Katherine Center’s The Shippers is bursting with festive wedding celebrations and a meddling, good-hearted cast of characters. Her newest rom-com follows the reunion of childhood best friends, Josephine “JoJo” Burton and Cooper Watts, and the hijinks that ensue when Cooper returns home from London.
Moments before walking down the aisle, anxious JoJo is shocked to see Cooper, who has returned from London after harshly RSVPing “No” to her nuptials. Upon seeing him, she feels as if her world is suddenly right-side up again and questions whether her engagement, born out of an ultimatum, is really the romantic foundation she wants her marriage to be built upon. Without seeing another way out of her wedding, she takes his advice and pretends to faint at the altar.
Much like his showing at the wedding, Cooper has floated in and out of JoJo’s life in what seem like the most inopportune emotional times for her. She’s a verifiable genius, yet the best explanation she can devise for her inability to find and follow through with love is . . . Cooper. And after abandoning her wedding, she decides a little break from real life, and him, at her sister’s destination wedding aboard a cruise ship is exactly what she needs. Instead, she finds Cooper again. First he crashes her wedding, then he crashes her sister’s wedding, and then agrees to a fake-dating scheme to help JoJo get another guy. His instigations are definitely the common denominator in their relationship. However, it becomes achingly clear that Cooper has loved her all along; he’s just waiting for her big brain to catch up.
Center reveals their love story in flashbacks, sprinkling in all the good bits along with the emotional struggles both endure as they grow up. The Shippers is as wordy as an old school regency historical, and JoJo’s emotional whiplash at times illuminates her immaturity rather than her quirky intelligence. However, there’s no template for growing up, and there are always bumps along the road when finding love, whether you’re on terra firma or in the middle of the ocean.