ARC Review: The Shippers by Katherine Center

 

One of the hottest, fastest-rising rom-com stars delivers her latest swoon-worthy novel about a destination wedding on a cruise ship.

After a whole lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton decides to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister’s destination wedding on a cruise ship. With the help of a little pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her her first crush and first kiss (and who just happens to be a newly-divorced wedding guest ), and she decides to woo him during the cruise for some long-delayed closure. Only problem is, her sister’s a little busy being a bride at the moment—so JoJo ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, to be her wing man. Cooper: who RSVPed no, but then showed up, anyway. Cooper: who left town without a word four years earlier and moved to London. Cooper: who was, if she’s honest, the worst heartbreak of JoJo’s life. It’s bliss for her to see him again, and it’s agony, too—and the more they team up for Project Conquest, the more she obsesses over questions she can’t bring herself to ask.

Shipboard antics ensue in this witty, heart-tugging, childhood-friends-to-lovers romance—as JoJo and Cooper fake flirt, slow dance, share a cabin, sing duets, treat sunburns, get jealous, rescue each other over and over, and finally, at last, figure it all out in the most blissful, swoony, romantic way.

No one does summer romance quite like Katherine Center. THE SHIPPERS will take readers on the cruise of a lifetime in a story awash with romantic longing, top-notch banter, long-held secrets . . . and true love rediscovered.

Title: The Shippers

Author: Christina Lauren

Publisher: St. Martin's Press/Macmillan Audio

Expected Publication Date: May 19, 2026

Review:

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This was definitely one of my most anticipated books this year. I have really enjoyed Center's books and was looking forward to this story to see how it would unfold. Does she go a bit over the top with her stories, sure. That's what makes them fun. Scenarios that are just the far side of being outlandish where they could still possibly happen but you know they would not. This story 100% fit that bill for me. That's being said, this is not my favorite book by this author by far. I'm sad it did not meet my expectations. Warning, if you are not a fan of the miscommunication trope, you will not like this book. It is full on miscommunication throughout.

I got to listen the book as well as read the Kindle version. I love Patti Murin. She really knows how to voice characters so well. Each character becomes unique when she narrates a book. She really brought the characters and story to life for me.

I liked the FMC, Jojo. She is just a bit quirky and kind of clueless to many things. After she leaves her fiancé at the alter, she believes she is cursed and will never have a chance for love. When she and her sister figure out it all stems from her first childhood kiss, she is determined to set the record straight in order to move forward with her life. Jojo had a lot to learn in this book. Does she get there? Yes. Is it in the most round about way one could ever perceive possible? It sure is! She was frustrating sometimes to the point I couldn't believe she could be so clueless.

The MMC, Cooper, was hard to pin down. Since the story is told only from Jojo's POV, we rely on her to present his character to us. For me, this made it hard to really connect with him and truly know who he is. He does give off golden retriever vibes, always coming to Jojo's rescue. But other than that, I didn't find him to have much substance.

In all honesty, the characters didn't seem to fit their age. They truly came across as so much younger than they were. I would have pinned them as college age if it wasn't explained that they had already graduated. The maturity level just wasn't there.

The pacing of the book was nice. There were some scenes that dragged a bit, mostly those with long passages where characters were telling stories. But overall, it was a fast read. The plot was fun enough. I did see she wrote this back around COVID times and there is an author's note about that and how she didn't want to publish it at that time as it may not have gone over well given the circumstances around the world. I can honestly tell this is an earlier work. The writing just wasn't as tight as her most recent books. I felt like it could have done with just a bit more editing. There was so much telling and not enough showing for me to truly connect with the story. I also found most of the twists very predictable.

Overall the story was cute but this one, given my high expectations of it, just did not hit the mark for me. It won't stop me from reading Center's future books. She is a lover of love and her books always give me warm fuzzy feelings. I can always rely on her to get the characters to their happily ever after. She will remain an auto-read author for me. I hope her next book hits better for me.

Author:

BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She’s the New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels, including The Bodyguard, Hello Stranger, Things You Save in a Fire, and her summer 2024 book, The Rom-Commers. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books: bittersweet romantic comedies about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. She’s been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” The Netflix movie adaptation of her novel Happiness for Beginners—starring Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes—just hit the Global Top Ten in 81 countries, and the movie of her novel The Lost Husband was a surprise Netflix sensation in 2020, hitting number one and landing in their top 25 movies for the year. Her books have made countless Best-Of lists—at Audible, BookBub, and Book of the Month, as well as Goodreads' Best Books of the Year, and Amazon's yearly Top 100 books. Emily Henry calls The Bodyguard “my perfect 10 of a book,” and Jodi Picoult says of Things You Save in a Fire, “Just read it, and thank me later.” Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two almost-grown teenagers, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.