It’s been cold and dreary lately. Very cold and dreary. With travel at best logistically complicated and at worst deadly, I’m stuck daydreaming of beaches for now. If you’d like a little winter getaway someplace warm (but only in your mind!) I have some ideas that may help.
First up, Shipped by Angie Hockman. Its heroine Henley works for a cruise line and is studying for her MBA. She’s delighted to be in consideration for a much-needed promotion at work. The problem? Her remote coworker and work nemesis, Graeme, is also up for the position. To decide who will get the job, their boss decides to have a contest… which involves sending them on a trip to the Galápagos Islands. The same trip to the Galápagos Islands. Henley and Graeme’s first in-person meeting takes place in paradise, and it doesn’t take long for their feelings to warm up, too. Although Henley set out to have a better idea than Graeme and nab the promotion, she’s finding that she doesn’t hate him as much as she thought she did. Or at all. 329 pages of ambition, miscommunication, chemistry, banter, and re-evaluating of life choices, this new release is a fun beach book… even if the beach is imaginary. Get on the list for the print book or ebook on OverDrive.
The next stop on our tour is a the Caribbean with Float Plan by Trish Doller. After losing her fiancé to suicide, Anna goes on the sailing trip they’d planned to take together. In her grief, she leaves behind her dead-end job waiting tables and turns toward the sun. The way is treacherous for a lone inexperienced sailor, though, and Anna ends up hiring someone to help her. That someone is Irish amputee and professional sailor Keane, who provides a new perspective and much-needed support as well as sailing expertise. Can two people still reeling from the loss of the futures they’d visualized help each other build new futures? Or will they part ways once the trip is over? Although its characters grapple with grief, mental health, disability, and other trials, this is a cute romance story about not starting over, but building upon our pasts. This one doesn’t come out until next Tuesday, so place your holds now!
If you’re not ready to head home yet, might I suggest Maui? In The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren, Olive Torres has resigned herself to grinning and bearing it through her twin sister’s wedding. She’s even willing to put up with the best man, Ethan, with whom she can’t get along. But due to the machinations of fate, Olive and Ethan are the only two left unsickened when food poisoning befalls the rest of the wedding party. With the real newlyweds unable to go on their nonrefundable Hawaii honeymoon, Olive and Ethan take their place. Will ten days pretending to be married in luxury inspire a new appreciation for each other? Can they keep from killing one another that long? Get this perfect warm read in print, as an ebook on OverDrive, or as an eaudiobook on Hoopla (runtime 9 hrs).
With that, our journey concludes, like all vacations do, and we return home to our land of slowly-melting ice. But it’s good to know that when we want to leave, the library has many possible destinations it can show us. Get yours today!
