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NetGalley Review of The Shippers

Posted on May 11, 2026December 18, 2025 by caritagardiner
Screenshot 2025-12-16 at 7.45.18 PM

title: The Shippers

author: Katherine Center

publisher: St. Martin's Press

publication date: May 19, 2026

pages: 336

peppers: 2 (on this scale)

warnings:

  • violence
  • sexual harassment
  • drunkenness

summary: Jojo's sister Ashley decides that Jojo's unlucky-in-love curse comes from being bonded forever to the boy who first kissed her. Fortunately, he's going to be on the cruise everyone's taking for Ashley's wedding. Also fortunately, Jojo's best childhood friend Cooper will help her to win over said first kiss. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, that's not how things unfold.

tropes:

  • friends-to-lovers
  • pining
  • ruin the wedding
  • only one bed

what I liked:

  • pining
  • narrative lack of insight
  • the plan
  • humor
  • Jojo's family
  • math-talk

what I didn’t like:

  • n/a

overall rating: 5 (of 5 stars) -- I feel so lucky I got to read this book!

As always, you can click on the photo above if you want to buy the book.

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WHAT I DO

I serve as a class dean and teach English to high schoolers at a boarding school in Connecticut. I’ve earned a Bachelor of Arts (Amherst College), an Education Master in Learning and Teaching (Harvard University Graduate School of Education), a Master of Arts in English (Bread Loaf School of English), and most recently a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with a certificate in the online teaching of writing (Southern New Hampshire University).

As a writer, I hope to capture the complexity and joy of life in the New England boarding school world. On this site, I share what I know about trying to write fiction while deaning, teaching English, coaching, and doing the other tasks associated with helping to raise over six hundred other people’s children.

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Read my recent “Why” Wednesday Blog Posts

  • NetGalley Review of The Shippers
  • NetGally Review of Love Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
  • NetGalley Review of First and Forever
  • 384. Why The Imperfectionist
  • NetGalley Review of Burnout Summer
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