REVIEW: The Shippers by Katherine Center

In The Shippers by Katherine Center, Roughly six weeks before her sister Ashley’s destination wedding cruise sets sail, JoJo Burton’s love life implodes in a very public way. So, to say she isn’t really in the right frame of mind to be a bridesmaid and celebrate all things romance is putting it mildly. But she would never dream of bailing on family. Plus, it means JoJo gets the chance to see her former childhood crush, Finn Turner, who will be a guest on said ship. She and Ashley concoct a plan they dub Project Conquest. The idea is to help JoJo win over the guy who gave her the most magical first kiss in history back when they were still neighbors. That kiss is what set the standard for her life. And after years of failing at relationships, constantly comparing guys to Finn, JoJo hopes this will be the start of something wonderful.

Things get off to a dramatic start when Finn is nowhere to be found. Although the one person JoJo didn’t expect to be onboard–her former BFF, Cooper Watts, whom she has only seen once in the past four years–steps onto the ship and changes everything. When Finn finally makes an appearance, Cooper begins to help JoJo with Project Conquest. But instead of focusing on her target: Finn, she can’t help but wonder when Cooper got so tall. Or when his forearms got so muscly. It’s a distraction she doesn’t need. But she’ll take all the help she can get because things are not progressing as planned with Finn. And after a series of unfortunate events that has JoJo wondering if the universe is out to get her, she settles back into a pleasing rhythm–but with Cooper, not Finn. It has her rethinking, well, everything from their past friendship and realizing that her future plans might need some serious tweaking.

‘Maybe if you’re going to take the biggest chance of your life–it should be with someone you already know by heart.’

A rom-com with oodles of heart, laughter, and misunderstandings, THE SHIPPERS was a glowing reminder why Katherine Center is one of my go-to authors. Her couple for this story, JoJo and Cooper, had been best friends since the day they met in elementary school. Thick as thieves. Together every day. Well, until college ended, and then Cooper disappeared to London. Brought together again by JoJo’s sister’s destination wedding aboard a cruise ship, this was a mixed up, complicated friends to lovers romance that took nearly everything JoJo thought she knew about Cooper and flipped it upside down.

Center is known for her quick-witted, often hilarious banter and JoJo and Cooper had that down pat. The duo was so in tune with each other even after four years apart that it was almost comical how quickly they fell back into old patterns. But it was the spark between them that (mostly) hadn’t been explored yet that took JoJo by surprise. Told strictly from her POV, we got an up close and personal look at her thoughts on her bestie and how, ahem, well he’d cleaned up while in London. I loved seeing her focus shift from Finn–who was never right for her, in my opinion–over to Cooper who was *such* a good guy. It took a while for JoJo to come to certain conclusions. But Center pulled off an incredibly sweet, perfect ending that left everyone involved in the best of places.

TROPES/THEMES:

• Friends to lovers
• Forced proximity
• Rom-com
• Wedding cruise chaos
• Family shenanigans

CW: View Spoiler »Kidnapping, domestic abuse, assault « Hide Spoiler

THE SHIPPERS turned out to be an adventure on the high seas that had me chuckling and sighing happily in equal measures thanks to Katherine Center’s thoughtful prose and the highly entertaining predicaments she threw her characters into.

QOTD: Have you ever “shipped” anyone together–someone you know or even celebrities?

Book Info:

Publication: Published: May 19th, 2026 | St. Martin’s Press |

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.