Cover image from Goodreads.com
Annie’s sister was supposed to be on the cruise with her, but had to bail at the last moment. The band Boy Talk was headlining the cruise, a band both Annie and her sister fawned over as teens, and Annie was going for her sister more than for herself. She’d long ago discarded the screaming fandom and teen lust of boy bands but was determined to try to enjoy herself while on the cruise.
It doesn’t help that her boss calls her and tells her that the intern, young enough to be Annie’s daughter, is now her boss.
While this is happening, Keith is having a hard time drumming up any enthusiasm for the cruise. As one of the members of Boy Talk, he’d been doing these cruises and one-off concerts for years. The pay was good and it helped him feel like he was supporting his brother, also a member of Boy Talk, and the other members of the band.
Keith’s personal life isn’t rosy, he hates boats, and he just wants his brother’s affection, something that’s perpetually out of reach.
Organizing the band and cruise is Sarah. She’s done several cruises with different bands and knew how to get each member where they needed to be and how to keep them happy while confined to the ship.
The three lives intersect near the end. Keith ends up having a bit of a breakdown, Annie comes to terms with her new work situation and develops a plan, Sarah looks forward to wrapping up the whole experience and moving on.
The novel is written well enough that I was engrossed. It helped that Annie is 50 and at a stage in her life where she can see and appreciate her past and has the opportunity to create a new future for herself. The juxtaposition of having a cruise full of women dressing as they did in their teens, loving a boy band from their teens, and going full-on fanatical when the band is around and Annie struggling to snap out of stasis and move forward was interesting and well executed.
Overall I really enjoyed the novel. It was a nice dive into the mind of a middle-aged woman who is hesitant at first to move on, but gains confidence as she experiences all that the cruise has to offer.
Should Be Writing 