Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Sea of Love
AUTHOR: Nic Starr
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 176 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 20, 2021
BLURB:
The cruise of a lifetime. A reality TV show about romance. Falling in love is inevitable.
Evan Williams is the type of guy to stick by his friends, especially when they’ve been hurt and need a favour. And if that favour involves the cruise of a lifetime, then how can he say no? Even when it means pretending to be a devoted boyfriend to Amber and having their fake relationship play out on a reality TV show for all the world to see.
Realising his boyfriend is a conceited jerk and dumping him doesn’t stop Harry Bishop from winding up as one half of a supposedly loved-up couple on the Sea of LoveTV show. And if that’s not bad enough, he’s faced with temptation in the form of Evan, the perfect blend of boy-next-door-meets-sexy-stud he once crushed on. It’s going to be a long two weeks.
Two weeks of competitions, challenges, and confrontations. They’re here to take out the Sea of Lovetitle—just not with each other—and there can only be one winner. But it turns out that true love isn’t about winning a contest; the real prize comes when you follow your heart.
Sea of Love is a feel-good romance featuring hidden attraction, fake relationships, and friends-to-lovers.
REVIEW:
This is a fun shipboard romance.
Evan is helping his (and his sister’s) bestie out of a horrible situation when Amber’s ex cheated on her, leaving her without her loving boyfriend for the television show “Sea of Love” she was competing on. Harry is a good guy that can’t seem to say no to his scheming ex John. Now he is stuck on this floating television show with him. On a chance meeting Harry and Evan reconnect. They hadn’t seen each other since Harry left the company they both worked for to work at a new start-up company. When it obvious that both men like the other, but it appears that the other is in a romantic relationship, what are they to do next?
There is a some Australian language that took a bit for me to get at times. Different spelling of words and references to things in Sydney that I had to stop and look up. The few references to my hometown area (Honolulu) were correct. I actually was planning this exact trip before the pandemic sans a reality show being filmed happened.
I really liked Evan and Harry. And I adored the meddling Amber. She was going to make both those boys open their eyes and then their hearts to what was so obviously right in front of them. John, Harry’s ex, however was a narcissistic “arsehole” as they all called him. And his level of guilt-tripping Harry was over-the-top.
I enjoyed several of the events the contestants had to compete in. But how could you ever forget the the person you are supposedly in love with is deathly allergic to shellfish and decide to make him prawns during the romantic cooking segment? Serious jerk move to show off your cooking lessons from Italy. An allergy that your one-time co-worker remembered immediately. The same prawns that cut your very first date short. The date you talked about on the first segment filmed. Total loser!
I will admit that I’m a bit of a reality game show junkie and this was right up my alley. This was a bit slow at first but when Harry and Evan started to show signs of their attraction it heated up nicely. This was a fun, quick read.
RATING: 
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