Swept Away

Beth O’Leary

IT was meant to be a one-night stand with definitely no strings attached... a passionate encounter fuelled by too much booze and what seemed like an instant chemistry. What Zeke and Lexi didn't expect was to wake up in a houseboat which has been swept far out to sea where there’s no sight of land and definitely no phone signal.

Survival at sea takes on a whole new meaning in this sparkling novel which will have romance fans happily drowning in the ocean-soaked trials and tribulations of a couple of strangers who find that their night of lovemaking causes more than a few giant waves.

If you enjoyed million-copy bestselling author Beth O’Leary's (pictured below) The Flatshare and The Wake-Up Call then Swept Away – an epic tale in more ways than one – is guaranteed to take you on an unforgettable voyage alongside two very different characters set dangerously adrift in the calmest of waters and stormiest of seas. Lexi is aged thirty-one but feels like she’s one hundred. She works at the Northumberland seaside pub her family once owned, has spent the last few years helping her single best friend raise her young daughter and feels she deserves ‘one night of stupid, reckless fun’ in which she can get drunk and just enjoy herself.

So it seems to be karma when Lexi spots Zeke sitting alone in the pub and quite unaccountably feels a shiver run over her ‘like a bird skimming water’ when he looks up and meets her eyes. Suddenly she’s ready and willing to do something irresponsible and spontaneous.

Problem is that 23-year-old Zeke, who is in Northumberland to buy back his late father’s cherished houseboat, has his own reasons to be looking for love and committing to a long-term relationship. But for one night with a woman like Lexi, he is prepared to break his own rules. What’s the harm. after all?

Soon sparks are flying at the pub, much wine is consumed, one passionate kiss leads to another and they end up stumbling out to the marina together and on to the houseboat. The next morning, hungover and shaken by an amazing night together, Lexi is quite happy to say goodbye to Zeke but there’s one small problem... the houseboat wasn’t tied up properly and has been swept out to sea. As their supplies start to run dangerously low, and the waves pick up, Zeke and Lexi soon realise there’s much more on the line than their new relationship. How long can they really survive on a drifting houseboat in the North Sea... and will search and rescue ever find them?

O’Leary’s captivating nautical romance featuring an unlikely but very likeable couple lost at sea is a joyful and surprisingly emotional reading experience as we witness Lexi and Zeke navigating their way through their hidden hopes, dreams, fears and insecurities... and the vagaries of unpredictable waves and weather. Struggling with both their current predicament, and the heightened tensions of being trapped in a small space with someone you hardly know, Lexi and Zeke are soon indulging in the kind of salutary introspection that their busy lives have never before permitted.

Lexi – a woman with a naturally cautious, steady and caring nature whose adult life has been consumed by her loyalty to a friend in need – would appear to be the perfect foil to the younger, more spontaneous and passionate Zeke who has been hit hard by his father’s recent death.

With no help in sight, faced with the prospect of their food running out, and prey to the ocean’s might, their relationship starts to shift and grow in new directions... and with a twist in the story’s tail, there are no certainties about the direction of voyage for the stranded pair.

Written with the kind of grounded authenticity at which O’Leary excels, but also full of the beguiling romance and magical moments that cannot but help seduce readers, Swept Away is guaranteed to sail away with your captured heart!
(Quercus, hardback, £18.99)