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A review by lbarsk
Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade
3.0
A 3.5 stars in reality.
There are things I really enjoyed about this book, but in some ways I think it suffered from being a few different stories crammed into one novel. Peter and Maria’s journey really would have felt stronger if we could have *seen it develop on the page*, see all those years filming in Ireland where Maria taught Peter how to come out of his shell and trust himself and where Peter taught Maria that I was okay to open her heart to people outside of her nuclear family.
The book shines when it’s them flirting, them having sex, and them supporting each other and growing together! The book also shines when their very real conflicts are given space on the page to breathe! The problem is that there are several different conflicts over the course of their relationship — from their original prickliness, to Peter’s unwillingness to jeopardize his career while Maria doesn’t give a shit, to the Actual Major Conflict that appears fully at like the book’s final 20% around the two of them living together and what they want to prioritize. So seeing all of those things happen super fast, and often *not on the page*, made for a kind of up and down reading experience.
I like Olivia Dade’s writing and would read future things from her, for sure! It’s just hard when you see a lot of potential in a book and then feel like things got kind of jumbled along the way. Maria RULES and I wish she (and Peter!) had gotten at least one more book together to really explore the meat of their relationship.
There are things I really enjoyed about this book, but in some ways I think it suffered from being a few different stories crammed into one novel. Peter and Maria’s journey really would have felt stronger if we could have *seen it develop on the page*, see all those years filming in Ireland where Maria taught Peter how to come out of his shell and trust himself and where Peter taught Maria that I was okay to open her heart to people outside of her nuclear family.
The book shines when it’s them flirting, them having sex, and them supporting each other and growing together! The book also shines when their very real conflicts are given space on the page to breathe! The problem is that there are several different conflicts over the course of their relationship — from their original prickliness, to Peter’s unwillingness to jeopardize his career while Maria doesn’t give a shit, to the Actual Major Conflict that appears fully at like the book’s final 20% around the two of them living together and what they want to prioritize. So seeing all of those things happen super fast, and often *not on the page*, made for a kind of up and down reading experience.
I like Olivia Dade’s writing and would read future things from her, for sure! It’s just hard when you see a lot of potential in a book and then feel like things got kind of jumbled along the way. Maria RULES and I wish she (and Peter!) had gotten at least one more book together to really explore the meat of their relationship.