Synopsis:
Sometimes even destiny needs a little bit of help. When childhood sweethearts Justine (Sagittarius and serious skeptic) and Nick (Aquarius and true believer) bump into each other as adults, a life-changing love affair seems inevitable. To Justine, anyway. Especially when she learns Nick is an astrological devotee, whose decisions are guided by the stars, and more specifically, by the horoscopes in his favourite magazine. The same magazine Justine happens to write for.
As Nick continues to not fall headlong in love with her, Justine decides to take Nick’s horoscope, and Fate itself, into her own hands. But, of course, Nick is not the only Aquarius making important life choices according to what is written in the stars.
Review:
Well, I didn’t like this anywhere near as much as I thought I would. Star-Crossed has been on my to be read for probably about five years and oh boy do I regret leaving it so long. Which I usually say when I love a book, but this time what I’ve done is hype it up by saying for years that I want to read it and for some reason I’ve convinced myself it’s going to be amazing when I finally get to it. This did not happen.
It’s harsh to say, but for the majority of this book, I was bored. I really wanted to love it and actually, the way horoscopes were threaded into the story was done really well, but I didn’t care for the characters at all.
For someone who was supposed to be really smart, Justine was an idiot. I get why she changed the horoscopes but firstly, it was incredibly stupid because her job was only to transcribe them, you cannot change someone’s creativity property like that. Secondly, it was actually really manipulative and this is something I’ve only just realised. She was trying to influence Nick’s life in a big way, something she could have done in a more ethical way as they are friends. It was an interesting plot though.
There’s a section of this book that goes into detail about dogs getting injured and also put down. It was horrific to read and I actually skipped over most of it. This cruelty felt very unnecessary and I don’t know why it had to be done. One of the dogs does play a role in the wider story, but the pain it went through wasn’t needed.
The best part of Star-Crossed for me was how everyone’s lives were intertwined and how Justine’s made up horoscopes that actually affected everyone. The shorter character stories at the end of each chapter were far more interesting than Nick and Justine’s. My favourite was Fern’s as it was very cute. I also liked Phoebe and whatever the boy she was with is called (sorry I can’t remember).
I’m going to give Star-Crossed a generous three stars (my actual rating would be 2.75 but I can’t do that on here or Goodreads) because although I struggled to get through it, the premise was very interesting. If you’re into star signs and horoscopes you’d probably enjoy Star-Crossed but if you want a fun romance, this definitely isn’t one.
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