An Accidental Odyssey by K.C. Dyer Series: ExLibris Adventure #2
Also in this series: Eighty Days to Elsewhere
Published by Berkley on December 14, 2021
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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When an unexpected phone call derails a young woman's wedding plans, it sparks an epic adventure around the modern-day Mediterranean.
Gianna Kostas is on the cusp of a fairy-tale life. Sure, she's just lost her job, but she's about to marry one of New York's most eligible bachelors. On her way to taste wedding cakes, though, things go sideways. Shocking news sends Gia off on a wild journey halfway around the world in pursuit of her ailing--and nearly estranged--father.
In Athens, she learns Dr. Kostas, a classics professor, is determined to retrace Odysseus's famous voyage. This is a journey her father is in no condition to take alone, so Gia faces a tough decision. When an unexpected job offer helps seal the deal and quash the guilt Gia feels from her disapproving groom-to-be, the journey is on. But as Gia adventures--and eats--her way around the Mediterranean, she discovers that confronting epic storms and ripped surfer dudes might be the easy part.
Along the way, as she uncovers family secrets, finds heartbreak, and learns more about a certain archaeologist with a mysterious past of his own, Gia discovers that fairy-tale endings might be messy and complicated, but they can happen anywhere.
This pains me to write. I just read and LOVED Eighty Days to Elsewhere (click here to see my review), the first book in this series. I was hungover and mourning the end of that amazing journey around the world with two characters I fell head over heals for, so I immediately started this second book in the series in the hopes of jumping right back into another adventure. It felt completely different and I ended up DNFing at 39%.
First of all, I did not love being reminded of the pandemic every other page. In this book, the pandemic is mostly over but not quite. I kept hearing about masks and social distancing (or lack thereof). The main character, Gianna (Gia), kept referring to the “Before Times”. I read for an escape, and since we’re still so fully entrenched in the covid-19 pandemic (hi, omicron!) I’m just not ready to have it in my books yet. I’d like my books to pretend this virus doesn’t exist right now.
I also found Gia to be a very unlikeable character. Mere hours after an argument with her fiancé, she goes out and cheats on him. I mean yes, I hated the fiancé. He’s horrible. But the argument ends with him saying, “we’re done, we’ll sort it out when you get home”. To me, sorting it out doesn’t mean they’re done. I know I would want some clarity on that before becoming involved with another man. Her fiancé apologizes and everything is fine between them the next day. I’m all for vacation flings (and love vacation fling romances), but this really sounds like cheating to me. And the fact that she feels so guilty and decides to pretend it never happened means she also thinks it is. I should have just quit right there.
But I kept going and then I started to hate Gia even more. The way she speaks to her dad, her voice dripping in condescension and judgment regarding his trip following in Odysseus’s footsteps grated on me. He’s a grown man. He’s happy and vibrant and excited about this and she’s being a total helicopter daughter, running along behind him picking apart his every choice and sharing way too many unsolicited negative opinions about everything he’s excited about. I wanted to throw her into the ocean, quite truthfully. She’s in beautiful Greece, for crying out loud. Either enjoy it or go home.
I can see tiny hints of a romance forming (with the guy she cheated on her fiancé with, no less, so that does not look promising to me), so I went and read some reviews and the focus of this story is definitely her babysitting her dad and nothing else. This is definitely not a romance novel.
Content Warning: Death of a parent. Highlight the text between the brackets below for more information.
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I read another reviewer state that Gia’s father dies at the end of this book. I don’t know how he dies, or the circumstances surrounding his death, but the reviewer said it was upsetting and they didn’t see it coming.
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Hating a character is never a good thing. Especially in a romance! I’m sorry this one ended up being so disappointing.
The cheating part would probably make me DNF. I actually kind of want some of the pandemic stuff in there once in awhile because I like to connect to a story, and right now I’m like, hey, they should be wearing a mask and staying back from people! lol. Great review, I’ll probably skip this one, but still need to read the first one since you liked it so much!