Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
trigger warnings: death of a parent, ALS, mentions of a previous abusive relationship
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
🐢 Book Review: Shipped by Angie Hockman 🐢
💤 Bookstagram, you are sleeping on this one! I absolutely devoured Shipped by Angie Hockman and you should pick it up immediately.
💻 It's a forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers romance between two marketing managers fighting for the same promotion. To put them to the test, the cruise ship company they work for sends them to the Galápagos Islands to come up with innovative campaigns to promote their travel offers.
💕 I'm telling you, you are not ready for the banter and chemistry between Henley and Graeme, our two MCs. They are both warm, caring, career-driven people and you can't help but ship them from the start. There is also a great cast of supporting characters, with their own storylines that help anchor the story (no pun intended). I always appreciate when there is more than just the romance in a romance book. After all, people's lives are always multilayered and complicated, and it's important for me to have realistic characters in a fictional world that is a mirror of reality.
🦩 What I loved most about this book though doesn't even have to do with the romance. I loved the descriptions of the Galápagos and the flora and fauna the characters encounter. You could just feel that this book is written by someone with a deep love for nature - and I relate so much to that. Books with animals will always hit different for me. And I definitely want to visit the Galápagos now! 😍
💪 I also loved the workplace dynamics and found so many situations frustratingly recognisable. If you're a corporate girlie, you'll feel very seen in this book. But dare I say, also inspired and empowered.
🏝 I highly recommend this book to everyone. It's fun and summery, while resting on some serious backbones that make it feel real and important.
Rating: 4.75 ⭐️
📚 Have I convinced you to pick up this book?
🦎 Tell me your favourite books featuring animals in the comments. 🙏
💤 Bookstagram, you are sleeping on this one! I absolutely devoured Shipped by Angie Hockman and you should pick it up immediately.
💻 It's a forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers romance between two marketing managers fighting for the same promotion. To put them to the test, the cruise ship company they work for sends them to the Galápagos Islands to come up with innovative campaigns to promote their travel offers.
💕 I'm telling you, you are not ready for the banter and chemistry between Henley and Graeme, our two MCs. They are both warm, caring, career-driven people and you can't help but ship them from the start. There is also a great cast of supporting characters, with their own storylines that help anchor the story (no pun intended). I always appreciate when there is more than just the romance in a romance book. After all, people's lives are always multilayered and complicated, and it's important for me to have realistic characters in a fictional world that is a mirror of reality.
🦩 What I loved most about this book though doesn't even have to do with the romance. I loved the descriptions of the Galápagos and the flora and fauna the characters encounter. You could just feel that this book is written by someone with a deep love for nature - and I relate so much to that. Books with animals will always hit different for me. And I definitely want to visit the Galápagos now! 😍
💪 I also loved the workplace dynamics and found so many situations frustratingly recognisable. If you're a corporate girlie, you'll feel very seen in this book. But dare I say, also inspired and empowered.
🏝 I highly recommend this book to everyone. It's fun and summery, while resting on some serious backbones that make it feel real and important.
Rating: 4.75 ⭐️
📚 Have I convinced you to pick up this book?
🦎 Tell me your favourite books featuring animals in the comments. 🙏
4 stars!
This was an adorable little romance that had some The Hating Game vibes but not in a derivative way. Just in a "same hat" sort of way - they both use the enemies to lovers trope, though honestly I felt like Graeme and Henley's rivalry felt a lot more realistic to my experience in the working world than Lucy and Josh's. And the realism is good to balance out the less-than-realistic situation: an all-expense paid two-week cruise to get to "know" the product that the new digital marketing director will be promoting.
Things I liked
- Henley's got a fun and unique voice. I went in a little worried that it'd be a "girl boss" stereotype, but I related to the overworked, overschooled, yet desperate for human connection twenty-something.
- Walsh!!! What a little sister. I loved the very realistic two twenty-ish sisters. I feel like a lot of books I read with sibling duos have either an unbreakable relationship where they would never fight or argue...or it's just all conflict between the two. Walsh and Henley have a well realized sisterly relationship that involves caring for each other, while simultaneously wanting to punch each other over dumb things that don't really matter.
- I honestly really liked how detailed the book was about Henley's career and day-to-day work life. A lot of novels and sitcoms barely touch on the work aspect except to vaguely mention "reports" and "spreadsheets." And there's nothing wrong with that, but that detail set this romance story apart in a good way.
Things I didn't like
- Certain parts felt a little rushed, particularly some of the more romantic scenes in the last 30% of the book. It wasn't bad, but enough for me to wish for a little more, so that's mainly why it wasn't a five star read for me.
This was an adorable little romance that had some The Hating Game vibes but not in a derivative way. Just in a "same hat" sort of way - they both use the enemies to lovers trope, though honestly I felt like Graeme and Henley's rivalry felt a lot more realistic to my experience in the working world than Lucy and Josh's. And the realism is good to balance out the less-than-realistic situation: an all-expense paid two-week cruise to get to "know" the product that the new digital marketing director will be promoting.
Things I liked
- Henley's got a fun and unique voice. I went in a little worried that it'd be a "girl boss" stereotype, but I related to the overworked, overschooled, yet desperate for human connection twenty-something.
- Walsh!!! What a little sister. I loved the very realistic two twenty-ish sisters. I feel like a lot of books I read with sibling duos have either an unbreakable relationship where they would never fight or argue...or it's just all conflict between the two. Walsh and Henley have a well realized sisterly relationship that involves caring for each other, while simultaneously wanting to punch each other over dumb things that don't really matter.
- I honestly really liked how detailed the book was about Henley's career and day-to-day work life. A lot of novels and sitcoms barely touch on the work aspect except to vaguely mention "reports" and "spreadsheets." And there's nothing wrong with that, but that detail set this romance story apart in a good way.
Things I didn't like
- Certain parts felt a little rushed, particularly some of the more romantic scenes in the last 30% of the book. It wasn't bad, but enough for me to wish for a little more, so that's mainly why it wasn't a five star read for me.
I immediately docked this book a star for using the word "nether-kitty." I'll let you guess what the protagonist was referring to here. I think that's a pretty accurate summation of the cringey, boring, poorly written, cis-het narrative that is "Shipped."
I knew right away that I probably was not going to vibe with this book, but since I was busy packing up my whole apartment to move across the planet, I decided to just let it drone on in the background. I suppose "Shipped" is good if you're in the middle of a mindless, robotic task and need something, ANYTHING to distract you from the work at hand. I'm a fan of the whole enemies to lovers trope and travel narratives, so I decided to give this one a chance and let it play out. M I S T A K E.
The characters are SO flat! Zero personality. Zero romantic chemistry. Henley is a boorish workaholic who hates her work nemesis Graeme, despite having a weak and misguided reason for doing so. Graeme is nice enough, but extremely generic and dry as a literal stale graham cracker. For some reason he's been in love with Henley for some time from seeing her through weekly Zoom meetings despite her extremely uptight and generally unpleasant personality. Henley's sister Walsh is cast as the "train wreck" fun-loving sister who has an incredibly lame and haphazardly written plot thread about an abusive boyfriend dubbed "Bad News Bears" (deadass, that is his name in her phone). Nikolai is a creepy Russian guy who continually makes unwanted advances on Henley until we realize that hey! He's not REALLY a bad guy! He's just weird because his heart was broken! As if that somehow makes being a creepy who can't take a polite hint to fuck off okay.
This book is trying very hard to be a #girlboss narrative, and while I appreciated some aspects of this, I wasn't reading it to try and ~empower~ myself in the workplace. I was reading it for the fluffy, easy romance factor and sadly, this book does not deliver. The author even dipped out of writing a proper sex scene not once, but THREE times! Like obviously not every romance needs to delve into that territory but it's kind of lame to do the whole "conveniently interrupted/fade to black" thing three separate times. Although, I'm not really sure I want to read a sex scene when the protagonist unironically uses words like "nether-kitty."
I read this cause I was desperate for some mindless romance and it was available for instant delivery from the library. Perhaps you will enjoy it too, if you are feeling as desperate and uncritical as I was at the time. Otherwise, I would skip this one.
I knew right away that I probably was not going to vibe with this book, but since I was busy packing up my whole apartment to move across the planet, I decided to just let it drone on in the background. I suppose "Shipped" is good if you're in the middle of a mindless, robotic task and need something, ANYTHING to distract you from the work at hand. I'm a fan of the whole enemies to lovers trope and travel narratives, so I decided to give this one a chance and let it play out. M I S T A K E.
The characters are SO flat! Zero personality. Zero romantic chemistry. Henley is a boorish workaholic who hates her work nemesis Graeme, despite having a weak and misguided reason for doing so. Graeme is nice enough, but extremely generic and dry as a literal stale graham cracker. For some reason he's been in love with Henley for some time from seeing her through weekly Zoom meetings despite her extremely uptight and generally unpleasant personality. Henley's sister Walsh is cast as the "train wreck" fun-loving sister who has an incredibly lame and haphazardly written plot thread about an abusive boyfriend dubbed "Bad News Bears" (deadass, that is his name in her phone). Nikolai is a creepy Russian guy who continually makes unwanted advances on Henley until we realize that hey! He's not REALLY a bad guy! He's just weird because his heart was broken! As if that somehow makes being a creepy who can't take a polite hint to fuck off okay.
This book is trying very hard to be a #girlboss narrative, and while I appreciated some aspects of this, I wasn't reading it to try and ~empower~ myself in the workplace. I was reading it for the fluffy, easy romance factor and sadly, this book does not deliver. The author even dipped out of writing a proper sex scene not once, but THREE times! Like obviously not every romance needs to delve into that territory but it's kind of lame to do the whole "conveniently interrupted/fade to black" thing three separate times. Although, I'm not really sure I want to read a sex scene when the protagonist unironically uses words like "nether-kitty."
I read this cause I was desperate for some mindless romance and it was available for instant delivery from the library. Perhaps you will enjoy it too, if you are feeling as desperate and uncritical as I was at the time. Otherwise, I would skip this one.
I thought this was a fun book. I like to travel, so I thought the premise working at an adventure cruise company, and the trip to the Galapagos was great. I liked the characters’ names (Henley and Walsh? Come on! That’s awesome!)
What I didn’t like was Henley’s compulsion to “defeat Graeme”. I understand the competitive drive, but she was kind of weird about it. I guess that was the drama, but it was a tad much at times.
Still, really enjoyable. When I put the book down, I looked forward to getting back to it, and I think that’s a good sign.
What I didn’t like was Henley’s compulsion to “defeat Graeme”. I understand the competitive drive, but she was kind of weird about it. I guess that was the drama, but it was a tad much at times.
Still, really enjoyable. When I put the book down, I looked forward to getting back to it, and I think that’s a good sign.