Stevie‘s review of Pleasure Cruise by Yolanda Wallace
Contemporary Lesbian Romance published by Bold Strokes Books 17 Jul 18
I’m yet to explore Yolanda Wallace’s extensive back catalogue, although I keep promising myself I’ll find the time to do so from somewhere. I’ve been keeping up with her recent releases, and so far they’ve all worked well as stand-alone novels, which is what I was expecting from her latest book. As with my two previous reads from the same author, I was drawn in by the character descriptions in the blurb, with the added teaser of a cruise ship setting. I haven’t been on a cruise in many years, but that’s another treat I keep promising myself, especially one that’s on a ship packed with woman-loving women.
Spencer Collins loves women, but she really isn’t a people person, choosing to work from home and only visit her employer’s head office on the other side of the county, when she absolutely has to meet her colleagues face to face. Her gregarious parents, on the other hand, love meeting new people and travelling – especially when they can combine the two on a cruise ship – and so they treat Spencer to a ticket for a women-only cruise in the hope that she’ll finally meet a woman to settle down with. Nervous at being forced into a situation beyond her control, Spencer is still grateful to her parents for thinking of her and does at least manage to make friendly conversation with the ship’s cruise director, Amy Donovan.
Amy has her own reasons for being nervous about this particular cruise, since the company she works for is struggling after a couple of cruises were marred by mishaps beyond anyone’s foresight or control. She is instantly taken by Spencer, in spite of the other woman’s nervousness, but is very aware that her employers frown on cruise staff getting involved with their guests.
Others on the cruise have their own reasons to be stressed about the upcoming voyage. One of the crew has got herself involved in smuggling drugs onto the ship and, now that she wants to back out of the arrangement, she’s found herself under threat from her criminal contacts and from some of the passengers, whose day jobs are in law enforcement. When she issues the ultimatum that this will be her last cruise, she is told to do away with one of those passengers or face a worse fate herself. Meanwhile, some passengers are taking their first cruise after a previous holiday ended in a stand-off against members of a drug gang and so are on high alert for any suspicious behaviour this time around.
This story had all the makings of an excellent pair – or even trio – of plots as Spencer is brought out of her shell by Amy and the other passengers who befriend her, while the suspense plot of who will face death and who will face arrest continues in the background. Sadly, the one issue that let the novel down for me was the fact that most of the prominent secondary characters had starred in books of their own from that extensive Wallace back catalogue I’m yet to read. So while I enjoyed seeing Spencer and Amy’s adventures, the background stories meant far less to me than they would have done to a reader familiar with all the other women. Definitely a book I need to go back to once I’m caught up with a few more Wallace books, at which point I suspect it will attract a higher grade from me than it has on this reading.
Grade: C
Summary:
Spencer Collins lives life virtually, keeping the real world—and everyone in it—at a distance. When she’s given a chance to spend a week surrounded by sun, sand, and hundreds of women on a lesbian cruise, she has the opportunity to venture outside her comfort zone. If, that is, she can muster the courage.
When Amy Donovan is named cruise director for a trip to the Caribbean, her mission is twofold: keep her scandal-plagued company’s reputation afloat and her hands off the passengers. Both prove problematic when she’s blindsided by her attraction to the sweet and adorably shy Spencer, only to discover a stranger’s quest for revenge threatens to turn their dream trip into a nightmare.
Sailing the high seas might turn the tide of romance their way, if the killer doesn’t get there first.
Read an excerpt.
