition, her life-plan soon goes overboard. Not only does she break up with her longtime boyfriend, Clay, she also makes a decision that will alter her destiny in ways she never imagined...
After a medical procedure and a couple of months of changing everything in her life, a pregnant Corinne meets Melissa and her gorgeous flirt of a brother-in-law, Austin, on a cruise. The heat of the Caribbean sun soon combines with a mutual attraction to create a sizzling connection neither Corinne nor Austin can deny. But when the truth comes out about Corinne's condition, will lifelong playboy Austin man up? Or will Corinne's hope for a future beyond a shipboard romance prove yet another PLAN OVERBOARD?
Kathryn - 3.5 Star
Plan Overboard follows one of the characters from Heather Wardell's previous novel All At Sea and although there are some people that reappear in this second book they can both be enjoyed as stand-alone novels quite happily. But having read both I was really happy to see the "evolution of Austin". I was like a proud parent realizing that he was starting to open up to the possibility of being the person he thought he was rather than the person everyone was telling him he was.
I suppose that if you hadn't read All At Sea then Plan Overboard you would probably be about Corinne’s journey and not Austin's quite so much! Corinne’s character appealed to me and I was surprised by a number of things that came out of her exploration of the new relationship with Austin on board ship. She obviously also has a supportive brother and mother and Wardell made sure we knew about their close bonds and the reasons they were strong. Her career as a clarinetist also was quite intriguing in that we were given a good idea of the intensity of such a position and the struggle she obviously felt in giving it up. I also liked that the author explored Corinne’s relationship with her absent father, his abandonment of the family directed Corinne’s life completely and it was heartbreaking for her to realize that that bond she had treasured was perhaps the figment of a little girl’s longing.
On occasion I felt a bit of frustration about the ease in which she took to motherhood, especially on her own but it seems like she gave herself to the role and had chosen it purposefully so her intent was to go at it with as much positivity and gusto as she could.
All in all Plan Overboard will give you hope in “the one that will never wed” and it's a positive story with a plethora of likeable characters.
Thank you to the author for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
Connect with Heather Wardell:
No comments:
Post a Comment