Long Time No Sea by Portia MacIntosh
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Long Time No Sea by Portia MacIntosh is a story about friendship and secrets. It’s the story of six high school friends who reunite for a trip to Italy.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

This book is part of My Summer 2023 Reading List.

My Overview

When Jas received an invitation to an all-expenses paid trip to Italy, it couldn’t have come at a better time. That same day, she’d been terminated from her job as a live-in nanny. Lucky for her, her friend Maxi is inviting her and their group of friends to a week-long stay at an Italian villa. Fifteen years before, the group of friends had planned to get together for annual trips, but they’ve yet to make it happen. Now, all six friends have the opportunity to finally gather and reconnect.

The friendship group consists of: Jas, Maxi, Mikey, Cam, DJ, and Clark. It’s been a long time since they’ve seen each other, and they have a lot to catch up about. Their week-long stay at the villa is the perfect opportunity for them to pick up from where they left off and reconnect. Suddenly, instead of enjoying their fun-filled vacation they find themselves trapped in a survival game, and then an adults-only resort 🤔. Does that seem like a lot? It is.

The plot was great through the point where the friends (and an uninvited plus one) are gathered at the villa. Six friends trying to get to know (and like) each other again after fifteen years, was interesting and entertaining. That storyline was sufficient to garner the drama, awkward situations, and humor I’ve come to expect from this author’s stories. I wish it would’ve continued along that path and maintained the villa setting. Instead, as the storyline unfurled into one OTT situation after another, the plot became convoluted and lacked humor. What saved this story for me were the toggling between THEN and NOW, and the build-up of an event from their last year of school that affected their lives. Overall, I enjoyed getting to know the group of friends along with their pasts and secrets.

My Recommendation

Although this story wasn’t quite I’d expected, I still found it enjoyable and a good fit for light summer reading. Planning to give this book a try? I highly recommend the audiobook. It’s read by Karen Cass, who as usual did a fantastic job of bringing Portia MacIntosh’s characters to life.

Recent books I’ve enjoyed by Portia MacIntosh:

Are you planning to read this book?