Shipped by Angie Hockman Published by Gallery Books on January 19, 2021
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Edelweiss)
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Between taking night classes for her MBA and her demanding day job at a cruise line, marketing manager Henley Evans barely has time for herself, let alone family, friends, or dating. But when she’s shortlisted for the promotion of her dreams, all her sacrifices finally seem worth it.
The only problem? Graeme Crawford-Collins, the remote social media manager and the bane of her existence, is also up for the position. Although they’ve never met in person, their epic email battles are the stuff of office legend.
Their boss tasks each of them with drafting a proposal on how to boost bookings in the Galápagos—best proposal wins the promotion. There’s just one catch: they have to go on a company cruise to the Galápagos Islands...together. But when the two meet on the ship, Henley is shocked to discover that the real Graeme is nothing like she imagined. As they explore the Islands together, she soon finds the line between loathing and liking thinner than a postcard.
With her career dreams in her sights and a growing attraction to the competition, Henley begins questioning her life choices. Because what’s the point of working all the time if you never actually live?
Oh, Shipped. I wanted you to be so, so good… I love books set on cruises. I love cruising. It’s my favorite thing to do, and I miss it so much. I’ve gone on at least one cruise (but sometimes 3) every year since my first in 2005, and a cruise ship is my happy place. I was hoping Shipped would take me on an amazing cruise to the Galápagos islands, but I should have stayed in port…
I’m not in the mood for a normal review, so I’m going to list what I liked and what I didn’t like and call it a day.
What I Liked:
- Travel! The Galápagos Islands would be such a cool place to visit, and these people get to explore and see wildlife and beautiful scenery! The excitement of traveling was there, and I felt it.
- It’s low on the steam, sexy factor.
- Henley’s sister, Walsh, comes along on the trip and I enjoyed her character. She added a lot of color to a pretty dull palette of characters.
What I Didn’t Like:
- The romance was so, so lacking. I didn’t believe Henley and Graeme at all. I didn’t see any kind of emotional connection, and that’s essential for me in romance. I need the good stuff.
- The whole “workplace romance” thing. Henley and Graeme are on the ship to work and compete against one another for a promotion by coming up with some marketing proposal to bring in my business. I don’t go on a cruise to work, so I don’t want my characters to either. lol.
- The misunderstanding trope happens, and we all know that makes me stabby. Just! Communicate!
- This is not The Hating Game + The Unhoneymooners. It’s just not. Those are two of my very favorite books ever, and it does Shipped a huge disservice to compare it to two books that are so, so much better.
- I have nothing against ecotourism, but it came off as a bit overzealous.
- Love is not the antidote to trauma. There are some deeper issues in this story surrounding abuse, and they are pushed under the rug. I’m not even sure why this was included, except to check off some box.
- Has the author even… gone on a cruise? The heroine says, “we ascend the stairs to embark the vessel.” This is not grammatically correct. Embark is intransitive. You do not embark a ship. Nobody would ever say that. You just embark. A better choice would have been, “we ascend the stairs to board the vessel.” I really hope this was edited out before publication, because it had already happened twice by the time I hit 18%. And I’m sorry, but it’s not “cruise leader”. It’s “cruise director”. Nobody would ever say cruise leader.
- I had a lot of problems with the writing and word choices in this book, and I thought “on each other like duct tape” was as bad as it would get. But then… The couple was interrupted getting busy. Someone knocked on the door, making Henley’s “nether-kitty yowl and hiss”. Pretty sure this book lost a star for that one sentence alone.
All in all, this was a HUGE disappointment for me. At least I got to go to the Galápagos Islands, which is not a common travel destination in contemporary romance. But really, I can recommend many books that take you on a dream vacation that are better than Shipped. I honestly can’t say I recommend this one.
Oh noooo, I hate the misunderstanding trope so much. Sometimes, once in a blue moon, with teen fiction I can forgive it, I remember being a teen… it happened… but with adults?? Urgh!
I was disappointed by this one, too. I loved the setting–because I’ve been to the Galapagos Islands–but I didn’t love the romance as much as I hoped I would.