In Trish Doller’s romantic adult debut, Float Plan, we follow Anna’s journey of grief after her fiance’s death by suicide. After nearly a year of pain so deep she rarely leaves the house, Anna impulsively leaves on the sailboat voyage she was supposed to complete with Ben.
While this is a romance, it’s not all sunshines and rainbows. The book starts out with a suicide note and the aftermath of that death. It’s a story of heartbreak, rebuilding, and recharting the course of a life you thought you had all figured out.
She quickly realizes it’s impossible to handle alone and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to come aboard.
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Anna and Keane
Anna has worked for years at a “Hooters-ish” restaurants with a pirate theme. After Ben’s death, she moves back home with her mom and her sister and two-year-old niece. Besides her work friend Carla, Anna doesn’t have much communication with the outside world, and is still steeped in grief nearly a year after Ben’s death. (And she’s tired of folks trying to force her to put a timeline on that grief.)
Keane, from Ireland, is a professional sailor who’s struggling to find a new place in the world after a leg injury left him an amputee.
Anna and Keane are on a obviously physical journey, traveling around the Caribbean, but we also find ourselves on their emotional journey of learning to trust, be confident, and how to open their hearts up to each other.
“I’m starting to understand how sadness and happiness can live side-by-side within a heart and how that heart can keep on beating.”
-Float Plan
A Great Escape
I absolutely loved travelling around all the islands with Anna and Keane. There are some superb secondary characters, including Queenie the dog.
The closest I’ve come to setting sail anywhere remotely tropical in the past year (okay six years) is watching my kids play on this fun backyard boat play space we made with some scrap wood from all of our 2020 quarantine projects, but we recently booked our first beach trip we’ll take with all three kids in late 2021.
Although the subject matter is heavy and at times heartbreaking, you’ll leave Float Plan feeling buoyant and satisfied. I love that while Keane is a huge part of Anna’s voyage, she also gains the confidence to not only take the helm of the boat, but also her future.
Final Thoughts: Float Plan
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an eARC (quote used from final copy). I was so thrilled to be a part of my first official blog tour. You can snag your copy on Amazon here, or of course check your favorite local book store!
If you liked this Float plan book review, check out my review of Shipped here. It’s also a GREAT escape read that will transport you to the Galapagos.
Now let’s play This or That: Travel edition
- Snow or sand?
- Road trip or fly there?
- Relaxation or adventure?
- Planner or go with the flow?
Tell me in the comments!
