The Shippers by Katherine Center is all that and a bag of chips. JoJo Burton feels stuck in her relationships, and is hoping to solve her problems on her sister’s wedding cruise. Her best friend from childhood, Cooper Watts, agrees to help. But they have had their ups and downs and what if he could be the one?

I adored this novel! It was funny, romantic, and engaging. I was so invested in the main characters JoJo and Cooper with their delightful banter, chemistry and sweet friendship! This novel was filled with so much humor, delight, and I appreciated the depth of the story and characters. The cruise setting was wonderful and I loved the subplots with other family members. This story reminds you that you really never know people quite as much as you think you do. It is always good to look a little deeper in their lives before passing judgement.

 

I was able to listen to the story narrated by Patti Murin. The narrator made the story very engaging and I listened as I drove. The voices were very distinct and I was sometimes surprised she was the only narrator. Amazing job.

I adored The Shippers by Katherine Center and read by Narrated by Patti Murin. It had all the feels and brought me so much joy! I highly recommend and this will be a 2026 favorite for me.

I was gifted an ALC and book and not required to write a positive review.   

BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She’s the New York Times bestselling author of over half a dozen books, including How to Walk Away, Things You Save in a Fire, and What You Wish For. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. She’s been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” Her books have made countless Best-Of lists, including RealSimple’s Best Books of 2020, Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2019, Goodreads' Best Books of the Year, and many more. Bestselling author Emily Henry calls her summer 2022 book, The Bodyguard, “a shot of pure joy.” The movie adaptation of Katherine’s novel The Lost Husband (starring Josh Duhamel) hit #1 on Netflix, and her novel Happiness for Beginners is now a Netflix original starring Ellie Kemper. Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two kids, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog