Henley Evans has a plan. She’s going to finish her MBA, she’s going to get the promotion at work, and she will be a director by the time she turns 30. Her work in the marketing department at Seaquest Adventures, coming up with campaigns to promote their cruises, has not gone unnoticed. She thought she was the obvious choice for the new director of digital marketing position.
She was wrong.
She did make the shortlist, according to her boss, who still acts like it’s 1953 when it comes to acknowledging his female employees. Also on the shortlist is social media manager, Graeme Crawford-Collins, the bane of Henley’s existence.
Ever since Graeme first came on board, Henley has found him arrogant, inconsiderate, and downright irritating. He answers emails with a single word. HIs texts are snarky. And worst of all, when Henley had cut together a video of monkeys to help advertise how close their cruise guests get to nature, Graeme took credit for it with their boss when the video went viral. She absolutely cannot stand him. Fortunately for Henley, he works remotely, so she doesn’t have to see him in person in Seattle.
But then her boss asks if she’d ever been on one of Seaquest’s cruises. When she confesses that she hadn’t, he insists that both Henley and Graeme go on a cruise before he makes a final decision on who gets the director job. The only one that works with Henley’s busy school schedule is the one to the Galapagos Islands, and Graeme says that’s the one that works for him too. Now, she’ll not only have to come up with a killer idea for her presentation for the promotion, she’ll have to do that on the same cruise with her arch-nemesis.
Only when she gets to the boat and meets him in person, Graeme’s good looking. Really good looking. And he’s charming the others on the ship. And he’s nice to Henley. And when she finally explains why she hates him so much—that he’d taken the credit for her work on the video—he explains that his old phone would cut out all the time and he didn’t know what had been going on in the meeting when he’d said “thank you” to the boss’s compliment.
The more Henley finds out about Graeme, the more she likes him. And the more she realizes that he’s even more qualified than she is for the promotion. But that doesn’t mean she’s going to give up. She is more determined than ever to come up with an idea her boss can’t say no to.
But there is another complication. Henley is finding a growing attraction to Graeme. He’s always there, whether it’s dinner on the ship or snorkeling for beginners or a 3-hour hike with iguanas and tropical birds. And he is handsome. Henley finds herself drawn to him, staring at him in his wetsuit and watching as he charms the older ladies on the cruise and making video after video that just keep getting social media attention. He is the competition. He is a distraction. And he might just be the thing her life has been missing.
Shipped is the latest romance from Angie Hockman. It’s an engaging story of work-life balance and fun fireworks between coworkers. And it’s on a boat, which is so adorable.
I loved Shipped. It’s so readable, with relatable characters and lots of delightful sea creatures. The competition for the promotion added a great tension to the budding relationship, and the cruise was a magical setting for a rom com. Shipped is as fun as they come. Grab yourself a copy, make yourself a cocktail, and enjoy your trip to the Galapagos Islands. You will be very happy you made the trip!
Egalleys for Shipped were provided by Gallery Books through Netgalley, with many thanks.
