It is an unsettling experience to complete a romance and have
your heart ache for a thoroughly loveable MC because you know she didn’t find
love. That she gave way, way more than she’d ever get. And you want to protect
her.
Annie Peck’s life is in danger in Barcelona and she is
desperate to get out of town. She buys a ticket to Paris and hides in the
ladies room till it is time for her train. She is jumping out of her skin at
the possibility of be found at every sound. Unexpectedly, one sound brings in her
doppelganger, who turns out to be a famous opera singer, Serena Rubio. Serena
has her own problems. It has been deemed that her throat needs rest and her
manager has booked her on a two-week cruise to ensure the same. Except that Serena
doesn’t want to go because her secret Australian boyfriend is going to be in
town and she wants to be with him. Impulsively Serena dreams up a scheme where
Annie will go on the cruise as Serena. Annie is desperate enough to agree. Caroline
West is the captain of the cruise ship on which Serena is book and Annie
embarks.
The attraction between Annie and Caroline is palpable. We were
so rooting for both of them and liking them both till the part where Caroline
takes Serena (she only knows Annie as Serena at this point) home to share her
life and world with Serena. In that scene we realised that Caroline was
completely self-centred. She wanted and expected her partner to make all
adjustments and compromises. So much so that Caroline likes the sea and chooses
to live on a boat despite having a house, and expects her partner to live on
the boat, maybe even in the middle of water, for Caroline. Never mind that
Annie is petrified of water.
It only gets worse from there. Annie is found by the person
she was running away from, beaten up, packed in a suitcase and left to freeze
to death. While this is happening Caroline discovers the truth about Annie’s
identity and is cussedly determined to put her in the brig and hand her over to
the authorities for identity-theft. One of her colleagues points out that the
only reason a person would have done what Annie did – especially since Serena
is a celebrity – would only be out of desperation. But Caroline is so full of
herself that she cannot hear this at all.
Another friend points out to Caroline that Annie never
really lied to her at any point. But Caroline cannot hear this either.
She attends a call in with Serena in which Serena says there
was no identity theft. Annie was there on the cruise at Serena’s behest, but
Caroline’s head is so far up her ass that this has no impact on her.
Annie has been beaten up and she’s almost dies and Caroline
expects Annie to make things alright. She even wants to throw Annie into the
kip while Annie is on saline and in the ship’s hospital.
And yet, Annie loves this woman. Reaches out repeatedly. Begs
to meet her. Goes to great lengths to spend time with her. Changes her whole
life for her.
The second half of the book actually hurt us. This is so not
love and definitely not romance. Annie has a lousy hand dealt to her by life
and Caroline is just more lousy card she got.
Read this book if you want to – but don’t let it define love
in any way for you.
We’d give this book an unequivocal five for Annie and a zero
for Caroline.
