Quick Summary:
Shipped by Angie Hockman follows the story of Henley Evans, marketing manager for Seaquest Adventures, a cruise line company based out of Seattle. Her entire life is consumed by excelling in her role, while trying to juggle a rigorous MBA class schedule. Henley works hard, and hopes that her hard work will be rewarded with the Digital Marketing Director role that is open at her company. When she’s not nose down in the weeds at work, she’s internally fighting with Graeme, the social media manager for Seaquest. Henley has a massive hate boner for this guy, someone she’s never met in person as Graeme works remote from Michigan but one misunderstanding led to him becoming public enemy #1 and putting “destroy Graeme Crawford-Collins” at the top of her to-do list.
Plot Overview:
Despite being annoyed by Graeme for doing his job his way, Henley remains focused on securing this promotion and him not getting in her way. Until she finds out from her boss that she and Graeme will both be up for the position. The way to secure it? Go on one of Seaquest’s cruises and come up with a proposal to help elevate Seaquest’s digital marketing efforts. Obviously not enthused by this news, Henley is still determined on winning this competition and securing that promotion. What she didn’t count on was getting to know Graeme in person and finding out that she was attracted to him.
Henley spends most of the cruise trying to hate on Graeme but she can’t because she’s attracted to him, and she soon figures out that he’s attracted to her. At this point, Henley is faced with the tough decision: does she want to pursue this attraction and developing feelings for Graeme, or does she want to get this promotion?
Common Themes + Opinions:
Henley is a workaholic. Her entire life revolved around her job and her success, which is all fine to a point. It felt like she was chasing that promotion for the sake of the title, and not because she actually wanted the role. Like this was her reward for all of the hard work and extra hours she devoted to Seaquest and she hoped that her boss would recognize it with this promotion – though anyone in Corporate America knows that this is not how you get ahead; especially if you’re a woman. Not devaluing hard work at all but being more realistic, there’s more to it. Especially since Henley finds out her boss’ motivations later in the book. In Henley focusing on work and her success, she’s thrown her personal life to the wayside, including neglecting her relationship with her sister Walsh. In getting to know Graeme and talking to Walsh, she realizes that she needs to make changes in her life to properly balance work and her personal life, because work isn’t all there is.
Final Thoughts + Ratings:
Shipped by Angie Hockman was a cute tropical read that helped me transport to a cruise while currently experiencing the cold NYC winter weather. I’m not the biggest fan of enemies to lovers books, mostly because the hate is never really justified in my opinion, and this is one of them. While I do think it was valid of her to be mad at him for that misunderstanding, I’m not sure it would go into enemy territory. By the time I was nearing the end of the book, I was hoping Henley wouldn’t get the promotion – and I might have been in the minority – not because she didn’t deserve it, but because she wasn’t as qualified as Graeme was. Either way, Henley and Graeme both get their happy ending.
Overall, I give Shipped three and a half stars for the tropical backdrop and cruise shenanigans.
Have you read Shipped? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
3.5/5
