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JoJo Burton has just called off her wedding, at the very last second — with a little help from childhood best friend Cooper, who flew in last-minute (and after RSVP’ing no) from London. Then she has to go on a cruise a mere six weeks later for her sister’s wedding. It is not going to be fun being on a ship with 80 friends and family of the bride, many of whom were their neighbors for years. All the questions, the asides, the knowing looks? Misery.
Jojo is kind of known for being bad at love. But she and her sister have a plan: she’s going to win over her first kiss, another neighborhood kid who kissed her on a dare when she was just 10. It just so happens he’s going to be on the ship — and newly divorced. Her sister tells her a new psychology theory posits she may be unable to move on in love because of “fixation” on that first kiss. So. Plan in place, JoJo is going to conquer that guy.
When Cooper again shows up to this wedding when no one expected him, he gets roped into helping. It’s only fair: he just up and left to another continent without any warning four years earlier, and has been radio silent since. She’s missed her best friend, and while she’s happy for them to spend time together again — ah, they just get along so great! — she’s still carrying hurt and questions about why.
Naturally, the whole eight-day cruise is not quite smooth sailing. A lot happens, and not exactly according to plan. There will be surprises, some long-awaited answers to questions, and some added family drama. But as Katherine Center promises in an author’s note before the first chapter, this is a happily-ever-after. Not really a spoiler, but she wants to let us readers — weary from a tough world — know that we can count on happiness by the end of these 313 pages.
And she delivers. The Shippers isn’t my favorite of Center’s books, and it seems a bit “young” sometimes, but it is fun and fairly lighthearted, bringing us the rom-com goods we all need.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes 1 or 2 uses of strong language, 15 instances of moderate profanity, 45 uses of mild language, and 20 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes a whole scene about hickeys, kissing (no open-door scenes at all) and references to several characters having frequent sex. A short plot line involves a character’s abuse at the hands of a parent as a child. A woman is stalked for a few hours. A drunk man injures another man with a broken glass bottle.
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