Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Abandoning Ship

SERIES: Valentine’s Inc. Cruises #7

AUTHOR: Susan Hawke

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 198 pages

RELEASE DATE: September 2, 2019

BLURB:

When the seas of love grow choppy, sometimes the best course is to abandon ship! 

Two years ago, Ryan Abernathy was too tongue-tied, too introverted, and entirely too nervous to flirt with his hot but presumably straight new roommate. So when Ryan’s sister swooped in and scooped the hottie up for herself, he accepted his fate and kept his crush a secret. 

Sawyer Muller never meant to find himself in a fake relationship with his sexy roommate’s sister. And how was he supposed to know that Ryan would become his bestie and star in way too many of his dreams? 

Things get complicated when Julia Abernathy strikes a deal with Sawyer to upgrade from fake boyfriend to groom, though they only need to stay married long enough for her to get her trust fund. They plan a fun cruise ship wedding with her entire family in tow. Sawyer figures it sounds like an adventure, and when they quietly divorce later, he’ll finally be free of all the fakery. 

With Julia and Ryan’s homophobic, snooty family present, the pressure is turned up… especially when Sawyer finds himself jilted at the altar and drowning in a sea of blame. His only life preserver is the Abernathy sibling he can’t admit to wanting… Ryan. 

This is an mm romantic comedy set in the Valentines Inc. world. Watch out for an awkward first kiss, a record-making group wedding, and sexy competitive shuffleboard. Before you board this ship, make sure you pack a fan because things are about to heat up on board this vessel! 

REVIEW:

Well this was an interesting turn of events lol. A fake relationship for two years that turns into an almost fake marriage just for an inheritance. When all along, it’s the brother, the ‘groom’ wants to be with. 

Sawyer found the perfect roomie with Ryan. He took his quirks in and laughs along and made him feel comfortable. My immediately his sister, Julia, jumped in and started flirting and tried to make it more. But it didn’t happen. So her plan was to be fake boyfriend/girlfriend to get her parents off her back. Especially since her heart really belonged to another. And it was a girl. Sawyer agreed with everything except for not telling Ryan. He hated keeping that secret from his best friend. When Julia’s father was putting pressure on her to get married or work at his firm, she proposed her and Sawyer do a fake wedding for six months. Once she got her inheritance, they’d divorce and then tell Ryan. But the night before they were supposed to get married on this cruise ship, Julia calls and says the whole deal is off. She’s found her true love after all. Ryan thought she was just drunk, but true next day at the wedding, a message was sent by someone, it wasn’t a joke. Thinking Sawyer is upset, Ryan does all he can to cheer him up, but Sawyer has to come clean about all of it. Ryan is happy enough about it that he’s not mad really about being lied to, because the love of his life can now be his. Hopefully. Now if he can just get Sawyer on the same wavelength.

I tell you, I felt sorry for Ryan and Sawyer both in this one. Ryan, because he’s been in love with Sawyer for a while, and Sawyer, because in spite of really wanting Ryan, he wanted to help Julia. Especially after meeting her family. Homophobic asshole of a father and a mother who was a manipulative bitch. And trying to one up each other with their trophy partners. It was ridiculous. And when Julia called it off, they had no problem blaming everything on Sawyer, even when none of it was his fault. I hate people like that.

The good part was now Sawyer and Ryan had a chance to maybe see where things could go. They’d been best friends for two years. They genuinely loved each other and it could turn to more. There were a couple other good things in there as well. And one was how they got back at their father. But I can’t give that away. 

RATING: 

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