This review contains affiliate links, which earn me a small commission when you click and purchase, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my small business and allowing me to continue providing you a reliable resource for clean book ratings.
Indie rocker Greta James is recovering from a meltdown at her last concert that went viral. She hasn’t been back onstage in several months. Even harder to come to terms with is the reason she had the meltdown: the sudden death of her beloved mother. She had supported her from the beginnings of her hard-won career, when success was still just a dream. Now she’s left with a father who only ever communicated to her that she needed to grow up and find more stability.
When her father, Conrad, is about to depart on an Alaskan cruise that was supposed to be a celebration of his and Helen’s 40th anniversary, Greta’s brother (the dependable one with a wife and children and a solid career) encourages her to go with him. Though Conrad will be traveling with two couples who have been longtime friends, Asher tells Greta she can’t just let her father be a fifth wheel at such an important time. Finally she relents.
So Greta finds herself stuck on a boat (ship! as she is reminded a number of times) with a bunch of old people and families. She’s far away from her previous busy life on the road, performing for thousands of fans. And she’s stuck having the same old conversations/arguments with her father. Both are mourning and desperately missing the woman who was their intermediary. This cruise is really their best chance to try to find a way to understand each other and heal from the wounds they’ve inflicted on each other for years.
On the first day, Greta is surprised to meet and find herself attracted to another passenger, Ben Wilder, who seems to be her opposite in every way. He’s a professor, historian and author of a bestselling novel about writer Jack London. Ben is also trying to find his way after some big changes in his life. The two strike up a relationship as the boat (ship!) takes them far away from their uncertain lives in New York.
The Unsinkable Greta James is a lovely fiction book about loss, grief, family and healing. It’s real, showing the struggles these characters are going through, and how difficult it can be to change after many years of entrenched attitudes and actions. But it’s also sweet and hopeful, showing the progress that can start to happen with love and tough conversations.
It’s a romance, it’s a thoughtful family story, and it’s a portrait of a woman digging deep again to find what drives her in the face of heartache and uncertainty. Jennifer E. Smith delivers another book not to miss (I was absolutely charmed by her young adult book Field Notes on Love, for one).
Rated: High. Profanity includes 12 uses of strong language, a dozen instances of moderate profanity, almost 10 uses of mild language, and about 10 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes kissing and scenes of characters going to bed or being in bed together but with the sex part “off-screen.”
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
