Enjoyed this. Cried towards the end and was rooting for the couple. Probably isn’t enemies to lovers (which is basically impossible in contemporary romances).

Review also given on Goodreads.

This was a fun and thoughtful read set in glamorous coastal Europe. A group of college friends reunites for a pre-wedding yacht trip and the highlight is the storyline between two former friends who haven’t spoken in years. Their reconnection is believable and emotionally satisfying.

The book balances romance and friendship with deeper themes like career, family and class. The setting adds charm without overpowering the story, and the characters feel real and well-developed. Great for fans of character-driven contemporary romance with a mix of drama and heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the ARC!

*** Thank you for the free digital ARC from #Netgalley and publisher #OrsayPress.

This novel is set around Alex, Danial and their mutual friend group who are reunited in full 10 years post-college for their friend's wedding. This book is primarily about Alex's feelings towards her rich friends and her feelings of inadequacy around their privileged lives. Alex's woe-is-me around her working-class upbringing took away so much from the story. Her best friend, Paul, who is getting married was the organizer of the reunion and he truly loves Alex and Danial. He was the only light in this story. Paul gave Alex so much grace and tried to also have some boundaries to stop her from spiraling in her negative views about her rich circle of friends.

This novel just felt like a long run-on sentence about hating rich people. I feel like Alex, in her complaining about rich people, failed to see how she had been able to attain through her access to a good education and a decent job regardless of her money. Yes, we do understand the bigger picture for society but this took so much energy from the book and even the romance. The rest of the characters were not interesting so they barely brought anything to the story. I did like how the author was able to give us a decent ending where we see the results of them mending the relationship and the liberation of Paul from a possible terrible life-partner.

All in all, a solid attempt.

Alexandra Onassis, a politically progressive social media strategist, must confront her past when she reunites with Danial Azad, the man she despises, on a luxurious yacht trip with old college friends. Amidst the tension of their shared history and differing social statuses, Alex grapples with clashing ideals and desires, challenging her beliefs and emotions in unexpected ways.

This book is a RIDE. At the start I was worried it was going to be too lit-fic-y for my taste but in the end it was the exact kind of fantasy that you want from a perfect romance novel. The fantasy that your long held crush has always been reciprocated, that rich people will self-reflect, and that it will all happen with the most beautiful setting in the world. Chelsea Fagan deftly mixes class consciousness, tricky friend dynamics, and heart scorching romance. I would recommend this to my non-romance friends as well. Drink this book: Enjoy with the crispest, coldest, Greek white wine you can find.

This book really pulled me in! I immediately connected with the main character, Alex. Although she has been trying to put some of her past behind her, the wedding of her best friend has pulled her back into the orbit of her much wealthier college friends— including the one person she hates most.

I found the characters to be well-drawn and especially liked the growth of Alex, Danial, and Paul. The history amongst these friends felt lived-in. Chapters from their past as they approached college graduation are interspersed between the present, perfectly timed to fill in the dramatic details. Alex’s emotions were palpable to me as a reader— I could feel her guilt, shame, and unease so clearly. By the end, I was so proud of her journey!

I also greatly enjoyed the setting. This would be a perfect beach read! The descriptions of the yacht and various coastal towns has me yearning to visit these places.

I jumped at the chance to read an ARC of The High Dive by Chelsea Fagan. I loved A Perfect Vintage and was really excited at the prospect of another fun and steamy book by the same author. This review will contain spoilers.

Alex is our protagonist. She works in politics for the Worker’s Horizon Party and her career is really taking off. We meet her as she’s about to embark on a rare vacation, sailing on a yacht for two weeks with her rich college friends as they celebrate one of their upcoming nuptials. This trip is a far departure from how Alex lives her real life. Not only does she feel the immense pressure to keep up with the Joneses around these particular friends, but she’s going to be spending time with Danial, the man she was in love with in college, for the first time in 10 years. Alex’s actions throughout the book are guided by the struggle to fit in without becoming something she is actively working against.

This story is compelling because our protagonist feels so real. Alex is honest and imperfect. She gets defensive in conflict and withdraws when she’s embarrassed. As a young person she makes a cringey decision that sets off a chain of errs that leads to her removing herself from her friends’ lives altogether. We can see why she would have so many feelings about being around them all again. She is me and so many people I know in real life.

Fagan expertly builds tension between Alex and Danial. From their first meeting in the airport and their car ride to the rest of the group, the reader is left wondering how this will go. Danial dropping the “I remember everything” nugget made me desperate for more information. The backstory being slowly shared with (minimal) flashbacks was really well done. The way the two argued over their respective jobs and lifestyles felt real and made for a believable reason the two never ended up together.

The only area of critique I have is on pacing. I hesitate to touch on pacing when I can’t read a book in one sitting. Here I felt like it was really well done, except for perhaps the transition from “we can never be together” to Danial having already quit his job in their next scene together. While it does feel like this was necessary to get the couple to end up together, I don’t recall any hint that this was under consideration for Danial and it felt a little abrupt.

I would give The High Dive a solid 4.5 stars. The plot was enticing, the setting was fun and sexy, and the HEA was what I’m looking for when I pick up a romcom. It had depth and touched on important, real issues without bringing in heavy trauma that can turn off some readers. While A Perfect Vintage was scandalous and hot, The High Dive is a little more PG, and I would happily recommend it to a wide range of readers.

Now, can we get a sequel that follows Alex’s best friend Paul?

I wanted to like this one. I really enjoyed A Perfect Vintage but this was not that, minus the lavish settings. The main character is somewhat unlikable and really should deal with her severe inferiority complex. Also, I know we are in a political climate but I don’t want to read about it in my romances.
However, writing is really well done and the romance scenes gave me feels. I will definitely add Chelsea Fagan to my must read author list.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy.

I enjoyed this book! I wish it was a little more realistic - I could not relate to any of the character really. Otherwise this was an enjoyable read.

I laughed at the unrelatable wealth of it all. I cried at the so utterly relatable pain and growth of the characters.

The High Dive is one of those rare romances in which the love story is perfectly balanced with the beauty and despair of finding our authentic self.

The HEA we all yearn for - that by being yourself, you have the power to bring others to the best versions of theirs as well.

I found this book incredibly cringey to get through because the main protagonist was so frustrating. She’s nearly 30 years old and does not like her friends yet feels a need to still be friends with them. She describes her ‘friends’ so negatively around her and as it’s from her perspective then us as the reader only thinks of them as negative. She even describes her mom negatively though her mom is the one with some sense. I appreciated the aspects of social class discussion and politics but it seemed so detailed and at odds with the writing of the characters. We get detailed accounts of her social media plans and ideas that I don’t think the reader needs. When I think of enemies to lovers and a summer beach read which this seemed billed as I want to like the characters and want to root for the couple to fall in love. Instead I just wanted the main character to go home and never see these people again and get therapy.

Alex Onassis is about to take a ten-day trip all around the Mediterranean with her college friends, in celebration of her best friend's upcoming wedding. Alex feels very anxious, despite the fancy destination and the very much needed break from her job in political communication.

Being a scholarship kid in college, she has never felt like she truly belonged in that group of wealthy people. Ten years later, she still feels the same. Moreover, she knows that Danial will be attending the trip too, and the history between them is "complicated" to say the least ...

I've been following Chelsea Fagan's work on The Financial Diet for years, and I knew the moment I learned about this book (or let's say her writing career, since it's the seconde one she's published) that I would probably find in her writing the intelligence and the depth that I often find lacking in most romance books.

And I was right.

This is a 4.5⭐️ rounded up to 5, because we need more books of this quality. The High Dive has the perfect balance of romance (oh the YEARNING y'all !!!) and serious subject matters, and it draws us in such an immersive trip that reading it feels like a vacation in itself.

So let's break it down and start with the romance. As I said earlier, the tension and yearning between Alex and Danial were top tier. They had an interesting dynamic. It was realistic in the sense that we could understand that their verbal sparring was a way for them to nurture their connection and attract the other's attention. I appreciated the fact that given the "kind of enemies to lovers" trope, their relationship stayed somewhat healthy. They were relentless and they did hurt each other yes, but that was acknowledged in a mature way, not just brushed off under the carpet or forgotten about. Also, the yearning, the yearning, the yearning ... The intensity of their feelings, of what they couldn't say to each other ? I felt it all 🥹 and it was beautiful.

Now the "serious" stuff : The financial gap between Alex (+Danial) with the rest of the group was the centerpiece of the story and it was very cleverly written. It made them who they were, it dictated how they behaved and evolved and it was also interesting to see the opposite trajectories that their lives took because of that. I found Alex's inner struggles and insecurities credible, even though it didn’t necessarily make me "love" her as a character.

The portrayal of The Club, its inner dynamics and members was well done in my opinion. Let's take Sophie for example, I really appreciated how she was the archetypical, dislikable rich French brat, but also had a more human and vulnerable side to her.

Though I really enjoyed this book, there were some minor things that veered towards the Wattpadesque and that I wish were different. I'll be brief :

- The friendship between Paul and Alex felt unrealistic to me.
- The last chapter was way too corny for my liking. Okay, we got it, they're happy - I don’t need that much unnecessary scenes.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this e-arc for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

A fun, fast read that builds in drama to a satisfying ending perfect to read at the beach or by the pool this summer. Loved the dynamic between our two main characters Alex and Danial and the back-and-forth that ensues between them, their complex history which is revealed to us with perfect timing and pacing. The other characters did feel shallow and almost unnecessary to the story despite the premise, but it still works — these are people who very much are sailing through life, floating above the waves.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

It's love! Adore this book!

I like the topic of social classes it's a lot to think about people and their motivation. This one is a great summer book with a plot, not just the fun.
Book is very captivating and putdownable.

There is a group of friends in their 30s trying to make to the vacation (so very relatable to me).
Paul and Alex friendship is goals! I need something like this in my life.

I did not finish this book. The tense/pov was very hard to follow and I could not get invested in the characters or their storylines

This was the most fun book that I would love to read on a beach or lake vacation (or a yacht if I ever get the opportunity!). The High Dive follows Alex, whose middle-class background separates her from her college friends even more than her political job does. She’s the odd woman out in a sea of wealthy individuals who seem to swan through life without a care in a world padded by money. She’s been desperate to fit in for years, overspending on credit cards and overthinking how she appears with them. The only one who came from the same background as her is Danial, the boy she was in love with and embarrassed herself in front of years ago when she admitted it to him. She’s spent ten years avoiding him but now her best friend Paul is getting married and has scheduled them all on a fancy yacht trip on the Mediterranean for the two weeks leading up to the wedding. Alex is determined to play it cool but she’s never been able to do that with Danial, now a wealthy managing director and everything she despises despite the fact that she obviously still has feelings for him. Forced together, her feelings for him are still as apparent as ever as his for her but her work life and his are destined to collide in a way that has no winners.

This book is very much about Alex and Danial but it’s also about them both learning how to be themselves, how to not lean so much into appearances, and how prioritize happiness over work. I thought the glamorous background of the yacht was so fun but I also just really enjoyed their story about figuring out your place in the world and what’s important.

Alex Onassis was always the odd one out of her friend group at Columbia University - she was the scholarship kid, the one who floated purchases across multiple credit cards, the one who wasn’t able to fall back on her parents’ money if something went wrong. So she has mixed feelings about her upcoming trip: two weeks aboard a luxury yacht alongside her old friends, visiting some of the most beautiful ports in the Mediterranean, culminating in her best friend Paul’s extravagant wedding in Greece. She especially isn’t looking forward to seeing Danial, the only other person in the group from a similar background as her, after he broke her heart ten years ago. But she’s going to make the best of it. Even if the trip brings everything - old insecurities, old resentments, and old attraction - back to the surface.

I had a great time with this book. The story balances the fantasy of a luxury vacation with how the vast majority of budget-conscious people would experience that trip. Our protagonist has worked hard to build herself a life on solid footing after making poor financial decisions as a young adult to keep up with her more wealthy friends. Her envy of their situation running concurrently with the disdain she feels for how much is taken for granted - it grounds the narrative. Very seldom do these types of books examine the kind of money it takes to have a supposed Instagram-worthy vacation, or how many members of the service industry are needed to achieve that level of indulgence.

I enjoyed the flashbacks to a decade before present-day, where the group of college friends is preparing for One Last Party before they all graduate and go their separate ways. It’s nice to see firsthand what Alex’s dynamic with the group was like. As the story goes on, it becomes clear what happened to make that dynamic go sour, and why Alex has been out of contact with most of the group. It helps endear her to the audience. I do wish there had been *one more chapter* set in that timeline, because while it was explained by the characters later on, I would have liked to read it from their perspectives instead.

The romance plot was good as well. Our romantic duo have both said and done things to one another to earn enmity, which makes the pair coming together that much more satisfying. This is a breath of fresh air in a genre riddled with enemies-to-lovers novels where the “enemy” hasn’t *actually* done anything to earn the poor opinion of our protagonist. ~It was just a misunderstanding!~ It’s like authors are afraid of losing favor with the audience if they attempt to give teeth to the conflict between the romantic couple. Fagan gives Alex a reason to want to avoid interacting with Danial. Alex, similarly, behaves in a way to put Danial on edge. I do think that part - the tension, the resolution - was written well, as a whole.

For me, there were just a few missteps in the pacing. For example, just past the midpoint of the novel, there’s a time jump that brings a whiplash-inducing tonal shift. During that scene, Alex and Danial refer to a conversation that the reader does not get to witness. I felt like I had missed something for several pages, but the scene I was looking for was not actually there.

This is my first time reading a work of fiction written by Chelsea Fagan, and I had a lot of fun with it. Fagan’s background in the financial world gives depth to the escapism of the narrative, and her point of view comes through in how Alex navigates both her political work and her relationships with her wealthy classmates. Fans of The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren and Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen will find another great summer vacation read in The High Dive.

**Thank you to Orsay Press and Chelsea Fagan for providing this ebook for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.**

Lush scene setting, chemistry between Alex and Danial, and amazing best friend (Paul!) this an enjoyable read. I couldn’t help but root for Alex and Danial and their angsty will they/why don’t they?! romance a decade in the making. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to Orsay Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

I finished this book in a day and that is not something I have done for a while (especially for a romance novel). The character dynamic and the problems of our main character come off the page in a very real and authentic way. It's messy and complicated and real but also beautiful. Honestly a really good read. I could definitely feel the connection between the two main characters and as the reader I was heavily invested.

I will say I found some of the time jumps a bit disorienting. I would've loved some transition between some of the scenes or event a page marker (like----) to indicate that time has passed. But overall one of the best romance novels I've read in a while.

I really loved the setting and plot of this book! The characters were unique and engaging and I loved the flashbacks. I actually wish there was more of the college flashbacks because by the time Alex and Danial got together it still felt a bit rushed, I wish there was more history explained leading up to it. A solid romance though, I enjoyed it!