Having read most of Trish Doller’s body of work, I was eager to get my hands on her adult contemporary debut Float Plan… especially after I found out about its compelling premise. Our heroine Anna is still grieving the loss of her fiancé (spoiler alert, but also content warning: suicide); her life’s been at a standstill ever since. But when a reminder pops up for the start of an epic sailing trip they had been planning to take together, Anna impulsively decides to go to sea on their sailboat and follow through with their plan. She realizes all too soon that this isn’t a journey she can make on her own, and ends up hiring Keane, a professional sailor and a man also coming to terms with an unexpected future, to help.
It was easy to read the entirety of Float Plan in one day, with Doller’s writing style still as consistently readable as it is in her other novels. The framework for Anna’s journey – both the literal travel onboard the sailboat and the internal struggle with loss – was well-constructed, and it flowed smoothly from start to end. The travel aspects, including the details about sailing and the variety of experiences the characters have along the way, were interesting and harrowing at turns. And, without a doubt, Keane is one of the best parts of this book, as charismatic, capable, and charming as he is! But the novel did fall substantially short for me in two specific aspects. While they did pique my interest just enough, the travel descriptions didn’t immerse me in the various locales they visited. More importantly, as this is a novel that, in part, explores her emotional journey, my lack of any personal connection with Anna prevented me from really getting invested. Even though I didn’t end up clicking with it on a personal level, objectively speaking, Float Plan is a good read. I would encourage you to check it out if your interest has been piqued!
A trip you took with someone that will always be special? I'm so, so lucky to be able to say that I've been on some pretty incredible trips in my life. I had a really hard time narrowing down my pick for this question because I have fond memories of so many (here are posts I've written for some of those trips). But in the end, I decided on a trip that I ended up on last minute where I accompanied by Lola (grandmother) and her friends to visit Japan. There's something about those two weeks that felt monumental to me, perhaps in part because I was in a country I'd always planned to visit one day and because it was the first time that I was able to do things solo (without a smartphone!) and in charge of taking care of everyone else on the trip. I haven't been able to go back to Japan since then, but I'd like to someday for sure.
Float Plan was released on March 2, 2021 by St. Martin's Griffin.
This is one that I wanted to read. Hmm, I've had a few memorable trips. One was with my sister to Mexico. While it was a great trip, it ended on a bad note, we fought and it did put a bit of a strain on our relationship from that point on unfortunately.
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