CBR18 Book 27: "The Shippers" by Katherine Center

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 2.5 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book will be out on May 19th.

Josephine "JoJo" Burton runs away from her own wedding, after her childhood best friend, Cooper Watts, shows up unexpectedly from London just as she's about to walk down the aisle, and makes her realise that she really doesn't want to be with her fiancee. The next morning, he's on a plane back to London. JoJo has never been lucky in love. She always chooses the wrong guy, and she always ends up being the dumper. 

Six weeks later, JoJo's sister, Ashley, is getting married on a Caribbean cruise. Her sister's rather vague grasp of pop psychology has made both Ashley and JoJo believe JoJo's terrible relationship is because she's felt abandoned by their father (he works almost non-stop and never seems to be around for anything important) and due to a strange series of events, JoJo must never have found a lasting love because she fixated on her first kiss, and no man has lived up to her expectations since. It just so happens that the man who kissed JoJo when she was ten and he was thirteen is newly divorced and going to be on the cruise as well.

So Ashley orchestrates a truly mental plan where she is going to throw JoJo and her childhood crush together in a ton of matchmaking events, and once JoJo manages to make this man see that she is now a catch, he will fall for her, and all of JoJo's romantic failures will be solved. Along for the ride is poor Connor, who is roped into being JoJo's rather unwilling wingman. He doesn't seem all that enthused about helping JoJo fall in love with another man, but JoJo doesn't really see that her perfect mate might not be this elusive first crush, but rather the BFF she was inseparable from for most of her life. 

This is the second book by Katherine Center that I've read where I'm seriously wondering if all the people praising her are taking crazy pills. I'm starting to think that The Rom-Commers, which I read in 2024, was some sort of fever dream, and I just imagined it was really enjoyable. While this wasn't as bad as The Love Haters (one of my worst reads of last year, which I have now downgraded to 2 stars), it was also mostly a slog to read. I hate romances where I keep wanting one of the protagonists to just run away and escape the other one, and this was very much the case here. 

What I liked (it's not a terribly long list):

- Cooper is really an amazing guy, pretty much in every way. Except for his dreadful taste in love interests. He's not just in another league from JoJo (still hate that nickname), he's pretty much in his own universe from her. I can't even find the words to describe how much too good for her he is. He should have stayed in London, doing cool things and finding someone worth his time and efforts. 

- While being stuck on a cruise ship for a wedding sounds like an utter nightmare to me, it was an interesting way of doing forced proximity. 

- The fact that JoJo's daddy issues pretty much stemmed from a massive misunderstanding, and that she realised he was a really good guy and helped him get back together with her mum. Very nice twist to have the deadbeat dad actually be a secretly really good guy, who was just terrible at advocating for himself, or apparently communicating in ANY way with his family (getting annoyed at the author again now). As it turns out, the one who should have been having daddy issues is Cooper, but saying more would be spoiling. 

- JoJo's family mostly seemed really nice, even though Ashley seemed like a pretty awful friend for putting all her single friends through some sort of matchmaking Olympics on board the ship. 

What I did NOT like:

- Our female protagonist. She is extremely annoying and clueless to the point where I could no longer suspend my disbelief. I can totally see how someone with an advanced degree in mathematics and a supposed genius-level IQ could be clueless enough about personal matters to be utterly AWFUL at reading people. I can even be persuaded that she seemed to think it was a good idea to marry the dude she is about to marry at the start of the book. But once she is on the boat, going through with her utterly moronic plan of "conquering" her childhood crush, even when it becomes painfully obvious that he's dull, not really interested in her and utterly wrong for her, while a gorgeous, thoughtful, caring, funny, musically talented and all-around great guy is doing everything but literally spelling out his feelings. I wanted to throw my e-reader across the room at how self-centred and oblivious she was. 

- JoJo's belief that she was cursed. I repeat, she has an advanced degree in maths, and we are told she has a genius-level IQ, but she would rather believe that she is cursed than the fact that SHE is the common denominator in all of her failed relationships. None of them worked out because you are the WORST, JoJo. 

- JoJo's judgment is seriously bafflingly bad. In any given situation, she will pick the absolute worst option to try to solve things, and end up confused and sulky because yet again she's messed her life up more.

- JoJo appears to have no self-respect or free will whatsoever. She stays in a fairly unsatisfying relationship for three years before emotionally blackmailing her so-called perfect boyfriend into proposing. Then she sits around for another four years before finally getting to her wedding, where she has apparently let the groom's family decide absolutely everything, without any input from her, up to and including the ill-fitting wedding dress she has to wear. Then her sister makes some sort of insane plan for how she's going to become "uncursed". JoJo squeezes herself into too-tight outfits to look sexy and tortures herself with monstrously uncomfortable shoes, and never once does JoJo tell her sister to f*ck off with her idiotic suggestions. She appears to have no actual agency or personal wishes; she just lets other people tell her what to do. 

- While the page count is 320 pages, because of the pacing and the fact that I deeply disliked the heroine, this book felt interminably long. 

When I saw this ARC available for request, I had hoped that The Love Haters was a rare fluke in the bibliography of Ms. Centre. So I asked for this one to give her another chance. Next year, I think I need to tell myself that I have now let myself be fooled twice, and need to try to avoid disappointment by letting it happen a third time. I won't be requesting any more ARCs from this author. 

Judging a book by its cover: I don't know who designed this cover, but at least to my eyes, the red, orange and shock pink all clash with each other, and the sort of turquoise blue of the dude's shirt and the lifebuoy ring are not helping. I am not a fan of this; it's giving me a headache. Although it may warn people away from the book, which I'm starting to think might be a good thing. Having browsed Goodreads, I also see that on the UK cover, the woman (who is clearly supposed to be JoJo) is wearing a dark blue dress and flowy scarf, which while not great (there is still that background) would be SO much better. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 28: "The Love Haters" by Katherine Center

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 2 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Katie Vaughn is worried about being fired, so she lies about being able to swim, and is persuaded to go to Key West to film a recruitment video about the coast guard. There she meets Tom "Hutch" Hucheson, the seemingly perfect older brother of her co-worker Cole, who has not been informed that his brother has weaselled out of filming the video. Katie is also pretty much adopted by Hutch's "Aunt" Rue and her vibrant and colourful gang of pensioners who hang out in the apartment complex that Rue owns and manages. 

Katie is a "love hater" because her boyfriend cheated on her and broke up with her right as his career as a musician took off, so she's pretty much done with men. Now her ex's songs are playing on the radio constantly, and his most recent hit is literally called "Katie" and seems to be all about how he messed up and wants her back. Katie also has self esteem, a very complicated relationship with food and because of fat shaming by her stepmother early in life, she pretty much hates her body. She literally has a near-panic attack when she has to put on a swimsuit. 

Hutch isn't really a love hater, it's just that his brother Cole doesn't really know his brother at all, he just seems to be jealous that his brother is easy-going, kind, very handsome, has a very impressive job (and became virally famous briefly for saving Jenifer Aniston's dog). So anything he says is likely to be untrue. Hutch agreed to have his work featured, because the coast guard really does need new recruits, but he wanted his brother to do it, so they could spend more time together, and more importantly, with Rue. Nevertheless, he adapts without too much complaint and also agrees to give Katie swim lessons.

Obviously they catch feelings over the course of the book, but now, about a month after I finished the book, I can't actually remember what it is that complicates matters and makes it so that they can't be together. I'm guessing it's probably that Hutch lives and works in Florida and Katie is from somewhere else (again, no memory of where)? The first half of the book is slow, and while I can sympatise with a heroine with some quirks, some of Katie's issues are clearly serious enough that she should have been (and probably still be) in intensive therapy, rather than just have her supportive bestie try to talk her down whenever she has a wobbly. When they dominate the story quite that much, it would be nice if there was some sort of resolution over the course of the story. But there isn't. Although she learns to appreciate colourful clothing and doesn't freak out when she has to wear a bathing suit, so that's good enough, right?

The second half of the book, especially the last third, is when I seriously considered just giving up. If I had a physical copy of the book, I would have been tempted to throw it at a wall. Cole suddenly shows up out of nowhere and pretends that he and Katie are dating. Their boss, who is bitter after an acrimonious divorce, also shows up, and the fake relationship has to happen or Katie and/or Cole might get fired? I think Cole is meant to be charming, I found him to be human garbage. There's also a whole thing about a hurricane and needing to evacuate and Katie making incredibly stupid choices.However, I persevered, hoping that maybe the story could be saved - alas, it was not to be. 

I've only read one book by Katherine Center previously, The Rom-Commers, which I liked enough to rate it 4.5 stars, despite a rather shaky final act there too. This, I can only give 2.5 to, and that's mainly for aunt Rue and her Golden Girls-esque group of friends, and the fact that being a coast guard is a more unsusual profession to give your hero. If this had been my first attempt at Ms. Center's writing, I would not read any more of her books, despite owning several of them as e-books. I did really like The Rom-Commers, though, so I will give her at least one more chance. 

Judging a book by its cover: I have no idea what's going on with this cover, but it doesn't in any way fit with the contents of this book. This makes it seem like it's about people lazing about and enjoying themselves on vacation, which isn't the case at all. Katie gets an anxiety attack just having to put on a bathing suit, there is no way she'd ever display herself so openly on a pool floatie. Hutch is a professional rescue swimmer who doesn't seem to have time for this sort of leisurely relaxation. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR16 Book 39: "The Rom-Commers" by Katherine Center

Page count: 336 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 21 mins

Rating: 4.5 stars

Emma Wheeler loves romantic comedies and has even won a contest with one of her screenplays. But with a father who needs around-the-clock care, and a sister to put through school, Emma's career dreams had to take a backseat. Now her agent has an amazing job opportunity for her, to work with the screenwriter she admires the most in the world, Charlie Yates. However, there is no way she can do the job remotely, she will need to stay in LA for six weeks. Emma initially tries to say no, scared that something will go wrong with her father if she leaves, and her sister has just landed a great internship.

Emma's little sister won't let her sacrifice even more for their family, though, so she resigns from the internship and spends days learning all of Emma's routines and rules for caretaking. Emma sets off for LA, only to discover that her agent may have fudged the truth a bit. It is true that Charlie Yates has written a script for a romantic comedy that is so awful it's staggering, but he has not asked for help improving it, and he certainly won't have some "nobody" come in to offer assistance. The romantic comedy script is a job he's doing so he can get one of his own dream projects funded, he thinks romance in general is overrated, and wants to send Emma packing.

Having gone to such trouble to actually get to his house (their mutual agent seems to think the best way to make this plan work is for them to live together in Charlie's massive mansion), she isn't going to give up without a fight. Emma will make the arrogant and stuck-up Charlie take back his disdain for the romantic comedy genre and after a brief trial run of working together, Charlie is forced to admit that they make a very good team, and they could manage to pull off this job without cutting any corners. Of course, the close proximity and all the time they spend together starts to develop into closeness of a different sort, but Charlie isn't one for relationships, and Emma has only a few weeks before she needs to get back home to her family. They might finish their screenplay, but how could they ever have a happy ending together?

This is my first Katherine Center novel, and I had very high expectations, since four different friends on Goodreads whose opinions I trust had rated it five stars. I listened to the audiobook for about 2/3 of the book, and Patti Murin, the narrator, does an excellent job. Even when Charlie's being a dismissive asshole, she made it possible to see his potential as a love interest. The final third I read in e-book (because I got impatient and had to see how things ended). 

This is a romance with a grumpy-sunshine trope, where Charlie is a cynic who claims not to believe in love, while Emma is a die-hard romantic who wants happy endings for everyone, even when life has dealt her pretty much nothing but bad cards. Due to her mother's tragic death when she was a teenager, she not only has had to be the caretaker for her father, but she's also more or less been a surrogate parent for her younger sister. She's extremely focused on her father's health, and passing over responsibility for that to her sister is very difficult for her.

Charlie comes off as arrogant and unpleasant at first, but in his defense, he probably wasn't expecting his agent to turn up on his doorstep with a complete stranger. Charlie is very good at what he does, but needs to learn to accept help and how to collaborate with someone. He's an intensely private person, and has had health problems in the past that he's not really shared with anyone else. Letting Emma into his home, learning to work with her and later opening up to her and being vulnerable requires work on his part. 

One of the reasons this book isn't a full five stars for me is the final act separation of the characters, which I thought dragged out too long, and also involved one of my least favourite tropes, the 'I must drive you away for your own good'. A thing I liked throughout the book, though, and especially towards the latter half, as they grow closer is Charlie doing his best to take care of Emma. While I find the previous trope I mentioned exasperating, the 'but who takes care of YOU?' trope is one of my favourites.

Having never read any Katherine Center books before, I was surprised to discover that this is a closed door romance, i.e. you don't actually get any sex scenes on the page. I don't mind a lack of spice if the rest of the book is satisfying, but I know that it can be a deal-breaker for others. 

Judging a book by its cover: I don't entirely like the art style on this cover, but at least the two characters look like they are Emma and Charlie, so that's nice. I just think that if they decided to show the faces of the characters on the cover, the features should have been clearer. This just looks blurry and it frustrates me. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read,