Laura had her heart broken the summer after she graduated from high school. She had grown up in a small town in Ohio, Bordeaux, and she loved it. She didn’t want to leave. But her high school boyfriend Rob did. He wanted to go to MIT and study engineering. Laura knew that he was planning on leaving her for bigger and better things. But she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible before he leaves.
But that day, Laura had gone inside to find her mom really upset. There had been a lot of fighting between her and Laura’s dad lately, but that didn’t prepare her for what was about to happen. Her father had been away on a work trip, and he just made the announcement on the phone call that he’s not coming back. He’s leaving Laura and her mother for another woman. And then, on Laura’s date with Rob that night, he ends their relationship. He thinks that they are too young to stay in a long-term relationship while he’s at college. He wants them both to focus on their futures. Laura is devastated, but she lets him go.
Six years later, Laura has followed her dreams of becoming a hair stylist and is working at the Dippity Do. She has stayed in Bordeaux, and while she’s dated some here and there, she hasn’t found anyone she wanted to settle down with. She still has her heart pretty locked down from that day six years ago when her world fell apart.
But then Rob moves back to Bordeaux.
He’s not seeing anyone either, and while he’s certainly seen Laura around town, he hasn’t wanted to to insert himself back into her life. And then the rain poured down.
Laura came out of the Dippity Do that night with no umbrella. She’d grabbed a hair styling cape, but the wind whipped it out of her hands as soon as she stepped out of the shop. Rob had stepped up with an umbrella and walked her to her car. But then she realized she didn’t have her car keys—a friend had borrowed her car earlier and had forgotten to return them. So Rob gave her a ride to her apartment, over the garage at her aunt and uncle’s house. Since she didn’t have her keys, she couldn’t use them to get it, but she had hidden a key under the mat. Only, another friend had used that when she’d come over earlier needing a quiet place to work. She’d forgotten to replace the kay, and the rain was still coming down.
What choice did Rob have? He brought Laura to his house, so she could put on some dry clothes and get something to eat. She changed into some sweats while he warmed up leftover lasagna and made his special hot cocoa. After dinner, Rob drover her back to her apartment and he broke in, so she could get in and get some sleep.
But spending time around Laura has Rob thinking of how much he wants her back. He is a scientist, so he starts treating this project like an experiment, paying attention to the parts of the plan that work and adjusting the ones that don’t. But he knows it will be a monumental achievement to get past all those walls she’s put up, mostly because of him. Still, he is determined.
Laura, meanwhile, is delivered some bad news. Frieda, the owner of Dippity Do and Laura’s boss and mentor, almost a second mother to her, has to sell the stop. Her mother had a stroke, and she and her husband are moving to Florida to take care of her. Laura is heartbroken to lose her, and to possibly lose the shop. But Frieda tells her that if Laura can raise the money in the nest three months, she’d be happy to sell her the Dippity Do. Laura doesn’t have the money herself, but she and her friends come up with ideas for fundraising to try to save the salon before Frieda has to close it.
Laura has to make some big decisions about the rest of her life, but the biggest one, she finds, is that she needs to forgive those who had hurt her in the past, so she can move on to a better future. And that includes Rob. She can forgive him for breaking her heart back when she was a teenager. But if she lets him win over her heart again, and then leaves again for bigger and better things (because he’s the kind of guy who will be offered big opportunities), will Laura be able to forgive herself for giving him a second chance?
Battleshipped is the second book of Savannah Scott’s Getting Shipped series of rom coms. This enemies-to-friends love story has it all—social media influencers, YouTubers, science experiments, cocoa with secret ingredients, award-winning cupcakes, a bachelor auction, and a Midwestern-Thai fusion restaurant called O-Thai-O. It’s sweet, with lots of small-town charm and a true Midwestern heart.
I listened to the audiobook of Battleshipped, read in turns by Amy McFadden and Will Damron. I thought the voices fit the characters well, with Amy adding a little snark to Laura’s voice and Will adding thoughtful intelligence to Rob’s. I liked this book, but there were moments that I felt that the story was a little flat. While I liked these characters, I was wanting a story where I felt like there was more at stake for the leads. But it was sweet and enjoyable, perfect for a light read or a fun listen.
A copy of the audiobook for Battleshipped was provided by Dreamscape Media through NetGalley, but I also happened to catch a really good sale on the Kindle version on Amazon.
