Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Adrift 
SERIES: Cruising #1
AUTHOR: L.A. Witt
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 152 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2018
BLURB:
After Andrew Wentz loses his job, his parents take pity and invite him to join them on a Mediterranean cruise. He jumps at the chance, but once he’s aboard, he feels guilty. Shouldn’t he be figuring out what to do with his pathetic life instead of lazing around on a ship?
The cruise was supposed to be Eric Schofield’s honeymoon, but one cheating fiancé later, he’s traveling solo. Fine. He’s been working too much anyway, so a vacation is exactly what the doctor ordered. He’s on a boat with plenty of hot men, and he’s determined to invite as many of them as he can into his stateroom’s king sized bed.
When the two men run into each other—literally—it’s crush at first sight. Now Andrew can’t think of anyone else, and Eric only wants one man in his bed. The sparks fly, and it’s the perfect vacation fling, especially since ten days isn’t nearly enough time to develop feelings.
At least, it’s not supposed to be.
REVIEW:
Two men, ten days, and tones of chemistry lighting up the Mediterranean waters…
I had happened to catch wind of this book being written months ago on some facebook discussion that, to be honest, I haven’t a clue what the original post was about. Something about being transgender or writing transgender characters…something in that general vein, I’m sure. Anyways, L.A. Witt mentioned that she was writing a new book that featured a trans guy as an MC and I immediately made a note of the title so I could request it when it finally came out. Witt had published a YA novel previously about a trans teen girl that I enjoyed, so I was looking forward to what she could do with a more adult trans guy in one of her stories. If you’ve read a wide breadth of Witt’s work you’ll know that she has a wide variety of styles, tropes, and sub-genres that she likes to explore, so I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting when I requested the book, but being a fan of a lot of Witt’s works, I was fairly sure that I was going to get something that I at the very least enjoyed.
Adrift turns out to be about two men, Eric–a man who is on his honeymoon (sans his intended husband)–and Andrew–a recently unemployed man who accepted his parents offer of a cruise trip to the Mediterranean in the hopes that it will make him forget, at least for a while, that his life is seriously not going anywhere. They bump into each other at the beginning of the cruise, and continue to bump into each other, until one of them finally gets up the courage to approach the other and start what is the beginning of a wonderful friendship…with a hell of a lot of benefits. Neither expects the fling to last longer than the docking of the ship at the end of the cruise, but as the days go by that inevitable parting seems to become more and more a cause for concern. Because neither of them, it turns out, are ready to drift apart back in the real world.
Oh, yeah, and one of the MCs is trans…but I’m not telling you which one. Mostly because I really liked how the whole trans thing was handled in this book. It was mentioned when it needed to be, but for the most part it didn’t play any big role in the story at all. One of them is trans, they talk about it, figure out how to do all the sexy things…and then move the fuck along. It was kinda cool how casually it was handled in this book. This very much isn’t a Trans Story, it is instead a story that just happens to have a trans character in it. Being trans for this character wasn’t the be-all and end-all of his character arc. In fact most of the shit he is working thru in this story has absolutely nothing to do with being transgender. I very much liked Witt’s decision to do this.
There wasn’t a whole lot of “plot” in this story, most of the book focusing on scenes of the characters getting to know one another, or taking various side trips onto the mainland. Part of me liked the lazy, slow pace of it, interspersed with moments of fun and (very grown-up) excitement. It felt very vacation-y. And heaven knows that some of the places they visited sounded like a lot of fun. I’m not sure a Mediterranean cruise is ever something I’d actually want to go on, but this book certainly made the prospect enticing. However there were times when it kinda felt like having to sit thru someone showing you all their vacation pics. Witt’s (I’m guessing) first hand knowledge of these places did at least make the experience more bearable–especially seeing as these spots are not high on the list of places that receive top billing in romance novels and so at the very least didn’t feel like a rehash of something I’ve read about a hundred times. It just sometimes dragged down the already sedate pace of the story. The authenticity it lent the story is one of the reasons I wouldn’t say I wish it was missing from the book, but I will maybe wish that it had lent a bit more to the overall plot than mostly just showing us some very scenery.
On the whole, this was a very enjoyable story. If one that is best read on a lazy day where you can stretch out in the shade and dream of all the places you could be right at moment. The chemistry between the two characters is right there from the start, and having to spend a few hours watching them fall for each other is no chore. While I wish the book could have been a tad longer to help get them a bit farther in their relationship, what I got is still a very good story well worth the price of admission. Even if only to help you plan your next vacation.
RATING: 
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