Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Ship Wrecked

Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

35 reviews

greylandreviews's review against another edition

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I loved the premise but this book failed me. The pacing was horrible and the only attraction these character's have for each other is just sexual.

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bzliz's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I had a bit of an Olivia Dade binge session in February but had a long wait to get to this one and honestly I’m not sure it was worth the wait. Maria and Peter have the same superficial charm that previous protagonists in the series also had but now that it’s the third installment of the series, it’s wearing thin (ironic). The whole thing feels a lot like a middling fanfiction. The characters flirt with having real personalities but so much of it is internal and huge understandings are gleaned from a glance or a one word sentence and I’m not entirely sure these people like each other despite what we’re being told. On top of that, it’s trying way too hard to be funny with repeated “jokes” that the readers are let in on but simply aren’t funny.

The funniest part is the tags attached to the fanfiction interstitial that references not doing a lot of research about an aspect of Hollywood life because that feels like truth in fiction about how much research the actual author put in to learning about how filming works and what press junkets are really like.

That said, if you just want to read a book about two fat actors falling in love and you don’t really care about how illogical a lot of the details are then you’ll probably love this. I’ll be taking a break from Olivia Dade for a while though.

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jackiepreston's review

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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yvo_about_books's review

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4.0

Finished reading: March 17th 2023

"But I’m not you, Peter. I need people I love around me every day to be happy."

I enjoyed the first two books of the series, which is kind of a surprise for me considering just how much smut is involved in both books. I think this has a lot to do with the way Olivia Dade writes her stories and creates her characters. There is just something about the characters in the Spoiler Alert books that makes it easy to connect to them, and the banter is always brilliant. Book number three is no different. Ship Wrecked features not one, but two fat main characters this time around, and I love the show of body positivity and the fact that we actually have a fat male character (which you don't see often). I am grateful for the warning about the VERY steamy start of Ship Wrecked though, because holy cow! I had to skimread more than once, because there is a LOT of smut involved considering this is basically a six-year-long slowburn romance. Somehow I don't mind the sexy scenes too much with these books though, and this is thanks to the characters and banter. I enjoyed spending time with Maria and Peter, and while I would loved to have seen their connection grow more up close and without that huge gap in the middle, as a whole it was still satisfying. It was also great to see the rest of the gang again, and the humor was spot on for me.

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stardustandrockets's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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stegan's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

What a delightful warm hug of a book. I laughed and cried. Dade does an amazing job of creating a fully fleshed out couple, with Peter having as much complexity as Maria, which I genuinely love.

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ladythana's review

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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martamae77's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

“Dieting? No fucking way. Taunting the Grim Reaper? No problem!”

➽ Olivia Dade does it again and delivers a swoonworthy romance!! Ship Wrecked is about Gods of the Gates co-stars Maria and Peter who are set to film their parts over the course of 6 years. After an awkward ONS, being together in close proximity might be difficult, but they are nothing if not professionals. I loved Maria so much, she's an aspiring Swedish actress who is hoping for her big break in mainstream media, so being part of Gods of the Gates is her chance. She's super outspoken, caring and brave! There is still a lot of fatphobia in the media industry and I admired how Maria took it head on, never letting others belittle her body or decide to force her into dieting! Peter is a bit more timid when it comes to upsetting anyone on set, as he knows Gods of the Gates is his chance at a career. Nevertheless, he adores Maria and wouldn't want to see her hurt! I loved their banter and the great chemistry they had 💗

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ashleyvharris's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Despite bringing much-needed fat representation to the spicy romance genre, Ship Wrecked feels more like a sinking ship without life jackets.

Dade’s third book following actors from the (unfortunately) fictional “Gods of the Gates” television series, Ship Wrecked was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022. So I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of coherent plot and unlikable characters.

If you like character-driven stories, this might be for you. I much prefer when my romance stories have plot beyond the romance itself. We see small conflicts pop up throughout the book, but all find resolution—if unsatisfying—fairly fast. We see a huge gap in time, but only receive short generic mentions of what our main characters got up to during that time and how they’ve each changed and grown.

There’s little in the way of ongoing conflict; the author focuses mainly on the characters internal conflicts, doubts, and past pains. I think those internal conflicts are valid and well-written, but fail to provide interesting forward movement to the story.

I might have enjoyed the character-driven story more if I had been able to connect and relate to Peter or Maria. Unfortunately, I found both to be immature and hard-headed; they also lacked chemistry on the page. At times it felt like we were expected to like them as a couple because of their similarity in size.

Peter came off as cold, cruel, and immature from the beginning. While we learn some reasoning for why this might be and we see him grow out of those traits a bit, it never feels like he fully shakes that.

Maria came off as stubborn, overbearing, and selfish. Unlike Peter, she doesn’t seem to change much. From her constant coddling of Peter to encourage him to be social (he’s a grown man) to her demanding that he give up career opportunities to be with to her all the time, Maria was not an appealing character for me. If there was any shred of hope, it was lost with her hypocrisy at
wanting a job that would take her out of LA for months when she left Peter for that reason
.

While I didn’t enjoy this book overall, Olivia still brought her charming writing style and messaging of inclusion, fat-positivity, and self-love to the page. Plus, the Alex Woodroe cameos alone are absolutely worth it. Here’s hoping Dade returns to form in her next one.

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