Shipped Review

Thank you NetGalley and Galleybooks for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review. Shipped comes out January 19th!

Henley is a career driven graduate student who works for a small cruise line company. She has little time for family, friends and dating. When the opportunity for a promotion comes up it appears all the late nights were worth it. Until she finds out her arch nemesis Graeme is up for the same promotion. Their boss asks them to draft a proposal to boost sales in one of their cruise lines. The pair must go on the same cruise, together. As they spend time together the way Henley feels about Graeme begin to change. It seems that maybe he isn’t who she thought he was.

What did I like:
1. I absolutely adored all of the characters. They are authentic, real and relatable. I love Henley’s drive to be successful and the dynamic between her friends and sister. I loved Graeme’s sensitive side and how he was also driven but didn’t want to take credit for things he didn’t do. The side characters were even well developed and added value to the story.
2. The relationship between Henley and Graeme’s was slow to develop. Their banter was super cute and I loved how they found the best in each other. When the story ended I found myself wanting to continue watching their relationship develop.
3. I loved the authors note at the end and how she was inspired to write this story. I can tell she is passionate about her story and characters. The story is well researched too and it was easy to see that she put all of her energy and soul into this book and it does not disappoint. I can’t wait to read more stories from Angie Hockman.

What I didn’t like:
1. The story isn’t super heavy on the romance and steam. This isn’t really an issue for me but I could see it being a problem for some.
2. The story is marketed as an enemy to lovers romance but there wasn’t much in the way of the characters being enemies. There were some elements yes, but not like in other novels that I’ve read.
3. Henley’s sister Walsh added a lot of value to the story. That being said, I didn’t see any value to adding in the very tiny section about Walsh’s boyfriend.

Overall, this story is great and I highly recommend!