Review: Off the Map

If you want a romance that’s well written, has depth, and also feels like you’re being wrapped in a warm hug, Trish Doller’s your gal. I’ve read her last three books and have absolutely adored them. ADORED. So much so that I read both The Suite Spot and Off the Map in one sitting. Off the Map is Doller’s latest, having been published in March, and it is a most perfect book to pick up if you need some proximity romance with a healthy dose of armchair travel.

Here’s the book’s description:

Carla Black’s life motto is “here for a good time, not for a long time.” She’s been travelling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn’t do love and she doesn’t ever go home.
Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he’s the one who’s lost his sense of direction. He’s unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out—literally.
Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend’s wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love - if only they choose it.

I like the Doller’s romance novels aren’t all sunshine and rainbows. Don’t get me wrong, I will need some of that in my romances but she recognizes that life really isn’t all that sunny all the time. Her heroines (and usually heroes too) are dealing with a lot. In Carla’s case, she doesn’t have a steady career (she instead chooses to travel and cobbles work together when needed to pay for it) and her father has dementia. He can no longer travel so she’s doing it for the both of them but she’s also running away from her problems and real life. It’s because she’s running away that her current lifestyle is not sustainable and she has to do a lot of soul searching (without it being as airy fairy as that may sound) before she can come to terms with her life and what her next step needs to be. There is an absolutely heartbreaking moment in this book but the teeny silver lining is it allows Carla to make decisions solely for her while also, perhaps ironically, to create a potential future with Eamon.

This book is technically part of the Beck sisters series which started with Float Plan (review here) and carried on with The Suite Spot (review here). You don’t have to read those two before this one but I recommend it only because they’re both so amazing. I really enjoyed getting to see Anna and Keane again and seeing how their romance has carried on since Float Plan ended.

A bonus of this book is the armchair travel element as Carla and Eamon travel through Ireland on their way to Anna and Keane’s wedding. It was really fun being able to experience a part of the world I’ve never been to. I felt like I was right there with them as they were accidentally off-roading into a farmer’s field. (That is not something I need to experience whenever I do get to Ireland - just putting that out there.)

I loved both Carla and Eamon so I loved their romance. They were so good for each other and were able to balance each other as well. Eamon needed more adventure and spontaneity and Carla needed just a bit more of a plan and had to stop running from her problems. There were some steamy scenes and lots of really sweet ones, too. Theirs was a romance you couldn’t help but cheer for.

I loved Off the Map and am so glad I started reading Trish Doller’s books a few years ago. Her books are perfect for those who are looking for romances that are more than just a Happily Ever After. I highly recommend them!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: The Suite Spot

Trish Doller’s Float Plan was a one of my favourite books of 2021 (I had to triple check when I read it because what is time anymore?) so I was SO excited to read The Suite Spot this year, which features the sister of the main character from Float Plan. Rachel’s story has a different feel than Anna’s but was just as amazing. I read The Suite Spot in one sitting because I was so completely invested – but I didn’t want it to end!

Here’s the book’s description:

Rachel Beck has hit a brick wall. She’s a single mom, still living at home and trying to keep a dying relationship alive. Aside from her daughter, the one bright light in Rachel’s life is her job as the night reservations manager at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach—until the night she is fired for something she didn’t do.
On impulse, Rachel inquires about a management position at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, Rachel packs up her daughter and makes the cross country move.
What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, moody man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel. Especially one that’s barely more than foundation and studs. It’s not the job Rachel was looking for, but Mason offers her a chance to help build a hotel—and rebuild her own life—from the ground up.

Rachel is a fantastic heroine. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel after reading Anna’s story and was a little wary that Rachel is a mom (I can’t always click with stories about moms – I know I don’t need to “relate to” everything and everyone but this can be a tough one) but I ended up absolutely loving her. She’s pretty accepting of her full bodied figure but struggles with her appearance a little bit, just like most people. It was yet another great reminder that beauty comes in every shape and size and I loved it. I always know I love a character when I wish I could be friends with them and I most definitely wanted to be friends with Rachel!

Mason is a total grump when we meet him but as we learn more about him – and as Rachel and her daughter slowly chip away at his defenses just by being their wonderful selves – the reader learns about his past and his grumpiness all makes sense. He’s not miraculously “cured” by Rachel and their feelings for each other but she helps him open up and gives him the time he needs to work through the issues he has. It was a really refreshing relationship and I was rooting for the pair of them the whole way through the novel.

I found myself really wishing this brewery hotel existed. I don’t live too far from where the book is set so if it was a real place, I could get there pretty easily. Alas, as far as I can tell, Kelleys Island does not boast a brewery hotel as created by Mason and Rachel. Visiting such a place has definitely moved up my travel bucket list and I thoroughly enjoyed the armchair travel part of this book – I appreciated that it was a totally different kind of wanderlust than inspired by Float Plan!

Reading Trish Doller’s The Suite Spot was like getting a warm hug from a book and was exactly what I needed at the time. The novel is well written and full of characters who will feel like friends. I highly recommend reading it!

My review of Float Plan

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin’s Griffin, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.* 

Blog Tour: Float Plan

Float Plan came across my radar in summer 2020. A blogger I've trusted for a long, long time (@greadsbooks on Instagram) talked about this great new book from Trish Doller she had beta read and absolutely loved. It was on NetGalley already so I requested it because it sounded SO GOOD. Fast forward to last weekend when I finally curled up with the book aaaaand...absolutely devoured it. Friends, I honestly can't think of a single thing I did not like about this novel. 

Here's the book's description:

Heartbroken by the loss of her fiancé, adventurous Anna finds a second chance at love with an Irish sailor in this riveting, emotional romance.
After a reminder goes off for the Caribbean sailing trip Anna was supposed to take with her fiancé, she impulsively goes to sea in the sailboat he left her, intending to complete the voyage alone.
But after a treacherous night’s sail, she realizes she can’t do it by herself and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to help. Much like Anna, Keane is struggling with a very different future than the one he had planned. As romance rises with the tide, they discover that it’s never too late to chart a new course.
In Trish Doller’s unforgettable Float Plan, starting over doesn't mean letting go of your past, it means making room for your future.

The novel starts in a really dark space as it begins with Anna's fiance's suicide note. Now, I know the description doesn't get into that but I think it's important that people know upfront that someone dies by suicide in this book. And it's something that Anna has to deal with throughout the novel - that she was the one left behind, that she feels she wasn't good enough to keep Ben alive. It's tough to read and I'm privileged enough that I've never been in that kind of situation so it's important for those who may be triggered by suicide to know before going into this story. Doller makes sure to keep it real while also lightening the story as time passes. Anna's story isn't going to be everyone's story but I appreciated this small insight into how someone might deal with losing their loved one to suicide.

Now, you might be wondering how this book could also be a romance when Anna is reeling from the death of her fiance. Know that it's about ten months since his death. (I know there's no time limit on grief which, I think, is something at least one character says throughout this book.) She may think she's going on this trip because she wants to hold on tight to Ben's memory but she soon realizes - after many, many bumps in the, well, ocean - that maybe this trip was more of a way to find some peace and chart a new course (yep, I went there with the sailing puns). I don't think many authors could find a way to bring a character from deep grief to emerging from grief to finding a new partner as well as Doller did. She approaches it with kindness and compassion which you really feel while you're reading.

Anna is magnificent. She's lost, in so many ways (except literally - she does always know where she's going even if it's a bit of a rough go), but the reader can see the woman she can become through all the grief she's wrapped up in. She's smart and funny and strong and I would love to have a cocktail or two on the beach with her. And as for Keane? Hoo boy, I would love an Irishman on a boat. Don't tell my boyfriend. He was such a great hero - so layered and so kind. Their dynamic was perfection and I fell in love with them both.

I have never felt the urge to sail around anywhere for any length of time on a small sailboat but I found myself really intrigued, and a tad envious, of Anna and Keane's lifestyle as they took the boat around the islands. It was a nice bit of armchair travel to discover some new Caribbean islands right alongside Anna and also revisit a spot I've traveled to before, on a much bigger ship. There's a scene when they arrive in Nassau, Bahamas where I've been twice on two separate cruises. It was nice to be brought back to that moment of sailing into the harbour but also totally being called out for being a tourist by the characters. I am well aware I only saw what tourists see and really appreciated the viewpoints given by the characters in the book.

I hadn't read any of Trish Doller's work before so I came into Float Plan with no real expectations. I was completely blown away and was left feeling so pleased and full of all the warm and fuzzies after I finished the book. It was well-written and so, so enjoyable. I highly recommend everyone reads it! Seriously. Go buy a copy now!

About the author

TRISH DOLLER is the author of novels for teens and adults about love, life, and finding your place in the world. A former journalist and radio personality, Trish has written several YA novels, including the critically acclaimed Something Like Normal, as well as Float Plan, her adult women's fiction debut. When she's not writing, Trish loves sailing, traveling, and avoiding housework. She lives in southwest Florida with an opinionated herding dog and an ex-pirate.

For where to buy the book, click here.

Connect with the author
Instagram and Twitter

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martins Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*