Jessa’s perfect evening is shattered when her boyfriend Todd dumps her mid–first dance at a wedding. Little does she know that across the room, cricket star Brody is dealing with his own heartbreak — his girlfriend Nikki just blindsided him too. Later, the pieces fall into place: Todd and Nikki are now a couple.

Jessa braces for awkwardness at her best friend’s destination wedding cruise to Sicily, but nothing prepares her for a booking disaster that puts her in a shared suite with Todd, Nikki and Brody.

With nowhere to hide, Jessa and Brody strike a deal: fake a sizzling romance to make their exes jealous. What starts as a revenge pact quickly becomes something more as sparks fly, tempers flare, and the line between pretending and feeling gets blurry.

The characters are well written: I loved the side characters, despised Todd and Nikki and ADORED Brody. Jessa took me a while to warm too - she definitely started as the grump in grumpy x sunshine relationship.

I found this started slow but once it picked up and they were on the ship I binged my way through the book in one sitting.

This was my first read by Portia MacIntosh but I've already added her other books to my TBR 📚

If you're looking for witty banter, fun romance and a happy ever after - this is for you.

Going Overboard by Portia MacIntosh is a charming and witty escape that had me grinning from the very first chapter. The cruise ship setting makes for a fun, breezy backdrop, and the characters are instantly lovable. I appreciated the blend of romance and laugh-out-loud moments—it never took itself too seriously, and that’s what made it such a joy. If you're in the mood for a lighthearted, feel-good read, this one definitely delivers.

This books is super light-hearted and funny with some faking dating thrown in. It was a quick easy read that I enjoyed. There are 3 weddings in this book each wedding gives Jessa something to deal with in her life.

The first wedding Jessa's boyfriend breaks up with her. And she gives relationship advice to a woman in a toilet cubicle because her boyfriend wouldn't commit.

The second wedding Jessa's ex boyfriend turns up with a new girlfriend who happens to be the ex of one of the grooms men, Brody. And while trying to catch the wedding flowers may or may not end up in a fountain.


And onto the 3rd wedding on a cruise Jessa and Brody end up sharing a suite with their ex's. From pretending to be together to real love is the journey of the rest of the book.

3rd act drama was definitely coming but I'm glad it didn't last long and was relatively easy to solve.


Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for this book✨

I love Portia’s books! They are so different to anything I would normally read but so far all the ones I’ve read by her I’ve really enjoyed! They are perfect holiday reads. So funny they are just so uplifting and good!
the FMC Jessa is happily crusing through life with her boyfriend Todd - Ew we hate him 🤣 At a friends wedding Todd dumps Jessa out of the blue and although she’s heartbroken they still have wedding season to get through with their friend group. Enter Nikki and Brody another couple who have recently broken up and Jessa’s life will never be the same again!!
This book is hilarious, I honestly loved every second of it! Highly recommend!
🌟🌟🌟🌟
Release date - 26th July 2025

I really love Brody, he is an absolute sweetheart as well as a stud! Jessa has some hilarious moments, but I also wanted to shake her several times!
I felt it was a bit of a slow burn to get to the exciting bit of the cruise where the fake dating trope promised to really come to the fore, but when it did get there it was comic relief galore.
I loved the friendship group they had, Kelsey especially was exactly the kind of bestie everyone deserves to have.
A light romance with some drama, fake dating and forced proximity, what's not to enjoy!

Jessa is dumped at a wedding, during a dance by her boyfriend Todd and is completely blindsided. Now she has to go to a destination wedding on a cruise with him and his new girlfriend to Sicily. Because of the last minute changes to bookings and well....couples, Jessa finds herself having to share a suite with Brody and his new girlfriend Nikki but also with Brody who is Nikki's ex, cue the fake dating and the usual chaos of a Portia Macintosh book lol!

This has got to be one of the best books Portia has released and i say that as a huge fan of any books that has Millsy in it!

The perfect book to bring with you on your holidays this summer!

Portia MacIntosh is a newish author for me. There are somethings I had to look up, as an American, but most things I got from context. I laughed and smiled throughout. There were times my heart cracked for the characters. A great HEA. I'd pick up another book by this author.

Omg this book was so cute. I absolutely loved everything about it. The characters the humor the banter like I read this in a day maybe less. I couldn't put it down. This is my first time reading this author and boy it didn't disappoint in the least. I mean think about it can you imagine being stuck on a ship with your ex and have to share a room ?! I couldn't do it lol l felt for Jessa I truly did. But I really didn't care for Todd in the least he just was kinda a stiff lol. Brody was hilarious and I just adored him. I loved the relationships Jessa had with her friends and how close they were and how they all just meshed so well together and how they stood by her when Todd dumped her. They didn't choose sides which was so refreshing!! Gosh I could go on and on about this book. It's seriously so dang good. Definitely a great summer read and overall just pure fantastic!! Definitely need more by this author now !!!

Love a Portia MacIntosh & this one didn't disappoint! Jessa has been with her boyfriend Todd for a couple of years and thinks their relationship might be progressing onto the next step. However, this all comes crashing down when Todd dumps Jessa at a friend's wedding. Soon, it becomes apparent that Todd has swiftly moved onto Nikki, whose ex boyfriend is cricket superstar Brody. Things get complicated and exciting when Jessa and Todd's friends get married on a cruise ship and Jessa and Brody end up sharing a suite. The chemistry is great, I really like Jessa and Brody's characteristics - fun, exciting and not too serious. My only bugbear was the setting of this novel being in the summer, as a pro cricketer, that would be a lot of time he would be missing playing cricket! But it didn't detract, it was good fun and great escapism. Thanks to Net Galley for the advanced copy

Blurb:
That ship has sailed… right?

Jessa is happily cruising through life - until her boyfriend Todd dumps her, out of the blue, at a wedding, during the first dance. She doesn’t know it but just across the room, cricket superstar Brody is also being blindsided by his girlfriend, Nikki. It suddenly makes sense in the days that follow - Todd and Nikki are now together.

Jessa wants to crawl under a rock, but with her best friend’s destination wedding on a cruise to Sicily - and her ex and his new girlfriend onboard - there’s no escape. She’s hoping the ship is big enough to avoid them but, unlucky for her, a booking mix-up means she’s sharing a two-bed suite with Todd, Nikki, and the handsome but infuriating Brody too.

With no choice but to ride out the awkwardness, Jessa and Brody hatch a plan. If they can’t win their exes back, they’ll get them back - revenge - by faking a red-hot romance of their own. That’ll show them. But the better they get at faking it - and the more undeniable their chemistry - the blurrier the line becomes. Either way, there’s going to be trouble at sea because true love is never plain sailing!

Review:

I enjoyed Jessa’s first person point of view throughout the novel. She was relatable in many ways. I did not like Todd at all, even from the start; thankfully Brody grew on me. He was much more likeable. The entire story was just a fun read altogether.

Overall, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 stars from me for this enjoyable summer read.

A fun, lighthearted romcom. The beginning felt a bit slow and honestly, I almost lost interest—but once it picked up, it turned into a decent read. I didn’t exactly love it, but I didn’t hate it either. It was just… good. A nice one to pick up if you’re in the mood for something easy and breezy.

Portia MacIntosh knows how to write fun, lighthearted Romanace books with a strong RomCom feel and she has once again delivered with Going Overboard.

This was such a fun, charming laugh out loud read jam packed with all the tropes I love, Jessa is left heartbroken after being cruelly dumped on the dance floor of a wedding, fellow guest Brody was also dumped at the exact same time, soon discovering their exes are now together they hatch the typical fake dating/revenge plan. What follows is carnage, chaos & mishap after mishap. Jessa is so much fun and chaos seems to follow her while Brody is sweet, caring, lovable & equally funny, they were so great together with so much brilliant banter.

The writing was so gorgeous, it flowed effortlessly with a smooth easy narrative and gorgeous characters, I flew through this is one and it ended way sooner than I wanted it to, which is always a great complaint.

This would be the perfect holiday, poolside read.

This was my first Portia MacIntosh book and I am a fan!
What a cute summer read for the pool or the beach.
I thought Jessa & Brody made the cutest couple.
Jessa's character was funny - yes, I laughed out loud.
Brody's character was also a bit funny, but he was a teddy bear and much quieter than Jessa.
This book was one of those funny, quick, fake-dating books made for summer reading.
After both Jessa and Brody get dumped at a Wedding, their ex's end up together - interesting.. right?
So our two MMCs hatch a plan to fake date in front of their ex's so that they can make them jealous. All is fun in pretend dating until feelings start to emerge and the "fake", doesn't feel so "fake" anymore.
Plot was structured and felt that it was paced appropriately.
The characters were developed and were engaging.
This is one of those fast palate cleansing books to read during the summer.
I would recommend this for the summer TBR!
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!
Happy Reading!

I can’t tell you how many times I laughed reading this but it was a lot!
Fake dating at its best Jessa and Brody are hilarious, add in Al the bodybuilder who takes any excuse to take of his shirt plus a group of characters all linked by friendships that go back to childhood, then add two exes of the worst kind you’ve got the perfect summer read.
I loved this book but then Portia Macintosh has a way of writing that makes an easy yet highly enjoyable read.

A book you need to add this to your TBR

❤️Thank you for having me on the tour

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⭒ Rating: 4.5

Was this my first time reading this author? I thought it was but it turns out it might not have been according to Goodreads. I think I read one of her holiday romances last year or something. And I do remember really enjoying that one, so I’m not surprised that I actually loved this book.

I started reading this last night and I read, I think it was less than 20%, so today I just wanted a chill Sunday and I spent the whole afternoon binging the rest and it was so fun!!

I honestly loved the plot of this book. It was funny, a bit emotional here and there, but mostly just fun. There was some really good banter and some great chemistry. I loved watching these two get to know each other and fall in love. Watching them together, putting on a farce of being heavily in love and all PDA to get back at their jerk exes could not have been more entertaining. So many shenanigans, so many funny accidents and heartfelt moments between them.

They were so good together. They brought out the best in each other. Made each other’s lives more fun and definitely let each other be their authentic selves. And everyone saw how happy they made each other. It was such a joy watching them realize they deserved better than their exes, and that throughout out all the pretending for others, it had become real for them. Really, really enjoyed this one! And I can’t wait to read more from this author’s backlist!

𝜗𝜚 Tropes: cruise vacation, fake dating, revenge on exes, forced proximity, one bed, destination wedding, summer romance, sports romance (cricket)

Going Overboard by Portia MacIntosh

My sincere thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read Going Overboard. I give my unbiased opinion of it in the following review.

What can I say, I really enjoyed this book. It is a fake dating forced proximity romance where the two main characters Jessa and Brody are fake dating to get to their exes who broke up with them on the same night at the same wedding. Of course, they start catching feelings as they learn more about one another. This is not a new idea for a romance, but I still really thought it was cute, and I was pulling for Jessa and Brody. I look forward to trying more Portia MacIntosh books in the future.

A fun, quick romance read that's great for vacation/the beach but not groundbreaking. I enjoyed this book; it was fun, and the chemistry between the FMC and the MMC was great and believable. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick, fluffy romance read. 4.5 stars!

This book was a really great read for me.
The author wrote characters in the book you know you will dislike but also rightfully so and in the end they get what they deserve.
Apart from this the main characters story and how they turned out was just awesome.
Interesting read in my opinion.

What fun it was going overboard with Jessa! I laughed out loud!

You know those characters you love to hate - and how satisfying it is when they get what's coming to them. Oh yes! This was that book!

Not to mention the romance was sweet and well-developed. I wanted to be on that cruise with them.

The friendships were really lovely, too. I loved how the characters supported each other.

I have to admit, I've only read one other book by Portia MacIntosh, and I thought it was just fine. But this one for me was 5 stars. I couldn't wait to get back to it!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Going Overboard is just so chaotically romantic and I loved it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When Jessa unexpectedly gets dumped in the middle of her friend’s wedding she never imagines that when she saw him again two weeks later at another wedding that he would turn up with his new girlfriend.

And his new girlfriend also broke up with her boyfriend at the same wedding. Definitely a little bit suspicious…

But the bigger challenge will be spending a week together on a cruise before her best friend’s wedding. So when the four of them find out they’re actually sharing rooms on the ship, the only thing for Jessa to do is pretend she’s gotten together with Brody. We all know how well fake dating plans go…

I really loved the setting and the writing, this one was so easy to pick up and get into. And honestly the reason it’s only four stars is just that it was a bit short! I really loved the banter between Jessa and Brody but I wish there had been a bit more romance.

Thank you Portia MacIntosh, Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.