Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Karma's a Beach by Samantha Chase Narrator: Penelope Ann Rose, Willem Bloom
Published by Dreamscape Media on September 23, 2025
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Length: 8 hours, 58 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
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Let’s just say he was an ex for a reason, and I’d much rather write a speech about his flaws than wax poetic about what a great person he was. But I just couldn’t bring myself to say no to his mom when she asked.
So here we are.
I just have to get through the funeral, and then it’s a whole month of relaxing on the beach with my oldest friends.
But of course, nothing ever goes according to plan.
Entitled passengers, flight delays, lost luggage. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. And I might have had a little too much wine and spilled my entire life story to the man in the seat next to me. The incredibly nice, incredibly sexy man sitting next to me.
It’s a good thing I’ll likely never see him again.
Or so I thought.
The stranger who awkwardly comforts me at my ex’s funeral? Airplane guy.
And I’ll give you one guess about who shows up at the beach house.
Kill. Me. Now.
This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, but now I have to worry about how attracted I am to a man who knows entirely too much about me and only seems to catch me at my absolute worst.
Or maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll be into hot messes.
If you are ever going to have a slight emotional breakdown on a plane on the way to your Ex boyfriend’s funeral, it helps to sit next to a cute, nice and very patient man to tell all your woes after a few glasses of wine. Karma’s a Beach is currently a standalone romance following Olivia and Sebastian as they have an awkward meet cute on a plane and then find out they were both headed to the same funeral of Olivia’s Ex and Sebastian’s college roommate along with friend group trip to the beach afterward.
Liv is a writer struggling to accept she needs to change up her comfort genre for her publisher. She needs to plot out her next book and has a bit of writer’s block. It doesn’t help that she also agreed to write the eulogy for her Ex-boyfriend after his mom called and requested it. How can you say no to a grieving mother. However, Liv is trying to balance the truth of who her Ex was with kindness and sometimes that is hard to find after someone broke your heart. Sebastian/Ash helps Liv find a way to make it true but also kind.
Liv thought after the plane ride they were going their separate ways. That was until she finds out that Ash and a few others guys were invited on the girl’s trip to the beach she thought she was going on to reset and get her book outline drafted. While not excited to have to share her girl time, she is a little excited that Ash is one of the men in question.
This is a cute romance. There are some moments where I had to suspend my disbelief a little as Olivia sometimes jumps way to the left or right and picks some of the most ridiculous solutions to her problems. Ash is cute to just go along with it and I could see how they were a good fit. She is impetuous and goofy while he has a planned methodology to everything he does. As different friend group drama unfolds, they are thrown together time and time again. But what happens when the vacation is over and Ash goes back to work and Liv goes back to her life on the other side of the country.
I liked the conclusion to the story and the growth the Liv finally gets to. It was good to see her realize some things about her friends, their past and where they are headed in the future. Sebastian was adorable really and probably a little too good to be true. Liv was a bit manic and whiny in the beginning but at least she recognized that about herself and was determined to change her mindset.
Overall a cute romance with a satisfying conclusion. It seems like there has been a set up for another book in this series highlighting one of the friends but we will see if they are the main players in a future book.
Narration:
Performance: ★★★★
Character Separation: ★★★★
Diction: ★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★
Sound Effects: none
Penelope Ann Rose and Andre Bellido are both new to me narrators. They fit the characters they were portraying well and most of the time the story flowed well. I will say that for me the only time that wasn’t the case was during the sex scenes, they felt cheesy and for me were slightly distracting. I’m not sure if that is a narration issue or just how the scenes were written. All other parts of the narration were immersive and worked well for me.
Listen to a clip: HERE
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Sounds like a nice summer read.
definitely liked the end of summer vibe to it.
Love the title, and it does sound like a cute story. Great review!
Thank you Lisa. It is a great beach read for sure.