Book Review: Ship Happens by Mason Deaver

The Book

A year ago, Owen Henson had a close-knit group of friends who felt like family and a boyfriend who made his heart race just by walking into the room. But now? Everything’s unraveling. His friends seem to be moving forward without him, and his happily-ever-after shattered when his boyfriend Jacob packed up and left for the United Kingdom to join a research team.

The last thing Owen needs is for Jacob to waltz back into the city like nothing happened, showing up at their friends’ annual Christmas party looking just as annoyingly handsome as the day he left. Or for their friends to spring a surprise six-day, seven-night cruise up the West Coast to Alaska as a bonding trip for the group. How is Owen supposed to keep it together around the man who broke his heart, all while pretending he’s fine? Totally fine. But then Jacob tells Owen that he’d like to be something even more complicated than exes. He wants to be friends. Skeptical, Owen agrees to the plan but as they spend time together among the gorgeous Alaskan backdrop and cruise-mandated activities, Owen feels his walls coming down and he might just discover that he can’t help but fall in love again.

An emotional second-chance romance set on a breathtaking cruise, where two former flames must decide whether to let go or risk it all for a love that refuses to sink.

My thoughts

There are so many things I want to say about SHIP HAPPENS and why I loved it. The found family…compromising for the people you love…the wonderful trans and disability representation…all those parts matter. But in the end this is a story about two people who are deeply, completely in love with each other…so much so that they are willing to let each other go in order to pursue their dreams.

And because of their choice to break up, we get my absolute favorite thing to read in romance: YEARNING. Owen and Jacob are the Yearniest Yearners to Ever Yearn, and I ATE. IT. ALL. UP.

What makes all that delicious yearning even better are the flashbacks of their relationship where we get to see how Owen and Jacob’s fell in love, and how happy they were together. Every little movement, look, or familiar detail reminds Owen of Jacob and of everything he has lost, making it impossible not to feel just how much he has missed him. 

Are the circumstances that bring them back into each other’s lives completely realistic? Nope. I mean, who buys a cruise for all of their friends, lol, but honestly, I didn’t care. As Fated Mates would say, the cruise had to happen for Romance Reasons. Putting Owen and Jacob on a ship forced them to interact, confront what happened between them, and eventually have the conversations they’ve been avoiding even if some of those conversations were difficult or downright painful. 

What did feel realistic were the reasons they broke up. I don’t want to get into too much detail here because finding out why they broke up is a layered reveal and I don’t want to spoil it but I will say that there is no wrong or right here. Neither of them are at fault, and neither of them are blameless. Their situation just…is. 

In the end, SHIP HAPPENS is a delightful romance about loving someone enough to let them go and then figuring out if there is a way to build a life together without sacrificing themselves or the dreams that matter to them. And Kevin. I would legit die for Kevin.

About the Author