Enemies to lovers cozy romance. Will sparks fly when school nurse Josie i ends up having to be nurse to her brother's friend/client Wyatt, who she's convinced hates her? Both Josie & Wyatt are dealing with emotional baggage, trust issues, and varying degrees of family issues. on top of this, they are forced to spend time with someone who is on a completely different page. Lots to learn for both parties about God & trust, it was an enjoyable read.
I received an ARC copy from NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁:

Loved!!! If you have never read a sweet romance what are you waiting for. Emma’s books are so well written with such amazing character dynamics you don’t even miss the spice. They are about the connection, growth and finding happiness with a side of swooning. This one had so many funny and heartfelt moments that your cheeks will hurt from all the smiling & grinning. Highly recommend!

Mini Spoiler: A few Appies make a guest appearance! (I was so excited as I didn’t expect this.)

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬:

Josie just arrived at the address her brother gave her but there is only a creepy murder cottage and no sign of him. Then the cops arrived and she’s thrown into the back of a hot police car and get heat stroke - not how she planned to start her sibling vacay. Her brother is definitely going to pay dearly for this one!

Wyatt didn’t expect to find his long time crush delivered to his doorstep and after having her accidentally arrested she’s going to hate him even more. Apparently his agent and best friend thought sending his little sister, who’s a nurse was the best way to get him to follow doctor’s orders this summer.

Josie doesn’t like Wyatt, she definitely doesn’t like athletes and her brother knows this. But somehow when he asks her to help Wyatt this summer and dangled a high dollar value in exchange for her help, she can’t say no. Now she’ll have to figure out how to tolerate the grump of a man as they are now roommates for the foreseeable future.

𝙁𝙖𝙫 𝙌𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚:

“I always wondered what kind of woman would snag your grinchy little heart.”

𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒍𝒍 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒅:

* Older Brother’s Best Friend & Client
* Grumpy x Sunshine
* Injured Hockey Player
* School Nurse
* Forced Proximity: A Quaint Murder Cottage & Sailboat
* He’s Crushed on Her for Years
* Rescue Dog Jib
* Dual POV
* Closed Door Kisses Only

💕🐖⛵️🩼🩺🏒💕🐖⛵️🩼🩺🏒💕

Clean and cosy - I chuckled several times and smiled at the sweet way this nurse and injured hockey player make their way from childhood enemies to begrudging adult companions to more. Emma st Clair writes a light story without it being fluffy.

I received If All Else Sails by Emma St. Clair for free in exchange for my honest opinion. I absolutely loved this book. I loved the enemies to lovers aspect and seeing the grumpy guy turn sweet for the girl. I also enjoyed the relationship of brother-sister and how it grew during the story.

Oh my goodness, what a treat! The banter, the tension, the fever dream declarations, the hilarious predicaments—this book was just a grumpy/sunshine, forced-proximity delight. I laughed, I swooned, and I loved that a couple of Appies characters snuck in for a bit too. It’s a perfect summer read!

TW: Mild Depression, Past Loss of Parental Figure (Off Page)

The banter and back and forth enemies vibes in this story is fire! It caused so many outloud laughs and good dopamine hits. I highly recommend this book right alongside Pepper Basham, Courtney Walsh, and Becca Kinzer. There are no swears or alcohol and level 2 descriptive kisses only. Present tense, first person, Dual POV. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#IfAllElseSails #NetGalley #ThomasNelsonFiction

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC for my h9nest review. This was a sweet, slow burn Brothers best friend romance. It felt a little long to get to the sailing part, but it was low stakes and harmless.

I want to start by thanking the author and publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced release copy of this book. This was a great book! I thought it was original and I liked it!

⭐3.75/5 Rating

OUT ON: AUGUST 5, 2025

Review: I recently discovered Emma St.Clair as an author and have enjoyed her books thus far so I was super excited to receive this book and to read it early (thank you so much @thomasnelson | @netgalley for the advanced digital and audio copies 🤍🥹)

This book was very cute! I thought that the main characters Josie and Wyatt embodied the grumpy/sunshine trope perfectly. It took me a little while to get into this book because I just felt so bad for Josie and was frustrated on her behalf by how everyone treated her in the beginning of the book! However, I will say that once Wyatt and Josie embarked on their sailing trip I was much more invested in seeing where their relationship headed!

The sailing trip was 100% my favorite part of the book, but who are we even kidding? I am a sucker for a forced proximity in a romance book, so this was right up my alley. I also love when the grumpy is sunshiney for the sunshine character – LOVE IT!

Overall, if you’re looking for a great summer romance read, this could be the book for you!

📖Genres: Romance | Contemporary | Contemporary Romance

This is such a cute summer romance! I really enjoyed this story. For the first half Wyatt & Josie had such cute banter. While the second half lost some of the initial banter and chemistry in my opinion, I really enjoyed the sailing storyline. I recommend this for anyone looking for a sweet, clean summer romance.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really enjoyed this.
I was laughing out loud a lot in the beginning and then it just turn into this super sweet romance.

I liked the anxiety rep but I think I would have like more resolution or maybe acknowledgment of a problem, and professional help. That being said it felt very realistic this way too and it worked in the story.

I really liked both characters and their chemistry and connection.

This was a fun and sweet read.

An engaging and entertaining romance. Many humorous scenes. Good characters. Appreciated the lack of foul language and intimate scenes. Pleasant reading. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

If All Else Sails is a sweet and sassy contemporary romance that employs enemies to lovers and the brother's best friend tropes. It was my first experience with a story by this author, and for the most part, I ended up being pleasantly surprised with just how much I actually enjoyed this.

The book starts off with elementary school nurse Josie thinking she's going on a sibling trip with her older brother, but instead ends up being forced to share a cabin with her brother's grumpy best friend, while her brother stays awol. A hilarious first encounter between Josie and Wyatt at the beginning starts off the story on an interesting note, and as more of the background of their shall we say lack of a friendship over the years is revealed, the story only grows more and more compelling from there. While Wyatt is recovering from an injury, Josie agrees to stay on in an official nursing capacity to help him along. This ends up including traveling with him on a sailing trip he's been planning for quite sometime, and soon neither can deny the sparks that are starting to fly between them. However, can opposites really attract? And can they ever possibly move past all the bad blood that's built between them over the years?

While I went into this one expecting more of a snarky, superficial type of romance, I was actually surprised by how deep some of the topics were. While we definitely got a lot of the banter I went into it for, I was also pleasantly surprised with how well the author tackled the deeper themes that are scattered throughout the story. I wouldn't say either Josie or Wyatt were super likeable as characters, but in an odd way it kind of worked, and I was still rooting for them to find their own way to happily ever after.

I did find the pacing was a bit slow and hard to follow at certain points of the story, but I did enjoy the author's writing style, and the way so much of the story focused around the two main characters themselves. It was a pleasant read to curl up with, and I'd highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a clean contemporary novel to take with them to the beach or the pool this summer.

One quick thing I wanted to comment on though, before I conclude my thoughts on this one is the fact that I'm getting a little tired of Christian or clean romances using the "sharing the same bed" trope to try and help the story along. It just seems out of place in a story that's not supposed to be overtly sexualized, and I'm saddened with how often I've been seeing this pop up as of late. It certainly wouldn't bother everyone, but it's not something I'm personally a fan of.



All in all though, I enjoyed this one and would love to read more from this author in the future.



Final Rating: 4/5.



Thanks so much to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and review this one!



I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Thomas Nelson) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and this is my honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this one 🩷 It didn't exactly turn out to be enemies-to-lovers since they only assumed they were hated by each other but their banter made up for it🫶 I absolutely loved Josie, she's such a hilarious and refreshing character. Wyatt's personality was the perfect counter to her sassiness. This was one of those books that I warmed up to as it progressed and I feel like everything including the writing got better towards the end. I'm a huge fan of seas so obviously I loved the setting! Most importantly it was FUNNY (did I say this already?) the kind of giggle inducing humor that gets me every time because let's face it I laugh at everything no matter how silly it is-

You should definitely check this out if you're looking for a light read and adorable dressed-up dogs 🫶

Received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

4.5⭐️ This what soo good, I really enjoyed this book!!! This is the perfect summer read! The story was cute and the characters were very likable. Wyatt is so down bad for Josie and I absolutely adore how patient he is with her. I really love that there was no ridiculous third act conflict or none at all.
Pick this up if you like: dislike to love situation, i thought you hated me, slow burn, brother’s best friend, dual pov, closed door, forced proximity.
ARC-review, thanks Netgalley.

This book should come with a warning - this book is addictive and when you start reading it you will not want to put it down! I loved this book, I was in the mood for something light and fun and his book definitely ticked those boxes!
Wyatt and Josie's story was a classic grump vs sunshine with lots of laugh out loud moments and some crazy  and unexpected things happened (those pigs!). There were lots of layers to both Wyatt and Josie and it was enticing reading and seeing the layers peel back until they were really connecting heart to heart. With the relationship being helped along by Josie's brother Jonah (think brothers best friend trope) this story was fun from the start to the end. I loved the addition of Jib the dog and all her fun outfits!
I totally recommend this book to anyone wanting a clean and fun summer read.  I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Fiction and Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

4.5/5
I flew through this sweet, funny summer romance! Heartwarming and laugh out loud funny without being cheesy. Loved the characters and setting!

the female narrator was great but I had a tough time with the male narrator.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the ARC ebook and audiobook!

This was an enjoyable read for me overall. It was cute and made me laugh. Enemies to lovers always leaves you wondering how exactly the characters can overcome their past, and this was no exception. Josie and Wyatt were both endearing in their own ways, and I appreciated getting the story from each of their perspectives. My main critique of this book is that sometimes the character’s inner monologues felt repetitive, dragging out to the point that it was distracting. However, in some ways it made them feel more realistic as it is very reminiscent of how someone with anxiety would think and process similar situations.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my gosh, in true Kiki/Emma fashion this book is full of the wit, humor, banter and tension of all her books. I absolutely loved getting to see Wyatt in the future after he leaves the Appies. His backstory with his family and uncle was tender and delightful. We all know Wyatt’s been pining but clearly in the brothers best friend zone. He’s just a grumpy, sad, injured hockey player, who needs a push.

Josie just wants to hang with her brother, not nurse/babysit Wyatt. I loved Josie’s character growth and there is some deep stuff. She has an entire narrative in her head about all the years she’s spent knowing Wyatt and each day a little more slips and unravels as she really gets to know him. She is funny, sassy and buys matching outfits for her and Jib. I adore her!

The entire sailing trip was moment after moment of crazy, fun, and unpredictable events.

Highlights:
The Murder Cottage
His Fever Sickness
The Pigs
Jib (the dog)
Rookie
Cool Whip Container
Sailing
Doctor’s Office
Dog Outfits
Appies Dinner
How Wyatt Treats Her 🫠
The Tension…oh gosh…so much

And can we just mention the Savannah Bananas cameo. ;)

Josie's brother is Wyatt's agent. Josie and Wyatt have known each other for years, but have never really gotten along. Josie has an opinion of Wyatt based on their first meeting, and she doesn't really like athletes anyway. Wyatt is a grump, and Josie's convinced he doesn't like her. So when her brothers sends her to take care of Wyatt while he heals from an injury - neither of them are too pleased.

Over time, they realize they can get along, and actually enjoy each other. So when Wyatt invites her to go sailing with him, she says yes. And they find they really enjoy each others company. But how can this last? Wyatt will go back to hockey, and Josie will go back to being a nurse. Can they make something work? Maybe with a little help from Josie's brother and 2 of Wyatt's ex teammates, they'll realize their feelings and that they belong together.

I LOVED seeing Wyatt outside of the hockey world. I've read and loved all of the Appies books, and it was fun to have an Appies player outside of that world. I enjoyed the little cameo from Van and Eli, too. Wyatt and Josie were delightful (even when he's grumpy he's likable!) This was such a fun read!