the time it was about never been shipped

Posted June 9, 2025 by Stacee in Interviews | 0 Comments

when I got the invite to read never been shipped by alicia thompson, i jumped. i was a bit slow to get back to the publicist about an interview, but after devouring reading it, i basically begged for the chance because i loved it so very much. thankfully, alicia had the time!

before we get to the answers, let’s check out the book.

Title: Never Been Shipped
Author: Alicia Thompson
Pages: 400
Pub Date: June 10, 2025
Publisher: Berkley
Find it: PRH | Bookshop | Goodreads

Synopsis: 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.

Sounds good, right?

1. Please give the elevator pitch for Never Been Shipped.

Never Been Shipped is a romance between two former bandmates and estranged childhood best friends who haven’t seen each other in over a decade, but now their band’s reuniting for a show on a cruise ship. Nothing like five days at sea to make you confront the past . . . and figure out your future.

2. When setting up the plot line for John, were there any plot points you immediately knew you wanted to include?

John was interesting because he appears as a side character in a previous romance of mine, With Love, from Cold World. So it was fun to reread that book and see what I’d already established about him to figure out how to work it in. He gets some guitar picks with lewd sayings on them as a Christmas present in Cold World, for example, so I always knew I’d want to do something with that in his book.

3. Why do you love Micah and John and why should readers root for them?

I love Micah and John for so many reasons – seriously, I think about them like they’re real people! – but I just love that they’ve both been through so much but they’re both so gentle with each other. They make each other braver. I think they’re the perfect example of a couple where they’re both strong people, but they make each other better, and they help each other to see just how strong they are.

4. Were there any weird things you googled while researching?

I opened a private browser to google where people were hooking up on cruise ships. The long and short of it is that there are cameras EVERYWHERE, so in real life do it at your own risk, but in my fictional story we can just pretend this particular cruise line doesn’t care about liability as much and so isn’t as technologically vigilant lol.

5. Without spoilers, which scene was your favorite to write?

There’s a scene where John and Micah talk and really clear the air about some things, and then they REALLY clear the air, and that was one of my favorites to write.

Speed(ish) round:

1. You find out you’re being published for the first time. Describe the next 5 minutes.

I would say I’ve gotten the “big call” twice – because I published a YA novel 15 years ago, and then had a long break before my first romance got published over a decade later. In both situations, I was at work, so it basically meant that I stood outside a law office in the hot Florida sun, pressing my cell phone to my face, grinning like a fool but probably just saying something meaningless like “Oh, wow . . . that’s cool . . .” And then I went back inside and had to sit down at my desk and finish typing up whatever motion my boss had given me to do.

2. What 3 things would you take to a desert island?

Oh man, I never know how to answer this. I’m not cut out for Castaway, I’ll tell you that much. I’d take a device loaded up with a bunch of books and music, a way to charge that device, and a third smart thing that would help me actually survive. Water purification tablets or something.

3. You can only read one book for the rest of your life. What is it?

Probably Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I read it a LOT as a kid, so it’s nostalgic, and there’s just a lot to it. I think I could reread it over and over and get something new out of it each time.

4. What is the one thing about publishing you wish someone would have told you?

That nothing is for certain, almost ever. The ground shifts beneath your feet all the time.

5. You wake up and discover that you are Bella in Twilight. You know how it plays out. What do you do differently?

I don’t know that I have it in me to give up my species and family for a dude lol, so I’d be a lot more chill about Edward I’ll tell you that much. But where’s the fun in that?

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Alicia Thompson writes romance novels, reads whatever she can get her hands on, and plays a mean ‘Bad Moon Rising’ and not much else. She lives in Central Florida with her family.