Cruising Toward Love (MF)

Professional Reviews

4.5 BOOKS: "You can let go of the past, but what happens when the past doesn't let go of you? Zoe Balis doesn't have much of a chance to fully let go of the heartbreak her first love caused her all those years ago. Wherever she goes, there's a constant reminder that Nate Hyatt stood her up at prom. Why does everyone have to bring up what happened all the time? And now, Zoe has to face Nate. At her sister's wedding. Or, almost wedding. What a tense moment when Nate is the one to break the news to the bride and surrounding family about the groom's cold feet. Talk about awkward! Zoe already hates him, and then he has to be the bearer of bad news? I wouldn't want to be in his shoes at that moment. Then it only gets better from there! The two are stuck sharing a cabin on a cruise meant for the honeymooners! More tension! Ms. Barth kicks it up a notch as the storyline progresses. Let the fun begin, right? Fun...what fun? Not in Nate's eyes, and certainly not in Zoe's. The situation is disastrous! Cruising Toward Love doesn't have just one conflicted couple, but two. Along for the ride on the cruise is a crew member, Reed, and a passenger named Callie. Reed has his own dark secrets and inner conflict, and Callie is footloose, free, and rich. She doesn't flaunt the fact that she's rich, but she doesn't care who knows it. Zoe and Callie meet up on the ship, while Nate and Reed hit it off, and often times in the book the four characters are doing activities together aboard the ship. Callie and Reed know the story between Zoe and Nate, or at least, know one person's side of it. I love that this book has a second romance within it. Ms. Barth creates characters that are real. Readers can relate to them, good and bad. I love how the cruise brings Zoe and Nate together. The author does a wonderful job in keeping the conflict active, but not overdone. Their problems take time to resolve, and though Zoe was snappish through the first part of the book, it didn't stick the whole time. She allowed herself to be open and friendly with Nate after while, even before things got better for the two. Even though Zoe's sister was only in the beginning part of the story, her character remained in my mind, and I'm hoping that sometime in the future she gets her own happily ever after. She deserves it. There's a bit of a suspenseful sub plot in the story. It's not the main focus of the book, but it does add a little extra intrigue. I enjoyed this fun, witty, and romantic novel. Readers, if you enjoy a story with a reunited couple, then cruise towards your nearest online outlet and get yourself a copy of this book!" -- Sunflower, Long and Short Reviews

4 WINE GLASSES: "Have you seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding? All that family crowing around, telling you what to do, getting in your personal business and looking at you with pity. Zoe has all that to deal with on top of facing the guy who stole her heart then disappeared. Cruising Toward Love has a great beginning. Unfortunately Zoe has awful luck and ends up covered in muddy water, has to deal with bridezilla, and is nearly scorched by fire. Fortunately all that pays off and she gets an all expense paid vacation, her sisters unused honeymoon ticket! Zoe and Nate have this intense chemistry that makes you wonder how he could have ever left her 10 years ago. It seems like fate has intervened and given both Zoe and Nate the honeymoon tickets, which means a shared room. Hard to stay mad at someone and deny the attraction when you have to share the same bed and bathroom. Once on the ship you are introduced to some memorable characters. Barth’s writing gives just enough depth to make them feel real and bring the scenery to life so you feel like you are another passenger feeling the sun on your skin watching this drama unfold. Besides a great reuniting love story you get a little mystery thrown in with the fun and games. Cruising Toward Love is entertaining and well written. It will leave you feeling happy, which is a great reason to pick it up." -- Lexy, Reading Between the Wines

4 CUPS: "Zoe Balis is a curvy and very attractive librarian in a small Pennsylvania town. An incident in high school has made her virtually undatable. She is the older sister, and since her mother’s death, has looked after her younger sister. Nate Hyatt is an Army Medic and has grown into an extremely attractive man. He is back in his hometown for his friend’s wedding and hopes the bride’s sister has forgiven him.Zoe was dumped on prom night ten years ago. Nate never told her why, just left for the service and never returned. Now he is back to attend his best buddy’s wedding as the best man. Unfortunately, the bride is the sister of the girl he dumped. Zoe’s sister gets left at the altar and she gives her cruise ticket to Zoe, coincidentally her almost-groom does the same thing with Nate. Now the two have to share a cabin and keep Zoe alive when a killer targets her.This is an entertaining story with colorful characters and an exotic setting. Nate and Zoe have a lot of issues to work out, and it is frustrating not to learn of the reason for their conflict until well past the halfway point of the story. The plot is interesting and a bit suspenseful, and the subplot of the ship’s photographer and the internet millionaire is just as entertaining as the main plotline. A cruise ship makes a great setting for a mystery story and the scavenger hunt makes things even more confusing. Readers looking for a funny and suspenseful mystery will really like this one." -- Maura, Coffee Time Romance

LOVELY ROSE: "This was a romantic suspense e-book that was easy to get lost in. It grabbed my attention from the beginning and never let go. There was family angst, a lost love, romance, adventure, a little mystery and a cruise through the Caribbean with lots of vivid descriptions in each port you could visualize yourself there. I could also taste the fresh air along with the flow of champagne and fruity, rum drinks, smell the ocean breezes and see the blue of the water. Christi Barth really made you feel as if you were there and part of the action. There were some twists and turns that were unexpected and a few that were very predictable but the author took a long time getting there. The unexpected actions of the four main characters along with their adventures and the romances that were building kept my interest. I haven't read any books by this author before this one but look forward to reading her first two since this was the third book she has written. If you like romance I think you would enjoy this book. Give it a try." -- JoAnne, Romancing the Book

"If ever I’ve read a book and wanted to climb right in and hang with the characters, Christi Barth’s CRUSING TOWARD LOVE is it. These folks are just FUN! A lighthearted, often laugh-out-loud contemporary romance that just might earn you a reputation as a serial guffawer (not sure if that’s a word but us writers get to make stuff up, as long as we say it with authority), this book is a can’t-miss read for anyone wanting a bit of an escape from the ordinary. Both in setting and in style, CRUISING will totally float your boat! (Do I get bonus-geek points for throwing in a boat cliché already? No? Oh, well, carry on.) The story opens in the rather hectic pre-wedding moments surrounding the nuptials of Zoe’s sister, Stella, who makes a convincing play for the Bridezilla title. After endless kowtowing to Stella’s whims, Zoe hangs on to that final straw until the bride bothers to mention the best man—and Zoe’s partner down the aisle—is Nate, the man who ten years ago left Zoe heartbroken without explanation. Sucking it up and putting on the perfect wedding face makes her squall inside, but it’s only one day, and with only a few hundred witnesses to her misery it can’t be so bad, can it? Oh, it’s worse. In the classic tone of careful-what-you-wish-for, Zoe’s prayers are answered when Nate delivers stunning news on the morning of the wedding. Now she won’t have to face him for the big day, but little does she know they’ll be forced to cozy up in the honeymoon suite. Of a cruise ship. Where there is absolutely no escape. (Insert evil cackle here). By this point, there’s little hope of not being thoroughly sucked in by this story. The characters have spectacular voices and positively beam with personality. Nate’s leaving Zoe should put his chances of redemption in question, but you’ve just got to love him—and you do, long before you find out what the heck he was thinking. (Clearly Zoe is on the same page, as it’s all she can do not to throw herself in his arms.) With their well-fueled animosity—one of the only things upon which they seem to agree—it’s touch and go for a while there, each one likely entertaining thoughts of tossing the other overboard, but the sparks flying between these two characters quickly blaze into a of fire of titanic proportions. Many (but not all, *nudge, nudge*) of the best CRUISING moments happen off the ship, when Zoe and Nate—who are stuck pretending to be honeymooners so they’re not ousted for impersonation—are paired with shipmates Callie and Reed for a multi-destination treasure hunt. The lighthearted plot thickens when Zoe becomes the target of a number of questionable “accidents,” these island excursions serving as much to develop relationships between characters as they do to add suspense. (Oh, and they’re funny. Epic-funny.) The best part of this story—aside of the searing heat radiating from any immediate radius of Zoe and Nate—is the banter between characters. I found myself watching them like I would a tennis match, my head not quite literally swiveling from one to the other over the screen of my Kindle. Their unique voices shone with an outstanding level of character development I don’t often see—so much so that by the time I reached the last page I was a little sad to see them go. But as to who went where, why, and with whom? You’ll have to hit the aquamarine waters of CRUISING TO LOVE to discover that one for yourself. And I can’t recommended highly enough that you do exactly that." -- Sarah Ballance

Excerpt

STORY EXCERPT

Nathaniel was such a good-looking boy, wasn’t he? I wonder what sort of a man he’s grown into,” Mrs. Petrides mused while she whipped protective plastic over the hangers laden with dry cleaning.

“I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.” No way would the nosy old bat drag her into a discussion of how hot Nate must look. All his lankiness would be filled out with manly muscle, perhaps with a hardness to his jaw etched by maturity and experience. No, Zoe refused to let her thoughts drift anywhere near what was probably a well-muscled, sexy body. Didn’t matter to her one bit what he looked like. Nate Hyatt wouldn’t register as even the smallest blip on her radar screen.

With a smack of her loose dentures, Mrs. P. leaned across the counter. She had a reputation for twisting and squeezing to extract every last drop of gossip, leaving her victims as limp and wrung out as an over juiced orange.

“I’ve known you your whole life. You can tell me how you really feel, Zoe. Won’t it be hard for you to hold his arm and walk down the aisle?”

“Just think of all those unfortunate feelings that’ll get stirred up,” Ione piped in.

Relentless harpies. Zoe dug into her oversized shoulder bag, the one her grandmother swore would turn her into a hunchback any day now, and whipped out her wallet. She blamed the sudden onset of pain drilling through her temples on either the dry cleaning fumes or Mrs. Petrides’s arch tone. Regardless, a quick exit could only help the situation. Sliding a twenty under the replica of a Greek diner mug holding an odd collection of pens and buttons, she grabbed the hangers and headed for the door.

“I’m a grown woman. A page from my past can’t give me anything worse than a paper cut. See you at the wedding!”

Bells tinkled at her exit. Zoe didn’t linger, worried the old harridan might follow her to the door to ask more insensitive questions. She tried to storm down the street, but in reality she trudged more like a pack mule. In addition to her purse big enough to smuggle an entire chicken dinner into the movies (successfully attempted six times, and so far never caught) and the dry cleaning, her other arm burned with the weight of two enormous shopping bags. They contained all the bridal party gifts to be presented at the rehearsal dinner.

The ignominy of carrying her own gift wasn’t lost on Zoe. While technically the maid of honor, she’d ended up doing all the bride’s work as well. Because, as Stella pointed out each time she wheedled another favor, Zoe had a flair for organizing with meticulous detail. True, she preferred to do a task herself rather than be called in to fix it later. And she did adore Stella—at least the pre-Bridezilla version of Stella. So Zoe ordered the gifts, purchased and paid for them, picked them up, wrapped them, and now lugged them across town to drop off at the restaurant. What contribution did her sister the bride make to the entire process? Stella had decided on the bow color when Zoe cornered her, and that only happened because she’d been hopped up on sugar after yet another cake tasting.

Stella and her fiancé Alex actually chose their cake months ago. But once they discovered most bakeries gave free cake samples to engaged couples, they’d worked the system, driving to every bakery in northern Pennsylvania, not to mention a few in southern New York. They’d flash her diamond ring and down plates of multilayered, frosted squares. It had become their Saturday morning ritual. Chances of them stopping after the wedding were slim.

Thoughts of the wedding brought Zoe right back to the pain boring into her skull. The mere idea of seeing Nate Hyatt again after all these years, let alone interacting with him in front of hundreds of people throughout the long weekend of celebration, had to be the sole cause. Just like he had ten years ago, Nate was sticking it to her once more. He’d indirectly caused her plenty of anguish since he left on that warm spring night. Now, the mere threat of his reappearance had amped into the direct cause of her throbbing head.

To be fair, her sister deserved a share of the blame for her current state. Anger swirled with anxiety, topped off with a healthy dash of annoyance. Why hadn’t Stella told her about Nate being in the wedding? Why leave her to be blindsided like this?

 Zoe stopped on the curb in front of the brick façade of the historic Keystone Theatre to catch her breath. The building was strong and had survived centuries of harsh weather. It would be her inspiration. A hometown girl, Zoe had only left Towanda for college. Every vacation she dutifully returned home. No grand treks across Europe, or road trips to discover America. Everything she needed was right here in Towanda. If the theatre could stand strong, so could she.

A loud rev of a motorcycle engine stopped her with one foot hovering half off the curb. The sleek, black machine raced down Main Street, heedless of both the posted speed limit signs as well as the other cars on the road. It swerved to the right to nip around a slower moving truck, and its wheels found one of the deeper potholes on the street, covered by at least a foot of water.

Zoe screeched as a veritable fountain of muddy water cascaded over her from head to toe. Bags and freshly pressed clothes flew through the air as her hands flew up to shield her face. The driver yanked hard on the handlebars to keep the bike upright, barely managing to steer it to a stop at the corner.

Soaked through and shuddering to contemplate the unsanitary condition of the water dripping down her face, Zoe stood in shock, but only for a moment. Then it hit her that all her pent-up rage over Nate finally had an outlet. The inconsiderate idiot on the motorcycle would never know what hit him. He’d beg to not just be allowed to clean but replace her entire outfit by the time she finished her tongue lashing.

She didn’t move, not even to wipe her face, waiting for him to come to her and grovel in abject apology. He braced the bike on its kickstand and yanked off his helmet.

“Sorry about that. You okay?” he asked.

No. The shock of the icy puddle water didn’t begin to compare to the shock Zoe felt meeting Nate Hyatt’s eyes for the first time in ten years. She was a lot of things in that moment, but okay was definitely not one of them.