Review: Off the Map by Trish Doller

 

Off the Map by Trish Doller

Publication Date: March 7th 2023 by St. Martin's Griffin & Macmillan Audio

Pages: 272

Audio Book Length: 6hrs 37min

Narrator: Sarah Naughton

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Carla Black has traveled all over the world, so when her best friend, Anna decides to get married in Ireland and asks Carla to be the maid of honor, she doesn’t blink an eye. She’s to meet Eamon Sullivan, Keane’s handsome brother, to hitch a ride with him to the wedding. As soon as they meet there’s an immediate connection, talking, bonding, and physical attraction!

Eamon Sullivan has dreams of traveling around but has never got around to it, so when Carla suggests they take a detour and check out some of the sites he’s longed to visit they end up on a road/camping trip that changes both of them. Carla starts to reconsider her resolve to make no permanent attachments and Eamon takes a hard look at his stationary life. Each have some personal issues to sort out.

Off the Map was a delight from beginning to end! Carla and Eamon’s immediate chemistry was palpable, and I felt part of their personal journey and travels: the beauty, the bumps in the road and the growing attachment they feel. I rooted for their HEA all the way! 

Loved catching up with Anna and Keane from Float Plan, too! It was a lovely sort of epilogue to their story!

I alternately listened to an audio copy and read an e-copy of Off the Map. I highly recommend the audio narrated beautifully by Sarah Naughton! She has a pleasing voice and she performed both American and Irish accents well! I listened at my usual 1.5x normal speed.

4 Stars

Book Description:

On the road to love, you don't need a GPS...

Carla Black’s life motto is “here for a good time, not for a long time.” She’s been travelling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn’t do love and she doesn’t ever go home.

Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he’s the one who’s lost his sense of direction. He’s unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out—literally.

Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend’s wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love - if only they choose it.

Review: The Suite Spot by Trish Doller

 

The Suite Spot (Beck Sisters #2) by Trish Doller

Publication Date: March 8th 2022 by Macmillan Audio & St. Martin's Griffin

Pages: 320

Audio Book Length: 7 hrs 42 min

Narrator: Sarah Naughton

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads 

My Thoughts:

Rachel loses the job she’s had for the last ten years as a hotel concierge in one night when a rich entitled jerk doesn’t get his way. All she’s worked hard for seems to have gone up in smoke and she’s faced with taking a job at a budget hotel chain. However, another option presents itself when a friend recommends Rachel to another friend starting up a boutique hotel/lodge on an island off Lake Erie, miles away from Miami Beach. Rachel would have to take a chance and leave the only home she’s ever known in Florida, the father of her child (a total deadbeat dad). I was totally on board with this gamble, especially when the owner/proprietor is revealed to be a hot reclusive guy.

Mason was a good guy, and it was apparent he had a sad past, but this was the perfect situation for Rachel and her three-year-old daughter. Of course, I knew there’d be a romance coming and I couldn’t wait! These two deserved each other and every happiness I hoped was coming. I loved that Rachel found a such a perfect life situation in an unexpected place by making a last minute, sort of impulsive choice by taking a job so far from home. I found the process of starting up the hotel/brewery fascinating! Choosing the layout, theme, and décor, sounded like a lot of fun. I could picture the cabins and brewery, with all its rustic charm and it sounded like a place I’d love to stay!

The Suite Spot was a sweet, easy-going romance. Rachel and Mason were firmly friends before there was romance and I appreciated that strong foundation. It was a low drama romance with the conflict coming from another source. The Suite Spot was book two in the Beck Sisters series, however, you don’t need to read the first book in order to enjoy this installment. It works well as a standalone since it’s focused on a different couple.

I alternately listened and read the book and I thought Sarah Naughton did a fantastic job with both the male and female voices. She also narrated Float Plan, which I thoroughly enjoyed as well. Total recommend! I listened at 1.5-1.7x normal speed.

4 Stars

About the book:

Trish Doller’s The Suite Spot is a charming romance novel about taking a chance on a new life and a new love.

Rachel Beck has hit a brick wall. She’s a single mom, still living at home and trying to keep a dying relationship alive. Aside from her daughter, the one bright light in Rachel’s life is her job as the night reservations manager at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach—until the night she is fired for something she didn’t do.

On impulse, Rachel inquires about a management position at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, Rachel packs up her daughter and makes the cross country move.

What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, moody man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel. Especially one that’s barely more than foundation and studs. It’s not the job Rachel was looking for, but Mason offers her a chance to help build a hotel—and rebuild her own life—from the ground up.