Classic Emma St Clair humor! Loved the emotional aspects of this romance! Definitely a great summer rom-com to add to your tbr!

This was such a perfectly sweet summer read! In this favorite trope-filled book Josie is tricked by her brother into taking care of his best friend/client/star hockey player, Wyatt, who is recovering from a knee injury. As the summer progresses will we see Wyatt get back his health and maybe get Josie too?

Enemies to lovers, brother’s best friend and forced proximity are just a few of the tropes you can look forward to in Josie and Wyatt’s love story. I honestly wasn’t sure how I would feel about this one in the beginning but now I’m kicking myself for waiting so long to read it. It wasn’t cheesy in the way I anticipated and I actually really enjoyed how everything played out. Their chemistry was there from the beginning and I only wish they got together a little sooner in the book. I liked that they had the sailing trip as a journey together and it was fun seeing how well they worked together. Little Jib was also such a cute addition-I’m a sucker for a dog!!!

Overall, super cute book and would definitely recommend for a nice and light summer read. Thanks as always to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinions ☺️

Set sail with Josie and Wyatt on August 5th, 2025!

Josie’s brother, Jacob is in big trouble. He bailed on their summer trip, except he didn’t.

The summer trip was a cover to get Josie to Wyatt’s house. Wyatt, Jacob’s best friend and client, is a professional hockey player who is recovering from a foot injury and is struggling, both physically and mentally. Josie is a school nurse, and had time to kill & could use the money earned from a home care gig. Win-win, right?

Guess again. Neither Josie nor Wyatt had any idea about this plan. They started off on the wrong foot, considering they were both blindsided by Jacob. Wyatt’s goal this summer is to set sail as a tribute to his late uncle. Josie’s goal this summer is to not murder her problematic patient.

Can they fix this summer before time sails away?

I absolutely loved this book. It’s a cute enemies to lovers/forced proximity story. Loved both of the main characters. My favorite parts - sailing & a darling dog named Jib. This is a perfect read for someone who is looking for a low spice, highly adorable romance.

☀️ grumpy x sunshine
⛵ enemies to lovers
🐶 brothers best friend
💛 clean romance

Josie is on her way for the annual Super Summer Sibling Extravaganza, but when she arrives at the address she is shocked. Her brother is nowhere to be seen and now she is alone at the creepy cottage. When she calls her brother Jacob to ask what's going on, he tells her it was all a ploy to get her to care for his client and best friend, Wyatt.

Wyatt is a famous hockey player and is now recovering from an injury on his foot. Josie has always hated Wyatt from the first time her brother took him home years ago. After some negotiations and money, Josie is persuaded to care for Wyatt for a few weeks.

After these few weeks, Josie started to like caring for Wyatt and decided to go with him on a sailing trip he was planning. This trip wasn’t smooth sailing. Every step of the way something went wrong, but with every step, or rather misstep they learned more about each other and got to know each other better.
Will they still hate each other after this trip or has this trip changed their feelings?

OMG! I loved this book so much. It was funny, cute and sweet but sometimes it was also serious. This book has everything I want in a book.
It felt like I was flying through the book. There was always something happening and there was never a dull moment.
I’m absolutely in love with the characters. I liked them all so much. The banter and the chemistry between Josie and Wyatt was amazing.
This is my first book by Emma St. Clair but I will definitely be reading more of her book. I recommend this book to anyone.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for the ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

While having nothing to do with the author, I have been finding myself so annoyed recently with authors maing every love interest famous in some capacity. The story would've worked just fine without needing for Wyatt (?) to be a famous hockey star. Like, why does everyone have to be famous these days, my god? Other than that little tidbit, I think the book was good. Not my favorite read ever, but enjoyable nonetheless. I just wished there was more real drama, because the little drama that was there was brushed over quickly and very random, in my opinion.

If All Else Sails is full of Emma St. Clair's signature wit and banter, I have yet to be dissapointed by one of her novels.

The hilarity of the opening scenes combined with the superior character development had me devouring this book within 24 hours.

I just finished this book today and sadly this book was a miss for me.

I actually was enjoying it a lot but I just felt like the book was drawn out for far too long and by the time I was finished with it I had zero interest in it. I know what happened at the end but I can’t even remember at this point as it was so dragged out.

I did enjoy the premise of the story though, brothers best friend and forced proximity are great and I did enjoy that aspect of it but the rest fell flat.

If you enjoy a slow burn that takes until the last part of the book, then you will love this.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing the opportunity to read this ARC!

If All Else Sails* presents an enemies-to-lovers romance featuring Josie, a school nurse, and her brother's best friend, Wyatt, a hockey player. Following an injury, Josie's brother persuades her to care for Wyatt during his recovery.
Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy *If All Else Sails* as much as I had hoped. I struggled to connect with both Wyatt and Josie, and I didn’t feel the chemistry between them. The story didn’t fully engage me.

I really genuinely enjoyed this book. I didn't know too much going into it but I'm thankful to have been given an ARC. I have to say it's really the best feeling ever when a book does NOT have a third act break up! To be honest, this book was pretty low drama throughout. I liked the relationships between Josie and her brother. I am a SUCKER for a man who has been down bad since the beginning and the FMC just has no clue at all. This book was cozy and good vibes all around. It was the nice short calm read I needed in between my other very stressful books. The only thing I didn't really love was the male narrator. He wasn't a bad narrator I just felt that his voice sounded much older than the character was supposed to be and it really interfered with how I pictured him. I would 100% read another book from this author, in fact I'm kind of hoping that she has something up her sleeve for Josie's brother.

Wyatt’s story! While not technically part of the Apple series, If All Else Sails tells the story of Wyatt (former Appie mentioned in the books) and Josie, his best friend’s sister. After injuring his foot Wyatt needs someone to help out; Jacob (agent/best friend) sends his sister Josie. A wonderful novel about family, forgiveness, and love. Great cameos of the Appoes too!

A sweet story, but not one that stayed with me!

If All Else Sails was a cute and enjoyable read while I was in it. Emma St. Clair has a lovely, easy writing style, and I appreciated the gentle pacing and heartfelt moments throughout the story. The romance was slow-burn and clean, and there were definitely scenes that made me smile.

That said, I struggled to feel deeply invested in the characters or their journey. While I liked them, I didn’t quite feel them—and once I finished the book, I realized it probably won’t stick with me in the long run.

This is still a well-written, feel-good romance that I think many readers will enjoy. It just didn’t leave a lasting impression for me personally.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for the E-Arc in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Overall I enjoyed this. It was an interesting enough storyline to read through to the end, and the characters were likeable.

But ultimately... I wasn't wowed. There weren't really any challenges, drama, angst - anything to elevate the story. I also found that a significant part of the story seemed to be the characters involved in their own inner monologues - I wish more of this had been the characters interacting, instead.

This was delightful. Emma’s writing is just so fun and funny and emotional and Josie and Wyatt’s story was such a good time. Their history and tension was delicious and there was just the right amount of hijinks to keep me grinning throughout. I loved seeing some of my favorite Appies again and the sailing setting and premise was unique and immersive. Definitely look out for this one!

This book was awesome from the first page! I truly enjoyed the journey of this romance! The connection between the two main characters was a perfect slow burn. I also enjoyed learning about sailing and working things out together! Such a fun story! I absolutely adore this author!

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own!

From the very first page, I was completely hooked by Josie’s lovable personality. She’s caring, funny, and just the right amount of sassy—making her the perfect match for Wyatt, whose grumpy exterior hides a secretly adorable heart.

⭐️ 3.75/5 | 🌶️ 0/5
First Person POV, Dual Narrative
Linear Timeline
Closed Door MF Romance (Very, very slow burn)
FMC: Josie | MMC: Wyatt
Settings: Small town in Virginia & Sailing the Intracoastal
Tropes: Grumpy/Sunshine, Brother’s Best Friend, Enemies to Lovers, Wounded Bird, Athlete, Vacation/Travel, Forced Proximity

Super cute, unique story. I enjoyed the sailing and voyage aspect and how much self discovery they did as individuals. I strongly dislike the misunderstanding/miscommunication trope though.
While I loved the sensual tension and chemistry, it was way, way too slow for me (we’re talking not until 93% into the book to even get kissed) and a tad bit immature with Josie’s constant self doubting thoughts.
It’s a written well and a fun plot. people who like the clean, closed door romance will thoroughly enjoy this story.
Thank you Thomas Nelson Fiction for providing an ARC of this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

3.5 ⭐ rounded up. If All Else Sails is a very sweet and easy read, perfect for summer! The characters were likable and the evolution of their relationship was fun to read! Overall, a very fun book.

My only downside goes to the audiobook: I did not really enjoy listening to the chapters from the MMC pov (there are two narrators, a woman for the FMC chapters and an man for the MMC). I felt like the narrator made Wyatt (MMC) constantly angry (which was fine during some parts of the story, but not the whole book) and his feminine voice made the FMC sound whiny instead of witty/banter, which was a huge contrast to the woman character. And I sometimes had difficulties understanding what the narrator said as some parts were a bit mumbled. For these reasons, I prefered to read the MMC chapters. Other than that, I really enjoyed listening and reading the book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Fiction Audio for the ARC and ALC.

Let me start by saying the description of this book does not at all match what I found to be true of the actual story. Some details are different. It really isn’t enemies to lovers. And despite the description making me think it was going to be all about them sailing, the actual sailing doesn’t start until around 60%.

So I was expecting something different and the pacing felt weird... BUT, despite these differences, I still really enjoyed If All Else Sails! This story was sweet and sassy and fun and lighthearted.

The story starts with a series of events that verge on too silly and unbelievable. The story really comes into itself when it gets to the root of the story – planning for and going on the sailing trip. This part of the book had all the things I was looking for – budding romance, trying and failing and teaching and learning sailing, processing grief, matching dog bikinis, surprise visitors.

Recommend If All Else Sails for lovers of adventurous romance stories with snarky banter and closed door romance that still feels sizzling.
This was my first book by the author, but it won’t be my last.

Review posted to Goodreads. Review to come on Instagram (@ashlie_overbooked) week of release.

This one was giving me all of the summer feels. I found myself daydreaming of sunshine, ocean waves and sailboats along the coastline. If All Else Sails really is such a sweet, summertime read. It is cozy with some humor woven throughout the story making it the perfect lighthearted, easy romance to fill your TBR during the warmer months.

Wyatt is Josie’s older brother’s best friend and this trope gets me every time. Years before, Wyatt breaks Josie’s teenage heart when she walks downstairs in the middle of the night and stumbling in on him kissing another girl. Now years later and Josie has never really been able to drop her grudge towards Wyatt. Little does she know that Wyatt has loved her all along. Now the two of them find themselves alone in a cottage. The tension is building and Josie finds it harder and harder to hate Wyatt.

This is a slow burn, clean romance which I am always on the lookout for to recommend to all of my non-spice reading buddies.

Talk about a slow burn! The two main characters didn't kiss (yes! Just kissed) until the 95% mark. This was one of the driest romance books I have ever read. The female narrator was excellent, and thankfully, she read most of the book because the male narrator was a pain to listen to.