Never Been Shipped

Author: Alicia Thompson Title: Never Been Shipped Publisher: Berkley Date Published: 06/10/2025

Read Dates: 05/23/2025- 05/24/2025
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 📖 I received a gifted e-book ARC. The following is my honest review✍🏻

Never Been Shipped is a dual POV friends-to-lovers romance. Micah and John were just teens when their band took off, and eventually imploded. The former best friends haven’t seen each other or spoken in years when the band gets brought back together to be guests on a five day cruise. They’re presented with a second chance, if they’re brave enough to take it!

Alicia Thompson has never let me down, and I was so grateful to get a chance to read this one. I loved everything about it: the missed opportunities of youth, the second chance, the forced proximity and the friends to lovers story. Micah and her struggles with anxiety were very relatable and John’s steadfast love was sweet.

Micah's relationship to music is complicated. As teenagers, her band took off after being featured on a popular TV show, but the group barely released their sophomore album before breaking up. Now, over a decade later, the band is reuniting for one more performance on a themed cruise, and Micah is determined to learn from her past mistakes -- no losing herself in the music, and no losing her heart along the way. 
 
John misses playing in a band, and mostly he misses Micah, who'd been his best friend until the music stopped. Back then, he didn't take the lead, either in his guitar parts or while he sat back and watched her date another bandmate. John's never been one to rock the boat, but he's faced with another chance now that this cruise has brought music -- and Micah -- back in his life.
 
Onboard, Micah can't help but see John with brand new eyes, and John's feelings only intensify as the discordant band's tension grows to a breaking point. With five days at sea, there's a ticking clock on anything that might develop between them, and they'll have to decide if their relationship is destined to be more than a one-hit wonder.