Being an aficionado of cruising I gravitate to stories that feature cruise ships. This story starts out in Albany, NY where our heroine Crissy is lamenting the lack of excitement and romance in her life. One of Crissy’s clients convinces her that romance waits on the high seas and after the devastating effects of a one night stand Crissy decides to take a cruise. Crissy chooses a wonderful cruise – a month-long trans-Atlantic crossing. She is looking to see part of the world outside of Albany and hopefully to find a lasting romance. Her divorced friend Jenny invites herself along.


Crissy and Jenny are as dissimilar as two young women can get. Jenny is the typical good-time girl who falls in bed with the first man who smiles at her as well as the next, and the next, and the next. You get the picture. Crissy has standards and sticks to them. Both girls are initially attracted to Mark Vilos – the sexy young son of the Greek shipping magnate who owns the Sea Nymph upon which they are sailing. The two girls soon fall in with an odd group of characters who share their dinner table and other exploits. Crissy does end up having a shipboard romance with the handsome Italian doctor – I won’t tell you how that ends. What no one knows is that Georgios Vilos (Mark’s father) has been hiding the financial difficulties that his cruise line is in. Unable to procure any more loans to meet his obligations, the senior Vilos has decided to blow up the Sea Nymph in order to collect the insurance money. And he has decided to do the deed during the trans-Atlantic crossing.

I enjoyed this book because I like cruising. As a veteran of 40+ cruises I found the author’s shipboard descriptions to be spot-on. She has captured the essence of cruising delightfully – even down to the differences between a penthouse suite and a cheap cabin. Her descriptions of various crew members is accurate as well. I believe I’ve met nurses like Voula on several ships. The ports of call are accurately described as well and I can only hope that Ms. Gould did her research first-hand. The first 25% of the book is a bit slow but once our main characters get on board ship the story takes off.

If you’re dreaming about taking a cruise or if you’re a veteran cruiser this book is for you. In fact, if you’re looking for a book to take on your next cruise – consider DREAMBOAT. Just be assured that you won’t find Captain Stuebing or Julie McCoy among the books characters. ( )