Review - Barging In by Josephine Myles
Barging In
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Tags: Contemporary UK Setting
Posted in Book Reviews on 19 July, 2026
Dan is a freelance travel writer. He’s been hired to do an article on canal boating. It turns out steering a long boat is harder than it looks, especially when you’re distracted by a shirtless hunk chopping wood on the towpath. Despite his best efforts, Dan bumps into the boat he was trying to avoid, which turns out to belong to Robin, the distracting shirtless woodchopper. The short-tempered young man lives full time on his barge and has no patience for “tourists” who don’t know how to handle their boats, like Dan. Despite the frosty reception, Dan is strongly attracted to Robin and determines to win him over.
“Barging In” is set in the quirky world of modern day itinerants who live on the narrow boats that once formed the backbone of UK commerce. This is very much an opposites-attract romance, with both Dan and Robin having some emotional baggage from past relationships and upbringing. This is also more of a slice-of-life story. No Big Dramatic Event forces out two heroes together. Rather, the relationship evolves naturally, with the kind of ups and downs you might expect in the real world.
Dan is a friendly and outgoing young man with an active sex life. He doesn’t seem to believe in romance or love. As put-together as Dan may seem, we soon find out he has his own personal challenges which hinders the developing relationship with Robin.
Robin’s demons are a little closer to the surface, but it takes a while before we get the details of what caused them, although there are a few secrets he never reveals in full. With his past haunting him, Robin is a bit harder to like, but as Dan discovers, he is a gentle person underneath the gruff front.