I loved Float Plan and have been curious about Keane's brother, Eamon, so I was very excited to see that we would be getting his story. Overall, I enjoyed Off the Map, but unfortunately I didn't love it. The story started off very strong and the set up of Carla and Eamon meeting was fantastic. I think my main issue was the instalove between Eamon and Carla and the pacing of the story. They both had so much emotional baggage that they needed to deal with, but it never felt like it was truly addressed or resolved. I know things began as a fling, but I wanted that intense chemistry to transition to true connection. Carla's relationship with Biggie was such a significant plot point, but the ending felt very rushed and sadly convenient. Like it was the obstacle that had to be removed/dealt with before Carla could reach her HEA. I didn't feel like either Carla or Eamon grew even though they expressed a desire to change the trajectory of their lives.

Possible spoiler:

******


Eamon basically continued to do what makes others happy (and put his dreams on hold) and Carla continued her nomadic lifestyle.


*****
Seeing Keane and Anna again (what a great update on their lives) and also spending time with the Sullivan family was definitely a highlight. Learning about overlanding was interesting too, though maybe a few too many details at times. Off the Map in many ways felt like Float Plan 2.0, but sadly it just didn't fully work for me.

2.5-3 stars

CW: parental abandonment (past), dementia, death of loved one, grief, complicated relationship with family and resentment towards them, car accident (non life threatening)

*I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book*

Thanks to Netgalley & St. Martins Griffin for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. I requested this book mainly based on her 2022 Suite Spot that I adored based on it setting, Kelly's Island. I can not put my finger on why but I adored this book & it's Irish setting. There was just something between Clara and Eamon that I adored from their firs kiss in the Dublin pub. Even though I knew how the story would end, Ms. Doller threw in some unexpected twists to get me there. I wish we met Biggie than mainly in just Clara's flashbacks and I will admit that I thought her mom would show up at some point in the story but maybe she will appear in the sequel. I was also unaware that this book is sequel to Float Plan but I don't think it hampered my enjoyment. I highly recommend you run to your local bookstore to pick up this latest from Ms. Doller.

I loved this book. It had that amazing 'unputdownable' quality, and I ended up reading it all in 2 sittings. Funny and romantic, but also bittersweet. This was my first experience reading a Trish Doller book, and it made me search out her other lovely novels. Highly recommend,

I’m not lying when I say I devoured this book. I have no memory of requesting it from Netgalley and I went in completely blind to the story line. If you’re looking for a book to get completely lost in, this is it! I loved the characters and felt all the feelings.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for this e-arc! Now I need to read the other 2 books in this series!

I really loved this book, I liked the main characters right away, and flew through reading this one. The pacing of this book was perfect for my reading style. Trish Doller is quickly becoming one of my must read authors, her characters are multi-dimensional and real without feeling forced. I liked that the romantic connection started right away in this book, there was no back and forth, "will they, won't they?". I hope to hear about this specific romantic couple in future novels by this author. I will definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a romance with some depth and humour with just the right amount of spice.

First - A road trip through Ireland?! How incredible. An actual dream! So of course, my imagination was going wild and picturing the amazing scenery while reading this. The p[ot was rather quick but the book was ADORABLE with some secret spicy scenes. I am definitely a fan of insta-love so this book was right up my alley lol - I loved this so much, Trish Doller never seems to disappoint! Definitely recommend this one.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC!

I thoroughly enjoyed book 2 and was looking forward to reading this book! I loved all the scenes that described Ireland, and loved getting to know both characters. It moved rather quickly which could be your jam or also not your jam (insta-love). I'd say if you don't mind insta love, 4 stars. If you do, 3 stars. The side plots and travel really make the book something special, and I liked it!

I was super excited to start this one, and I mean why wouldn't I be? A road trip through Ireland is such an adorable setting. I actually road tripped through Ireland with my family back in college and I had the time of my life. It was super fun to be able to reminisce on my time there while reading this book. While I did enjoy the book overall, I do feel like the plot moved a little quickly. It would have been nice to have a little more time with the story. I'm also not a fan of insta-love, but that's just me. Overall, I would definitely recommend!

This book was so good I loved it and how you got to experience Ireland a little bit and to watch 2 people fall for each other and the spicy scenes were hot

Fling-to-forever romance with an Irish, “cinnamon roll” hero

Carla Black is 33 years old, and she has only truly loved one man her whole life—her 73-year-old father, Douglas (“Biggie”) Black, a Vietnam vet and retired high school history teacher, who has lived 53 years of his life in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. When Carla was only five years old, her mother, who was 17 years younger than her husband, Biggie, vanished from their lives, never to be seen or heard from again. Even before that traumatic event, Biggie was a wonderful parent. But after he became a single father, he upped his game enormously. He was no longer simply her father, he became her best friend. As a teacher, his summers were free and, until Carla was 25 years old, every year they traveled together all summer long. During the two decades of their travels, they visited 392 National Parks in the USA. At some point during those years, Biggie remarried, but his second wife never got between this traveling twosome.

This happy routine ground to a sudden halt on the tragic day, eight years ago, when 65-year-old Biggie was diagnosed with early onset dementia, and he banished Carla from his presence. He did not want her hanging around, watching him mentally deteriorate, and he ordered her to forget him before he could forget her. He did not reject his wife this way, but neither she nor Carla could talk him out of his hard line toward his beloved daughter’s seeing him in person, even though Carla continued to reside right there in Fort Lauderdale. However, over time, Biggie did eventually soften his stubborn decision enough to accept occasional phone calls from Carla, and even, sometimes, a video chat.

For the past eight years, as a way to remain close to her father in spirit, sad and lonely Carla has continued the tradition Biggie established with her of traveling extensively in the summers. The only difference being that, rather than only traveling in the continental USA, she has also traveled abroad. She works as a bartender at a “tits-and-ass” bar in Fort Lauderdale nine months of the year to support herself and pay for her summer adventures.

Carla has made only one close relationship in the past eight years, with 25-year-old Anna Beck (the heroine of Float Plan, Book 1 in this series). As far as Carla and Anna are concerned, they mutually accepted each other as BFFs from the moment they met, during their very first shift together at the T&A bar. Carla believes this is because they have some crucial similarities in their backgrounds and personalities: They were both raised by lower-middle-class, single parents, both of them view bartending as a deliberate career choice rather than a transient holding pattern, and both of them are alienated loners who accept, without expecting anything more, whatever the other chooses to give emotionally from a closed-off heart. A while back, Anna went off traveling, too, on a sailboat that she purchased with her fiancé, before he committed suicide. Unable to manage on her own what she had hoped would be a voyage of healing and closure, Anna hired Keane Sullivan, an Irishman who is a professional sailor. In the process of sailing the world together, the two of them fell in love, and Anna has asked Carla to be her maid of honor, for her wedding to Keane in his home town, Dublin, Ireland. Carla is very happy for her beloved friend, and she has not a moment’s hesitation about interrupting her summer travels and flying to Ireland immediately, last minute, and at full-fare.

Anna has asked Keane’s brother, 30-something Eamon Sullivan, who is Keane’s best man, to meet Carla at the airport. When Eamon asks Carla to meet him at a particular Dublin pub instead, Carla doesn’t mind at all what almost anyone else would consider rather rude neglect. Long ago, Biggie instilled in her his personal opinion that being met by strangers at the airport is to be avoided if at all possible. Within seconds of Carla and Eamon’s meeting at the pub, they are both intensely attracted, physically and emotionally, and within mere hours, at Carla’s instigation, they hop into bed at Eamon’s apartment. In spite of both of them laughing at the cliché of the maid of honor getting it on with the best man at a wedding, their connection on all levels is so explosive, neither can pass up the opportunity to have some short-term thrills, because nothing is standing in their way. Even before her father’s diagnosis and heart-breaking rejection, Carla had not been involved in any serious romantic relationships, and during the past eight years, she has had no interest in any involvement with men other than for temporary flings, which is exactly what she is offering Eamon. Though his long-time girlfriend dumped him only six months before, Eamon has no remaining feelings for her, and he assures Carla that he is completely free to indulge a passing fancy with her.

The romance-novel archetype for Carla’s character is the wounded, “Alpha” protagonist, who has no interest in commitment because of their abandonment issues. They have no ethical qualms about the emotional consequences to any of a long string of meaningless sexual conquests, for two reasons: (1) They are always upfront with each of their lovers that bedding them will mean absolutely nothing and, (2) the partners they pick are presumed to be of like mind and “know the score.” This type of protagonist has been a frequent choice of authors for the past 40 years in contemporary romance novels, but 99% of the time, this character is the male protagonist. Fans of that type of hero may find it an interesting twist that TD has switched genders and made the tough, tattooed, hard-drinking, promiscuous protagonist the heroine of this “fling to forever” novel, rather than the hero.

Carla has been paired with Eamon, who is a classic “Beta” male, of a type recently dubbed in the romance genre as a “cinnamon roll” hero. This is defined as a sweet, nurturing, protective caregiver who is strongly invested in the heroine’s safety, comfort and pleasure. When sacrifices need to be made for the relationship to advance to a committed HEA, it is Mr. Cinnamon Roll who makes those sacrifices, not the “I did it my way” heroine. This, too, is a 180-degree reversal of traditional gender rolls, in which it is the woman who makes all the sacrifices to enable an HEA, by insuring that there is not a single bump in the road of the man’s chosen lifestyle and career trajectory. Given that this is 2022, and not 1952, True Love in a modern romance novel requires mutual sacrifice—or at least both partners’ obtaining a significant amount of fulfillment of their dreams during the HEA. No doubt for that reason, TD has constructed their HEA in a manner that allows both Carla and Eamon’s hopes and dreams to dovetail so nicely, neither feels they are sacrificing anything that matters to them in order to be together.

Another non-conventional twist in this novel—which I personally really appreciated—is that we are not offered the cliché HEA of 99.999% of hetero romance novels, whether contemporary or historical, and which is totally in keeping with the entire focus of this novel: There is no indication that Carla and Eamon are going to ever put down roots anywhere and produce a minimum of two kids and acquire a big, fluffy dog. Instead, they live out of suitcases, camp outside wherever they go, and get a cat! Good for them!

Given the fact that there are endless romance novels published every year, including both indie and mainstream, all romance fans these days, especially jaded readers such as myself, have the privilege of being “niche readers.” This means that we can demand, first of all, that the premise of a novel be one we enjoy and, secondly, that the author be a talented writer. In that regard, if you are a romance fan, and any of the above tropes of this novel are ones that you prefer, you will probably like this novel, because TD is definitely a highly skilled writer.

I rate this novel as follows:

Heroine: 3.5 stars
Hero: 4 stars
Subcharacters: 3 stars
Romance Plot: 3.5 stars
Daddy’s Dementia Plot: 3 stars
Travelogue Plot: 3.5 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Overall: 3.5 rounded to 4 stars

Off the Map is a great cutesy love story that made me love all the characters and the adventures they experience. Great story, highly recommend!

Thank you Netgalley and publisher.

All thoughts and opinions are my own and are not influenced by anyone else

This was good and I really liked the characters. You know it's a good sign whe you don't want the book to end and I didn't want it too. I thought the plot was good. I enjoyed it.
I just reviewed Off the Map by Trish Doller. #NetGalley
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I loved Trish Doller’s other books in this series! This one was fun, but I didn’t love it as much as her previous novels. I would still recommend it for a summer read.

Let me start out by saying that I have really enjoyed the two previous books that Trish Doller has written... however, this was not the case with this one... Be prepared for spoilers (there are some positives too).

I find it difficult to remain interested in a the progression of a couples relationship once they have already hooked up - its even more difficult to root for them, when that happens in Chapter One, maybe Chapter Two. Add to that the main female character is fairly self absorbed, honestly, I found her hard to like. She's in the country for her besties wedding, but would rather gallivant around the country with the grooms brother instead of going to support her friend. Insisting that her friend won't mind because she's not a high maintenance bride - or something like that!

The main male character - him I actually liked - inspite of his taste in women! LOL. But his constant references to his ex and constantly putting her down... just was too much.

I felt like we were told they had chemistry rather than shown and I couldn't feel it jumping off the page at me, if that makes sense. The dementia/Alzheimer's that her dad had - I didn't think was well written. It seemed to be very random, and didn't make a lot of sense to how that disease progresses (which I realize you can make allowances for in fiction - but it just didnt make sense).

I will say that I really liked the ending. I wish the whole book had been written like that!

thanks netgalley for letting read this book i enjoyed the book a lot it was very fun getting to know the characters and the twist and turns they took on their adventures to a wedding and how fun it was to get to see Ireland through a book

The Beck Sisters series is one of my most recommended series of the last year or so. Float Plan was a 5-star read for me. I went into The Suite Spot not wanting to compare them and to let each book stand alone, so I was delighted to find that I loved The Suite Spot just as much.

After two amazing books in a row, it was difficult to let book 3 stand alone to rate it fairly, especially because now I’m so invested in the characters of this series. Though I think this was a lovely book that talks about some difficult things that aren’t discussed enough in book, it was my least favorite of the three books.

The thing I found to be most difficult was how quickly it jumped into the story. I felt like I needed a bit more build up to be rooting for the characters to succeed before they jumped into a romance.

I know this is partial just a difficulty with the plot— in order for the events to take place way they do, things had to move quickly! I think part of what made the other books so strong though was that I felt really invested in the main characters succeeding, and it took me awhile to feel that way about Carla and Eamon.

All that to say, it was still nice to read another Beck Sisters novel and I will gladly read any more that the author wants to write. While this wasn’t my favorite of the series, I still think it was a beautifully written story about the importance of living your truth, even when it’s difficult.

This book was a relatively light hearted fluffy book. It had me daydreaming of visiting Ireland again and how beautiful lol the scenery was there when I lived there. I’m glad that Carla finally caught on and realized what was truly important and grew as a character. I enjoyed the book though it was easy to see what was coming towards the end of the book. A little more risqué than I read but it was manageable.

Off the Map is a really fun read! A romance set in Ireland?! It doesn’t get much better than that. I definitely expected romance and spice, but it starts pretty early in the book and I wasn’t quite expecting everything to start up right away. And as unexpected as that was, it was kind of nice that the story wasn’t just dragging along. This is a must read if you like romance!

I am a huge fan of Trish Doller's first two books, so I was interested to see where she would go without using a sister as her main character. Carla Black is on her way to her best friend Anna's (Float Plan MC) wedding to meet up with the groom's best man and brother Eamon. The chemistry between the two is instantaneous, and they end up taking a detour to the wedding in order for Eamon to realize some of his life goals of traveling. Carla has been traveling all of her life due to her dad Biggie's urges. As we knew would happen, the two fall for each other but have to figure out if there is a future between them.

I loved reading about Carla's relationship with her dad. While it was obviously sad to read about his debilitating battle with dementia, the times that the two shared and established genuine connections were beautifully written. Eamon is also well-written, and it was hard not to fall for him while I was reading.

The ultimate ending, while rushed, was overall a chef's kiss. I wanted to know more about Carla's and Eamon's future, but I did get all the warm fuzzies when reading it.

I highly recommend this book! :)

Trish Doller has fully cemented her position as one of my favorite authors. Her books add so much character depth to the romance. I loved the travel/adventure elements of this book, and really happy that Keane and Anna are back! I hope the series continues because I just love these connections and unique stories so much!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book!