Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Ship Happens 

SERIES: Valentine’s Inc. Cruises #3

AUTHOR: Pandora Pine

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 159 pages

RELEASE DATE: August 19, 2019

BLURB:

Photographer Upton Sanders is a proverbial third wheel. Still single after his best friend met the love of his life on the Valentine’s Inc. dating app, Upton assumes he’ll be alone forever. Everything changes when his friends surprise him with a week-long singles cruise. 

Travel agent Walsh Dunne has never left the state of North Carolina. With the ink on his hospitality degree still wet, he embarks on the S.S. Neptune to learn about the cruise industry and the ship’s exotic ports of call. It isn’t until a chance encounter with Upton that Walsh learns this is no ordinary cruise. 

Excited to attend the Ship Happens dating events, Upton has zero luck meeting the man of his dreams. The one man he is forever running into, Walsh, keeps rescuing him from sticky situations. Finished with the vain men he’s met so far, Upton and Walsh team up to explore the islands. 

Sparks fly between the men, making them think a relationship in the real world is possible. Back on shore, both men are excited about the future, until an emergency calls Walsh back home. 

Can the star-crossed lovers find a way back to each other? Or will their love go down with the ship? 

REVIEW:

What a sweet love story. It’s a slow burn, getting to know you friends-to-lovers type story that just melts your heart.

Walsh has hidden he’s gay for years with all the garbage he’s had to deal with with his mother, he didn’t need more ammo. So he just sticks his head down and did what he could do to graduate, get to college and run far away. His first assignment with the travel agency he works for is a cruise to Cuba. But there’s a few things he doesn’t realize about this trip. When he meets Upton and they start to get to know each other, Upton explains it’s a singles gay cruise and Walsh freaks and runs. Leaving Upton feeling like shit. Walsh apologizes and explains and they end up spending the cruise together, getting to know each other and falling in love. They had plans to stay together for a week after the cruise to see if the chemistry was still there, when Walsh gets a call his mother has had a heart attack and he has to go home. Upton and Walsh are both destroyed. Walsh even more so when he finds out what the deal is when he gets home. After he ends things with his mother for good, he has to figure out how to make it right with Upton. If Upton will have him back.

Both of the guys have just had a hard time. Upton is not trusting because of past relationships, Walsh because of the crap with his mother. Especially with the stunt she pulls. But they found something in each other, they never had with anyone else. They found acceptance, love and someone that saw the real them. Flaws and all, and still loved them. Doesn’t mean life is perfect. Far from it. But they are willing to work at it to keep that love alive. 

 And it was so good to see Lennox and Gareth again as well. This was a good story. A sweet one.

RATING: 

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