Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Warnings: Difficult family dynamics, domestic violence/child abuse (past, off page), identity theft, gabling addiction, sexual harassment
Read if you liked: Love, Lists and Fancy Ships or Count Your Lucky Stars
Steam: 2ish (fade-to-black/peek-around-the-door)
Tropes: Forced Proximity, Frenemies to Lovers, It's Just a Hookup, Second Chance, Workplace

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Luck and Last Resorts will be released on August 9th, 2022.

Sarah' did it again! It's quirky, chaotic, heartfelt and I just love those two humans so much. I am VERY INVESTED in this story world that has been created and I need all the books about it. Unlike Love, Lists and Fancy Ships which was more women's fiction, this is a second chance romance. We got a taste of Nina and Ollie + their dynamic in LLFS but now we get a whole book about them.

Things I loved: The pining, the second chance of it all, the chapter 4 surprise. The Tobacco Free Florida Ad is such a Florida kid thing and we all KNOW. Ollie and Nina's dynamic and the banter. The pizza rolls, the earrings. I loved seeing Jo and Alex again. THERAPY was mentioned and we love a therapy moment. I love Ollie, like adore him and I would like him to be real.

Things I didn't care for: The timeline, I loved how we had past and present but then we kept skipping months. They resulted in a little confusion. I wanted more context about both of their pasts before each other.

Disclosure: The author and I are mutuals on social media, do live in the same area and have become friendly. All opinions are my own.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to @berkleyromance and @netgalley for my gifted copy of Luck and Last Resorts, by Sarah Grunder Ruiz! I know I’m SO early with this August release, but I can’t resist posting a glowing review early. I flew through this book last week during our recent winter storm, and if you liked Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships, you’ll want to get your hands on this one too.

Y’all, I felt SO many emotions while reading this book, in the BEST ways. My mouth was on the ground in some parts, I ran for my tissue box, I laughed my tail off…it was FANTASTIC. So many jokes landed well, I got hit in the feels SO many times, and I loved the Below Deck references!

Friends, I believe that there is a buy 2 get 1 free sale at Target this week, and that preorders work for it. If this intrigues you, I urge you to order Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships, preorder Luck and Last Resorts, and then grab something else fun. You’ll be in for a treat!

This was my most anticipated read of 2022 and it blew all of my expectations out of the water.

Nina and Ollie have a complicated past -- that is no secret. For a decade they have done this push and pull back and forth game that started when Nina first walked onto the Yacht where Ollie was the chef and their paths collided. Nina, finding it hard to trust after being hurt by someone she loved, has a hard time giving herself over to Ollie completely, but Ollie is done with the back and forth and finally wants more. He comes back to the Yacht for one last charter season and gives Nina and ultimatum that if she won't decide to be real with him by the end of the season, he is going to go back home to Ireland. Nina now has to decide if she can finally let herself trust again. If she can overcome the scars of her past and let herself love and be loved or risk losing Ollie for good.

If Love, Lists and Fancy Ships wasn't proof enough, this book is evidence that Sarah Grunder Ruiz is a master wordsmith. She doesn't tell you something is blue or someone is sad, but instead her words illustrates things so beautifully you feel you are there seeing the blue of his eyes or you feel their sadness with them. To read one of her books is to experience it completely. By the time this book was done I felt like Ollie and Nina were real people and I wanted so deeply for things to work out for them. When the story took certain turns I wept and at other times I literally cheered. I was so sad this book was over, it felt like having to say goodbye to a good friend.

Ollie and Nina's story is beautiful and raw and real. I love the way it is told over time jumps so you see how their love story has unfolded over the years and how the pieces that we got glimpses of in LLFS truly unfolded. I went back and re-read LLFS after reading Luck and Last Resorts and the little pieces that are woven into this book from the first one are so fun.

This book is perfection. I fell in love with Ollie and Nina and this entire world that Sarah has created. I cannot wait to read everything that Sarah writes. This book is funny and witty and will make you laugh out loud while at other times make you weep for each of these characters. This is a must read and I cannot sing this book's praises enough.

Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing, NetGalley, and Jessica Mangicaro for allowing me access to this title early. I have never been so excited to read a book early and once I started reading I could not put it down. All opinions are my own.

**I will post to my social media accounts closer to pub date**

This book was my most anticipated read of 2022, and now it has become my favorite book of the year. I know it's only February, but if you know, you know.

The quality of this story was so enormous that I felt like I'd been knowing Nina and Ollie for years, for ten books already. Their personalities were so defined, so intense and deep, that it feels as if they're real people. Especially Nina... she was delightful. I already loved her in LOVE, LISTS AND FANCY SHIPS, but being inside her mind was something else. She's one of the most complex heroines ever. I fell in love layer after layer of her character. She's so funny and genuine, but also, deeply damaged, and knowing her fears even before she faced them made her extremely lovable.

Ollie... OLIVER JOSEPH DUNNE. I want him to exist right now. He was... perfect. (Also, not revelant for his personality but it was so refreshing to see a shorter than 6ft hero!). Even though the book is narrated from Nina's POV, I feel like I got to know Ollie as deeply as Nina. After reading romance novels for years, I find it hard to get to know the heroes the same way if the books are single POV, but Sarah has managed it. I think it speaks volumes about her gift for writing.

Now, to the spoilery part of the review. I thought this would be a second chance romance. I did NOT expect Chapter 4. At all. This went from second chance to marriage of convenience to marriage in crisis, and I loved every single minute of it. I was happy with second chance, but this? This was a masterpiece. A heartbreaking one. I felt a hand squeezing my heart a bit more with every chapter I read. By Chapter 16, my heart was shattered. I love when books do this to me. I want the emotion, the angst, because I know the HEA is extremely rewarding after all the pain. They deserved the happiest ending ever, and it was beautiful.

I won't post this review on social media sites until release day for obvious reasons, but I'll encourage everyone to preorder this masterpiece as frequently as I can. Everyone deserves to read this wonderful story.

Thank you to Berkley and Jessica Mangicaro for my advance review copy!

Rating: 5/5, favorite, must-buy, must-adore, will-love-forever.
Steam: 1/5

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this eARC. It made my weekend.

Sarah Grunder Ruiz is once again coming for your tears and whoa baby it hurts SO good.

Yacht chief stew Nina Lejune lives for bringing fun into her life and those around her, whether they’re her close friends or the charter guests she serves. It’s the way she’s lived her life for the last decade.

But when her old flame and yacht chef Ollie Dunne gives her an ultimatum — admit she loves him or he’s returning home to Ireland — she’ll have to decide if she’s ready to sink or swim.

OH MY GOSH. I stayed up until 1 a.m. to finish this gem of a story. It oozes angst and heartache but the payoff of this powerful love story — for a soulmate and for yourself — is so worth it. If you’ve read Grunder Ruiz’s debut “Love, Lists and Fancy Ships” your jaw will be on floor with certain twists and being inside Nina’s thoughts will be a surprise and a joy. You’ll want to shake her and give her hug (along with some tough love advice) but it’s all something she has to figure out herself and being along for that is such a gift.

Please please please make this one of your summer reads in 2022.