TL;DR: This one has a setting and job field I love but the whole book felt like one giant third act breakup… which I did not love.
Source: Netgalley! Thank you to the publisher!
Plot: Hope and Adrian are shark researchers who fell out of a relationship three years ago and end up pushed together again.
Characters: This book was very in the heads of it’s primary two characters. So much so that it really started to feel the same, no matter the heading on the chapter.
Setting: I did like the setting! On the boat or on the pier, it was different and unique enough that I read on for those moments.
Romance: Like I mentioned, felt like one big third act breakup. It got… really exhausting by the end, I’m not going to lie.
Thoughts:
I always hate it when I get my hopes up, and they get drowned. Second Tide’s The Charm is a second chance romance where two shark researchers end up working together and taking a second chance at their relationship. I love sharks! I love romance! I was stoked! But this sadly wasn’t it for me.
The two characters spend so, so much time wrapped up in their own thoughts and by extension with us wrapped up in them that there was very little to be gained from the story. The two are working on tagging sharks, raising awareness of sharks in a social media setting, and just working together. But honestly, the amount of work they did was probably just double digits in a book that was the same thing inner monologue repeating over and over. ‘I shouldn’t be here’ or ‘She’s my ex. Not my girlfriend’ They stumble over the same arguments mentally and have the same hang-ups repeatedly, it felt like we’d just relive the same scenes over and over.
If you like an angsty, very in the mind kind of romance this could definitely work for you. I know readers who love that, but I’m not so much a fan. I loved the sharks, stayed for the little bit we got of that, but wasn’t wild about the rest. I adore this cover though, like wowza.
3 out of 5 Lemon Sharks
Sarah Evermotion's Book Thoughts 
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