Title: Sink or Swim
Series: Shore Leave: Book Two
Author: Annabeth Albert
Publisher: Carina Press
Length: 314 Pages
Category: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 3 Stars
At a Glance: Readers who love a slow-paced, character driven comfort read with plenty of internal conflict will find that in Sink or Swim. The story didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next, but I do like some good romantic tension and I liked Calder’s evolution.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Winning and losing are subject to sexy interpretation…
Navy chief Calder Euler loves to win big. His latest score? A remote mountain cabin. Checking it out is supposed to be a quick trip, but Calder’s luck abruptly turns when a freak injury and a freakier snowstorm leave him stranded.
Oh, and the cabin isn’t empty. A silver fox caring for two young girls claims that the property is his, but Calder’s paperwork says otherwise.
Felix Sigurd is on a losing streak, and his ex-husband risking the cabin in a reckless bet is only the latest in a series of misfortunes. He’ll tolerate the handsome stranger for a couple nights—even care for his injuries—but that’s it.
Calder doesn’t know a damn thing about kids, but making pancakes for Felix’s girls is a surprising delight. Trapped in the cabin, the four of them slip easily into the rhythms of a family. But when the ice melts, they’ll have to decide if a future together is in the cards.
Review: Annabeth Albert’s Sink or Swim offers up some familiar favorite romantic tropes—a perfectly timed snow storm, forced proximity, and two MCs who vow nope, never, no way . . . because sure, that’s not the least bit of foreshadowing that they’re heading straight to yes, always, and absolutely forever. Added to this is the sort of Big Misunderstanding that involves a vindictive ex-husband, a family inheritance, and a guy who thinks he’s won a mountain cabin in a poker game. Friction ensues, but along with it comes something neither Felix Sigurd nor Calder Euler knew they needed until they realized they wanted it.
The story has an interesting and complicated start, and I liked the originality of the meet-not at all cute. Felix’s ex-husband uses property that’s been in the Sigurd family for decades—property that said ex has no legal claim to—as his ante in a high-stakes poker game. Calder comes away from the table believing he’s now the rightful owner of said property, fair and square. It’s not difficult to imagine his surprise, then, when he’s at the cabin checking out his new winnings, and Felix and his nieces show up to yuck Calder’s yum.
Calder is caught so off guard by their arrival, in fact, that he falls down the stairs and is then hobbled by a badly sprained ankle. The news that he is the interloper there doesn’t land any better than his trip down the stairs, which introduces the friction between him and Felix, but Calder’s bum ankle added to the snowstorm ensures that he isn’t going anywhere fast. He and Felix and the girls are stuck with each other, like it or not, and thus begins the building of the relationship. The close proximity with sexy benefits begins almost immediately, and while these two men were opposites in almost every way, they ended up being compatible in all the ways that mattered, including their feelings about intimacy and sex.
Calder is offered a lot more character development and growth than Felix, but he admittedly had further to go to mature and get to the point where he realized that winning at everything wasn’t as important as winning the one thing that would change his life for the better. When Calder starts behaving like a guy who sure would like to date Felix, Felix is understandably resistant. They were only supposed to be having temporary, no-strings-attached sex, not doing things like going out and having kid-free dinners together, or spending quality time together at all, even with the girls there.
Felix is a father in every way that matters, and he has already watched the effects of his contentious divorce on his daughters. Taking a chance on Calder means risking that Calder won’t have a change of heart, that when the going inevitably gets tough, Calder won’t bail, but there’s no other way for Calder to prove his commitment to Felix and the girls than for Felix to give Calder a chance. I understood Felix’s hesitancy, though his reticence sometimes made it difficult to warm up to him. When the pivotal moment finally does happen, it’s full of emotion and leads to a satisfying finish.
Readers who love a slow-paced, character driven comfort read with plenty of internal conflict will find that in Sink or Swim. The personal conundrums Felix and Calder faced needed to be navigated rather than brushed aside, and I appreciated their relationship not being forced for the simple sake of getting a quick HEA. This was important given how adamant Calder was that he was uninterested in anything like a relationship, and necessary given that Felix’s primary objective was prioritizing his nieces’ wellbeing and care. The story didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next, but I do like some good romantic tension and I liked Calder’s evolution.
You can buy Sink or Swim here:
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