Shipped by Meredith Tate By Meredith Tate
4.5⭐️
This book was so adorable! Shipped put a fandom spin on You’ve Got Mail and it really felt like a love letter to fan culture.
Stella and Wesley are battling for the title of Valedictorian in their last few months of high school. What starts out as an innocent rivalry quickly turns into an all-out prank war as they battle to claim the top spot and scholarship that comes with it. While battling it out in real life, Stella and Wesley have been talking anonymously in an online chat forum created for fans of one of their favorite sci-fi shows. They make plans to meet up at a local convention as both their online personas and IRL-selves grow closer.
I’m definitely a self-proclaimed fangirl, when I love something I love it big and I love it loud so I always enjoy reading about fan culture. This book handled the topic so well and I could immediately relate to the characters and some situations they were in and discussions they had.
I really liked the format and through it brought so much to the story. Shipped is told in dual perspective so the reader gets Stella and Wesley’s sides. This really allowed for getting to know the characters a lot better and it added more depth to both main characters. I also really liked the inclusion of scenes from the show that they were fans of. It was really creative how the plot in the story and the show paralleled each other.
The writing was so witty! It was really funny and entertaining. I rarely laugh out loud at books but this one definitely got a few chuckles out of me.
The academic rivals to lovers story line was done so well but I enjoyed that a lot of the story centered around family as well.
This was a super quick and addictive read. I really didn’t want to put it down! Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult this wasn’t for me. :( Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult Whoever said money doesn't buy happiness has never been poor
5 million stars!!!
This was the most adorable, cute, lovely, endearing, sweet, engaging, enchanting, charming, delightful read ever. I luuuurved it. Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult This was a such a cute read!
While I've never seen You've Got Mail, that didn't diminish my enjoyment of the story. Shipped is an adorable enemies-to-lovers who happen to anonymously meet in the online forum of their favorite canceled sci-fi show. Honestly, I was hooked just from the synopsis. A canceled show with loose ends? We've all been there and it's extremely frustrating. Combined with an enemies-to-lovers, who just happen to be academic rivals (!!!), I was LIVING for this book.
The characters are written and developed really well. I was a little nervous with a dual POV at first, but it was handled really well, without the voices getting muddled. I admired both Wesley and Stella's academic drive (I definitely saw myself there) and their passion for both their academics and the show was so fun to read. Stella's constant call-out of the sexism in the sci-fi fandoms was so refreshing to read, as I feel like this is almost never addressed. I really enjoyed the scenes from the actual show, and I actually would love to watch it (with a new ending please and thank you). I did feel like the end of the book was a little predictable, but I thoroughly enjoyed this!
If you're looking for a fun rom-com, enemies to lovers between two nerds, this is the book for you!
I received an e-arc of this title from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult 2.75 Stars
it wasn't necessarily a bad book it's just lacked so much that it was borderline boring ..
So the story is about two high school seniors Wesly and Stella, they come from different circumstances but both are competing for valedictorian for their class in order to get a full scholarship and each one has their own reasons to want this scholarship so badly, in the middle we will be introduced to the TV show warship 7 which tells the story of Aaron and Captain Jill and we will see the parallels of both stories of how enemies who despises each other slowly fall in love
the idea of the book is AMAZING specially the nerdy stuff and I liked the snippets of episodes thrown in between chapters so we see the parallels of the relationship between Wesly and Stella, by main point about this book was Stella herself .. she was so annoying and judgmental and that didn't improve even at the ending .. also the romance was really dry .. there wasn't ANYTHING going on between those two, I might as well put two bricks and they would have more chemistry than this .. I expected much better from this book but it did give me Geekerella vibe Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult
Can two IRL enemies find their happily ever after online?
Stella Greene and Wesley Clarke are Gene Connolly Memorial High School's biggest rivals. While the two have been battling it out for top student, it's a race to the bottom when it comes to snide comments and pulling the dirtiest prank. For years, Stella and Wes have been the villain in each other's story, and now it's all-out war.
And there is no bigger battle than the one for valedictorian, and more specifically, the coveted valedictorian scholarship.
But Stella and Wes have more in common than they think. Both are huge fans of Warship Seven, a popular sci-fi TV drama with a dedicated online following, and the two start chatting under aliases—without a clue that their rival is just beyond the screen. They realize that they're both attending SciCon this year, so they plan to dress in their best cosplay and finally meet IRL.
While tensions at school are rising and SciCon inches closer and closer, the enemy lines between Stella and Wes blur when a class project shows them they might understand one another better than anyone else—and not just in cosplay. Shipped by Meredith Tate
Meredith Tate ✓ 7 summary
Fans of FAN GIRL and GEEKERELLA: rejoice! This book made my heart abundantly happy! Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult This is such an underrated cute YA rom-com!
Things I liked:
🌟I liked the chemistry between the main leads. The scenes were very original and not at all forced.
🌟 The sci-fi show scenes between the middle of the chapters.
🌟Dual Povs: It is a 'I've got mail' trope, so, of course, Tom Hanks' or in this case, Wesley's POV is truly appreciated.
🌟 The writing: The author effortlessly wrote the little things that teenagers in today behave and do. Loved the little things in her lines.
Things I didn't like:
*Just the fact that I wanted a more explained ending. Otherwise, I loved this! Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult I’m so excited about this book! SHIPPED is a YA romcom I describe as “You’ve Got Mail” at Comic Con. It’s got a cosplay masquerade, a cute pet rat, laser tag, a prank war, and an enemies-to-lovers romance between two school rivals who HATE each other, but are both secretly mega fans of the same canceled sci-fi show. I had so much fun writing it and I hope you enjoy reading it! :) Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult This was pretty good as a YA romance. I liked the nerd troping and the characters were engaging. I wish I hadn't left this review so long, though. I remember having some qualms around romance-landia issues. Like Wes being a giant coward and keeping his identity secret in a way that I don't think would actually work.
And Stella's family seemed a bit like a Saturday Morning Special phone-in from central casting. Only that's a little too harsh because they actually deliver fairly well on heart and the complexity of those personal relationships being both support and challenge.
So I'm going with four stars and a well-told story.
A note about Chaste: Sex doesn't seem to be much of a thing for either of the protagonists. Well, they aren't dating anyone through the course of the story and neither has had time with their academic pursuits. So that's cool. Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult I love the movie You've Got Mail, so when I learned about this geeky retelling, my sci-fi-loving heart just HAD to have it! The book opens with a popular sci-fi show getting cancelled after one season, and because that is PRECISELY my greatest fear when it comes to my favorite shows, I just had to keep reading ... and gobbled the book up in a matter of hours. No regerts, y'all :P
To my mind, the most god tier enemies to lovers stories are the ones where the two characters hate each other because they have flaws they have to overcome to become better people -- and once they learn their lesson, they complement each other. That is EXACTLY what happens in this story! Both Stella and Wesley are deeply flawed characters with strong motivations, and it was a joy to see them develop over the course of the book to become better people -- and better partners <3
We also get snippets of the cancelled sci-fi show that brings the central couple together, and I especially loved how the enemies-to-lovers ship in the show mirrored the progression of Stella and Wes's own relationship. Several of those sequences gave me chills because of the parallels. Long story short, I ship #Lewton!
While the core of the story is, of course, the romance, it touched on several important themes that I loved seeing -- the way female characters are often treated in male-centric sci-fi, toxic gatekeeping fan culture, classism, the culture around academic success. We stan a societally-aware book!
Overall, this story is a compulsive, fluffy read with ALL the feels that perfectly weaves fandom and rom-com together! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to write a 198,000-word hurt/comfort fic to deal with my book hangover. Sci Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult New Adult