A second chance at love sets sail when a couple on the verge of divorce pretend they’re still together for one last family trip, from the author of Wedding Dashers .
Roslyn and Liam met nine years ago and have been the perfect couple ever since. Through every up and down, every milestone—from Liam’s residency to the publication of Roslyn’s debut romance—they’ve been each other’s rocks. Until now.
Pulled apart by the untimely death of Roslyn’s mom and the undertow of grief, they’re now navigating the final wave in their divorce.
Heartbroken and unsure how to tell her family she’s called it quits with everyone’s favorite son-in-law, Roslyn keeps the impending divorce a secret. But when Roslyn’s grandparents ask if Liam can officiate their vow renewal ceremony aboard a Hawaiian cruise during their annual vacation, Roslyn needs to tell the truth or figure out a way to keep her secret. A week trapped at sea with her ex isn’t ideal, but neither Roslyn nor Liam want to rock the boat, so they concoct a plan—they’ll fake it.
After five years of marriage, they can figure out how to pretend for jungle hikes and mai tais, right? But when reality and make believe starts to blur, and old feelings begin to resurface, Roslyn and Liam have to decide whether it’s sink or swim for their marriage.
Roslyn and Liam met nine years ago and have been the perfect couple ever since. Through every up and down, every milestone—from Liam’s residency to the publication of Roslyn’s debut romance—they’ve been each other’s rocks. Until now.
Pulled apart by the untimely death of Roslyn’s mom and the undertow of grief, they’re now navigating the final wave in their divorce.
Heartbroken and unsure how to tell her family she’s called it quits with everyone’s favorite son-in-law, Roslyn keeps the impending divorce a secret. But when Roslyn’s grandparents ask if Liam can officiate their vow renewal ceremony aboard a Hawaiian cruise during their annual vacation, Roslyn needs to tell the truth or figure out a way to keep her secret. A week trapped at sea with her ex isn’t ideal, but neither Roslyn nor Liam want to rock the boat, so they concoct a plan—they’ll fake it.
After five years of marriage, they can figure out how to pretend for jungle hikes and mai tais, right? But when reality and make believe starts to blur, and old feelings begin to resurface, Roslyn and Liam have to decide whether it’s sink or swim for their marriage.
Title: Sunk In Love
Author: Heather McBreen
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Expected Publication Date: January 27, 2026
Review:
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Second-chance romance is one of my favorite tropes. Especially when it's done well. And McBreen did a fabulous job with this one. Oh the emotions she pulled out of me, my heart! I laughed, I cried, and I spent the entire story rooting for this couple to work out their stuff and remember what it was to love one another.
Rosalyn and Liam were together for nine years when their marriage imploded. Pulled apart by the death of Rosalyn's mother and Liam's inability to let Rosalyn in, they find themselves navigating a divorce. But Rosalyn's family has a yearly trip planned and they have no idea Rosalyn and Liam are having problems as Rosalyn has hidden it from them. So on the trip they go, hoping they can pull off looking like the happy couple Rosalyn's family believes them to be. Make believe for just one last time. But when those lines begin to blur, Rosalyn and Liam find themselves navigating their mutual attraction and whether that's enough to put their pieces back together.
I love that McBreen chose to write this story to include flashbacks. They give such great background to the main characters and their history. From them falling in love, to their ups and downs, to their final demise. Each flashback chapters built slowly to the current state of Liam and Rosalyn's marriage, truly showing the reader how the rockiness happened.
Rosalyn is a great character. I could feel her anxiety and panic attacks as they were written on the page. It was easy to feel how she felt she wasn't enough for her family. That she could never be what her grandparents expected her to be no matter how hard she tried. She has so much weight on her shoulders. Combine that with her rocky childhood where her mother's love life often dictated where they were living or their lack thereof, and it's easy to see Rosalyn has many issues to work through.
We only see Liam's character through Rosalyn's eyes, since the story is told from her point of view. I will say I'm not always a fan of single POV for romances, but McBreen did a nice job showing us who Liam is and what his limitations are. I do think having his POV would have helped me understand him just a bit better but that's not how the story if written. I honestly really hated him at first. I could not understand how he acted towards Rosalyn. Or how he could just take their nine years together and toss it out the window. Of course this is not what is actually happening and as the book moves forward we learn more and more about Liam and why he's so closed off about his past. We also learn how he's trying so hard to make himself a better person. How his eyes were opened to his ultimate roll in his marriage falling apart.
I love the idea of the forced proximity on a boat. There's truly nowhere for these two to go that they won't somehow run into each other or be forced to interact, despite what Rosalyn believes. Of course that forced proximity also forces Liam and Rosalyn to face their issues. Their situation is messy. And it was nice to see the demise of their marriage was not one sided. Both characters had lots of issues to work through.
McBreen touches on so many deep emotions in this book: The expectations we put on ourselves when it comes to family and how we navigate those situations, and the way in which we deal with grief/death. None of these are easy topics to address and McBreen does it with grace and understanding.
The only frustrating part of this book for me was the miscommunication trope. Yes, I understand that was the reason Rosalyn and Liam's marriage fell apart, but I also felt like Rosalyn let Liam get away with things I would never imagine would keep anyone together for nine years. I absolutely would need to know about my partner's past and if they could not give that to me, I could not be with them. Who would accept that? Once they do start communicating, the book takes a great turn and they start to truly understand one another. But before that I wanted to smack them both!
There's quite a bit of spice in this book, which I loved, but know others can be on the fence about. Know going in there is spiciness that may have you blushing a bit!
If you're looking for a second chance romance that has characters who grow and change and truly come into themselves and their relationship, pick this one up and give it a try!
Author:
Heather McBreen currently lives in Seattle, WA, but spent the best year of her life living in London where she completed an MA degree in arts and cultural management. When she’s not writing or reading books about kissing, she can be found surfing the web for travel deals and plotting her next adventure. Wedding Dashers is her debut novel.
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