I honestly don’t know how Sarah Grunder Ruiz does it. How does she write so wonderfully? She may say she’s a writer but really, she’s some kind of magical being.

I don’t think any other writer could have made me weep over and think that wacky unicorn earrings are the romantic gesture to rule all romantic gestures.

She’ll also leave a mark on you whenever you read a chapter 4 ever again. Every book you read, every time you see “chapter 4” you WILL imagine Ruiz hitting you over the head with a cartoon mallet and cackling manically. That really was quite something, and don’t worry, I won’t ruin the surprise.

Just like with her debut novel, Ruiz’s characters and writing style capture you from the first page and stick to you like glue until long after you’ve reached the end.

Ruiz will have me as a fan for life. She’s a master at her craft and I can’t wait to read every book she dreams up in the future.

I couldn't wait for Ollie and Nina's story after meeting them in Love, Lists, & Fancy Ships. It's clear these two have a history, but I had no idea how deep it ran. Though the book can be read as a standalone, I think it would be most enjoyed if read in order since characters from the previous book appear heavily (and you get a great update on them).

Things to look forward to:
- Real and relatable characters. Ollie and Nina have baggage. They aren't perfect and they make mistakes. Sometimes you want to throttle them and other times give them a huge hug. I found myself very frustrated with Nina at different times in the book, but I appreciated that she (and Ollie) ultimately made changes for themselves and their own well being. They're complicated and messy people, but that only made their journey more satisfying.
- The writing. Sarah Grunder Ruiz is truly talented. I love her sense of humor and voice. She put these characters through the ringer, but she healed them too. I also did not see that twist coming at all! Well played! *clapping*
- Amazing friendships and secondary characters. I love Jo and Nina together, but it was Captain Xav who stole the show every time he was on the page. He was part boss, part friend, and part father figure. I'm very curious about his "one that got away' story and I wish we could get a happy ending for him too.
- Updates on Jo and Alex. I loved seeing these two again and getting more glimpses of their happily ever after. The epilogue especially brought everything full circle and had me smiling so big.
- I both read the ebook and listened to the audiobook and Karissa Vacker was excellent. I really enjoyed her narration, especially all of Ollie's "fecking" LOL

Audiobook Review
Overall 4.5 stars
Performance 5 stars
Story 4 stars

Sometimes the timeline was a bit hard to follow (the story is told through past and present chapters) and I had to stop at every chapter to make sure I had everything straight. I also wish that there would have been more happy moments together between Ollie and Nina after everything that they went through, but like I said, that epilogue was pretty fantastic. Sad to say goodbye to these characters!

CW: strained family relationships, domestic violence/child abuse (past), gambling addiction (parent), identity theft and loss of credit (past), sexual harassment (work related, on page)

*I read and listened to an advance review copy of this book*

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy and to PRH Audio for the complimentary audiobook. These opinions are my own.

Sarah Grunder Ruiz's sophomore novel is so good; the writing is even better than the first. Nina Lejeune is the Chief Stewardess on the Serendipity, a super yacht. She met Ollie Dunne there nine years ago when he worked as the chef. And now he wants her to commit to him.

It was clear in Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships that Nina and Ollie had some sort of past. And wow is it a good one. I adore Nina so much. She has such an amazing heart. And Ollie is that awesome man who knows what he wants and is all in for Nina.

The story is told in dual timelines from when they first met and the present. But they have a really unique perspective, almost like Nina has learned from her past and the voice telling us of the past is the current version of Nina. This is my favorite dual timeline second chance that I have ever read. It was so well done.

Karissa Vacker is so good at narrating. I switched back and forth between the audiobook and ebook. Her narration added so much, especially with Ollie's Irish accent.

I can't gush about it enough, and I refuse to give away any spoilers. So I just recommend reading it. It's a perfect romance.

LUCK & LAST RESORTS is a turbulent and intimate romance between two complicated, passionate soul mates. Nina LeJeune is a gorgeous former gymnast, whose career ended with a knee injury. Also, her trust was shattered by someone close. Therefore, relationships aren't her specialty. However, she meets a dashing, dazzling chef, Ollie Dunne, on a charter yacht, Serendipity, in her new job as a stewardess. Ollie is originally from Ireland and has many emotional scars. He left home determined to make a new life in the United States. Nina and Ollie have shared history, with flames of passion sizzling under the surface. Only trust issues keep them apart.

There's a chance at love on the high seas between Ollie and Nina. If the wind is just right, they might find tranquility. Will they sail away to paradise or are their hearts to scarred too everlasting love?

I laughed, cried and cheered on Nina and Ollie's knotty reunion, in Ms. Ruiz's new book, LUCK & LAST RESORTS, on board a huge yacht. Ollie and Nina are two sarcastic, exhausted souls who really like each other, despite to the contrary. Their jobs aboard the yacht keep them very busy. However, Ollie wants answers. Does Nina love him enough to commit? The question is, will she or won't she? Their shared past puts them in close quarters, literally and figuratively. This is a unique romance of friends with benefits. Ms. Ruiz pulls out all the stops in this high seas adventure. There is laughter, raucous scenes, secrets, and more, as the guests aboard the ship, ship mates and the captain combine to throw Nina and Ollie together forever. Will they succeed? LUCK & LAST RESORTS is a hunk of burning love on fire!

LUCK AND LAST RESORTS is a spark of pure joy. I literally can't stop grinning. It's just such a gift to the world!

Can I tell you a secret? I'm a sucker for a messy love story where two perfectly imperfect, utterly broken characters find each other. LUCK AND LAST RESORTS is the *chef's kiss* perfect blend of heartfelt romance, disaster, comedy, and warmth, made even better because the woman (a force of nature!) has her guard up and the man (a charming Irish chef!) wears his heart on his sleeve.

I can't imagine a more perfect pairing than Ninaver (or is it Ollina?) And yes, I'm sitting down right now - with a huge plate of pizza rolls - to read it again.

A very heartwarming romance. What I found refreshing about this novel is you don't have to second guess the characters' feelings toward each other. You know they love one another. You know they want to be with each other. So it doesn't quite have the usual will-they-or-won't-they dance. It's more about whether the FMC can set aside her fears of loved ones letting her down to finally fully commit to the person she loves. There's depth and swoony moments. Perfect for fans of Beach Read and The Layover.

I love love LOVED it! This was my first Sarah Grunder Ruiz book, but as you know... The order doesn't matter to me! But this book is a *vibe* for sure. Sarah Grunder Ruiz turns all of my favorite tropes on their head - from forced proximity to friends to lovers, there's a unique take on so many. Not to mention the sexiest Irishman alive, a chef who makes delectable homemade pizza rolls and is the grumpiest grump to ever grump. He can call me kitten any day.

But it's more than just a love story and that's what I love most. Nina has issues, from the trauma of her knee injury to the distrust stemming from a family betrayal, and we get to watch her journey towards change. It was so realistic, speaking as someone who has MANY therapy receipts floating around, and I loved that it wasn't easy for her.

I'm going to turn on Glass Animals and wait for Last Call at the Local now thank youuuuuu.

*Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

This was a really enjoyable story. I liked getting to know Nina and Ollie better. I liked how the beginning of the book switched between present and past to show the way their relationship progressed over the years.

I felt frustrated along side Ollie with his desire to want more from Nina. But I also could understand her fear of change. I am glad that she finally took steps to make changes not just for their relationship but for herself.

“Everything is about to change. In what way, I’m not fully sure. But it doesn’t feel like a storm out there on the horizon.
It feels like a sunrise.”
— 𝙇𝙪𝙘𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙇𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙨, Sarah Grunder Ruiz

Y’all. Y’ALL.

I thought I loved Love Lists and Fancy Ships. But this book?! Absolutely no sophomore slump here for SGR.

This book was witty and heartfelt and frustrating and angsty. It made me feel ALL the things, and I am hopelessly in love in Nina and Ollie.

I think I’ve seen Sarah mention that Nina is her least-likable MC, and I’m not sure what it says about me that I relate to her in more ways than I care to admit. Afraid of commitment? Terrified of relying on other people? Not a risk taker because we like feeling safe? CHECK CHECK CHECK.

And ugh don’t even get me started on Oliver Dunne. That Irish hunk of sexiness just catapulted to the top five of my list of book boyfriends. He’s sweet and damaged and so painfully in love with Nina it makes my heart hurt.

These two together honestly shouldn’t work. But they do? Their weirdness compliments each other, and it’s so obvious from the very first moment they meet how absolutely gone they are for each other. It just…takes them a while to get there.

This beauty is our August 9th and you absolutely need it if you love enemies to friends to FWB to [redacted] to lovers to friends to lovers to friends (wash, rinse, repeat for ten years) to lovers.

Grunder Ruiz's companion book to Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships is much more a straightforward romance, but still filled with her fabulous writing and the fun yacht setting. I love a hero who falls first and falls hard, and Ollie does not disappoint. How Nina resists for so long (I mean - the accent, he can cook!) I don't know. I loved Nina, who's had a rough time of things, but watching her deny and ignore her feelings was super frustrating - but if it wasn't, her journey and the romance wouldn't be so satisfying. The way Nina has to earn her HEA is what makes this book, and we're just lucky we get to go along for the ride!

Luck and Last Resorts was an absolute joy to read, and my heart is full and happy. I am so glad to be a part of the “chapter 4” club. I screamed when I got to the big reveal!
Jo and Alex’s story was good, but Nina and Ollie’s story is FANTASTIC! I loved how this book was written via flashbacks. Who knew the backstories of this relationship was so intense and angst filled? Enemies-friends-lovers-something more, this one has it all.
I wanted to jump into the book and shake some sense into Nina, but she needed time to grow and be the person she needed to be for Ollie. It was nice seeing the MC finally come to the realization she needed professional help to get through her issues.
I was hoping for a certain ending and was slightly sad it did not end that way…. but thank goodness for epilogues.
I laughed, I cried, I sat and stared at the wall for a few minutes waiting for my vision to clear, but it was all worth it in the end.

Thank you to Net Galley and Berkley Publishing for my eArc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I absolutely adored Nina and Ollie in @sarahgrunderruiz debut 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴 so I was bursting with excitement to read their story in the companion novel, 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐊 & 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐒. (PUB 08.09) Thanks to @berkleyromance and @netgalley for early access. 

I loved this book. A second chance romance between enemies/coworkers-to-more who acknowledge their unrelenting attraction yet struggle to overcome individual pasts that are filled with trauma and self-doubt. The structure, writing, and past/present timeline felt fresh and engaging in a way I wasn't expecting.  The writing is emotional, the dialogue layered and the character development is dynamic. I wish I could read it again for the first time. Instead I'll wait (impatiently) for the next book to release. 

Oh- it also has *chef's kiss* banter and chemistry. (2 steam scale) I'd describe this as romance with heft similar to Emily Henry, Beth O'Leary and Chloe Liese.
 
You don't need to read 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴 to enjoy this upcoming release, but you should read it anyway. And in the meantime, add 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐊 & 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐒 to your library holds or preorders.

After hearing such fabulous things about Love, Lists, & Fancy Ships, the first book in this series, I jumped at the chance to read Luck & Last Resorts. It’s the first book I’ve read by the author, and I’m glad to say I enjoyed it! It has several tropes I love, and the second-chance, friends-to-lovers romance is great.

Nina and Ollie have a unique relationship, and their second-chance romance is filled with angst, chemistry, and complicated feelings. Nina especially has to face her feelings and stop self-sabotaging before she can really embrace her future. She has spent most of her adult life working as a yacht stewardess and avoiding the problems that she initially ran from. She is not great with change and is still struggling with trust issues because of betrayals in the past. Her actions are frustrating at times, but her fears and reactions to certain situations are very realistic.

And I love Ollie! He is so patient and understanding, and his feelings for Nina run deep. Ollie learns a lot about himself over the course of the story, and I love how he begins to stand up for himself and his wants too. He is a layered character with an interesting back story, much like Nina. Tired of playing games with Nina, he gives her an ultimatum, and it’s interesting to see how they both deal with the realization that their ten year on again off again relationship might come to an end. I enjoyed their banter and their decade-long love story. Flashbacks of Ollie and Nina’s relationship reveal so much about them, from their first contentious meeting to their eventual friendship and then romance, their feelings for each other run deep.

I enjoyed this book, and though it is the second in the series, it can easily be read as a standalone. In fact, I hadn’t read the first book before I read this one, and I had no problem following the story or the characters. For those of you that have read the first book in the series, you’ll be happy to know that many of the characters have secondary roles in this book.

I think readers who enjoy contemporary romances with great characters, a summer setting, and a lovely second-chance romance will enjoy this story, and I’m thankful to Berkley Books for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

Luck & Last Resorts is for sure one of my top reads of this year so far! Picking up where Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships left off, this follows headstrong and quirky Nina, chief stewardess on the yacht the Serendipity, and her ex-coworker and ex-lover Ollie as he gives her an ultimatum: Nina admits she’s in love with him and they’ll be together or he goes back to Ireland. First, the mental health rep in this! Nina has an outstanding journey to tackling her past trauma and trust issues and I loved her best friend Jo’s help in encouraging her towards therapy. Plus Ollie also suffers from anxiety. It’s just all so well handled and I just love seeing that represented in romance novels! And since this is a stand-alone connected to the other book, I loved seeing Alex and Jo again! But Nina and Ollie are just so good together! Their chemistry and friendship sizzle. The story is done in dual timelines, with Nina’s first charter as she meets Ollie and is starting to rebuild her life. She is so determined and so uniquely herself but also scared to lean on anyone and just watching her find a home and life for herself is so satisfying! And Ollie too is just such a sweetheart! Plus he’s Irish! I mean he’s just such a great romantic hero. The writing is beautiful, the yacht setting is so unique, and the romance is so genuine and loving. It’s wonderful just from start to finish!

This is one of my most anticipated books this year after absolutely adoring Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships. I’m happy to say it was everything I hoped for and more. I loved seeing more of Nina and Ollie’s relationship after getting a brief peak in the previous book. I loved the alternating timelines of their last mixed with their present. My heart just broke for Nina after everything she went through and how hard it was for her to move forward. I found myself edging at the end because I didn’t want it to be over. I loved every minute of it! If possible I’d give it all the stars!! Don’t be surprised if I reread when the audiobook is released next month.

I was super intrigued by Nina and Ollie in Ruiz's first book and was happy to see them get their own storyline. There were definitely some shared themes between this book and the first, including working through trauma, but this really felt like a fresh story with some familiar characters. Nina was relatable and sometimes frustrating (which is also relatable) and I was happy to see her work through things as the story went on. She's stuck, and Ollie calls her out on it, but it's only after she is willing to admit it herself that she's able to make changes. The yacht itself and the crew felt slightly less prominent in this than in Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships, though yachting remains critical to the story as its where Nina and Ollie met and have spent a lot of their complicated 10 year relationship. Also, big props for the shout outs to therapy as well as the acknowledgement that therapy is hard and sometimes awkward but often life-changing. A little more romance-centric than the first book, but still really a character-driven novel about a woman finding her way to who she wants to be.

Thank you @berkleyromance @netgalley for Luck & Last Resorts, a second chance romance between Nina and Ollie. I loved the first book and was excited to read the love story.

I was very much annoyed with Nina in the beginning with her attitude and was glad it improved as the story went on. Ollie was so lovable from the first page. They were both complicated people with issues with family and it took them a long time to work through it.

A lovely follow-up to Love, Lists & Fancy Ships! More of a direct romance than its predecessor, Nina and Ollie were clearly meant to be from the beginning, but Nina just couldn't let go of her hang-ups and fears (and stubbornness) to let it happen. There were times I wanted to strangle her, to be honest, but Ollie...Ollie was perfect. It was fun to revisit Jo and Alex and even the kids from the first book in the final chapters. Lots of witty banter and heartfelt expressions of love. As pretty as the cover holding the pages together, I'm already excited for book 3.

Luck and Lat Resorts by S. G. Ruiz, published by Berkeley, Random House, is the second book in the Love, Lists & Fancy Ships Series.
Nina loves her single life, loves being a stewardess at a super yacht.
Ollie, a chef and ex-co-worker of Nina hires at the yacht and now the fun begins.
A witty and fun read that gives all the feels.
A marriage of convenience, a second chance contemporary romance. The perfect summer baech read for fans of Below Deck just the right read.

Luck and Last Resorts is what I would classify as a romantic drama, falling in lines with the likes of Emily Henry and Beth O’Leary books. Those stories that feature a strong romantic component, but place a particular emphasis on the lead characters growth, development, and journey. The type of story that is realistic and thought provoking – it makes you question things as you read and can often be infuriating at times – as people and their actions or seeming self-sabotage can be.

In this case, our main character is Nina Lejeune – early thirties, has spent the better part of the last decade working as a yacht stewardess, currently the chief stewardess of the Serendipity and grappling with her life as she knows it. Nina has some trust and control issues based on her past – she’s been doing the same routine for almost 10 years with little change. Suddenly, she’s faced with some changes she didn’t bargain for – her best friend and longtime coworker, has left the yacht world behind and is getting married. Nina’s other best friend, and long time on again, off again love interest, Ollie, has also come back into her life again and is forcing her to make a final call on their relationship.

I found the characters of this book interesting and complex. I loved Ollie – he was charming, patient, relatable and flawed in great ways. I appreciated learning more of his back story and his personal struggles and was rooting for him the whole way through. Nina was really intriguing as well – I found her equal parts sympathetic, thought provoking, fun, and infuriating at times. She got in her own way a lot – which is frustrating but also so realistic.

I enjoyed the glimpses into the past so we got a very full picture of where Nina was coming from and of Nina and Ollie’s relationship. I also appreciated the clear cut views into the past (it drives me nuts when it isn’t clearly labeled and I have to guess at a flashback). As I noted, it was a thought provoking read and it kept me flipping the pages to the very end. I enjoyed it a lot and was ultimately satisfied with the outcome, and unsurprised by certain occurrences but happy to see it all resolve in a authentic way. I definitely look forward to more from this author and would recommend for fans of People We Meet On Vacation, Shipped, The Layover, and The No Show.

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an early copy. All thoughts and opinions offered are my own.