Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

The Shippers (St. Martin’s Press, May, 2026) is Katherine Center’s newest novel. I was fortunate enough to be offered an ARC by NetGalley and the publisher to read on my Kindle. In Goodreads, this soon-to-be published romcom currently has almost 2,000 reviews and over 2,500 ratings, with an average rating of 4.20 stars.

This is my 5th novel by this author, and while it was enjoyable, I don’t think it quite lives up to my two favorites, The Rom-Commers (my #1 favorite) and Hello Stranger (my #2 favorite). And, it comes in after the next two of my reads of Center’s works, being The Love Haters and The Lost Husband.

The Goodreads reviews for The Shippers are all over the place. Some people really loved it, they loved that it was the friends to lovers trope combined with the forced proximity trope (nearly the entire book takes place on a cruise ship). But quite a few people commented on the female main character’s level of maturity. Jojo is rocket smart but she keeps making the same bad decisions over and over.

It seems that everyone on Goodreads, however, loves the male main character Cooper. He is what is commonly known as “a keeper.” It’s just that Jojo has no interest in actually keeping him. She seems to always be chasing something bigger and better, something more shiny and flashy. For a young woman who excels at higher level math, she just can’t solve this problem.

I did enjoy this book, however. It is funny. There are some one-liners that are very clever. I mean, the title of this book is The Shippers and it takes place on a ship and the plot and subplots are all about ‘ships, as in relationships. I did like the synergy of that. I loved how Grandma Dodie jotted down slang words of the young people around her so she could stay on top of current trends.

I felt like the characters were well-developed and most of them continue to grow and evolve throughout the book. Jojo’s dad is making a gallant effort to rebrand himself. Jojo’s cousin Harmony turns out to be not as horrific as her family once thought she was. Jojo’s sister Ashley is using her wedding week to jump start Jojo’s next chapter of her life, quite a sacrifice from someone who likes everything organized and structured down to the most minute detail. (That side of Ashley, however, doesn’t jive with the last minute panic attack over the fitting of her very own wedding gown.) Jojo’s childhood crush Finn is a fully-developed grown man who is self-absorbed, self-indulgent, and full of arrogant self esteem, and while he isn’t that likable, he provides a good balance to Cooper, who knows exactly who he is and what he wants out of life, with absolutely no pretense whatsover. So why does it take so long for him to put a plan into action?

If I had to pick one slightly negative thing about this book, I’d have to go with the author’s repeated use of telling us what she was showing us, actually spelling out a written explanation of a gesture. An example:

“Ugh!” I said, clamping my eyes closed and waving my hand at Ashley, like Stop!

One or two of those would have been okay, but there are quite a few examples to the point where I said to myself,

“Okay, Katherine,” said Michelle, making a thumbs up sign, like I’ve got it, I can pick up on the non-verbal cues.

At 336 pages, this is a quick read. If friends to lovers is a favorite trope of yours, this might be a fun read for you. As with all of Center’s books, this one is nearly spice-free but there is a lot of smoke if not actual fire. For those readers who are sensitive to aggressive male behavior, there is a scene that might be a trigger for you. It is also subtle, but things could have turned out really badly for Jojo.

Thank you again to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!