Irene Magers Gingold, Cruise Ship Diaries

Cruise Ship Diaries

Irene Magers Gingold

Publish America, May 2006

ISBN: 142411618X

In New York, forty-four year old married trice but now single, Margaret Maghpye is stunned when after twelve years at the firm she loses her position as a paralegal at Goodman, Barr & Noune. Her boss Laura Noune unfairly blames Margaret for poor research for a terrible day at court. Stunned and with no one to tie her down, Margaret decides she needs to escape her troubles and the wintry teen temperature of Manhattan, so she uses her meager savings to go on a Mexican cruise, though she knows she cannot afford this financially. She prays this will lift her out of her growing depression.

She flies to San Diego where she boards the Mexican Star for seventeen days and nights of what Margaret hopes is uplifting fun. However, instead of an upbeat time, Margaret feels the sexual shenanigans on-board too overwhelming, and the port stop at Acapulco too commercial. However, the topper occurs when an elderly passenger Francine Wirth is being tossed from the ship at a remote Mexican hospital because she suffered an injury which cannot be treated by the ship's doctor; this stuns Margaret (and readers). On the plus side she meets and is attracted to passenger Michael Sanders, though he seems withdrawn. While he has a different agenda for being on this excursion, he cannot stop himself from wanting to spend time with Margaret.

The sea cruise romance between the middle aged couple is handled deftly, as the two protagonists fear love, but cannot help themselves stop the attraction. However, what makes the CRUSIE SHIP DIARIES different than the myriad of ship romance novels is the insight into the downside of cruises, in which the lines are held unaccountable once they cross into international waters, as the Francine incident apparently is genuine. Irene Magers Gingold provides a delightful and charming contemporary with quite a stunning message that the passengers have fun but beware.