Overall I had a fun time reading this book: I thought that the construction of it was well done, the use of the dual perspective really helped layer in what was going on internally with each of these characters and effectively set up how their relationship was progressing and led directly to the ultimate conflict. I liked the inclusion of so many Latinx characters and the inclusion of Spanish throughout. I am ultimately going to give it four stars but be prepared that the rest of this review is a lot of complaints, as I had the biggest issue with the main male character.

The initial setup felt a little convoluted to me, it seemed a little bit like Jasmine was doing a lateral move going from daytime soap operas to this job? And I didn't fully understand how this role would be the launch in his career that Ashton seemed to hope that it would be? That was possibly something that I missed. But there's also an element here where both of our characters are actors and understand that paparazzi and fame is a component of that job and yet both of them spend the whole time totally terrified of the tabloids and of the press and of how they could potentially be represented-- it just didn't really make that much sense to me. Especially that Ashton in particular wanted more fame and to become a bigger star, yet that is 100% contradictory to his secret that he is attempting to manage throughout the whole book?

I think that for me Ashton was the biggest letdown. It was very obvious to me that Ashton has anxiety and it takes so SO long throughout the book before anything is ever said about that. His motivation to get bigger roles made no sense in conjunction with his need to protect his kid. I understand to some extent his aloofness in an attempt to avoid Paparazzi and keep his secret, but somehow he even came off as standoffish to the readers within his own perspective? He ultimately said some pretty terrible things to Jasmine that I don't feel he ever appropriately groveled/ apologized enough for, and ultimately I just don't think that he deserved Jasmine.

That being said, I did think that the development of the emotions and the relationship was done well. I felt that Jasmine was more open to developing feelings and also more transparent with where she stood in the relationship, this perhaps led to a feeling that 'she fell first', which is not my preferred. Update at 26% was liking Jasmine more than Ashton and I felt that she was a little bit more relatable and down to earth; I also thought that their disastrous first meeting was a little bit overblown, it was truly just an 'oops' and mild inconvenience. Update at 59% was a lot of gushing about the use of the dual point of view to see how the same actions (Ashton being very caring to Jasmine) were being interpreted by both parties and seeing how the author sets up the interactions between the characters to both build their feelings and also set up a growing disconnect / wedge was super effective and really increased the tension. Update at 88% was me being very upset with Ashton because I felt that he was being a real asshole and that there were big strikes against him and he would need to grovel heavily (and ultimately I didn't think he did enough there).

After reading some reviews, I saw a couple that also didn't like Ashton enough or felt that he came across as too standoffish. I also saw a couple other reviews talking about the motivations surrounding fame and avoiding the tabloids also didn't make much sense. There seemed to be mixed results but mostly neutral to negative surrounding the inclusion of the Carmen in Charge show scenes in the book, and I felt that they were okay but could have potentially been stronger / more utilized. I also saw that a lot of people really liked the inclusion of the character's families in rounding out the book and in having a good cast of secondary characters.

I don't understand the high ratings, because I was very frustrated from the beginning. Would have DNFed quite early if it had not been for a readathon. Overall this book was extremely poorly written at literally just the word and sentence level, with incorrect words being used frequently and modern expressions being thrown into speech patterns that felt older, overall the writing was completely distracting and clunky and was the biggest issue with this book. The plot was poorly planned and the romance had zero emotional development, the storyline had holes and inconsistent pacing that made the book a real slog. Also, the king is evil because... he's gay? Why do we have the only queer characters in this story be the evil characters?

Update at 9% was that the main female character Aria was quite meek and I wanted more personality from her; the writing is clunky and has some awkward word choices; while it is interesting to have a romance where the main character is already married, doesn't this mean she will be cheating by getting with the love interest? Even if her husband is an asshole?

Update at 18% was that the writing was quite poor, awkward, contradictory, basic and repetitive, it was certainly not a smooth or easy reading experience-- the writing was "getting in its own way"; time jumps in the story skipped over any of the characters getting to know each other or have any proper emotional development

Update at 30% was it the writing is very bad and is quite distracting to me, to the point that this feels almost like a first draft of the story; there is glossing over of time and this leads to zero foundation for a relationship; this is insta-love with neither of the main characters having much personality except for Aria being whiny

Update at 56% was that the sex was underwhelming and smutty but does not function to build up the relationship and the book is quite a slog

Update at 73% was that though there was more action developing, there are huge plot holes and inconsistencies; the writing is still terrible and Aria seems to have no smarts or any agency, she sits around weeping and being forced to watch the king be with his General and Aria is physically and emotionally abused while doing NOTHING

Update at 87% was that the 65-85% chunk of the book had been a miserable trudge of despair and now there is going to be a magical fix and an info dump that will ret-con the rest of the book and show how this was poorly planned out.

I see many positive reviews that thought that the main couple were really great together or seem to appreciate the smut, but I didn't feel that these cardboard characters had any chemistry nor deserve to be together. I saw a few complaints regarding how Aria never stood up to the king and was too dependent on Igor and was somewhat spineless. I agree with the reviews stating that the ending felt rushed, as well as the reviews saying that there was a lack of character development and that the pacing was inconsistent; and agree the cliffhanger was the cherry on this crap sundae.

Overall there were actual historical accounts that were able to be researched and this is where the author got the majority of the facts on the story of this shipwreck, I thought a good job was done showing the sequence events and painted a picture of what was happening. I would have perhaps liked a little bit better of a timeline or emphasis on how much time had passed throughout (but I think that that was a me thing). Generally I wasn't exactly bored, but I felt that this could have been written with a more dramatic tone or in a way to hammer home the emotions that the men must have gone through. As there were men on different "sides" by the end when they were brought to the court, I thought the author did a good job throughout trying to fairly represent the men and their thought processes.

Generally this was a story of stark, bleak depressing facts and I think I would have enjoyed a different method of telling this history, something including more drama or tension or personality? I felt like this could have been more resonant with me and I think in the end there weren't really answers or consequences and it felt like it kind of just sizzled out at the end with all the legal proceedings. At 33% I made an update saying that I was engaged and was enjoying the narrator of the audiobook, but that also I was needing a little bit more focus to follow a lot of similar names and the nautical terms as well as the nuances of the historical time period. I did feel that there was a lot of inclusion of historical facts that were hard to wrap my mind around from a contemporary standpoint: the pressing and kidnap of sailors, the rats and the problems structurally with the ships, what the sailors were eating and not eating and how they were all dying of sickness and scurvy, Etc

I saw one review that said that the physical book had illustrations and maps, and though I enjoyed the narrator of the audiobook, it would have been nice to have had some of that supplemental material-- I did have online maps pulled up to reference while reading. I see a few mentions of how this author included some descriptions of local indigenous people that the castaways had encountered, I felt that the description of those people was neutral and straightforward, and made it pretty obvious who was at fault when the sailors immediately messed up those relationships that could have really helped them. Overall I see a couple reviews that I agree with regarding how well researched this book is, and how this book was a good and neutral presentation of conflicting accounts.