“What’s that saying? Love is friendship caught fire? I’ve been waiting about a billion years for this one to catch.” – Alicia Thompson, Never Been Shipped

A band reunion set on a cruise ship is destined to change everyone’s lives in Alicia Thompson’s Never Been Shipped. As a teenager, Micah was the lead singer in a band that was shot to stardom after performing a song on a popular television show. The whole time she’s been in the band, Micah has had an uncomfortable and complicated relationship with music. After releasing their sophomore album, the group broke up. Well….. Micah destroyed the group and she hasn’t talked to her bandmates since she made that fateful decision. Over a decade later, the band is getting back together! They are reuniting for one more performance on a cruise themed to the popular television show they were on. Micah agrees to the cruise and, despite her reservations, is hopeful that she will learn from her past.

John, one of her bandmates, hasn’t seen or talked to Micah since she broke up the band. This was particularly hard on him, because Micah was his best friend until the band broke up. Did he want to be more than friends? Probably, but when the band was still together, he sat back and took a more passive role, hardly daring to rock the boat or cause waves. Getting back together with the band on the cruise means that John has one more chance to see Micah and see if he can get her to stay in his life.

The two forge a new relationship when they are onboard. Adult John and Adult Micah find themselves navigating new personal feelings as they work with their three other bandmates to make a new sound. Tensions build though, pushing them all to a point that the band might not able to recover from. Five days on the cruise. Five days for their lives to change forever.

This book had all the elements of my favorite romances: friends to lovers, forced proximity, unrequited feelings, queer representation, and spice! While this book is about rockstars, it’s more of a minor character. This slow burn to a happily-ever-after was absolutely enjoyable. I wasn’t as emotionally connected to the main characters, but the story was one that I had not read before.