Member Reviews
This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2022 and I YELPED when I received an early copy! I LOVE Olivia Dade and especially the Spoiler Alert series. I love the plus size representation and the Hollywood vibes. Spoiler Alert and All the Feels have been top reads of mine and Ship Wrecked was no different! I loved jumping back into this world with the Gods of the Gates. My only comment was that I wished I read this closer to the other books in the series, because some aspects I remembered as I read. But overall, worth the hype that I had for this third book!
Thank you Avon Books and Harper Voyager for this e-ARC via NetGalley 💖
Olivia Dade does. not. miss! This exceeded my expectations as Maria and Peter were such minor characters in the previous books, so I didn't have much of a connection with them yet like I did with Alex going into All The Feels. But the characters really tugged at my heart strings, and Ship Wrecked may now be my favorite in the series.
Oh the tropes! I love how Dade fully embraces this part of the romance genre and makes it so much fun. Peter and Maria hook up at the beginning of the book as strangers, but Maria leaves without a word the next morning, leaving Peter bitter. To their dismay, they run into each other again at an audition for a massive TV show. They end up booking the roles, where they will be in scenes together almost exclusively and filming on a remote island for years. While there were moments where I wasn't sure how I felt about Peter, his character arc is one of my favorites I've read in so long! I very much relate to his introverted and taciturn nature, and appreciated how this was explored by the author. Maria discreetly helping him through social situations and building relationships with others particularly warmed my heart. She is a BADASS and I think we could all do with more Maria's in our lives. Dade once again has me wishing these characters were real people - they're so vivid and lovable.
This is really a 4.5 out of 5 for me. My main issues were based on personal preference. I don't love when a story jumps SO far ahead in time, especially fairly early on in the book like this one. While I think the author did a good job painting the picture on how close everyone had gotten over that time, 6 years is a lot and it took me some time to get used to that. I just have so many thoughts here, but this was overall a very sweet and fun ride!
This book was everything I hoped it would be. Olivia Dade has a gift for sparkling dialogue; I love the back-and-forth between her characters and the way they build up in-jokes and things that are special between them just as happens in real-life relationships. The interstitial sections are always amusing. And I appreciated the growth the characters experienced as they figured out what they each wanted.
I read an uncorrected proof provided free by the publisher; my opinions are my own.
I loved this romance featuring happy, unapologetic plus-sized characters. It's not a central theme, which is even better. Maria is from Sweden, which brings about a lot of language and cultural fun. Peter is from Wisconsin, which I love for my own personal connection as a reader from MN (and it's reference to Culver's!) The two characters are actors (I love a good Hollywood-themed story) and both encounter such real issues that can keep a relationship in jeopardy. Fun interlude chapters and awesome characters all around.
3.5 rounded up.
This one is kind of a hard one for me because I love the fact that both main characters are great fat representation. I think some of the issues surrounding their body diversity on a television show was very well handled. I absolutely adored Maria as a character and wish I could see her type more on TV IRL. Peter was also really interesting although at times I felt confused about his inner dialogue.
That being said I think this was the weakest of the three novels in the series. All the feels was so well plotted and written compared to this one. This book spends about six years of their life and the main and ending conflict didn’t really make sense to me. I think this book needed a little more meat to it or a different promise. Can you imagine how boring the TV they made was? Six years of just two actors on an island? I don’t think I would watch it ha.
Rep: fat FMC and MMC
Thank you Netgalley for this ark
Ugh unfortunately I could not get into this book to save my life. I was constantly confused and when I wasn’t confused I was just bored.
I really wanted to love this book however I just struggled to connect with the characters and felt that Maria and Peter didn’t really have great chemistry and they were just really emotionally immature.
Thank you the author, publisher and NetGalley for the early chance to read “Ship Wrecked.” This is the third and presumably final book in the series but, for the most part, it can be read as a stand alone. “Ship Wrecked” tells the story of Maria and Peter over the course of the six years they starred together in a fantasy TV series. They initially had a one night stand that ended awkwardly and their relationship progressed from friends to lovers over the course of the show. While the book is well written, it didn't really work for me as a reader and it was my least favorite of the series. I felt the pacing of the book was really slow and I did not feel the connection between Maria and Peter. Additionally, Maria as a character did not work for me. I felt her reactions to some events to be unbelievable and her treatment of Peter in the end was very hypocritical.
absolutely PHENOMENAL. I top romcom read this year and one I can't wait to physically own and shoot from the rooftops when its available
Oh how I adored Olivia Wade's ALL THE FEELS, a romance I must have recommended to everyone I know who loves the genre. The trajectory of Wren and Alex's enemies to lovers relationship was just delectable and both moving and hilarious. SHIP WRECKED takes place in the same "Gods of the Gates" story universe as ALL THE FEELS, meaning that SHIP WRECKED 's co-protagonists Peter and Maria play roles in the fictional hit tv series (which is clearly an affectionate nod to Game of Thrones). However, SHIP WRECKED has a very different feel than ALL THE FEELS (no pun intended, but hey okay). Instead of the core romance taking place over weeks/months, this one has a very slow burn of six years (!). It makes SHIP WRECK have less narrative urgency, though there's plenty of pining and yearning along the way—this is more of a gentle friends to lovers story with healing, though there's antagonistic sparks at the start.
Still, I loved returning to the GotG storyworld and spending time with Maria, Peter, and all the characters Dade so firmly established in the previous books in the trilogy. Therefore I'm giving SHIP WRECKED five stars, though I suspect it may be run to be a four star book for you if you haven't read the earlier books.
i couldn’t get into this book for the life of me! i was unfortunately bored throughout the whole thing. which is upsetting because this seemed exciting and interesting.
i struggled throughout this whole book. everything just felt off to me. at times i was confused on when things were happening, so i’d have to go back and check constantly. nothing really seemed to draw me in.
i truly don’t think adding these fan fic writings about them were necessary. to me, it just threw everything off. it would have been more interesting to read about them filming the scenes and acting them out but we didn’t truly get a lot of that. they acting felt so short? it’s like they were acting and then suddenly it was over and they were onto doing interviews.
i couldn’t remember any of the side characters, so i was confused everytime some new name was mentioned because their was so many.
This is my first Olivia Dade book. But it won't be my last! I am glad I read this book - I really enjoyed the body positivity in this. You don't see that very often - and especially not in romance stories. So, that was refreshing. Just a heads up, the story starts on a one night stand - which I had a hard time getting past (I'm much more a slow-burn girl). But then it turns into an enemies to lovers thing and who doesn't love that? Plus the whole thick thigh viking man? yes!!
Thanks NetGalley!
Ship Wrecked is a wonderfully body-positive, boundary encouraging story centered on the toxicity of Hollywood. Maria and Peter make it big with their breakthrough roles on a Game of Thrones-style epic fantasy series and both find their way through an industry that judges physical image harshly. Their differences are highlighted during press junket visits to their hometowns, which also helps their relationship develop and grow.
My only concern with this book was the pace - I felt a bit lost in the timeline during the read, but afterward was happy to have read a HEA that didn't take place over the course of a week. The timeline was far more realistic for a couple who need to reestablish trust to renew a connection.
What a fun read! I loved exploring the relationship between Peter and Maria throughout the years. This was my first book by the author and I will definitely check out her other novels. Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC!
Another stunning installment in this series by Olivia Dade. What I loved about Shipwrecked is that both of the main characters were plus size characters. There’s not enough fat male representation and Peter was such a fantastic character for this role. I absolutely adored his relationship with Maria. Overall, I was a little confused about the placement of the timeline in the beginning, but as their story unfolded, it was easier to see where Peter and Maria’s story fit into the ‘Gods of the Gates’ universe.
I absolutely loved this book and will be reading anything Olivia Dade writes. I had been wondering if we would see these two characters eventually and I am so glad we did as I loved them and this story!
Peter feels like the luckiest man on earth after meeting a gorgeous woman in the sauna and spending the night with her-- that is, until he waked up alone in the morning and is devastated. He knows she didn't owe him a goodbye, but her sudden disappearance hits a little too close to home after his fiancee did the exact same thing a couple years ago.
But when he shows up to the biggest audition of his life later that day, there she is. Maria. The most beautiful woman he's ever met-- and his new costar for the next few years.
Ship Wrecked is a chaotic chronicle of Maria and Peter's years filming their show. It follows a few different formats (regular prose; text messages, including the group chat with all the other stars of the show, who basically never film with Maria and Peter; and online tabloid articles). The book spans about seven years, including quite a few time skips. Overall, the form felt very chaotic but in a way that worked.
Peter and Maria are both fat, and the fact that they're cast as leads in a tv show that isn't about them being fat is great-- until their showrunners want them to lose weight if they want to stay on the show. Maria refuses, Peter feels like they can't, and ultimately, I found this plot point poignant and handled very well. Their directors support Maria and Peter and are angry on their behalf, and throughout the whole filming process, create a great buffer between Maria and Peter and the showrunners, who are definitely the villains of this story.
The tension in this book is absolutely next level-- they go from hookup to (briefly) enemies to friends to lovers, with mutual pining the entire time. The tension was incredibly well done, and I found myself incredibly frustrated in the best way. The third act break-up, which is something I'm not always a fan of, was also INCREDIBLY well done-- it felt very real and raw and absolutely broke my heart. Both sides to the argument made perfect sense, even while they both could have done a better job of thinking about the other's position and communicating their own. Where sometimes third act breakups feel like nothing more than a plot device, the one in Ship Wrecked brought to mind all the most devastating breakups and other impasses from my life: while they both messed up, neither was really, fully, in the wrong, and that's what made it my favorite part of the book, and hands-down my favorite third act breakup of all time. The make-up, similarly, involved a lot of introspection and communication, and the payoff was incredible.
Ship Wrecked is a fun, chaotic, romcom with complex characters at the forefront, great sex scenes, tons of fat positivity, and some of the best tension I've ever read.
I think for me this was my least favorite of the three but that was because Maria and Peter were so separated from the rest of the cast, and that was what I enjoyed most about the other books. Still, it's fun, it's easy, it's got fat people falling in love and fandom, like, whatever, I'm going to like it.
I really don’t think Olivia Dade’s writing is for me. Not a huge fan of how plus size people are represented and I hopped she learned from the feedback on Spoiler Alert. Nonetheless, interesting storyline!
4.5 stars
I enjoyed the first two books in this series but I think this one was my favorite! It was a sweet and funny story and I loved the plus-sized representation. The timeline and pacing was a bit confusing in the beginning and the conflict in the end seemed a bit forced but otherwise I really loved this book.
Wow! Shipwrecked is an incredible
Romance and also one of the spiciest non-erotica books I’ve ever read. I mean there’s hot and then there’s SPICY! It did feel little long at points, but overall and really delightful read. Many thanks to the author and publisher for making it available for review.