Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Ashore
SERIES: Cruising #2
AUTHOR: L.A. Witt
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 144 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 15, 2018
BLURB:
After being inseparable on their cruise, Andrew Wentz and Eric Schofield aren’t ready to be apart yet. At the very last minute, Andrew takes Eric up on the offer to spend another two weeks together, this time in Rome.
As soon as there’s no turning back, though, both men start having second thoughts. Are they moving too fast? Are they getting too attached? As they explore Italy, the connection between them grows, but those second thoughts aren’t going away either. Plus Eric feels guilty for asking Andrew to put his life on hold for two weeks, and Andrew wonders if he’ll regret delaying his job hunt.
But could it be worth it? Could two weeks be long enough for this thing to go from vacation fling to something that both men have been missing for way too long?
REVIEW:
Picking up where Adrift (the first book in the series) left off, Andrew and Eric are now in Rome to spend the next two weeks seeing the sights and spending a bit more time together after the cruise. Andrew is still worrying about getting a job, but he tries his best to balance having fun with Eric and putting out resumes in hope of not wasting all his time. But as the two weeks wind down it is inevitable that both men increasingly wonder where this vacation fling will go. Will they continue on in a long-distance relationship? Will Andrew move to Seattle? Will they split and never see each other again? Neither of them knows…
Like Adrift, this book has a vacation-vibe to it. Eric and Andrew roam around Rome — and the surrounding areas — checking out the sights. There are the obvious ones, like the Colosseum, as well as smaller venues to visit. It is a very relaxed story, only really moved forward by the ticking clock of their departure. The tourist attractions are half of the pleasure of these two books. There is a definite sense of personal experience about these places, and the writing makes it easy to immerse yourself in them as well. Even if the reader has never stepped a foot in Italy.
The other half is clearly the relationship growing between Andrew and Eric. I have really enjoyed the sweetness of it, but also how it pulls off a sense of reality. Unlike some other romance stories that focus such a short timeframe from meet-cute to I-Love-Yous, Ashore lets the characters have realistic doubts about the stability of a long-term relationship based on such an out of the norm beginning. By the end of this book the characters have known each other for less than a month, and while love is clearly there, that does not mean that Eric and Andrew ignore the chances that a relationship outside the bounds of their vacation might have. Having them face up to those odds, risking heartbreak sooner or later, is what makes these two work so well for me.
There is no saying which way things will fall by the end of this three-story arc — the yet to be published final book will no doubt eventually answer that question — but like the previous book, readers are left with enough of a resolution to tide them over. Nothing is certain except their feelings for each other, but at this point in their story I am quite content with that.
RATING: 
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