Sunday, August 17, 2025

Cruise to Death Tour & Giveaway

About the Book

Book: Cruise to Death

Author: Sara L. Jameson

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release Date: June 1, 2021

When opera singer Riley Williams agrees to sub as a musical-theater performer on a luxury Rhine/Moselle riverboat cruise, she gets more than she bargained for. Not only must she come up with 250 Broadway songs, she is required to dance with the male passengers. Dance—the subject she nearly failed in her Conservatory courses, and the cause of her recent flop in a European Opera House. To make matters worse, she overhears two terrorists at a café in Antwerp, Belgium, discussing the transfer of deadly agent X to the highest bioterrorist bidders.

Interpol agent Jacob Coulter, an anti-terrorism desk analyst in Brussels, Belgium, insists on serving as an undercover agent after his best friend Noel is murdered by terrorists from the Brussels cell he infiltrates. Shortly before Noel dies, he manages to tell Jacob snippets of the terrorists’ plans. Plans that seem to involve the same riverboat cruise Riley is on. When Interpol learns of Riley’s encounter with terrorists, Jacob’s supervisor insists he work with her to identify the terrorists and retrieve agent X. But their relationship is fraught with distrust because of Riley’s suspicious past and a romantic attraction neither of them wants.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Sara L. Jameson won Scrivenings Press’s grand prize publishing contract in January 2021. They released her debut romantic suspense novel, Cruise to Death, in June 2021. Death in High Places, (Book 2 in the Troubled Waters series), released February 2023, followed byVengeance in Vienna, July 2024.

In real life, Sara is a multi-published, former university professor who writes non-fiction under her real name and edits book manuscripts for other authors. She also pens WWII historical novels. When not at her computer, she enjoys reading, swimming, cooking, dog-sitting, and spending time with friends.

More from Sara

For someone who loves to swim and enjoys cruising on a ship as long as land is in sight, a European riverboat cruise solved my anxiety. Cruise to Death was conceived during a Uniworld cruise that originated in Antwerp, Belgium, where my family had lived twenty-fives years prior and fallen in love with the country.

But the lack of security on the cruise concerned me. Especially when our ship docked parallel to another cruise line, and all passengers passed through the other boat to disembark and re-embark without staff scrutiny. Perfect place for someone not on your cruise to hide, right?

Perfect fodder for a romantic suspense novel. Add in a pickpocket who craftily robbed a family member, and a budding novelist determined the crime wouldn’t go unremembered. You know those writers’ T-shirts warning you whatever you say and do might end up in a novel—sometimes it’s true.

Part of the fun writing this story was a chance to retrace the stops along the Rhine and Moselle rivers and stay in settings that appear in the novel. If you have a chance to take a riverboat cruise, I highly recommend it!

MY REVIEW

It’s time to board the ship for an adventure that has a good storyline with a hint of romance. I liked the concept of a mystery on a cruise ship which gives readers a chance to try to solve the mystery. It doesn’t take long for our two main characters to join forces to try to stop a group that want to harm many.

I’m not a big fan of boats or ships and really don’t care for being out in the water. However this story made me want to explore a cruise ship and see all the attractions it has. I’ve heard it’s like having your own private world at your fingertips. The author does a good job of describing life on a cruise ship which includes entertainment and nonstop fun.

I think Riley may be over her head when she teams up with Jacob to help him catch the terrorists before they can execute their plan. Riley is an opera singer who substitutes for her friend as the singer for the ship. It is suspicious that her friend gets food poisoning on the ship and has to be hospitalized.

Jacob has come onboard the ship undercover in order to stop a deadly toxin that is set to be used to cause damage to many. I liked Jacob but did think he wasn’t always the smartest when it comes to solving the mystery. He gets deathly ill and decides it is a good idea to let Riley put hearing devices in the suspects cabin. I wasn’t quite sure that it was a great idea to give Riley such a huge responsibility .

At times the story can be funny and over the top at the same time. I did laugh at how Riley inserts herself into the investigation expecting everyone to allow her to join with no questions asked. The author does a good job of giving readers little crumbs to help us try to solve who was behind the plot to release a deadly toxin.

Jacob suddenly suspects Riley of being with the terrorists. I can’t say exactly why I had a problem with this because I don’t want to give anything away. Will Jacob look more closely at the evidence and trust Riley? Well readers you will need to read the story to find out. I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.