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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.

Spice rating: 3/5 open door.

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?

Don't just take our word for it...

“Cat Sebastian’s writing positively sings. Filled with heart and humor, STAR SHIPPED is an absolute masterclass in enemies-to-lovers yearning. I couldn’t love Simon and Charlie more.”
– BK Borison, New York Times bestselling author of First Time Caller and Good Spirits

“Nobody does a road trip romance like Cat Sebastian! Star Shipped has all the humour, found family and quiet moments of agonising tenderness that Sebastian does so well–and in Simon it also has the most spiteful and delightful wet-cat hero I’ve ever come across, and I’m completely obsessed with him. This book is a tremendously enjoyable tale of growth, vulnerability, and what it means to be trusted with someone’s story. I’ll be rereading it whenever I need a sweet, sharp-edged dose of joy.”
– Freya Marske, USA Today bestselling author

“There’s a slow burn, and then there’s a Cat Sebastian slow burn, which is where I would spend the rest of my life if I could. Told with such exquisite, specific, tender care, Simon and Charlie’s journey from homoerotically shipped costars and on-set enemies to friends and full-blown lovers is such a joy. Star Shipped is one of those books that will burrow its way into your heart and never, ever leave.”
– Alicia Thompson, USA Today bestselling author of Never Been Shipped

Taste the very first page

Every day this week, the air conditioner on set has woken up and chosen violence. Simon is not prepared to work in tundra conditions. He isn’t built for Siberian gulags or ice fishing huts.

A production assistant brings him a blanket— actually just kind of tosses it in his direction and runs, because possibly some of Simon’s discontent is showing on his face, and in his body language, and in the fact that he’s said, “I guess this is how I’ll die, not that anyone cares,” fifteen times already— but the blanket is made of something scratchy, and his fried nerves can’t take one more entry in the Bad column.

“You look like you’re in a nursing home,” Charlie says when Simon has the terrible blanket wrapped around his shoulders. “Or, like, you’re doing a fashion shoot where the concept is sexy assisted living facilities in outer space.”

After seven years, Simon shouldn’t be appalled by the things that come out of Charlie’s mouth. But before Simon can present Charlie with an itemized list of everything wrong with what he just said, the assistant director shouts that it’s time for yet another take of this godforsaken scene.

He’s spent the past three hours huddled up with Charlie behind the fuselage of a crashed spaceship. He’s said the line, “Wait, I think they hear us,” so many times the syllables have unraveled into a meaningless series of noises.

They shoot another take. And another one after that, Charlie’s enormous arm a heavy weight around Simon’s shoulders, his body a hulking and weirdly familiar presence against Simon’s side. A disheartening percentage of Simon’s career has been spent hiding behind spaceships, alien temples, and gigantic fungi with Charlie Blake.

March 2026