Such a perfect summer read. Appreciated the discussion of wealth and class disparities among the friend group; felt very realistic and pertinent to today. Alex’s struggle to balance her successful career and what she believes her friends’ view of success to be was something I think a lot of people could relate to. The relationship at the center of this book was full of tension and played out in a satisfying way but my favorite relationship was between Alex & Paul. Their dynamic as friends mirrors some of my own friendships in a way that I don’t always see in books. The natural chemistry and love between the two is so evident. It shows the importance of platonic love especially when you don’t have the romantic love to fall back on.

First of all, this was a page turner. I loved the cast of characters and wanted to know how everything was going to work out. Second of all, I wasn’t fully rooting for this couple (I still enjoyed them) but I turned it around toward the end and I feel like that takes a lot of talent! I loved seeing both Alex and Danial’s growth and their acceptance of themselves so they could accept each other. They felt like real people with realistic problems. I’m also so happy Paul left Guy! He deserves better.

I couldn't put this book down! I appreciate the complexity of the characters while also keeping the romance alive. Chelsea does any excellent job of juggling real life problems while also creating a escape from the world... The tension between the main characters could be cut with a knife. & the setting of yacht and the Mediterranean only adds to the fun of the whole story. A great book to read this summer while at the beach, pool, or just in a lawn chair in the backyard. Brava!

Thank you for the chance to read this early!
I LOVED The Perfect Vintage, so I knew Chelsea's writing style was going to be right up my alley. The prose is rich, the dialogue is so snappy, and the life observations are always so stark and dripping in reality. This is no exception: we follow Alex as she embarks on a lavish vacation with the one who got away to see her best male friend get married. It is slightly dual timeline (a few past plotlines to explain Alex / Danial falling apart) but mostly travels around the mediterranean exploring love and wealth.
First, the wealth / politics subplot: I thought this really worked. I'm from the Philadelphia suburbs, so the ties to PA were very strong and the duality of wealth classes and its impact on relationships was refreshing but rooted so strongly in truth. As someone who went away to college with people wealthier than me, this felt at times like looking into a window into my past.
I LOVED Alex/Paul's relationship. I loved seeing an unbalanced relationship outside of cis stereotypes. I thought the friendships were really well developed.
Most importantly the romance: the spice is relatively minimal, but the tension between Alex and Danial was really wonderful. The chemistry is intense even if its slow burn, and watching them have their second chance: perfect.
Such a great read, especially for the kick off to summer.

A great summer read! Full of tension, idyllic locations, and complex characters all while covering topics of complex social, class, and family dynamics in an interesting and entertaining way.

Enjoyed this. Cried towards the end and was rooting for the couple. Probably isn’t enemies to lovers (which is basically impossible in contemporary romances).

Review also given on Goodreads.

This was a fun and thoughtful read set in glamorous coastal Europe. A group of college friends reunites for a pre-wedding yacht trip and the highlight is the storyline between two former friends who haven’t spoken in years. Their reconnection is believable and emotionally satisfying.

The book balances romance and friendship with deeper themes like career, family and class. The setting adds charm without overpowering the story, and the characters feel real and well-developed. Great for fans of character-driven contemporary romance with a mix of drama and heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the ARC!

*** Thank you for the free digital ARC from #Netgalley and publisher #OrsayPress.

This novel is set around Alex, Danial and their mutual friend group who are reunited in full 10 years post-college for their friend's wedding. This book is primarily about Alex's feelings towards her rich friends and her feelings of inadequacy around their privileged lives. Alex's woe-is-me around her working-class upbringing took away so much from the story. Her best friend, Paul, who is getting married was the organizer of the reunion and he truly loves Alex and Danial. He was the only light in this story. Paul gave Alex so much grace and tried to also have some boundaries to stop her from spiraling in her negative views about her rich circle of friends.

This novel just felt like a long run-on sentence about hating rich people. I feel like Alex, in her complaining about rich people, failed to see how she had been able to attain through her access to a good education and a decent job regardless of her money. Yes, we do understand the bigger picture for society but this took so much energy from the book and even the romance. The rest of the characters were not interesting so they barely brought anything to the story. I did like how the author was able to give us a decent ending where we see the results of them mending the relationship and the liberation of Paul from a possible terrible life-partner.

All in all, a solid attempt.

Alexandra Onassis, a politically progressive social media strategist, must confront her past when she reunites with Danial Azad, the man she despises, on a luxurious yacht trip with old college friends. Amidst the tension of their shared history and differing social statuses, Alex grapples with clashing ideals and desires, challenging her beliefs and emotions in unexpected ways.

This book is a RIDE. At the start I was worried it was going to be too lit-fic-y for my taste but in the end it was the exact kind of fantasy that you want from a perfect romance novel. The fantasy that your long held crush has always been reciprocated, that rich people will self-reflect, and that it will all happen with the most beautiful setting in the world. Chelsea Fagan deftly mixes class consciousness, tricky friend dynamics, and heart scorching romance. I would recommend this to my non-romance friends as well. Drink this book: Enjoy with the crispest, coldest, Greek white wine you can find.

This book really pulled me in! I immediately connected with the main character, Alex. Although she has been trying to put some of her past behind her, the wedding of her best friend has pulled her back into the orbit of her much wealthier college friends— including the one person she hates most.

I found the characters to be well-drawn and especially liked the growth of Alex, Danial, and Paul. The history amongst these friends felt lived-in. Chapters from their past as they approached college graduation are interspersed between the present, perfectly timed to fill in the dramatic details. Alex’s emotions were palpable to me as a reader— I could feel her guilt, shame, and unease so clearly. By the end, I was so proud of her journey!

I also greatly enjoyed the setting. This would be a perfect beach read! The descriptions of the yacht and various coastal towns has me yearning to visit these places.

I jumped at the chance to read an ARC of The High Dive by Chelsea Fagan. I loved A Perfect Vintage and was really excited at the prospect of another fun and steamy book by the same author. This review will contain spoilers.

Alex is our protagonist. She works in politics for the Worker’s Horizon Party and her career is really taking off. We meet her as she’s about to embark on a rare vacation, sailing on a yacht for two weeks with her rich college friends as they celebrate one of their upcoming nuptials. This trip is a far departure from how Alex lives her real life. Not only does she feel the immense pressure to keep up with the Joneses around these particular friends, but she’s going to be spending time with Danial, the man she was in love with in college, for the first time in 10 years. Alex’s actions throughout the book are guided by the struggle to fit in without becoming something she is actively working against.

This story is compelling because our protagonist feels so real. Alex is honest and imperfect. She gets defensive in conflict and withdraws when she’s embarrassed. As a young person she makes a cringey decision that sets off a chain of errs that leads to her removing herself from her friends’ lives altogether. We can see why she would have so many feelings about being around them all again. She is me and so many people I know in real life.

Fagan expertly builds tension between Alex and Danial. From their first meeting in the airport and their car ride to the rest of the group, the reader is left wondering how this will go. Danial dropping the “I remember everything” nugget made me desperate for more information. The backstory being slowly shared with (minimal) flashbacks was really well done. The way the two argued over their respective jobs and lifestyles felt real and made for a believable reason the two never ended up together.

The only area of critique I have is on pacing. I hesitate to touch on pacing when I can’t read a book in one sitting. Here I felt like it was really well done, except for perhaps the transition from “we can never be together” to Danial having already quit his job in their next scene together. While it does feel like this was necessary to get the couple to end up together, I don’t recall any hint that this was under consideration for Danial and it felt a little abrupt.

I would give The High Dive a solid 4.5 stars. The plot was enticing, the setting was fun and sexy, and the HEA was what I’m looking for when I pick up a romcom. It had depth and touched on important, real issues without bringing in heavy trauma that can turn off some readers. While A Perfect Vintage was scandalous and hot, The High Dive is a little more PG, and I would happily recommend it to a wide range of readers.

Now, can we get a sequel that follows Alex’s best friend Paul?

I wanted to like this one. I really enjoyed A Perfect Vintage but this was not that, minus the lavish settings. The main character is somewhat unlikable and really should deal with her severe inferiority complex. Also, I know we are in a political climate but I don’t want to read about it in my romances.
However, writing is really well done and the romance scenes gave me feels. I will definitely add Chelsea Fagan to my must read author list.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy.

I enjoyed this book! I wish it was a little more realistic - I could not relate to any of the character really. Otherwise this was an enjoyable read.

I laughed at the unrelatable wealth of it all. I cried at the so utterly relatable pain and growth of the characters.

The High Dive is one of those rare romances in which the love story is perfectly balanced with the beauty and despair of finding our authentic self.

The HEA we all yearn for - that by being yourself, you have the power to bring others to the best versions of theirs as well.

I found this book incredibly cringey to get through because the main protagonist was so frustrating. She’s nearly 30 years old and does not like her friends yet feels a need to still be friends with them. She describes her ‘friends’ so negatively around her and as it’s from her perspective then us as the reader only thinks of them as negative. She even describes her mom negatively though her mom is the one with some sense. I appreciated the aspects of social class discussion and politics but it seemed so detailed and at odds with the writing of the characters. We get detailed accounts of her social media plans and ideas that I don’t think the reader needs. When I think of enemies to lovers and a summer beach read which this seemed billed as I want to like the characters and want to root for the couple to fall in love. Instead I just wanted the main character to go home and never see these people again and get therapy.

Alex Onassis is about to take a ten-day trip all around the Mediterranean with her college friends, in celebration of her best friend's upcoming wedding. Alex feels very anxious, despite the fancy destination and the very much needed break from her job in political communication.

Being a scholarship kid in college, she has never felt like she truly belonged in that group of wealthy people. Ten years later, she still feels the same. Moreover, she knows that Danial will be attending the trip too, and the history between them is "complicated" to say the least ...

I've been following Chelsea Fagan's work on The Financial Diet for years, and I knew the moment I learned about this book (or let's say her writing career, since it's the seconde one she's published) that I would probably find in her writing the intelligence and the depth that I often find lacking in most romance books.

And I was right.

This is a 4.5⭐️ rounded up to 5, because we need more books of this quality. The High Dive has the perfect balance of romance (oh the YEARNING y'all !!!) and serious subject matters, and it draws us in such an immersive trip that reading it feels like a vacation in itself.

So let's break it down and start with the romance. As I said earlier, the tension and yearning between Alex and Danial were top tier. They had an interesting dynamic. It was realistic in the sense that we could understand that their verbal sparring was a way for them to nurture their connection and attract the other's attention. I appreciated the fact that given the "kind of enemies to lovers" trope, their relationship stayed somewhat healthy. They were relentless and they did hurt each other yes, but that was acknowledged in a mature way, not just brushed off under the carpet or forgotten about. Also, the yearning, the yearning, the yearning ... The intensity of their feelings, of what they couldn't say to each other ? I felt it all 🥹 and it was beautiful.

Now the "serious" stuff : The financial gap between Alex (+Danial) with the rest of the group was the centerpiece of the story and it was very cleverly written. It made them who they were, it dictated how they behaved and evolved and it was also interesting to see the opposite trajectories that their lives took because of that. I found Alex's inner struggles and insecurities credible, even though it didn’t necessarily make me "love" her as a character.

The portrayal of The Club, its inner dynamics and members was well done in my opinion. Let's take Sophie for example, I really appreciated how she was the archetypical, dislikable rich French brat, but also had a more human and vulnerable side to her.

Though I really enjoyed this book, there were some minor things that veered towards the Wattpadesque and that I wish were different. I'll be brief :

- The friendship between Paul and Alex felt unrealistic to me.
- The last chapter was way too corny for my liking. Okay, we got it, they're happy - I don’t need that much unnecessary scenes.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this e-arc for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

A fun, fast read that builds in drama to a satisfying ending perfect to read at the beach or by the pool this summer. Loved the dynamic between our two main characters Alex and Danial and the back-and-forth that ensues between them, their complex history which is revealed to us with perfect timing and pacing. The other characters did feel shallow and almost unnecessary to the story despite the premise, but it still works — these are people who very much are sailing through life, floating above the waves.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

It's love! Adore this book!

I like the topic of social classes it's a lot to think about people and their motivation. This one is a great summer book with a plot, not just the fun.
Book is very captivating and putdownable.

There is a group of friends in their 30s trying to make to the vacation (so very relatable to me).
Paul and Alex friendship is goals! I need something like this in my life.

I did not finish this book. The tense/pov was very hard to follow and I could not get invested in the characters or their storylines