The Shippers by Katherine CenterMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am not sure whose nice list I got on, but yesterday a magical email arrived with a widget for an ARC of this book, and suddenly my December has been made! As per last time Katherine Center’s publisher smiled down upon me and entrusted me with the honor of reading one of my most-anticipated releases of the (next) year early, I will probably spend today on my couch and will not emerge from the pages (?) of my Kindle until I am ready to review. Stay tuned!
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Thank you to St. Martin's Press via NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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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 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.
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What is there even to say about another Katherine Center masterpiece being released into the world? Year after year, we get treated to the kind of romance that is absolutelyI fun to read. There are parts that are just laugh-out-loud funny. There's some excitement thrown in. There's plenty of will-they-or-won't-they tension (although we know we are going to get a HEA from this author, so of course they will in the end). And every year, Center finds some fun new central plot point to build her book around, and I have yet to be disappointed in one of them.
JoJo and Cooper's story is a witty, touching, satisfying journey from their childhood days all the way up until the last page of this summer romance. With shades of fake dating and the classic childhood-friends-to-lovers trope, along with some miscommunication (which is usually one of my least favorite tropes but works very well in this instance) and a bit of a redemption arc, we get some of Center's best, and I would recommend this to anyone who loves love. I often go back and purchase Center's book as audiobooks so that I can experience them again in a different format, and I can already tell The Shippers will be added to my audiobook library. It was an easy decision to rate this one five stars!
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