Book Review - Going Overboard by Portia MacIntosh

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Title: Going Overboard

Author: Portia MacIntosh

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Publication Date: 26th July 2025

Rating: 5 Stars

That ship has sailed… right?

Jessa is happily cruising through life - until her boyfriend Todd dumps her, out of the blue, at a wedding, during the first dance. She doesn’t know it but just across the room, cricket superstar Brody is also being blindsided by his girlfriend, Nikki. It suddenly makes sense in the days that follow - Todd and Nikki are now together.

Jessa wants to crawl under a rock, but with her best friend’s destination wedding on a cruise to Sicily - and her ex and his new girlfriend onboard - there’s no escape. She’s hoping the ship is big enough to avoid them but, unlucky for her, a booking mix-up means she’s sharing a two-bed suite with Todd, Nikki, and the handsome but infuriating Brody too.

With no choice but to ride out the awkwardness, Jessa and Brody hatch a plan. If they can’t win their exes back, they’ll get them back - revenge - by faking a red-hot romance of their own. That’ll show them. But the better they get at faking it - and the more undeniable their chemistry - the blurrier the line becomes. Either way, there’s going to be trouble at sea because true love is never plain sailing!

This was totally and utterly hilarious. 

Fake Dating and Portia MacIntosh at their very best. 

It's wedding season and when Todd dumps Jessa at one wedding and then turns up to the next wedding with Nikki, well it hurts Jessa.  Jess is already having an embarrassing sort of a day, with some hilarious realisations involving a person called Ryan. 

So discovering that Brody has been recently dumped by Nikki at around the same time she was dumped and then realising that all four of them are due to attend some at least one more wedding leads to all sorts of shenanigans. 

Especially while on a cruise ship when the rooming arrangements are rather interesting and Jess and Brody decide the best revenge they can get is to make their exes jealous and start playing all sorts of mind games with them.  

I was totally there for all of it, and this is the author's funny bone at its very best. 

Multiple weddings, a cruise, interlocked friendship groups, fake relationships and a whole lot more,  this is a perfect summer read. Total escapist fun and games! 

Thank you to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.