Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Steam Level: 🍆/5

Thank you to Berkley for gifting me a review copy of Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships by Sarah Grunder Ruiz. I absolutely adored this book, and it was just the warm, delightful getaway I needed during the rainy Seattle winter!

Jo Walker has been working on a very fancy yacht for the last few years. She loves her crewmates, her job (most of the time), and she’s been working her way through a 30 Before 30 bucket list. But when her sister drops her nieces on her for the summer, unexpectedly Jo has to change her travel plans and become a guardian to two kiddos.

Things don’t always go smoothly during their stay, but they do help open Jo up and get her to think about what’s really important to her. They also discover creative ways to help her cross items off her list.

A kiss with a handsome stranger (one of the list items) leads her to meet Alex…who seems destined to pop up in all areas of her life from that night forward.

I adored both of the main characters. They were real and had baggage but both grew so much over the course of the book. Over the last couple of weeks since I finished the book I find myself thinking about it and wondering what the characters might be up to, and I think that’s the sign of a great author…when a book sticks with you like that.

Synopsis:

Sometimes a yacht, a bold bucket list, and a kiss with a handsome stranger are all a person needs to dive into the deep end of life.

For the last year, yacht stewardess Jo Walker has been attempting to complete a bucket list of thirty things she wants to accomplish by her birthday. Jo has almost everything she's ever wanted, including a condo on the beach (though she's the youngest resident by thirty years) and an exciting job (albeit below deck) that lets her travel the world.

Jo is on track until a family tragedy turns her life upside down, and the list falls by the wayside. But when her two nieces show up unannounced with plans to stay the summer, they discover her list and insist on helping Jo finish it. Though the remaining eight items (which include running a marathon, visiting ten countries, and sleeping in a castle) seem impossible to complete in twelve weeks, Jo takes on the challenge.

When she summons the courage to complete item number five--kiss a stranger--and meets Alex Hayes, all bets are off. As her feelings for Alex intensify and Jo's inability to confront difficult emotions about her family complicates her relationships, she must learn to quit playing it safe with her heart before she loses what matters most.