Sasha has hit a brick wall. Literally. While running away from the Empowerment and Wellbeing Officer at her work, who has accused her of not being joyful enough. Not only is Sasha not joyful at work, she’s slowly been drowning. Management hasn’t been listening to employees, and the boss’ solution for improving employee satisfaction, is making them post on online affirmation mood boards. Sasha has reached her limit, tries to join a convent (she might not be religious, but she does have less of a sex-drive than the average nun), and after hitting her head against that wall, has the doctor sign her off on three weeks of sick leave.
She ends up spending those weeks at a beach resort in Devon. Her family used to have their summer holidays there, and despite everything, Sasha is excited to go back, eager to relive some of the amazing memories she has of the place. Her mom arranges the trip for her, calling the hotel while pretending to be her PA and making reservations for a sea-front room, and special-ordering organic kale smoothies for her breakfast. Except the hotel that they once knew to be classy and busy, is now falling apart and is covered in scaffolding, which means the windows are all boarded up and there are zero views to be enjoyed. There are only three other guests staying at the hotel and the skeleton crew of staff is spending more time sleeping in the lobby and sewing thongs to sell on Etsy, than they are at work.
One of the other guests is Finn, there on special leave from work as well, after some anger management issues saw him threatening to cut down a ficus in the office with a chainsaw.
While Sasha is trying her best to focus on her wellness with a special app that is all about meditation, squats, and feeling grounded, Finn is drinking whiskey and ordering pizza from his beach towel. They dislike each other so strongly, that the hotel staff refers to them as the not-couple, and goes to great lengths to keep them as separate as possible.
Opposites attract though, and with this being a romantic comedy, it’s not a spoiler to inform you that of course, Sasha and Finn end up as a couple after all. They first become friends and connect over the experience of burning out, complicated work situations, and mysterious messages they find on the beach. They also discover that as kids their summer holidays overlapped, and they were both witnesses to an event that left its mark on the local community even all these years later.
Of course, a burnout cannot be solved just by taking a trip to the beach; it requires hard work, and although a lot of that happens off page, it becomes clear that both Sasha and Finn are putting in that work, eager to better themselves.
The descriptions of the town and slightly dysfunctional hotel were great, true to the author’s style, and had me chuckling.
The almost epilogue-style ending was nicely done and confirmed what I had known the previous 350-something pages: Sasha and Finn are wonderful characters deserving of a happily ever after.
I couldn’t put this book down and inhaled it one go. After a couple of meh-okay-books, this was a joy and exactly the pick-me-up I needed.
Bookworm in the City 