The Shippers by Katherine Center

💫🎤 Book Spotlight: The Shippers by Katherine Center

Genre:  Romantic Comedy • Women’s Fiction • Fake Dating

☕ Book Details & Rating

Format: eBook ARC

Series: Standalone

Year Published: 2026

Page Count: 336

Rating: ☕☕☕☕ (4 Coffees!)

🥤 Coffee Pairing: Caribbean Spiced Mocha with Dark Rum Syrup

Bold espresso. Dark chocolate. A splash of rum syrup. Finished with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a dusting of cocoa like it’s been through something dramatic and lived to tell the tale.

This pairing matches The Shippers by Katherine Center perfectly. It’s rich, slightly chaotic, a little glamorous, and just spicy enough in personality without actually crossing any lines. The Caribbean spice brings the island heat, while the dark chocolate keeps it grounded and emotionally layered.

It’s the kind of drink you sip while watching tension unravel, secrets surface, and hearts stubbornly try not to fall. 🌴✨

Disclaimer

ARC provided by Netgalley—review powered entirely by cold brew, chaos, and my own honest opinions.

About the Book

The Shippers by Katherine Center follows JoJo Burton as she boards a cruise ship for her sister’s destination wedding with one goal: finally fix her love life. After years of feeling unlucky in relationships, she convinces herself that closure with her first crush, now newly divorced and conveniently attending the wedding, is the key to solving her intimacy issues.

Enter Cooper Watts. Childhood best friend. Former heartbreak. The one who left town without warning four years ago. When JoJo ropes him in to help her execute “Project Conquest,” the cruise quickly becomes less about winning over an old crush and more about facing the unresolved feelings simmering between her and Cooper.

What follows is a summer romance full of fake flirting, forced proximity, jealousy, long-held secrets, and slow-building emotional tension—all set against the backdrop of sunburns, dance floors, shared cabins, and shipboard chaos.

Witty, heartfelt, and swoony without spice, this is a childhood-friends-to-lovers story about second chances, honest conversations, and finally figuring out what—and who—you really want.

My Thoughts

Katherine Center does it again. She delivers a swoon-worthy rom-com with no spice.

When we meet JoJo, she’s on her way to get married… or at least that’s what she keeps trying to convince herself. She’s in full-blown panic mode. Then enters Cooper, her childhood best friend who ghosted her four years ago. He had RSVP’d no to her wedding, but suddenly he’s there, helping her escape what she thought was her dream day. And then he disappears again.

Fast forward to her sister’s wedding a few months later, and Cooper shows up once more, just in time to help JoJo pursue the man she believes is the love of her life. Let’s just say JoJo does not have the best track record when it comes to men. Her ex and the guy she is trying to land (I am terrible at remembering names) are absolute tool bags. But JoJo is determined to break the spell of her first kiss, the one she measures every other kiss against. It’s part of why she struggles to fully commit.

Her sister Ashley, who is in school to become a therapist, suggests that JoJo has “imprinted” on that first kiss with the guy she is pursuing her Ashley's wedding. One thing I love about Katherine Center’s books is that she educates you through her storytelling. Yes, it’s a rom-com, but you’re still learning something. I had never heard of imprinting in this context before reading this book.

I typically love a fake dating trope. This time, though, it didn’t fully land for me. They’re fake dating, or more accurately fake flirting, to make another guy notice JoJo as her adult self. Usually, fake dating is about saving face around family or needing a plus-one for events. Here, the goal is to make someone jealous. And the only reason that guy becomes interested is because he sees Cooper wanting her. That’s just shady. If he’s willing to pursue someone who appears to be with another man, that shows a lack of boundaries and respect.

Center also does a great job of highlighting uncommon careers. JoJo is an art teacher, which sounds straightforward, but she combines math and art in a really unique way. Cooper is a foley artist, which was fascinating to read about. I always appreciate how Center weaves interesting professions into her stories.

Love turned out to be math, after all- complex, and hidden, and so hard ot unearth, but there. Most of us never get fluent enough in the language of math to see its beauty. Maybe that's true of love, as well. But the beauty is there, all the same. Quietly there, and undiscovered- until it isn't. - Katherine Center, The Shippers

I also loved the side characters. The grandma was a hoot. The “beer bros” on the other cruise ship (think stereotypical frat guys) added some chaotic humor. JoJo’s parents have their own storyline, and I really enjoyed watching that unfold. We see more from her dad’s perspective than her mom’s. At first, he seems like a jerk, but it becomes clear that he loves his family in his own complicated way. I won’t spoil that arc, but it ends up being very sweet.

And as always, Center finds a creative way to skirt around where the spicy scenes would normally be. I always look forward to seeing how she handles that. This time was especially inventive. It wasn’t the typical interruption or last-minute cold feet. It tied into a major plot point, so I won’t say more, but it was done very well.

Final Thoughts

The Shippers by Katherine Center is another heartfelt, swoony rom-com that blends humor, emotional depth, and character growth in a way only Center can. While the fake dating angle didn’t fully work for me this time, the childhood-friends-to-lovers tension, layered family dynamics, and steady emotional payoff more than made up for it. I loved watching JoJo confront her patterns and finally choose something healthier for herself.

As with all of Katherine Center’s books, this is a closed-door romance, but there is some language throughout. No spice, but definitely not squeaky clean. If you enjoy witty banter, slow-burn reconnection, and summer chaos on a cruise ship with real emotional stakes, this one is absolutely worth the trip.