I received an ARC copy of the audiobook from netgalley and this review is my own opinion. This book wasn't for me, I will say I can imagine people who are into tv shows such as sex and the city may enjoy this book. I found the main character to be insufferable. For someone of her age she was very whiney. Also the mention of the pandemic and her previous 3 marriages was excessive. The only character that brought light to this book was Kendall. So many stereotypes in this book and no real depth to any of the characters.

This was a fun read and l thoroughly enjoyed the power of female empowerment and support the characters provided to each other. The holiday vibes were nice and the plot was realistic.

this just wasn't for me. I couldn't connect with the characters and the story. I just couldn't care for the audiobook.

So light and easy to listen.

It was a great surprise in many ways but mostly I wasn't expecting to read a novel where the couple is already together and the whole story brings so much more to the reader than you could imagine at first glance. It was really easy to understand what was going on and I was very quickly falling for Katie strenght and thoughts.

Really short but perfect for a easy going moment.

Audio Review ✨️

☆Katie☆

Katie moved to Virginia to start a new life. Things are on the up and up for her. She has a new relationship with a scientist, her daughters making some holiday magic happen in the kitchen, and she's with her besties. She ends up being captain of the town's Christmas boat. Things are going great until some misup happens in her new fling and Santa falls overboard🤣🤣

This short story was much more enjoyable than I expected it to be. The writing was easy to get into and overall really enjoyable. It is based during the time of the pandemic, but the author included it nicely! As far as the narration goes, the main narrator did a great job! All the other voices for the characters really made it way more enjoyable!

A huge thank you to Netgalley & Publisher Make Waves Press for the ALC! Review will be shared on Goodreads, Amazon, Netgalley, and Instagram.

{ 🎧 𝕊𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕒 𝕆𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕓𝕠𝕒𝕣𝕕 }
by Carolyn McBride
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Narrator(s): Maria Marquis
Length: 3h 55m
Source: ALC - NetGalley, Make Waves Press
Release Date: September 2024

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Katie Young is mid-life, in a new town along the Potomac River, and love is on the horizon with local scientist, Deke. Both are in their 50s and ready to just live life on their own terms so when things start going wonky before Christmas, Katie has to find a way to balance it all.

I did NOT like Katie. At all. For 17 years Deke has gone on a sabbatical for his job. 17 YEARS. When he tells Katie about it, she gets mad that he didn’t cancel it! Like, HOW SELFISH can you be? Not only that, he offers for her to come with him. BUT SHE SAID SHE COULDN’T because her adult daughter was staying with her until January. But she has the right to be mad at him? He even says she’s not meeting him halfway and she acts like a child.

Ugggghhhhhhhh

This felt like random plot points smushed together. Katie sucked. Deke was awesome but barely had page time. Katie became best friends with a woman over night. Honestly, I saw a lot of my mom in Katie. That boomer mentality honestly ticked me off in this story. Clearly I can’t read stories with older characters because this didn’t work for me. This was TOTALLY a “me” thing. The ending was cute, and I feel like there was 🤏🏻 redemption for Katie, so .5 was added.

NARRATION:
The 3 stars is mainly for the audio. Maria Marquis has a wonderful narrating voice. She honestly saved this one. I probably would’ve DNF’d it if it wasn’t so short or in audio form.

{I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook. All reviews are my own.}
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Empty-nester Katie enjoys small-town life, a budding romance, and family time. But when holiday chaos strikes, she must save the town festival and her chance at love with the help of her friends and a little holiday magic.

If you like holiday women’s fiction, you might enjoy this book. The plot centers on the women in Katie’s friend group. Katie and Deke are an established couple in this book. The tone is light-hearted, but the book is not a rom-com. I think it’s best to think of this series as a serial. This book doesn’t really stand alone—it’s part of the continuing story of Katie and Deke’s relationship. I enjoyed the audiobook narration.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This is book 2 of a series and I don't know if the confusion I had was because I didn't read the first book, because I was listening to this as an audio book or because I was just not relating to the characters. I found it hard to keep track of who the characters were and did not like the voice that the narrator used or some of the characters. This book also references Covid multiple times and I don't know about you but I really don't want to read of listen to a book about Covid anymore. If you are an older adult who is now an empty nester maybe you will have an easier time relating to the characters than I did.

My review of this book may be different once I read the initial book of this series. But overall Santa Overboard left me with mixed feelings. It is a quick read with holiday vibes, but doesn’t dive deep into any major conflicts or emotions. I liked the relationship Katie had with her friends, but the same thought and richness wasn’t devoted to Katie and her love interest Deke. And while I appreciate for the most part writing a book about the time during the COVID pandemic, I didn’t feel that it needed to be brought up or explained as much as it did. We lived it. We understand what happened.

It was a really quick listen and might be just the palate cleanser for some, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Make Waves Press for the audiobook ARC.

I enjoyed Santa Overboard, it was a fun, enjoyable and festive liten. It was such an easy listen and great to have on whilst prepping the Christmas dinner!
The narrator was brilliant and I loved the wide range of characters they were able to portray.
The book centering on an older cast of characters was a massive plus for me. It felt really refreshing to listen to a story about a main character with depth and life experience. The author was also really good at portraying real life reactions to difficult situations.
The characters also felt very likable and relatable. A very enjoyable read!

I truly loved this book! It was a perfect read during the holidays, and I recommended it to my book besties!

This was a quick cozy holiday read, and I enjoyed the friend group featured in the book. I love a good friendship that survives anything life throws their way. The storyline of preparing for the boat parade was fun! I really thought I would enjoy this book a lot more when I requested it but the multiple talks about COVID-19 was too much for me. I take the time from Thanksgiving through the first week of January to dedicate to holiday themed books and this was my least favorite this season. I found it difficult to connect with the characters and the chemistry between Deke and Kate just didn't seem to hit the mark for me.

Katie Young is excited to captain the Christmas boat parade in her Virigina town. When things don’t go as planned, her friends, the Beach Bonfire Babes, band together to get things back on track.

This is the second book in the Potomac Shores series, and while it can be read as a standalone, it would be better to read book one first. This is a quick, light holiday read, and I appreciated that the main cast of characters were middle-aged. However, I had trouble connecting to the women. Deke was my favorite character. This book was OK. I recommend reading it if you like the first book in the series.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book.

The book cover could lead you to the conclusion that this is a funny and light hearted holiday story, but it's not. The themes don't match with the cover. Listening to the story was quite a task. The book is just not for me, I should have read the description more thoroughly.

Santa Overboard by Carolyn McBride follows main character Katie as she navigates the holidays in Potomac Shores with her friends the Beach Bonfire Babes and her "Man friend" Deke.
I received the Audiobook for review. I quite enjoyed the women who was narrating the story- she had a very clear voice that was not distracting. It however would maybe have been nice to have another male narrate the male characters in the story instead of the "fake man voice".
This story was quite sweet and cozy- think Hallmark Christmas movie vibes. I also quite enjoyed that the characters were mainly in their 50s and 60s which is not an age group that is typically represented a lot in this type of romance novel.
The plot wasn't super exciting/thrilling but if what you are after is some quick holiday feels this is for you.
I ultimately rated this 3/5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Make Waves, Press for the audio E-ARC in exchange for my honest review of this work.

Are you ready for all of the Santa's to go overboard?! Then welcome to the Christmas Boat Parade.

This hilarious and cozy romance is perfect for the Hallmark lovers. You not only get one love story either! Love is in the air and on the river, so welcome aboard.

The audiobook of this one was such a joy! The narrator did a great job at giving the stories a voice and providing just the right amount of humor and brevity that the story required. I would highly recommend listening to this one.

Santa Overboard, sadly, left me with mixed feelings. The storyline is cute, but it did not hook me, nor did I feel fulfilled. I didn’t think it delved deep enough into some of the major themes and conflicts in the story. It is a cute read, but I felt like there could have been more offered in the story.

It does have several tropes I enjoy like small-town and second-chance romance, and it had a slow-burn romance that was fun to watch develop. I also really enjoyed the group of friends and their dynamics together. It reminded me of my best friends, whom I’ve been friends with since I was a kid.

Overall, I give Santa Overboard three-stars. It was a sweet, and easy ready, but I wish it would have had more to hook me in.

Thank you to NetGalley and Make Waves Press for the audiobook ARC! #SantaOverboard #NetGalley

Santa Overboard by Carolyn McBride is a cozy, quick holiday read that provided a quick lighthearted dose of holiday cheer like a holiday movie. Katie Young is living life in small-town Occoquan, preparing for a boat parade, and trying to make her new relationship with Deke work—if only he weren’t off in the Galapagos for the holidays! The story is cute and relaxing, but it doesn’t dive deep into major conflicts or emotions. The friend group was the highlight, I loved how they rallied around each other through life’s ups and downs. Their bond felt so genuine, and it was fun seeing how they helped Katie handle her holiday stress. The narration by Maria Marquis was great, and she really brought the characters to life, and I could easily tell who was speaking at any moment, which made the audiobook experience so much more enjoyable. All in all, Santa Overboard is a sweet, easy story that’s perfect for a quick read, I would recommend it looking for someone looking for that.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Make Waves Press for the audiobook ARC to preview.

This was a short story that is part of a series (I did not read the first book), which I picked up because I was in the mood for a quick holiday read. Unfortunately, I felt there were too many extraneous characters and things going on to be crammed into a novella, and it detracted from the overall story.

I appreciated the following elements: small town setting, more mature FMC seeking a second-chance romance, and that boating was such a plot point, as I am a boater myself. I also enjoyed the narrator of this audiobook.

However, I did not connect with the characters and felt the "conflict" arc between the FMC and her new boyfriend did not make sense. Basically, she was upset that he had to leave during the holidays for work. There were other plot points that left me perplexed as well, and I probably would not have finished the audiobook if it were not so short.

Thank you to NetGalley and Make Waves Press for the audiobook ARC in exchange for my review.

This cute little novella was a sweet romance that centered on a fifty something protagonist. I loved the supportive friend group in this story. However the characters seemed underdeveloped and the story itself seemed weak. The major conflict in the story seems to be that the boyfriend is going away for Christmas, and the main character feels slighted. she seems rather shallow. the novella is short and the story doesn't have time for any depth. Although the story is cute, and has a lot of funny moments, it is disjointed and there is too much mention of Covid. A sweet romance should be escapist, and I for one don't turn to that genre for reminders of the problems caused by Covid.

On the other hand If I could rate narration separately from writing, I would give Maria Marquis five stars. The character voices were distinctive and the acting was great. I will be happy to listen to more books that she reads.