A huge thanks to Berkley for an advanced copy of Luck and Last Resorts by Sarah Grunder Ruiz! Last Fall, I absolutely LOVED Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships so I was eagerly awaiting a copy of Luck and Last Resorts!
And this book didn't disappoint! I couldn't wait for Nina & Ollie's story!

This book was wonderful, a huge surprise and you'll fall in love with Nina & Ollie. I loved the chapters that went into the past so we could learn more about when Nina & Ollie met and their earlier yachting days. The banter between this two is just perfect. These characters are complicated and there was so much emotional turmoil and things the characters needed to work on until they could really love each other. Her books are the perfect blend of funny and emotional so of course tears were streaming down my face reading this.

While you could read it as a stand alone, I don't recommend it. You see a lot of Nina & Ollie in Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships so I think seeing some of their story in the first book helps.

If you're a fan of Below Deck you'll love these books. Who doesn't like a book set on a boat? Plus great cooking scenes and honestly if you haven't read the first book yet you have time. Pick it up now so you're ready for a book you are going to LOVE!

Warning: I am not generally a rom-com reader, so take this review with that in mind. The story here was original (to me) and the writing was good. Neena is newly out of college and needs a job. Her dad racked up some serious debt in her name (that she just found out about) because he has a gambling problem. She brings her resume to a yacht to try to get a job as a steward and there she meets Oliver. He’s an Irish guy (lots of fecks) who is a chef. (I’m picturing Peloton’s Daniel McKenna here.) Witty banter ensues.

Fast forward 10 years. Neena is 33 and Oliver is still her bff (and friend with benefits), but she can’t commit. This is where the book loses me. Because while hottie Oliver has dated other people casually, he has spent the past 10 years pining for Neena, but she just can’t commit. He speaks and treats her like the prototype of the most desired man. Yet, she has “daddy issues” and can’t commit. Oh, Neena. So, while I would love to believe in Oliver, I just couldn’t. Not a rom com reader, I guess.

I

Good writing, fun yacht scenes, but just too much for my old black heart. Rom-Com readers, you won’t want to miss this one.

This book destroyed me, put me back together, tore me apart, and made me feel whole again. And yes, reading it will feel like an equivalent roller coaster.

Sarah warned me from the beginning (along with all of her readers) that chapter four would have your jaw hitting the floor – and she wasn’t lying. I was almost to the end of the chapter when I was like, “oh, okay, that’s not as life-altering as she made it seem,” and then I made it to the end of the chapter. And. Everything. Changed. I messaged her and freaked out. She was all for it. We freaked out a bit together – and she was very pleased with herself.

Chapter four set the stage for the rest of the novel. I love Ollie and Nina SO much – even more than I expected to. I read this book in a single day and it broke my heart to see it end (granted, the ending was beautiful, too). I’m excited to see a bit more of them in book three!

If you haven’t taken the time to pick up Sarah Grunder Ruiz’s books, please do so ASAP. They are worth it. She makes my heart hurt while also making me laugh. I had to read lines aloud to my husband throughout the entire book, and even he couldn’t help but laugh! It’s a wonderful romance that will stay with you far longer than it’ll take you to read it.

CW: gambling addiction

I was a big fan of Sarah Grunder Ruiz's first novel, Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships and Luck and Last Resorts sealed the fangirl status for me. Nina is searching for her something, but she's just not sure what that something is. She is routinely restless and unfulfilled with her relationships, her job, her family... Ollie is the one constant in her life. But she can't allow herself to give in to him completely. I adored Nina and Ollie together... their relationship was precious. and hilarious. but I really L O V E D Ollie.

Nina would often frustrate me and I just wanted to shake some sense into her so many times, but I get she was working through some stuff. I'll be honest and say that I didn't care for Nina too much at the start of the book - she seemed a little too brash and unfeeling and I was worried I wouldn't feel any connections with her. But it didn't take long for my opinion to change. I think the flashbacks really helped me understand where Nina was coming from and why she was the way she was. Overall, this is a heartfelt story of love and resilience that was full of laughs, a little steam, and lots of personality. A great read that I definitely recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Such a good light read. Also— I’m really bummed I’m not on a ship right now. If you’re unsure about picking this up, you should. You won’t regret it!!

Luck and Last Resorts is the second in the series by Sarah Grunder Ruiz. I did not read the first novel but felt like I understood the story just fine. This was such a fun read! The characters were so well written. And I absolutely loved the setting!!! Highly Recommend!

Thank to you Berkley, NetGalley, and the author for this early review copy; while the author and I share a publisher and are friends, this in no way influenced my opinions, which are all my own!

My. Heart. This was such a brilliant balance of witty repartee and deeply emotional angst, the kind of book whose dialogue and character nuances you savor while feeling your heart slowly unraveled by the layers of longing, misunderstanding, fear, and desire woven into it. LUCK AND LAST RESORTS tells the story of Nina and Ollie, who've been on and off for a decade, on and off the yacht they both work on, Nina as chief stewardess, Ollie as chef. When Ollie gives Nina an ultimatum that she needs to commit to their relationship or he'll leave at the end of charter season and go home to Ireland, Nina has to search within herself and decide if she's ready to be vulnerable, to try, to risk it all to be with Ollie.

I cried, I ached, I laughed. This book was cathartic and emotional and such a satisfying read. I can't wait for the world to have it this August!

Luck and Last Resorts was a lot more than just a romance. I feel like it covered some pretty heavy topics and it did it well. I really enjoyed the romance between Nina and Ollie! I'm a sucker for anything second chance and this one did not disappoint.

I would give this book a million stars if I were able to. Nina and Ollie are both lovely. I love her love for World Thrift, and Ollie’s attention to things she enjoys. Their story is beautiful and inspiring. I’m so glad that we got glimpse of Jo and Alex, too! I can’t wait to purchase this and sell it to all my favorite customers too!

I really enjoyed this read. The first 40% or so of the book was cute, easy to read, and had a lot of the snarky Nina we all know and love from Live, Lists and Fancy Ships. I really got hooked when I reached the 60% mark or so—without spoilers, I was SO glad to see more emotion and depth in their relationship, and loved Nina’s journey to accept parts of herself that she had been afraid of before. I liked Ollie in book 1, but didn’t LOVE him as much as other characters—but in this book, all the small interactions really made me fall for him more 😍 I love the little memories, his cute names for Nina, and the glimpses of the past. The flashbacks from the beginning of their relationship to the present were wonderful. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I definitely read Sarah Grunder Ruiz’s next book!!

Am I obsessed with everything that Sarah Grunder Ruiz writes? Yesssss!
After reading Love Lists & Fancy Ships from her I was immediately obsessed with the unique characters and how simple yet meaningful the story is in her books. While the first book deals with grief and moving on, this book is a beautiful story of how Nina became who she is and still who she can become. I loved the colorful personality of Nina and her origin story of meeting Ollie and how their relationship always went back to the funny banters but also to that first love kind of feeling after every hardships that life threw at them.

Read it for:
-funny sarcastic banters
- CHAPTER 4 !!
- all the cruising life
- enemies friends to lovers
-super high level of chemistry

I really enjoyed Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships but I LOVED Luck and Last Resorts! This book is, cover to cover, absolute perfection.

If you read LLFS, you know about the tension between Nina and Ollie and this book delivered on that tension in the most delicious way. It’s told on two timelines - present day and ten years ago when they meet. We get plenty of appearances from Jo and Alex and the rest of the Serendipity crew but every moment of banter and conversation between Nina and Ollie was so tender and intimate. I actually cried multiple
times which is really unusual for me given the amount of romance books I read these days! I won’t say much more to protect against spoilers but this has all the second chance, friends to lovers goodness you could ever want.

Content warnings include gambling addiction, identity theft and associated gaslighting, and parental death.

Thanks to Berkley Romance and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This sequel was even better than the first! Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this book a lot, especially the characters and setting. It was nice reading about some characters that we’ve already met through the first book in the series and learning more about them.

This book follows Nina Lejeune, a former gymnast, and Ollie, a chef. They’ve worked together for many years and have a… complicated history. Ollie tries to build a stronger relationship with Nina, which leads to her questioning if she can make herself vulnerable again. I loved seeing her growth throughout and how she relies on her friends to help her, such as Jo and Xav. It’s always nice seeing strong friendships in romance books.

I finished this book really quickly and it had a lot of twists and turns that kept me engaged - especially chapter 4! It’s a complex romance novel, but it’s one that I’m sure many people will love. I recommend it!

4.5 stars

Angsty- heart wrenching- genuine story perfectly blended in enemies-friends to lovers and fake marriage troupes! Even though some parts of this story truly made me sad, I couldn’t stop loving it too much!

I have to admit: I didn’t love Jo and Alex’s story as much as I love Nina and Ollie! This sequel is everything I want!

Nina and Ollie’s burning desire, high chemistry, quick witted and absolutely sarcastic banters can put the entire chapters into fire!

Their 9 years long chaotic, adventurous, intimate and extremely whirlwind love story touches your heart deeply. You want to scream at their faces to stop holding back and come clean about their feelings. They’re two broken, exhausted souls dealing with their own personal baggages, insecurities, troubled dysfunctional family relationships.

They were in their early twenties when they first met. Now they’re in their early thirties: Ollie is tired to play games. He knows what he wants. He wants to be with Nina. But Nina is still scaring of losing everything she’s hardly built. Could Ollie tell her the truth? Could she give herself second chance for the happiness?

I cried. I laughed. I pissed. My heart got broken. I screamed. I sighed. I stopped reading, giving empty looks to my walls. I reread some chapters. At the end I smile-cried! I loved this book so much!

Millions of thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this fabulous digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest reviews.

**Review will be published August 4th on my blog/Goodreads/Instagram**

THIS STORY Y’ALL.

I was told the angst would be high. THEY DID NOT LIE. Off the charts angst, which is my absolute favorite. FAAAAAAVORITE.

Nina and Ollie are such gems. I loved the flashback chapters that were perfectly placed to give credence to the flair of the second chance trope. And I must mention, HE FALLS FIRST. Ohhhhh how I live for that sub-trope. I was smitten with Ollie up and down, around and around, FOREVER. I LOVE HIM. He is swoony, and kind, the best banter and when he stands up for what he deserves? YES. YES. YES.

My girl Nina, I admit, made me want to shake her a few times. I understood a lot of the feelings and internal struggles. I guess, for me, it was dragged on just a *touch* too long? But that was my only minor complaint. Otherwise, Nina was on this incredible journey that forced her to confront many things that needed to be knocked down. I loved these two together.

All of the sub plots and side characters were everything my Below Deck loving soul could not get enough of. The perfect dose of drama, THE CAPTAIN, glimpses of Jo and Alex? Everything flowed and fit in so well. I didn’t feel like there was wasted space, just glorious writing and a story that I couldn’t put down.

READ IT.

Overall audience notes:
- Contemporary Romance
- Language: a little
- Romance: one vague and brief open door
- Trigger/Content Warnings: identity theft/fraud of a minor, remembrances of domestic abuse, smoking

A winsome sequel that is just as romantic as the first. I absolutely enjoyed revisiting the main characters and their love affair. I was immediately engrossed in the plot and couldn’t wait to find out what happened.

As soon as this book hit my Kindle, I knew I had to read it immediately. I absolutely adored the first book, Love, Luck, & Fancy Ships and I had recently started binge-watching Below Deck, so I needed this book in my life. And it may have been even better than expected!

Told in alternating timelines, Chief Stewardess Nina and Yacht Chef Ollie are figuring out their on-again off-again "relationship." The older timeline takes us back to when the pair met, and Nina walked on the ship and demanded a job. It also reveals a hue twist I definitely didn't see coming and don't want to spoil here. This book isn't sad (especially in the way the first one was, in dealing with grief), but it's extremely emotional and I teared up at times. It's beautifully done and a wonderful read all-around.

For Below Deck fans, there's an abundance of references (beef cheeks and laundry room hook-ups, anyone?) though at times it did seem like the book was stealing subplots from the reality show a little too heavy handidly. The main plot is truly originally and lovely and everything I could want, but everything tertiary on the boat seems lifted from the show. While the minor references were cute, I wonder if the level of borrowing became a little extreme when we have a near play-by-play of the pilot partway through the book. Of course, someone who isn't a fan of the show would never know.

Thanks to Berkley for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 10/10

I had been dying to read this book because the tease of the dynamic between Ollie and Nina made my stomach flip. The absolute only flaw in this book is that I built up the hype too much, expectations really did me in, but had I just picked this up off the shelf as opposed to waiting not so patiently for the chance to read about this couple's backstory I think I would give it 5 stars absolutely.

Luck and last resorts was such a fulfilling read for me. It was such an amazing read for a second chance romance. It was laced with humour, passion, angst and so much of love and devotion. I loved Nina and Ollie so much; making it a 4.5 stars read for me.

This book was so much fun. I loved the second chance romance. It is a lovely setting for anyone interested in Below Deck, Ollie and Nina are well written and so much fun.