REVIEW: "A Star to Steer Her By" by Beth Anne Miller (New Adult, Romance)

A STAR TO STEER HER BY by Beth Anne Miller
	Publisher: Entangled: Embrace Genre: New Adult, Romance Publication Date: March 20th 2017
Categories:
Adventurers, Forbidden Love (Ship employee and student)
Other Books by Beth Anne Miller
Description from Publisher:
I’m scarred. Broken. I’ll never be the same. But I will take this journey. Ever since my last dive ended in bloodshed, I’ve been terrified to go back into the water. But the opportunity to spend a semester at sea is too good to pass up. I need to get my life back. I never expected to love it this much. And I never expected Tristan MacDougall. Rugged, strong, and with demons of his own, Tristan helps me find the courage I thought I had lost and heals me with every stolen moment we share. But the rules of the ship mean we can't be together. When a dive excursion goes terribly wrong, our only hope for survival is each other.
My Rating:	Heat Rating:
A definite homerun! This book had everything I could have wanted! The growth for basically every character was wonderful, not least of all Ari and Tristan. The slow burn (my favorite type of Romance) was a sizzle to an inferno, engulfing me in the best way. The deepening of their relationship was perfectly done, slowly unveiling the sadnesses they both hid just under the surface endearing them to me. The friendships that developed with Kevin and Jenny were a great addition, and I really enjoyed the bit of surprise with these two by the end. They weren't who I had pegged them to be in the beginning. This had some really great suspense and tense scenes, involving so much of what you might expect to encounter while on a schooner at sea. Animals, other humans, roiling waves, and a storm or two all created a riveting drama. I will say that I don't know much (okay, anything) about sailing,  but definitely feel like I was there on the adventure with Ari, learning about it all. The descriptions are so vivid and the setting just so incredibly immersive! It has to be noted that Miller did a nice job of Scottish accents here too. I had no problem hearing the Scot in Tristan or the Captain, which was really just a treat. :)
My Source: I received a digital ARC from the publisher to voluntarily review. This in no way influenced my review. My opinion is unbiased and my 100% own.

About the Author: Beth Anne Miller
My first book, written in elementary school, was bound in pink fabric and was about—what else?—a girl and her horse. I soon began cheating on horses with the sea, becoming an open water scuba diver at age 14. That love of the sea led me to a college semester aboard a schooner. I returned with fond memories of the exhilaration of being on a ship under full sail, less fond memories of hurling over the leeward rail on a daily basis, and a sailing bug I couldn’t quite shake. In addition to horses and the sea, I have a fascination for all things Scottish (including, but not limited to, men in kilts), which I explored with my first novel, INTO THE SCOTTISH MIST (The Wild Rose Press, 2011), and carried into my new novel, A STAR TO STEER HER BY (Entangled Embrace, March 2017). A native New Yorker, I work in the publishing industry and am always looking ahead to my next voyage, whether a short one on a dive boat or whale watch, or, with luck, a longer one on a tall ship.