This author is new to me, but I will be keeping an eye out for anything else they publish. I loved the story and the characters. The pacing of the story was great and the characters were relatable.

A perfect summer read! Brother's best friend who is a grumpy, misunderstood hockey player that suffers from foot in mouth disease plus a caring elementary school nurse with a healthy dose of sass and bias against jocks and you get the perfect enemies to lovers romance with snark and humor. Adored the narration and how the narrators made the character's and their stories come to life. This was my first time reading/listening to a book by Emma St. Clair but I enjoyed the book so much that I will definitely be reading her other books.

Love love LOVED this book!!!! The audio is VERY well done and the story is so well written! Emma St. Clair is one of my fav authors for a close door romance and she knocked it out of the park with this one.

alc review

⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

If All Else Sails, is a cute little romcom read, following Josie, an elementary school nurse and her brother’s best-friend Wyatt, the professional hockey player. This was an easy, summer read, and I loved all the meddling from Josie & Wyatt’s family’s!

After Jacob - Josie’s brother & Wyatt’s best friend, sends Josie to help take care of Wyatt’s injury, Josie finds herself staying in the not so cozy, broken down cottage Wyatt’s hiding out in. Josie, staying the summer, helping take care of Wyatt, and the cottage in desperate need of help, finds herself later going on Wyatt’s sailing trip with him down the coast to Georgia.

Josie’s always thought Wyatt hated her, and with his grumpy demeanor, always likened him as a jerk. Come to find from Wyatt’s POV he’s been in love with her essentially from first laying his eyes on her; but adhering to Jacob’s warning to stay away from her. Come to find, that Jacob arranged this whole summer scheme to push his sister and his best friend together.

This read had some great, funny parts, and I found myself rooting for the couple from the get go … maybe just a little bit after Wyatt had Josie locked in the hot cop car … man, he needed to sweat for a bit after that one!

Thanks to Emma and Netgalley for an early listening copy for my honest review.

Overall, I would give this book a solid 4/5. It wasn't a profound, life-changing read, but I found it enjoyable and very cute. This one was a VERY slow burn, so be prepared for the two leads to not actually move into romantic territory until nearly the end of the book. I personally love the enemies-to-lovers and forced proximity tropes, so I enjoyed this read. There's also the grumpy/sunshine situation, which made for a nice dynamic between the two leads. Knowing that they would end up on a sailing trip together, I was interested to see how they would get from the dramatic first scene to that, and it was an enjoyable but still believable journey.

4/5
Thai was a such a fun summer read I loved the characters and the beginning really gripped me. The narrators did a great job as well

This book was so great!! I absolutely loved it! It was so cute and funny all while keeping it totally clean. Highly recommend.
Thank you Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

So for this audiobook I started listening to it, but did not love the male narrator. So I switched to reading the ebook. I absolutely loved the storyline and thoroughly enjoyed all the aspects of the story. But the male narrator was very loud and harsh to my ears in some of the more grumpy portions. He did a good job of expressing his grumpy frustrations, but it was too loud for me. The female narrator did amazing. So I only listened to the first several chapters. Again the content was amazing, it just wasn’t my favorite audio version of a book.

I enjoyed the plot of this book but it didn’t hold my attention the way I expected. The female narrator was great but the male narrator left something to be desired

I really enjoyed If All Else Sails! The story itself was fantastic—engaging, heartfelt, and full of the charm I’ve come to expect from Emma St. Clair. The characters drew me in right away, and I loved the emotional depth and chemistry throughout.

The only thing that kept this from being a full 5-star read for me was the audiobook narration for the male character. Unfortunately, the narrator’s voice didn’t fit well, and the audio quality itself was distracting at times. It pulled me out of the story, which was disappointing since everything else about the book was so strong.

That said, the writing, the romance, and the overall story were excellent, and I’d still highly recommend it—especially if you plan to read the ebook or print version instead of listening to the audio.

This book is a SLOW-burn, emphasise on the slow part. But it’s a good book with plot originality & I enjoyed hearing it’s audiobook. It’s about Josie, a school nurse having to take care of Wyatt, her brother’s best-friend/hockey agent. It’s drama, with rom-com element. The story is more about the interaction between Josie & Wyatt, rekindling their relationship & misunderstanding. I just wish there’s more to it.

If you want a book that is going to make you say awwwww and have that warm, giddy feeling when you're done then this is the book for you! It is sweet, funny, and heart warming. I laughed out loud multiple times at the hilarious banter and I also said awww (😍) out loud more than once.

I loved watching Wyatt and Josie's relationship transition from barely acquaintances to more. Wyatt is a hockey player, but I would not consider this a sports romance. It's more sports adjacent. This book felt like real life. Josie and Wyatt were characters I became invested in and could see myself being friends with in real life. I loved that she wouldn't give up on him and that he wanted to take care of her no matter what. Also, there is a cute rescue dog who wears clothes.

I tend to pick books off of vibes than from reading the description, so I didn't realize this book was partially about Wyatt working through grief and the loss of his beloved uncle. It added another layer to this story that I could connect on. Wyatt goes on this trip to scatter his uncle's ashes. This past summer we took a sailboat trip to scatter my mom's ashes, so I understood some of what he was going through.

I love when I can see little pieces of myself and my experiences in books. It helps them feel more relatable and believable. I like characters that have rough edges, sad back stories and something to fight for.

Andi and Patrick did a fantastic job narrating. They really brought the characters to life. They read with emotion and made me feel like I was there.

*Read if you love*

⛵ Grumpy/Sunshine
🩷 Forced Proximity
⛵ Brother's Best Friend
🩷 Hockey Player
⛵ Slow Burn
🩷 One bed
⛵ He falls first

If All Else Sails is an adorable, fun summer read! I love the tropes involved, including brother's best friend, grumpy/sunshine, he falls first, forced proximity. Of course, if a story starts out with an "accidental" arrest, you know it's going to be good! There are so many laugh-out-loud moments, and plenty of romantic tension without the spice. Wyatt and Josie are cute together, and it's easy to root for them to be together in the end.

I listened to the audiobook on a long drive, and it definitely kept me entertained the whole trip. Having two narrators adds a fun layer to the story.

Overall, a super fun, lighthearted love story you don't want to miss!

I received an ARC copy of this book and was not required to leave a review. This opinion is my own.

Cute, slow burn. Who doesn’t love a brother’s best friend trope?! The FMC had a lot of self doubt which was sad to hear. Overall a good book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Josie thinks she is headed to meet her brother for their not-so-annual Super Summer Sibling Extravaganza. Only, Jacob sends her to a "little murder cottage" in the middle of nowhere. To make matters even worse, the owner of the house doesn't know that she is coming and tries to get her arrested. Josie then discovers that Jacob's best friend, Wyatt, is the owner of the house and she has been sent there by Jacob to "babysit" aka nurse him back to health and force him to go to his doctor and PT appointments. Wyatt is not exactly Josie's favorite person, but with what her brother is willing to pay her and after seeing the shape that Wyatt is in, Josie agrees to help. This is an excellent book with great banter, crazy characters, and fun hijinks. I highly recommend to lovers of rom-coms.

I received an ALC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book was an okay listen for me. It felt really long and honestly dragged at points. The first chapter or so that the MMC had, I felt like I was getting yelled at. The narrator took the MMCs annoyed feelings and really made it apparent to the listener. It made it hard to listen to though; thankfully, he calmed it down at the end. I enjoy a slow burn but holy crap…this was a super slow burn and I don’t feel like there was a lot of build up to them finally kissing. The story was cute and in the end I did enjoy the MCs.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for the ALC.

a fun cozy summer romance read. I was lucky enough to read & listen to this advance copy and thoroughly enjoyed the narration!

Thank you to net galley for the Arc. This was the perfect summer read for my holiday. Loved the story and the writing. Would recommend to all.

This book came ready with every trope imaginable—and I’m not mad about it. We’ve got the "enemies" to lovers (though they were never really enemies), brother’s best friend, hidden feelings, forced proximity, hockey romance, nurse/patient care, and even relationship advice from a quirky older couple.

The story follows a nurse and a grumpy, injured hockey player (her brother's best friend, of course) stuck together for the summer—cue the slow burn. And to be fair, the slow burn was really great. It had me pulled in early on, and I wanted to root for them.

But somewhere along the way, it fizzled out. Their connection was told, not shown—so much of their chemistry came through dialogue explaining it rather than moments that actually showed it. I wanted to feel more than I was being told to feel.

Also, I listened via audiobook, and the male narrator didn’t help. His tone undercut the tension and made the banter feel flatter than it probably was on the page.

Thank you Net Galley for this ALC. I was fortunate enough to have the ARC too and I loved the narration so much it brought these characters to life and made me fall in love with them so much more