I read this book for a challenge prompt “holiday romance”. This is not my usual genre but was a pleasant enough version of the theme. I also usually tend to read books about other places by local authors but sometimes an outsider or visitor view on a location can be valuable too.

In this book self-effacing heroine Maddie Wilcox has taken a job as crew aboard a luxury yacht sailing around Croatia. Her best friend’s brother Nick comes aboard as a guest, on the arm of a spoilt and entitled model. Maddie finds herself doing an eye roll a minute as she waits on the brattish guests and is disappointed to find Nick as part of this until later in the cruise when she discovers there is more to him than she thought.

This was a light, easy beach read style of novel. I was a little conflicted by the nice ordinary girl versus the soulless beautiful-ones theme, as on one hand it is obviously relatable but also reduces people to stereotypes and is somewhat simplistic. Many of the characters in this book were very one dimensional but I guess it does highlight some of the superficiality of the modern social-media driven world and the shallowness of the celebrity lifestyle. Maddie was a refreshing counterpoint to this, but I did get tired of her putting herself down. ( )

Maybe 3.5. Enjoyed the travel aspect of this book and would definitely try other books in this series though ( )

I chose to read this for its title.
This is my first read about Croatia.
It's part of my 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge: a book set in a country that starts in letter "C".
Aside from that, I'm very interested to learn about the culture and scenery about the country.
I had low expectations about the story since I'm not a big fan of romance.
However, I enjoyed reading about spending vacation in the coast of Croatia; it feels like I'm there.
Coincidentally, my SO was also in one of the places in the story while I was reading about it.
Overall, it's a relaxing read. ( )