Shipped

A healthy dose of competition powers Hockman’s laugh-out-loud debut about love on the high seas. Twenty-eight-year-old Seattleite Henley Evans’s life is consumed by her job as marketing manager for an adventure cruise line, with a little time set aside for helping out her hot-mess sister, Walsh, and hating on her Michigan-based coworker, Graeme Crawford-Collins, whom she’s disliked ever since he took credit for one of her ideas. Now Henley and the irritating, attractive Graeme are up for the same promotion and their boss sends them on the company’s cruise to the Galápagos islands; whoever comes back with the best marketing proposal based on their experience will win the job. On board, they contend with watchful crew, overly amorous suitors, and familial drama while engaging in the timeless enemies-to-lovers dance of misunderstandings, false conclusions, and flirtatious verbal sparring. Meanwhile, Henley’s marketing brainstorming efforts lead her and the novel alike to a powerful environmentalist message. With flawed but lovable characters and exotic locales, this quirky, thoughtful love story will whisk readers away. [em]Agent: Jessica Watterson, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Jan.) [/em]