2022, Week the Whatever: Starry Eyed Romances

Hey Bookworms,

I’ve officially lost count of the weeks in the year so, I think the ship has sailed on numerical titles. We had a good run, but I’m just giving in to the chaos at this point. Remember when I read a trio of Witchy romances and stalled on telling you about the first two until I could acquire and read a third for the perfect blog post tri-fecta? Yes, this is completely rational and reasonable behavior. I, uh, did it again. This time I read two rom-coms with “star” in the title and was like, “obviously I need to read a third one.” Only this time things went less smoothly and it took me an age to finish the third book, but I would not relent and tell you about the first two without a third “star” book. I am stubborn and petty, as it turns out. But would you like to hear about some stories? Great. Let’s get starry-eyed.

Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur- This is the third (and I think final) installment of Alexandria Bellefleur’s Written in the Stars trilogy. As expected, it was super cute and I adored it. We finally got to see Margot’s love story and, swoooooon. OK. So. 10 years ago, Margot fell in love with her best friend. Only the best friend was presumably only into dudes and had a boyfriend so Margot was just, like, pining. One spring break, Olivia and the boyfriend were off-again, and sparks they went a-flying. Margot and Olivia spent a blissful week together only to have things end jarringly when miscommunications pulled them apart. 10 years later… Remember Brendan and Annie from Hang the Moon? Their wedding is coming up fast and their venue just burned down. So they call in an emergency wedding planner who can throw things together for them but also make it all magnificent. Margot is more than a little shocked to find that the wedding she’s standing up in is now being planned by her ex BFF/Lover/The-One-That-Got-Away-and-Married-a-Dude-Named-Brad. And PLOT TWIST. Margot needs a new roommate and Olivia’s apartment is temporarily uninhabitable and she needs a place to stay. This book featured one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever read in a rom-com that involved a cat. I’m not even a cat person but cats making things weird is a sub-trope I’m apparently very into. (See also the cat in The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare.) This book was great fun and if you want to see your fave Seattle based friend group bantering and being lovely, you will not be disappointed. 

The Astronaut and the Star by Jen Comfort- The premise of this book is completely bonkers, but is was SO MUCH FUN. To start: our heroine is an honest-to-goodness astronaut. Reggie is surly AF and leans hard into her goth eyeliner aesthetic. She is truly terrible at PR, and is at risk of losing out on a lunar mission because she doesn’t have the right mass appeal or some such thing. In order to rehab her reputation, she volunteers to do a training exercise for a Hollywood movie. She’s supposed to give this bro-tastic actor dude (literally, his biggest credit to date is a film called “Space Dude” so you know where it’s going) Astronaut lessons so he can win an Oscar. Jon Leo is a charmer, but he hasn’t had much luck in shaking his “Space Dude” image. He’s hoping that will change with his latest film role, but he can’t even bring himself to read the script. (Because he has undiagnosed ADHD. I feel like that’s not really a spoiler because even though it comes as a surprise to Jon, it certainly doesn’t to the reader.) Anywho. This script block isn’t helped by Reggie’s hotness, even when she tries to tell him really boring stuff about rocks. She’s a distraction. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of friction. And then there’s even MORE friction because bow-chicka-bow-wow. I kid, but not really. It’s a really fun story with a lot of humor and heart. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to Reggie’s roommate/Cosmonaut for… IDK, existing?  What a freaking delight. If there were a movie adaptation, she’d steal every scene she was in.

Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke- I have no idea why this book was such a challenge for me to get into. It featured some of my favorite things ever- I mean, it was set in Australia, for heaven’s sake. There’s little I enjoy more than reading a book with my inner monologue set to Aussie. It was slow going for me at first, though. I did hit my stride about halfway in and then binged the rest of the book, but it was definitely a slow burn. Our heroine Justine meets her long lost friend and childhood crush Nick as an adult. He’s charming and handsome and inexplicably hung up on the horoscopes published by the magazine said heroine works for. So naturally, Justine decides to edit the column she knows Nick will be reading in order to manipulate his behavior. It’s a completely rational way to get him to realize he’s into Justine and not the model he is currently dating who wants him to give up on his dreams of being an actor, duh. Of course, in screwing with the horoscope, Justine messes with Aquarians all over the city, and their lives take different trajectories as a result, which is where the book veers off into Love Actually territory a bit. Unfortunately, since Star-Crossed clearly had a central narrative, the side stories got me a little distracted. Also there’s a lot of Shakespearean references. I mean, it works, as the whole book has that sort of Midsummer Night’s Dream vibe of interwoven stories and general mayhem. It just wasn’t a perfect fit for me personally. If the premise sounds like fun to you, though, I encourage you to give it a chance. Side Note: This book inspired me to google my whole astrological birth chart, so now I know that I’m an Aries with Aquarius rising and a Cancer moon. Which means I’m a fire sign inundated with water influence and it may explain why I’m such a mess. Like. Fire. And Water. I’m a walking contradiction. (If you don’t get Greenday stuck in your head after reading that line IDK if we can be friends.) (Obviously we can still be friends. I’m just a Xennial shouting at clouds. It’s fine.)

Alright kiddos, I think that’s enough from me this week. Look to the stars. Aim. Ignite. XOXO. (Gosh I love Ashely Poston. Go read Geekerella.)

If you make a purchase through a link on this site, I will receive a small commission. Links in the post above direct to Amazon, but if you’re interested and in a position to do so, please consider making a purchase from a local independent bookstore. IndieBound and Bookshop make it easy to do just that without having to leave your home!