Review: Star Shipped (A Witty and Emotional Enemies-to-Lovers Romance Between Two Sci-Fi TV Show Costars) by Cat Sebastian
Cat Sebastian’s long-awaited foray into contemporary romance! A witty, emotional, and deliciously slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance between two costars on a popular sci-fi television series.
Simon and Charlie, actors on a long-running sci-fi show, can’t stand one another. Charlie is impetuous, outgoing, and basically feral, and Simon thinks he should have stayed in reality television where he belongs. They’ve spent the better part of a decade quarreling over the spotlight and pretty much everything else, and everybody in the industry knows it. Now that Simon’s contract is finally done, he can move to New York, start fresh with work he actually likes, and get away from Charlie.
Simon’s only problem is that people might assume he’s been pushed off the show due to being impossible to work with. And he is kind of difficult to work with. He doesn’t get along with people—unlike Charlie, who somehow tricked everyone on the show into adoring him despite some outrageously bad on-set behavior during the show’s first season. Simon would rather never have to see Charlie again, but reluctantly agrees to stage a very public friendship during the short time before he moves. When Charlie has to leave town to deal with a family emergency, this means Simon comes along. Their road trip brings Simon to places he would never have willingly chosen to visit—and he finds he’s actually not having a terrible time.
The more he gets to know Charlie, the more Simon suspects he’s underestimated his former coworker. Simon also realizes that after seven years, Charlie might know him better than anyone ever has. Even stranger, Charlie seems to be starting to actually like him, despite knowing him so well. Still, Simon is about to move three thousand miles away, so whatever’s starting between him and Charlie can’t really amount to anything… right?
Tropes:
Enemies to Lovers
Opposites Attract
Forced Proximity
Review:
Dear Cat Sebastian,
I really liked several of your books in a row which had 1960s New York settings. Actually I loved them. I did not mind that those books were slow moving, and mostly character based stories. The only reason I mentioned this is because I fully fully expected to love this book as well when I preordered and paid $ 11.99 for it. Instead I had a more complicated reading experience.
The blurb gives you a very detailed set up, really I would have cut the description of the road trip short if I were writing this blurb, because this is the only “outside” event so to speak that happens in this story.
If I were to summarize this review in one sentence I would have said that the vibes that the two main characters were giving to me, as a reader, were off. I did not feel their chemistry for quite some time in the story and when those moments finally arrived it was just not enough.
I think maybe the book was not a good fit for me because Simon’s anxiety was written *too well*? Maybe? I think it spiked my own anxiety having to spend time in his head for too long and while Charlie did not have anxiety on the same level as Simon did, Charlie very often in the story understandably worries about other people and their feelings. Together was just hard to endure for this one reader.
I liked the main characters, I was happy for them finding love, but reading about them ended up being exhausting. I am giving it a B, but if I were to grade for enjoyment separately, I would have graded it lower. I completely understand how this book could be a wonderful read for other readers though.
Grade: B
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I look forward to reading this, Sirius. I’ll be interested to see if my thoughts align with yours.
I like this one a lot, and it’s the first that I’ve read by this author that I didn’t find boring. The others I’ve read were set in the UK. I’ve not tried her more recent US ones because I’ve not liked any of the earlier ones. I did pick up We Could Be So Good on sale yesterday(?) on the strength of liking this one.
It wasn’t my favorite CS book. I found Simon to be a little bit too far on the grumpy –> asshole spectrum. And I agree with you that the chemistry was meh. I hope Jamie gets his own book!
@Kareni: Me too!@MaryK: I do recommend her US ones for sure :). I liked the ones set in the UK less myself.@SusanS: Yes! Jamie was lovely. Since I wrote this review I saw another reason why I did not enjoy it all that much. Mind you, I saw it in someone else’s GR review, so cannot take credit, but I totally agree. I do not think that the reasons why they were sniping at each other for seven years were well explained. Basically there was no reason for them to be enemies IMO, none. Simon disliked Charlie why exactly? Okay Charlie I guess only pretended, but Simon was doing I do not like him why?
I really liked this one as well. I have only read Hither, Page from CS before and it was just ok for me, but I will definitely be looking at some of her other books now.
@Sirius: Simon didn’t like the way Charlie acted in his first season before he got sober (after that, he wouldn’t acknowledge that Charlie had changed). Also S resented the fact that a reality TV star like Charlie was getting equal billing (and more attention) than Simon, who was a “serious actor.” Plus the unacknowledged attraction, I guess.
@SusanS: my apologies I forgot that Charlie wasn’t sober in the first season . Still though for the next six years Simon was not acknowledging that he changed as you said . The second reason though is a perfect example of what I was thinking of – Simon’s jealousy of Charlie getting an equal billing to me is not a good reason for them to be enemies . I am not explaining it well – of course Simon was thinking about it in his head for him it was a reason but I just was not feeling a tension between them because of that ?