Review: The Shippers by Katherine Center

 

The Shippers by Katherine Center

Publication Date: May 19th 2026 by St. Martin's Press & Macmillan Audio

Pages: 336

Audio Book Length: 11hrs 8min

Narrator: Patti Murin & Katherine Center

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Jojo hasn’t had the best luck in love, but a new theory, that she “imprinted” on her very first kiss has her determined to break the curse with “Project Conquest” while on a cruise for her sister’s destination wedding. Naturally, she recruits her estranged best friend, Cooper, as her wingman. Yes, that Cooper: the guy who ran off to London and ghosted her for four years, only to suddenly show up for the wedding like nothing happened.

 

This story has so many layers. Jojo is wrestling with old wounds, especially the abandonment she felt from her father, something that flips completely once real communication finally happens. Honestly, communication (or the total lack of it) is practically its own character in this book. I liked Jojo and rooted for her HEA, but I was also frustrated by her refusal to communicate and her stubborn insistence on sticking to her mission long after it was clearly going off the rails. Cooper was a delight, I adored him, but he wasn’t innocent on the communication front either. See the theme here? Even so, I genuinely enjoyed the story.

 

Katherine Center’s author’s note and acknowledgements are a must read!

 

The Shippers is a feel-good, big-hearted romp full of slapsticky humor (the unicorn underpants!), warmth, and a swoony romance.

 

I alternated between the audio and the e‑copy and can happily recommend either. Patti Murin is a fantastic narrator; she gives every character a distinct voice and nails the emotions! I loved her performance!  

4 Stars

Book Description: 

After a whole lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton decides to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister’s destination wedding on a cruise ship. With the help of a little pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her her first crush and first kiss (and who just happens to be a newly-divorced wedding guest ), and she decides to woo him during the cruise for some long-delayed closure. Only problem is, her sister’s a little busy being a bride at the moment—so JoJo ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, to be her wing man. Cooper: who RSVPed no, but then showed up, anyway. Cooper: who left town without a word four years earlier and moved to London. Cooper: who was, if she’s honest, the worst heartbreak of JoJo’s life. It’s bliss for her to see him again, and it’s agony, too—and the more they team up for Project Conquest, the more she obsesses over questions she can’t bring herself to ask.

Shipboard antics ensue in this witty, heart-tugging, childhood-friends-to-lovers romance—as JoJo and Cooper fake flirt, slow dance, share a cabin, sing duets, treat sunburns, get jealous, rescue each other over and over, and finally, at last, figure it all out in the most blissful, swoony, romantic way.

No one does summer romance quite like Katherine Center. THE SHIPPERS will take readers on the cruise of a lifetime in a story awash with romantic longing, top-notch banter, long-held secrets . . . and true love rediscovered.

Review: The Love Haters by Katherine Center

 

The Love Haters by Katherine Center

Publication Date: May 20th 2025 by St. Martin's Press & Macmillan Audio

Pages: 320

Audio Book Length: 10hrs 33min

Narrator: Patti Murin & Katherine Center

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★★½

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Katie Vaughn’s company is downsizing and as one of the newest hires, she’s worried her job is on the chopping block. This is why she accepts an assignment to make a recruiting video for the Coast

Guard featuring Hutch Hutchenson, one of their rescue swimmers, when she doesn’t know how to swim. A major requirement, but off to Key West she goes.

 

Katie struggled with her body image and self-confidence after a brush with her ex-fiancé’s new-found fame (people can be so awful online!). It wasn’t just not knowing how to swim, that was a mental challenge for Katie.

 

I loved Katie’s journey from an insecure introvert to someone who wasn’t afraid to live in color. Hutch and his aunt and her friends gradually coaxed Katie’s true self out with swimming lessons, dinners, and a rambunctious Great Dane! Hutch was an absolute pillar and oh-so-dreamy! I also loved the Coast Guard aspects of the story which added an extra element of adventure, danger, and excitement!

 

The Love Haters was a pure delight from start to finish! I adored Katherine Center’s author’s note at the end, as well.

 

I alternately read an e-copy and listened to an audio version with Patti Murin narrating. Her performance was perfection! Just icing on the cake!

4.5 Stars

Book Description:

It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.

The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.

Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!

But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.

Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.

 

Review: The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

 

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

Publication Date: June 11th 2024 by St. Martin's Press & Macmillan Audio

Pages: 336

Audio Book Length: 11hrs 21min

Narrator: Patti Murin & Katherine Center

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Emma put her life and career on hold to care for her sweetheart-of-a-dad when tragedy struck. Now she gets the opportunity of a lifetime to help re-write a rom-com screenplay with screenwriter Charlie Yates, Emma’s idol, but the job isn’t exactly as described.  

 

I absolutely loved The Rom-Commers! I laughed, I cried, and my heart soared with joy! Hard to go wrong with Katherine Center. There’s always layers, with the characters and with the story. I don’t want to break everything down, because I feel it’s better to go in and experience all the lovely for yourself, but it’s a definite 5-Star recommend!

 

I alternately read and listened to an audio version of the story, and I can recommend either version. Patti Murrin narrates, and she acted her heart out, bringing out all the emotions, making each character come to life! So wonderful! I listened at my usual 1.5x normal speed.

5 Stars

Book Description:

She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?

Review: Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

 

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

Publication Date: July 11th 2023 by St. Martin's Press & Macmillan Audio

Pages: 336

Audio Book Length: 10hrs 39min

Narrator: Patti Murin

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Sadie is barely getting by as a portrait artist, but landing as a finalist in an art competition is the break she needs to put her on the path to success. However, life is never that easy. She discovers a medical condition makes it necessary to undergo brain surgery. A supposedly easy surgery that should fix her right up, but she wakes to find out she can’t see faces.   As if that’s not enough, her beloved dog gets sick and her evil stepsister moves into the building where she lives!

Sadie doesn’t know how she’ll be able to compete portrait contest with her condition but after some encouragement and counseling she’s determined to try other ways to sketch the human face.

Her beloved dog gets sick and she can’t lose Peanut! He’s a bright little ray of sunshine in her life, and the last connection to her dead mother. So, she takes him to the vet and immediately falls in crush with the sexy (from what she can tell, anyhow) vet, Dr. Oliver Addison. She also has strange run ins with her neighbor Joe.

Sadie had so many hits against her I was eager to see prevail! It took some work, change in attitude and help from those around her, but gradually bright spots came out of the negatives. Sadie’s past made it hard for her to rely on anyone but herself, but I was thrilled to see her learn to accept help from others when before she absolutely refused it. Her condition changed her outlook in profound, positive ways and it was a joy to see her grow. The romance had a bit of mystery to it. I suspected things, but I don’t want to say anymore, other than it was lovely!

Hello Stranger was sooo good! I was captivated from the first chapter and knew I’d have to finish in one day to see how it all turned out! I was all smiles as I finished, heart soaring with joy!  Katherine Center’s note at the end really resonated with me! It hit the nail on the head on why I love romances: “love is nourishing” and “lets readers access a rare and precious kind of emotional bliss.” Yes!

I alternated between the audio and e-copy of Hello Stranger and I don’t think you could go wrong with either version. Patti Murin’s narration was perfection! I listened at my usual 1.5x normal speed. Definite recommend!

5 Stars

Book Description:

Love isn’t blind, it’s just little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.

Audio Review: The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

 

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

Publication Date: May 3rd 2022 by St.Martin's Press & Macmillan Audio

Pages: 320

Audio Book Length: 9 hrs 44 min

Narrator: Patti Murin

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Hannah was going through a lot with mixed feelings over the death of her mother and then her boyfriend dumps her. Just when she needs the distraction of work to cope, her boss basically grounds her. That is until the famous movie start, Jack Stapleton needs protection. Hannah’s not thrilled with the assignment because it doesn’t seem like much of an escape being stuck in Texas and this assignment is much more up close and personal than she’d have liked it.

I loved Hannah so much! She wasn’t a knockout, just an average woman (like most of us) in an unexpected position of being a bodyguard. Yes, she’s only 5’5” but that’s not the key to being a bodyguard as I found out, and she was pretty badass even being pint sized! I’ve always dreamed of being a badass myself even though I’m only 5’2”. I looked up to female characters like Buffy and Wonder Woman, so I loved the idea of a woman bodyguard. Still, this story was way more about the personal aspects of Hannah’s life than a suspenseful protection situation. I loved Jack and his family! He was, for a big star, pretty normal, and his family was loving despite some of the hard knocks they’d been given. Absolutely loved Jack’s family!

All the stars for The Bodyguard! Katherine Center’s stories never fail to capture my heart! She writes imperfectly perfect, multi-layered characters like Hannah and Jack. Each had emotional turmoil to work through while trying to get by, battling an inconvenient attraction. This was definitely a romance of the slow burn variety, and I hung on every interaction between Jack and Hannah! That epilogue was oh-so-lovely!

I alternately listened and read The Bodyguard and I recommend both. The audio was fantastic with Patti Murin narrating and doing an excellent job with all voices, male and female.

5 Stars

Book Description:

She’s got his back.
Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindgerten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

They’ve got a secret.
When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judgment—finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.

What could possibly go wrong???
Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.

Audio Review: What You Wish For by Katherine Center

What You Wish For by Katherine Center

Publication Date: July 14th 2020 by Macmillan Audio & St. Martin's Press

Pages: 320

Audio Book Length: 10 hrs 18 min

Narrators: Therese Plummer & Katherine Center (at the end in an author essay)

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★★★

Link: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible | Libro.fm

About the book:

From Katherine Center, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Walk Away comes a stunning new novel full of heart and hope. 

Samantha Casey loves everything about her job as an elementary school librarian on the sunny, historic island of Galveston, Texas—the goofy kids, the stately Victorian building, the butterfly garden. But when the school suddenly loses its beloved principal, it turns out his replacement will be none other than Duncan Carpenter—a former, unrequited crush of Sam’s from many years before. 

When Duncan shows up as her new boss, though, he’s nothing like the sweet teacher she once swooned over. He’s become stiff, and humorless, and obsessed with school safety. Now, with Duncan determined to destroy everything Sam loves about her school in the name of security—and turn it into nothing short of a prison—Sam has to stand up for everyone she cares about before the school that’s become her home is gone for good.

My Thoughts:

Samantha has found joy in her personal and professional life, living on Galveston Island as the librarian for the legendary Kempner School, an elementary school that fosters creativity and learning in original way.

However, Sam hasn’t always had a positive outlook on life. She suffered from epilepsy as a child and later as an adult, which was the catalyst for her parent’s breakup. Also, she’s never been lucky in love. Years ago, Sam found her “person” in Duncan Carpenter, a fellow teacher at a previous school, but he never really noticed her, but now she embraces every happiness life affords. 

Sam’s life is turned upside down, though when Duncan is hired as the new principal of Kempner, and instead of the fun-loving, full-of-life guy she knew before, she’s greeted with Duncan 2.0, a gray-suit-wearing, joyless man intent on turning their quirky, happy school into a safe, prison-like habitat. But Duncan is about to have a rude awakening, because Sam is no longer the shy and meek librarian she used to be, and there’s no way she’s letting him implement the changes to her beloved school without a fight.

Loved how Katherine Center made Kempner School come alive. If only all our schools were so quirky and magical!

I just LOVED What You Wish For so much! It was very much a hate to love romance which at times filled me with anger and I wanted to slap Duncan upside the head!  Don’t worry, I didn’t hate him for long, and soon I loved him! Finding out what changed Duncan from the goofy, whimsical teacher into a carbon copy of one of the ‘Borg twisted my heart and made me really feel for the guy!

Sam had her own issues Lingering self-esteem issues from how she was treated by her father and others in the face of her medical condition. It broke my heart.

The slow burn romance between Sam and Duncan was so utterly lovely! I was moved by the deeper subjects tackled, but the story was lighthearted and funny, too. What You Wish For was a 5-star read for me, definitely one of my top five favorites for 2020!

I alternately listened and read What You Wish For, and I have to say the audio was perfection! Therese Plummer is one of my all-time favorite narrators! Her female and male voices are spot on, and her performance enhanced an already fantastic story!

Katherine Center also narrates at the end, reading her essay on reading and writing, and it was amazing! She describes how special it is when a writer can make a reader step into the shoes of a character and story and feel!

5 Suns