Eva Blue is about to go on a trip of a lifetime, but one adventure she didn't count on was falling in love...
Eva is quite content with her life in London. In her job as a cover designer, she works at home, and often in her cosy pyjamas. She's happy to stay in her safe little world and not explore much outside of it.
She is the opposite of her mum, a free spirit who craved finding adventure and thrills in all corners of the world. But on the day her mum’s will is finalised, Eva finds a list of all the dreams her mum wanted to achieve in her life. Things she never did because she fell pregnant with Eva.
Eva decides these dreams will not go unfulfilled - she is going to be brave and complete them for her mum. As Eva has no experience travelling the world, she hires a guide to go with her on this holiday.
Gorgeous but rude Thor Anderson is not the person she would choose to accompany her on this journey, but somehow she gets stuck with him. As they discover the world together Eva starts to think he might not be as bad as she first thought. She is swept away by Thor's kindness and mischievous sense of humour. But will it be a simple holiday romance or could this wonderful adventure lead to so much more?
Review: Well I've said it before and I'll say it again, Holly Martin knows how to write some slow burn romances ending in some decent sex scenes! I love that about her writing and in this novel we have some added travel plans to enjoy along the way as well. Who wouldn't want to spend a book travelling the world with a main character and her travel expert companion? Great plot!
Eva Blue was an interesting character because she does go on a big journey over the course of this book, both metaphorically as well as literally. At the beginning of the book she leads a fairly sheltered life, as if to counteract her Mum's wild ways. She doesn't seem very worldly wise and often seems shocked by things around her. Her comments about different things in the world and the people she meets can sometimes come off as fairly judgemental and can verge on the sexist or homophobic but have no fear, she does develop and grow by the end of the book.
The travel in the book is so much fun and we either get to hear about it in the form of a narrative of Eva travelling or through Eva's postcards to her recently deceased mother. I liked hearing about Eva's experiences through her own eyes and seeing what particular things she is willing to take risks on and which she isn't. Thor is also an interesting character, one can't help but picture Chris Hemsworth when reading about him. He has a great relationship with his family but I didn't always agree with the ways in which he was willing to manipulate situations in order to spend more time with Eva. I'm sure he's not some kind of predator but I couldn't be positive.
On this whole this was a lovely read. The lack of diversity is made up for in the romance and the sex scenes. The sex scenes are always safe as well, utilising condoms and other methods of contraception was always mentioned. I loved the travel and would like to find out everything that happened when Eva and Thor travelled across the pond!
