#AudioBookReview: Desire and the Deep Blue Sea by Olivia Dade

Desire and the Deep Blue Sea (Love Unscripted, #1) by Olivia Dade
Narrator: Joy Nash
Format: audiobook, ebook
Source: purchased from Amazon
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: contemporary romance, romantic comedy
Series: Love Unscripted #1
Pages: 142
Length: 3 hours and 20 minutes
Published by Dreamscape Media, Hussies & Harpies Press on March 10, 2026
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

They're pretending. Until they aren't.

Thomas McKinney has never wanted a woman the way he wants Callie Adesso. Since she started working alongside him at the Colonial Marysburg Research Library, he's spent his desk shifts fumbling pencils, tripping over his own feet, and struggling to remember both the Dewey Decimal System and the existence of her inconvenient boyfriend. Now, however, Callie is suddenly single--and in need of a last-minute faux-boyfriend for an episode of HATV's Island Match. Thomas is more than happy to play the part...and in the process, convince Callie that a week together isn't nearly long enough.
Callie has never found a man as irritating as she finds Thomas. He may be brilliant, kind, and frustratingly handsome, but the absent-minded librarian also makes every workday an anxiety-inducing exercise in stress. Even seven days in paradise by his side won't change her opinion of him. Really. No matter how attentive he is. And gentle. And sexy.
One plane ride later, the two of them are spending long, hot days under the sun and on display, pretending to be in love for a television show. This may be a vacation, but it's also an act--as well as Thomas's last chance to persuade the woman of his dreams to include him in hers. And soon, the island heat isn't the only thing steaming up HATV's cameras...

My Review:

I picked this up because when I like this author’s work, I really, really like it. When it doesn’t work for me it really doesn’t. This one was short, looked sweet, and I needed an audiobook just like it to balance against the serial killer crime thriller I was reading. And it’s short, which was perfect for the time I had.

Sometimes, that’s just how reading decisions get made.

The audio interpretation of the story, read by Joy Nash, was well done. It’s just 3 hours and 20 minutes so I had high hopes for something sweet and spicy like the author’s All By My Elf holiday romance, with just a bit more length and depth.

And I realize that I’m talking all around this, which is something that both characters in the story do. Callie because exposing her feelings causes her anxiety, and Thomas because he’s trying way too hard to be subtle.

In other words, they spend a LOT of the story talking past each other – not because the other isn’t listening, but because the speaker is trying so hard not to upset the other that they’re not saying the important things they really, REALLY need to say.

The idea of this had so much potential. It’s a fake dating, forced proximity romance with a few interesting twists. Callie’s application to be on a reality cable TV show about romantic couples sampling Caribbean resorts was meant to be with her boyfriend. Who JUST broke up with her as the final arrangements are being made.

Callie wants the vacation SO BAD that she latches onto the idea of pretending that her co-worker is her brand new boyfriend. The problems with this idea are LEGION. Not just the idea of fake dating but that Thomas has made her six month tenure at the Colonial Marysburg Research Library a terrible experience. She literally cries after every shift. Not because he’s mean or a douche or anything obvious, but because he’s an oblivious mess who takes all the interesting, time-consuming reference questions and leaves her with long lines of trivia and anger.

(The description of library work is spot on. Thomas is a terrible co-worker. He may, or may not, be a terrible human being but he’s in the wrong job or at least the wrong part of the job.)

But this is who she chooses to pretend to date so she can have her vacation. I mean, the way she describes him he’s certainly a hunk, but handsome is as handsome does and Thomas, at least so far, doesn’t.

It turns out that their relationship is a ginormous misunderstandammit. He’s more than a bit single-minded, but the problem is that his single mind is fixated on Callie. He’s been in love – or at least in lust – with her from the moment they met.

But his attempts to get close to her been disastrous on multiple levels because he’s pre-decided what she would want instead of asking her what she actually wants.

And she’s incapable of telling him just how much he’s making her miserable because confrontation makes her even more miserable.

That this is who she chooses to take on her dream vacation, without expecting it to turn into a nightmare, is bound to, well, end in disaster. Or at least, middle there.

Then it gets better.

Escape Rating B-: I’ll admit that this came very close to being a wall-banger, and not in any of the good ways. The issues in their relationship are such a HUGE misunderstandammit, and I always have problems with the contrivance of those.

What saved that part of the story was that their misunderstandings could not have been resolved by any conversation that would be simple for either of them. Their respective, deep-seated issues just made opening that can of worms a dangerous idea. So they kept not doing it to both of their detriments – and to the detriment of the first half of the story.

Howsomever, there’s also something about their relationship that doesn’t make sense. On the one hand, when Thomas describes how he thinks and feels about Callie, it’s some of the most romantic stuff I’ve ever read. It’s no wonder that Callie wants to explore a relationship with a guy who’s just so sweet and sincere and obviously loves her to bits and desires her to the ends of the earth.

The problem on my other hand is that they already have a relationship as co-workers and it’s TERRIBLE. That he’s had all these feelings all along and kept them to himself makes sense because she was in a relationship with someone else. But his behavior at work resulted in multiple awful situations and feelings on her part, and nothing gets resolved before their romance starts, then he hears the truth and it stutters to a stop – as it should.

I wanted them to figure themselves – and each other – out. But it’s a big stumbling block towards that HEA that we don’t have enough background to  know what made either of them tick their particular set of uncommunicative tocks. It doesn’t feel like either set of issues is half as easily resolved as they were in the story, because they were not trivial at all.

I’m glad they did find their way towards a happy ending that involved a lot of changes on both their parts. But there’s a big part of me that thinks it shouldn’t have happened at all and I’m having a hard time letting that part go.

As always, your reading mileage may vary.

Howsomever, I’m still  hooked on this author, so I’ve got the second book/audiobook in the Love Unscripted series, Tiny House, Big Love, cued up for a near-future reading/listening adventure. Especially since it’s a book based around choosing a new home. Since we’re currently renovating ours, and that’s been an adventure all by itself, I’m curious to see how much help or hindrance an old love and a new cable TV channel can add to THAT mix!

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