Review: Out of the Blue

Thank you Kathryn Nolan (and #ThatsWhatSheSaidPublishing) for the gifted copy of Out of the Blue! Available now and on Kindle Unlimited!

When I tell you that this was easily my favorite read of June. Ahh I loved it so much. I never knew how much I needed a bodyguard/pro surfer second chance (but also marriage in trouble) romance. I NEEDED it!

Serena Swift is an up and coming pro-surfer constantly fighting to be treated with equality on the waves. After she signs to partner with an eco-friendly surfwear company she’s assigned a bodyguard for protection. Cope McDaniels, her not-so-ex-husband. After a hot and heavy romance and elopement four years earlier, Cope and Serena separated but never officially divorced.

Listen, I am weak for the marriage in trouble trope. It’s one of my favorites! This was easily my favorite contemporary I’ve read where they’ve been separated a LONG time before reuniting. It worked so perfectly for this storyline and the flashback scenes added so much context to the plot. It was seriously impossible not to love both Serena and Cope, even when they were a young married couple with terrible communication skills!

There’s so many reasons I loved this book and it worked so well for me:

-Fantastic banter. The back and forth yelling about how they’re actually still married was *chef’s kiss*

-Excellent suspense. I was not expecting to love the suspense element as much as I did. And I LOVED it. It added so much to the story, both the suspense while Serena was surfing and the mystery plot.

-Great setting. I love books set in places I know and love, the San Diego and Orange County settings were accurate and well written.

-Steam!! Okay so Serena and Cope were terrible at communicating in their youth, but they were NOT terrible at communicating physically if you know what I mean!

-Excellent side characters! I LOVED their group of friends and family. There’s a few scenes where some of Serena’s people see Cope for the first time in four years and they can’t contain how much they missed him. Even though he’s he sort-of ex. This was so genuine and heartwarming to me!

-Growth. Serena and Cope grew a LOT during the time they were apart. I love how this was handled in the books and how they addressed their past issues.

Needless to say, I loved it. Easily made my favorite 2021 reads list! I highly recommend reading this one!