A review by gretchenplz
More Than Shipmates by Philippa Young

lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I'm sorry, but it is absolutely critical that authors have two things when approaching a book:

  1. A plan, and 
  2. The knowledge to know when to stop writing.

And this author had neither. There's a point where, as a reader, you go from "This book has no plot, but I'm having fun," to "Did the author have any idea what they wanted to write about or how the story should go at all?". 

The plot (and I use that term loosely) was all over the place, the characters were intolerable (sorry, but you cannot convince me that a 21-year-old has "trauma she needs to grow from" that consists of a romantic breakup, a friendship breakup, a bad job, and a few rejection letters), and mostly I was just confused as to why there was even a "love triangle" to begin with (like, I'm so confused). Also, does anyone actually work on this boat? This is NOT how cruises work.

This book needs therapy and a chastity belt. 

 No romcom should be 500 pages. 

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