If All Else Sails - by Emma St Clair (Paperback)

Really quickly— the yearning in this book is top tier. Chemistry over spice every day of the week. I loved this. I thought we would spend more time on the actual boat, but l'm not mad at how this played out at all. These two are such endearing characters and the forced proximity gave delicious zing to their match. All that swooning and yearning is such a talent because this is as closed door as you can get. There is an attempted SA in the past for a character that is dealt with very tastefully. Go into it knowing that is on the table, though. This book is jockey adjacent, but is not about hockey. I appreciated that. As I know nothing about hockey. Overall a summer favorite for the year.

Emma knocks this one out of the park. Her books are always full of swoon and easy to get swept up in the book you can’t put it down!

If All Else Sails by Emma St. Clair is another great read from Emma for me. I absolutely loved this whole book. This book had me hooked from the beginning. This book is told from a dual POV, following Josie and Wyatt. These characters were so fun. Josie is a school nurse who shows up to a random cottage for her (sometimes) annual Super Summer Sibling Extravaganza with her brother only instead of her brother she finds her brother's best friend/client, Wyatt whom Josie loathes and does not get along with. Her brother wants her to help Wyatt who is an injured hockey player while he recovers from his injury. This book did not disappoint. If you are familiar with Emma's other works you will be happy to see a flash of Appies! I can not wait to read more from Emma! She is an auto-read/buy author for me! Tropes & Fun Parts 💙 Grump Sunshine 💙 Forced Proximity 💙 Enemies to Lovers 💙 Brothers Best Friend 💙 Hockey Player MMC 💙 School Nurse FMC 💙 Police 🚔 🤣 💙 Poison Oak (IYKYK) 💙 Dogs in Bikinis 👙 🐕 💙 Murder Cottage 🤣🤣 💙 Attack Pigs 🐖 Favorite Scenes/Quotes Moving as fast as I can in my current state, I fly outside, knocking the screen door right off its hinges. It lands in the yard. But I don’t care. My only focus is on flagging down the police cruisers carrying the last person on the planet I’d want arrested— or detained— because of me. “Will you require a bedtime story as part of my services?”“No.” The idea of Josie , curled up next to me, reading, almost makes my heart explode. “This is called a hug,” I say. “People do this for many reasons, but often as a thank-you or a show of comfort or affection.”“Huh,” Wyatt says. “I had no idea.”“Well, you’re doing great. Totally a natural at this.” “I’m a patient man. I won’t push you,” Wyatt says then. “At least, not too hard. Hopefully, just hard enough.”“How do you know what’s just hard enough?” I ask, my fingers flexing on his lower back. “You may not realize this,” he says, “but I’ve become an expert in reading you, Josie.” “An overpaid babysitter,” Jacob says.“ Emphasis on overpaid.”“Hey— you have no idea what I’ve endured.” Josie’s eyes meet mine as she says, “I mean, the first day I got there, he asked if I’d give him a sponge bath.” Jacob drops his fork. Eli’s mouth hangs open, and Van looks like he’s about to fall out of his chair. I pinch the bridge of my nose. “How does it look?” I ask. “It’s way too big.”“It’s perfect,” Wyatt says, bending forward to kiss me again before gently turning me around and brushing my hair away from my neck. “My last name looks good on you , Rookie. Maybe we can find a way to keep it there.” I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.