Review: Cruising by Cate Ashwood

Best friends Dylan and Jake have been inseparable since college, but Dylan has one secret he can’t bring himself to share with Jake—he’s completely, utterly in love with him.

Jake’s friendship is the most important thing in the world to Dylan, so as much as it hurts to see him with other people, Dylan keeps his mouth shut about his true feelings. When Jake wins a cruise to Alaska, he asks Dylan to go along, but what Dylan doesn’t know, is that there’s more on offer than a dream vacation.

Can Dylan and Jake sail off to their happily ever after, or are they cruising toward disaster?

Cruising is a sweet little nugget of relatively angst free adorableness. It’s not really long enough to give a lot of character depth, we basically know Jake and Dylan in the context of one another only, but if you go into this with the knowledge you are getting a steamy little romantic interlude between these besties-to-lovers, you will end the story with a warm and squishy heart.

I was in the mood for a story with no drama and sweet feels and Cruising is exactly that. The story switches POV’s by chapter so you know what both characters are experiencing throughout which was a total treat. It was sweet to read how Jake and Dylan pined for one another while still being completely clueless. The author did a really good job of showing how they felt for one another through their thoughts and actions. There were a lot of speechless moments as one of them would get bowled over by a look or a smile and it was just too damn cute.

Jake and Dylan have been in love with each other for pretty much ever, but have been going on and on as best friends because neither wants to ruin the best part of their lives. So while the cruise itself isn’t necessarily a meet-cute, it is an adorable device to bring the two of them together. Finally! And while it didn’t go exactly as Jake had planned, the outcome still worked. There was some obligatory morning-after trepidations, but it didn’t go on for too long, and as I said, the dual POV’s keep the reader in the loop even if these two still had to work through their worries. The story did need a little something to keep it from being too sweet and the smidges of anxiety kept it out of saccharine territory.

While I may have wished for a bit more depth to each of the characters, I can attribute that to really liking the bits I did get to meet and that’s a good thing. When the story ended I was all smiley and probably said “D’awwwwwww” out loud. Keep this story on standby when you need a sweet book hug with a healthy dose of heat.

**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**