“Your Love” - The Outfield
It would be impossible to create a playlist for IF ALL ELSE SAILS without including a song that starts like this: “Josie’s on a vacation far away.” It’s too perfect, considering the book’s opening, wherein Josie, an elementary school nurse on summer vacation, meets up with her brother for their Super Summer Sibling Extravaganza.
Only … her brother isn’t waiting for her and there is no extravaganza.
Instead of a vacation far away, Josie gets tricked into helping her brother’s best friend, a grumpy hockey player whom she’s never gotten along with, recover from an injury. Which does lead to a sailing trip, and I think that technically counts as a vacation far away.
While the upbeat vibe and first line of this song is perfect for IF ALL ELSE SAILS, please disregard the rest of the lyrics and meaning behind the song. There are no one-night stands, no cheating, and definitely no questionable age gaps in my book.
“Poison and Wine” - The Civil Wars
This has to be the anthem for the enemies to lovers trope. Though Josie and Wyatt don’t quite rise to the soul-crushing angst in “Poison and Wine,” they have years of bad blood between them, years of misunderstanding, years of Wyatt suffering from a self-diagnosed case of foot-in-mouth disease.
And yet …
There are also years of tension and chemistry that have been secretly simmering into something utterly delicious.
I could also see Josie and Wyatt enjoying an early-morning coffee on deck with their dog, Jib, while this song plays softly over the sound of water lapping at the boat and the wind rustling the sails.
“These Arms of Mine” - Otis Redding
Wyatt and Josie listen to a steady diet of his uncle’s favorite sailing songs, which include artists like Sam Cooke, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elvis, and Otis Redding. These are the songs I associate with my own childhood and times with my family.
One of my favorite scenes in IF ALL ELSE SAILS is where Wyatt and Josie slow dance to this song. As a person with an appalling lack of rhythm and three left feet, I love writing characters who share my affliction. And I also love it when two people who don’t love dancing dance with each other anyway.
There’s something about two people holding each other close, swaying badly and stepping on each other’s feet, while a song from Otis plays. Add in the soft rocking of the sailboat, and it’s a real moment. A moment that almost leads to a kiss in this case …
“Carolina” – Jason Harrod
North Carolina has inspired a number of songs, and if you’ve been there, you understand why. This is my favorite of the songs about North Carolina, and it’s fitting for this playlist when so much of Wyatt’s and Josie’s trip takes place there.
This duet (featuring Claire Holley) has a great, low-key vibe for slow cruising down the Intracoastal Waterway.
“Mystery” - Indigo Girls
Every summer playlist should include at least a handful of songs from the Indigo Girls—on this, I will fight you. “Mystery” is perfect for IF ALL ELSE SAILS not only because of the vibe and sound but also so many of the lyrics.
“I could go crazy on a night like tonight / When summer's beginning to give up her fight /And every thought's a possibility”
When the summer ends for Josie and Wyatt, they’ll have to make big decisions. He’s a hockey player who lives in Boston. She’s a school nurse who lives in Virginia. What’s going to happen when the boat returns home and their time together ends?
“But not everything is better spoken aloud / Not when I'm talking to you”
Because of Wyatt’s inability to say what he means around Josie, for years, so much of what he thinks and feels has been unspoken. But after their time together on the boat, the silence between them becomes a very different kind, where the unspoken words are ones that don’t need to be said.
In this enemies-to-lovers romance, school nurse Josie and her brother's best friend--hockey player Wyatt Jacobs--are tricked into spending a summer together that's anything but smooth sailing.
When Josie's brother sends her to a random address for their (sometimes) annual Super Summer Sibling Extravaganza, she finds neither siblings nor extravaganzas. Instead, ends up at a run-down cottage on the Northern Neck of Virginia occupied by a hockey player she knows and loathes.
A hockey player who isn't just one of her sports agent brother's clients. He's also his best friend. And Josie's sworn enemy.
Oh--and her brother wants Josie to help Wyatt recover from his injury.
Dragging grumpy hockey players to physical therapy is a far cry from bandaging skinned knees, but for the price her brother offers to pay, Josie is willing to try.
Even if it means sharing what she dubs the quaint little murder cottage with Wyatt.
Begrudgingly, Josie starts to see a little more of the man behind the grumpy exterior. And when she finds out he was supposed to sail the Intracoastal Waterway south to Savannah scattering his uncle's ashes, Josie surprises even herself by offering to be Wyatt's first mate.
Smooth sailing is nowhere to be found, and Josie begins to wonder if they'll be able to make it home without killing--or kissing?--each other.
And yet, the longer they share cramped quarters and canned food, the more of Wyatt's layers she peels back until Josie realizes she misunderstood him, their shared history, and perhaps herself as well.
Romance Comedy [Thomas Nelson, On Sale: August 5, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9781400346943 / eISBN: 9781400346950]
Emma St. Clair is a USA TODAY bestselling author who loves sassy heroines, witty banter, and love stories with heart and humor. Her books have sizzling chemistry while keeping the bedroom door closed. She has an MFA in Fiction and lives in Katy, TX (go Tigers!), with her hubby, five children, and Great Dane. Her favorite place to write is tapping on her phone while on the elliptical machine.
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