Written in the Stars: A Novel

It’s not every day we get to encounter a debut novel that sweeps you off your feet, but Written in the Stars just does exactly that. Especially with the recent release of Happiest Season starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis, I feel like Christmas truly is the season of the gays. #winning Alexandria Bellefleur’s debut novel Written in the Stars is a stunning #ownvoices opposites attract sapphic rom-com that made my heart flutter a bajillion times. Not to mention that it also falls under the fake relationship trope, which is one of my guilty pleasures. It’s definitely high on the list of my favourite books this 2020 and probably forever. In the beginning, we meet Elle ‘Elizabeth’ Jones off to a blind date with Darcy Lowell, her new business partner’s older sister. The date turns out disastrous when things take a turn for the worse. Add in the fact that they seem to have nothing in common. Elle is an astrologer who wants to find her soulmate. Meanwhile, Darcy, who works as an actuary, is a bit of a sophisticated old soul who initially comes off a bit jaded about love because she’s already been burned before. But things take a turn when Darcy asks Elle to pretend to be together just so her brother would quit being the meddling matchmaker. Bellefleur is a genius for creating Written in the Stars as a sapphic modern-day Pride and Prejudice, with Elle and Darcy bearing a really strong resemblance to Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. These two characters are…

This book was a pleasant surprise and I loved it! It's a fake-dating sapphic romance book set around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays. Elle is an astrologer who goes on a date with her new partner's sister, Darcy who is an actuary. Sparks fly on the initial meet before things go awry. Darcy lies to her brother that it was great and they're dating to get him to ease off his search for her perfect person. Elle and Darcy make a plan to date and attend social events together through New Years but feelings start to grow. As total opposites the characters really complimented each other well and you felt like you knew each of them. Obvs I loved Elle more and really loves Margo and Brendan (who better be the next book!). I loved the astrology and astronomy parts.

I’ve been on a wlw or f/f binge lately. I’m devouring them. I’ve found some great ones and some good ones and some that didn’t suit my tastes. This one was FANTASTIC. I absolutely loved this book. I came across this book on goodreads and really liked the cover. I thought it was really cute and really fun, so I checked it out from the library on audiobook and bought the e-book ( I love a good read along with the audio) The narrator, Lauren Sweet, was great and did a wonderful job bringing the story to life. This was a wonderful, holiday themed, romantic comedy that had a *kind of* pride and prejudice vibe. Its got the whole “enemy to lovers” and “fake relationship” thing going on and it’s executed really well. Elle, the quirky, adorable co-creator of Oh My Stars, gets set up with the ice queen, Darcy, sister of Elle's colleague, Brendon, and ohhhhh myyyy do they get off on the wrong foot. This sets the stage for the lovable Elle and the rigid and reserved Darcy’s worlds to come colliding. Brendon, the sweetest brother EVER, is the founder of One True Pairing, a dating app. He wants nothing more than to make romance movies come to life and play matchmaker (obviously, he created a dating app) sets them up for this date that goes horribly awry. HOWEVER, that’s not the story he gets. In order to keep Brendon off Darcy’s case of getting out in the dating world, she suggests a fake relationship with Elle. Elle agrees and so beings the fauxmance. But wait.. these two ladies have a…

Lemme just start by saying I don't typically read romance. I don't like the "one look and they instantly fell in love/had the hots for each other" plotlines. But I found favorable reviews for this book on another site, and decided to try it out. Rom-coms in general can make me eye-roll or swoon, depending on how they're handled. My favorite one is "You've Got Mail", which is about two people who essentially learn about each other and form a friendship and an emotional connection before it transitions to love. (If there are any books like this out there, please let me know!) I think this is why I found the relationship between Darcy and Elle a little unsatisfying. First of all, let me say I loved the writing style. Easy to follow, nice and relaxed, and make it easy to understand the characters' thought process and motivations. The text conversations were fun, and helped to further illustrate the personality differences between the two MCs. Secondly, the characters themselves were interesting. Dialog isn't an easy thing to write, but the conversations in this book were more natural sounding than I've read in some others. And each character had a distinct way of speaking. Darcy is clipped and precise, while Elle is more of a "rattle off anything that falls out of your brain" type of conversationalist. Very appropriate for their personalities. The situations they encountered were also fun and gave us more insight into who they are. The Escape Room double date and Thanksgiving…

I loved Hang the Moon and after reading it, I really wanted to find out more about Brendon's sister, Darcy, and how she found her happily ever after. The book starts with a very memorable meet disaster between Elle and Darcy. I really enjoyed how those initial negative reactions and impressions gave way to so much more. The fake dating trope is always a fun one and I always love the moment when the characters realize that what they've been feeling is anything but fake. It was also nice to see another side of Brendon and Margot. I love how loyal and steadfast they are, but I will admit that Brendon's meddling grated on me a bit in this book. I fell hard for him in his own book though, so all is forgiven ;) Alexandria Bellefleur's writing is beautiful, but the pacing of the story was fairly slow and then the ending was very abrupt. The ending unfortunately didn't leave me fully satisfied, so I'm glad Elle and Darcy made prominent appearances in Hang the Moon. I'm looking forward to Margot's story next! Audiobook Review Overall 4 stars Performance 4.5 stars Story 3.5 stars The narration by Lauren Sweet was wonderful and I find her voice very pleasant and engaging. She voiced all the characters very well and was able to convey so much emotion in her performance.