Full Steam Ahead by Valerie Chase

 Seven days aboard a luxury cruise.
The perfect getaway from it all.
At least, that’s what Georgia Cantwell is hoping for...

With her inbox filling with menacing emails, Georgia just wants to run away from her shattered life on her sorority's winter break cruise. What she doesn’t need is green-eyed Jace McLaren seeing through her tacked-on smile and stealing her breath away with each tantalizing kiss.

Growing up with a father in jail, Jace knows from experience that if you’re going through hell, there’s no way out but through. He has always steered away from girls like Georgia with her ice-queen attitude, but she’s in real trouble, and despite himself he pushes past her walls.

As much as Georgia tries to ignore it, Jace won’t let her pretend with him. But she can’t tell him the truth. Her past would ruin his trust, her family, her future—everything.

But out on the open ocean, there’s nowhere to hide. And when Georgia’s secrets come tumbling out, it might take more than Jace to get her through the storm.

I find that I am hot and cold with New Adult Romance.  I mean, I like some aspects of it, but I have to be in the right mood to fully appreciate it.  Full Steam Ahead is a sweet story with good characters, but it left me feeling a little “meh” at the end.

Georgia wears the mask of a prim and proper Southern lady, but on the inside she is anything but. She puts the mask on so that no one will know her big secret.  The only person who sees past it all is Jace.  On this cruise together they graduate from mere acquaintances to friends and then maybe more.  Will Jace find out Georgia’s big secret?  Will everyone else find out too?

I really liked that this book is told from dual POV’s.  When it’s done right, it really adds a lot to the story.  Plus, it helps to get you inside the head of the characters, which I always enjoy.  My real problem was that while these characters are well written, I just couldn’t connect with them at all.  Maybe it’s the age group, but they just felt a bit flat to me.  I did enjoy the suspense of finding out what Georgia’s big secret was, but that too left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.   Again, that may just be an age perspective, but here secret didn’t seem all that devastating to me, but I understood how it was devastating to her which was the point, really.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, but I’m not sure it would be something I would pick up on my own.  I can’t complain about the writing or the flow, which was all great.  I think I’m just not the target audience for this book.  3.5 stars. 

Follow Georgia as she heads onto a cruise with her sorority sisters. Oh and her ex-boyfriend (who just broke up with her a few weeks prior) along with some of his fraternity brothers. She had to switch rooms since she is no longer with her boyfriend and ends up rooming with Jace. 

Jace is the poor kid while Georgia comes from a family with money. He thinks she's stuck up until they start to spend time together and learn they have more in common than they initially thought, not to mention the hot chemistry between the two. 

I think my biggest issue was that the way things moved so rapidly. We dwell on this problem that is hanging over Georgia so much that I found it hard to believe that no one would've picked up on things. The relationship between her and Jace moves along quickly too.

Overall a quick read that I enjoyed.