Ship Wrecked is the third and final book in Olivia Dade’s series about actors from a Game of Thrones-esque TV show finding love. This one follows co-stars Maria and Peter, who film alone on a small Irish island for six years, and build an intense bond.
I continue to like not love this series, unfortunately. I’m hoping eventually I will wholeheartedly five-star love a book by Olivia Dade again (the only one so far is the excellent Teach Me) but it hasn’t happened. I suppose I will have to be satisfied with a really good read from her with little things along the way that bother me but don’t really affect the overall story*, which has been my experience of all three of the books in the Spoiler Alert series (the second book was nearly perfect, but the third-act breakup didn’t ring true to me).
*Dade’s beef with the Game of Thrones showrunners continues to be a distraction instead of a boon to the story. Some of her writing tics/repetitions are starting to irritate me just a teeny bit, though 97% of the prose is lovely. I don’t think the actress who is obsessed with her cat is funny at all and it confuses me a lot. Etc.
This is probably the strongest of the series in terms of the character development and romantic arc between all the pairings. Maria and Peter’s lovers to enemies to friends to lovers-again arc was full of emotion and dialogue that rang true, and which was also heartwarming. The obstacles in the way of their happiness always made perfect sense to me, and it was satisfying to see them overcoming those obstacles.
The best part of the book, by far, though, was Maria herself. Her determination and strength, and her kindness and caring and desire to create families for herself wherever she goes was so great. Especially when you learn why she is doing it. She’s also extremely body- and fat-positive, and she takes NO shit from anyone in Hollywood about her size or her other bodily preferences (there’s a great scene in here where she refuses to wax or shave her body hair for a sex scene). Her confidence and self-worth is attractive to both us as readers, and extremely attractive to Peter, who is also fat.
I do very much recommend this series, especially if you like books that touch on fandom and the entertainment industry. Dade’s next book series is already in the works, and though I have no idea what it’s about, it’s called Harlot’s Cove, and the first book has Spite in the title, so count me in.