When was the last time you read a shipwreck romance? I’m not sure I could tell you for myself, though there are good odds that I’ve read at least one historical romance that included a pirate and a shipwreck in the couple of decades I’ve been reading romances. But Noelle Adams has taken the idea and sailed away with it (haha) in Restoration, an enjoyable and unique contemporary romance.

Autumn has been a personal assistant for wealthy playboy billionaire Edmund Worthing for several years. She’s at his beck and call day and night, and even has a guest cottage on his estate. She’s seen him date several different women, and while she finds him attractive, their relationship has always been just business. But she’s grown tired of him not growing up and her role in enabling his dependance on her behavior. So she’s resigning, with an end date for when they come back from a luxurious extended cruise.

But things go dreadfully awry when a wicked storm destroys their yacht, leaving Edmund and Autumn stranded on an isolated island in the middle of the ocean. The shock of the event leads to different survival instincts coming to the fore. Autumn is all-in on providing for their survival, finding fresh water from a spring, coconuts for food, and working on a shelter. Edmund believes they’ll be rescued imminently so all his focus is on making them visible to airplanes or ships, writing big SOS signs in the sand. But as the days go by, Edmund loses that hope and starts to help Autumn prepare for the long haul. Along the way, their situation leads to intimacy, both emotional and physical. Edmund’s playboy persona is shed and he becomes the man Autumn knew existed underneath.

The dangers of living in an isolated environment are not shied away from and both characters undergo some tense situations, reminding the reader that it’s not all fun and games and there’s no survivor cameraman waiting to come to their rescue. But, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that there is ‘a’ rescue – you can’t have a happy ending if two characters don’t get rescued from a desert island. How it happens and what happens after is satisfying and once again, Noelle Adams proves that she’s adept at taking any situation and making a successful contemporary romance out of it. (And if you’re in the mood for an amnesia plot, identical twins switching places, or a bodyguard romance, check out the rest of the Worthings series).