Star-Crossed: A Novel

It's summer at last and the back deck reading has begun. Minnie Darke's latest novel, Star-Crossed, makes for absolutely perfect summertime reading.

Nick and Justine grew up together. There was that moment when it might have been more than friendship, but it passed and their lives moved on without each other. They're adults when their paths cross again. Could it be fate? Ordained by the stars?

Nick makes many of his decisions by reading Leo Thornbury's horoscopes. "But Nick trusted Leo Thornbury. If he followed the astrologer's advice, things worked out."

And guess who just happens to work at the magazine that carries those horoscopes? Uh huh - Justine. And what if she, you know, slightly altered Nick's Aquarius advice every month? "It was show more only a horoscope in a magazine. What harm could changing it do?"

What a fun premise! And I loved Justine. She's kind, funny and a person you'd love to know. The road to love is a bumpy one. The missed cues, mistakes and miscommunications between her and Nick will have the reader just hoping that true love can triumph. But will Justine's meddling divert the way things are supposed to be?

This is the main plot line, but here's the part I really liked. Changing the horoscope for one person isn't reality. Many others also read them and follow the advice. Darke has written so many vignettes featuring supporting characters. Their lives and loves were just as addicting and well written. (I enjoyed them all, but have a special place in my heart for Brown the dog). And I loved how they interconnected.

I really enjoyed Star-Crossed! A touch of magic, a generous helping of romance, a dash of what if and some wonderful writing make for a fluffy, fun read. (And admit it - you've read your horoscope haven't you?!) show less

It's no secret that I am very interested in astrology. I don't necessarily let my horoscope dictate my life or let my signs influence my personality, but I will admit that time and time again, I'm amazed by the accurate predictions. My interest in contemporary romance combined with my fascination with the stars is why I was so excited to read this book. I really, really enjoyed it. The premise of it all was very interesting and I found myself thinking over and over "how the heck is this going to end?" I read it in almost one sitting. It wasn't an easy romance where the characters fall in love almost instantly. The story built up until it reached a very satisfying ending. I enjoyed that the author switched from not only the main story show more line, but she also included random characters who were also effected by Justine's actions. I also enjoyed the style of humor the author used and the fact that you don't have to necessarily believe in predictions from the stars to enjoy this book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the zodiac, contemporary romance, general fiction, and a lighthearted read that consists of truly relatable content. show less

When Justine crosses paths again with her childhood sweetheart, Nick, she is surprised to discover the spark she felt as a teen is still there. Frustrated after giving him her number and not receiving a call, Justine takes fate into her own hands. As she works at the magazine with the horoscope column Nick follows religiously, she decides to tweak the horoscope in a way that will convince him to call her. Of course, things don't turn out how Justine hoped and so she continues to tamper with the horoscopes every month. Of course, Justine's alterations have wider ramifications on the many other horoscope followers who share Nick's sign and Justine's advice causes wide ripples.

Such a sweet book at just the right time. I decidedly fall into show more the "horoscopes are bunk" group but whether you buy into them or not, there's plenty of story to charm you. Being set in Australia, it's fun to wrap my northern hemisphere brain around flipped seasons as the book takes place over the course of the year. Darke also does an excellent job of alternately exploring Justine and Nick's lives as well as the cascading consequences for other people who apply Justine's horoscopes to their lives. While there's no huge surprises along the way, the journey is a delight and comforting in knowing that all will be resolved for the good. Recommended if it sounds like your jam. show less

A series of almost vignettes strung together through the astrological charts with so much tongue-in-cheek humor that I was grinning, chuckling and amazed at how well Minnie Darke pulled the whole thing together. There are a gazillion characters and they keep getting pulled back into the whirlpool of a great con, all in the name of - you guessed it - love.

How could you not love a book that has Justine Carmichael who wants to be a Journalist, and is willing to be a gopher until she has her chance to write for The Alexandria Park Star and oh just happens to be in love with Nick Jordan. He is a Shakespearean actor who has trouble recognizing his talent and is willing to give it all up for his almost fiancée, a gorgeous super model, who is show more definitely not Justine Carmichael. And my favorite character, the Voo Dog extraordinaire, Brown Houdini-Malarky, cast as principal, hero and “no bastard’s watchdog”.

Quirky - sure, humorous - absolutely, the writing was a bit unconventional with an unusual structure. Minnie Darke states that she wrote the “book to amuse herself” and entertain the reader. Score, it all worked for me

Thank you NetGalley and Crown Publishing for a copy. show less

Who doesn’t enjoy a love story with some tinkering of fate? That’s the premise of ¬Star-crossed by Minnie Darke – the manipulation of a horoscope to entice the hero into the heroine’s arms. Harmless, right? Actually, no. This story balances romantic comedy with the idea that a changed horoscope can alter decisions and, in some cases, life courses. It’s all about what you believe in…

Nick and Justine were born in the same country town and shared one memorable teenage night. Now they are grown up, they’ve drifted apart. Justine is a cadet in waiting at one of the most respected magazines in the city and Nick is a struggling actor. They cross paths while Nick is dressed as a fish and Justine is determined that Nick notice her show more in a new light. After finding out that Nick lives and breathes his horoscope, Justine uses her new position to just slightly tweak his horoscope every month in her favour. It’s only minor and nobody really believes in all this stuff, right? Um, no. Justine’s changes have ramifications for more than just Nick, with strangers making huge life decisions based on their altered horoscope. Unfortunately for Justine, Nick has a tendency to misinterpret her horoscopes and go completely in the opposite direction. As Justine tries harder, the stakes become higher with her job on the line. Will Nick finally understand? Will the universe eventually right itself?

This is a really fun idea for a novel and I can see the story as a great movie. All the characters (even the minor ones that appear on reading their horoscopes) are individual, quirky and memorable. There are a number of smile/laugh worthy moments, with the finale being a fantastic culmination of humour, wacky scenes (random actor appearing from nowhere to play Romeo, anyone?) and romance. Minnie Darke’s world building in an unnamed city is closely detailed with quirky, memorable moments. (Verge junk collection day is celebrated in a big way as is Justine’s secret spelling vigilante action). It’s also unapologetically Australian with more than a few references to country towns and their quirks and the aforementioned junk collection.

Overall, Star-crossed is more than I expected, which was a rom-com focused on misinterpretation of horoscopes. It’s an incredibly fine-tuned story that cleverly intertwines strangers with the main characters through coincidences, relationships and random meetings. I thought that part was excellent – characters the reader only meets after their horoscope return so you can find out what happens to them and whether things worked. It’s fun, well thought out and brings an original concept to the genre. You may not read your horoscope in quite the same way again though…

Thank you to Penguin for the ARC of this book. My review is honest.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

Younger me would have been all over this book. A book about how your astrology sign rules you life? I loved reading all of that stuff and figuring out what aspects of being an Aquarius I had. My friends and I all loved tarot cards and fortune tellers. Heck, I had a best friend who would go on about how her boyfriend was such a Gemini which meant full of contradictions and selfishness at times.

"Star-Crossed" has a lot of heart. We don't just follow the two main characters of Justine (Sagittarius) and Nick (Aquarius) we follow a bunch of other secondary characters who are affected along the way too. Not everyone gets a happy ending, but I found show more myself smiling and even tearing up a bit here and there. I also loved that the setting is Australia. I am all for romance books not always taking place in London and New York. The ending was definitely a great HEA.

"Star-Crossed" follows Nick and Justine from the day they were born and allows how the date of their birth is nudging them along. Nick and Justine's mothers are very good friends so these two do grow up together. But after one of the family's move, the two don't see each other again until they are 15 years old. And after that, almost another 10 years goes by. And when Justine runs into Nick again, she finds herself thinking about him and how maybe now they could have a relationship with each other. Nick has a girlfriend though. However, when Justine realizes that Nick's favorite astrologer writes for the magazine that she is employed at, she starts to wonder if maybe fate needs a helping hand.

I honestly took a little warming up to Justine after a bit though. I wasn't down for what she was attempting to do and I honestly didn't get why she couldn't just talk to Nick. That said, she leans a lot more Aquarius at times I thought with her sense of romance and how fate keeps throwing Nick in her path. Justine is sarcastic and obsessed with grammatical errors to the point I kept cracking up about it. She dreams of being a reporter and is worried that she's not going to get a real life while she watches her friends and family couple up and move on.

Nick was a dreamer, but I thought at times quite pragmatic. He's trying to make a living as an actor and finding it hard going. His model girlfriend is quite tired of him being poor and wants him to give up acting for more steady work. And though he is thinking about it, he keeps getting pushed by Justine to stay with acting.

The two together have a wonderful shared history and I loved their backstory.

Darke also follows a ton of other characters influenced by their horoscopes and this is where sometimes you will end up laughing or be sad. I thought it was great to follow them all from the beginning of the book to the end. Heck, we even get a dog as a character in this one and I won't get into his side-plot, but I was worried for the dog for a good portion of the book.

The writing takes a bit to get going along with the flow. However, once it does, the book really snaps along. I had a hard time putting this one down while I was on the road. I know a lot of people will probably roll their eyes about astrology, but honestly I think Darke does a good job of showing both sides of things. Those who rely too heavily on their astrological signs and those who focus too much on things being black or white.

Darke follows the secondary characters in the Cusp sections so at first you get introduced to a lot of new people, but she circles back to them again though so you can follow the progression of their stories separately from Nick and Justine (though sometimes they do interact with the cusp characters).

The ending was pitch perfect and I was sad to put this one down. I will definitely be on the lookout for future Darke books. show less

Two childhood friends are reunited in an unlikely series of coincidences. Justine remembers Nick fondly and is thunderstruck by the man he's grown into. She's interested in him, but he doesn't seem to feel the same way. However, he is obsessed with his horoscope, the horoscope that runs each month in the magazine that Justine works for.

She decides to take fate into her own hands and tries to convince Nick to see her as a romantic option by secretly altering his monthly horoscope. But Justine's ham-fisted meddling seems to only be making matters worse. Now Nick is back with his ex girlfriend and is contemplating abandoning his acting career for something much less fulfilling. Unbeknownst to her, the seemingly harmless editing of the show more Aquarian horoscope is setting up a chain reaction of coincidences that will likely come back around to her. Will she ever be able to convince her clueless beaux to notice her or will she lose her job first?

This story was cute and light and well done overall. However, I personally had a difficult time suspending my disbelief. I thought it was a bit unlikely that Justine would use her new found authority in a job she had coveted for years to immediately put herself at risk of being fired in order to potentially force Nick to call her. But she had been drinking and it was an impulse decision.

However, once she sobered up and realized that Nick had a girlfriend it became more and more difficult to believe she would continue risking her career on a method that was patently not working. It was extremely frustrating to watch her keep behaving in such a ludicrous way. This was especially true as the novel progressed and it became clear that Nick is an idiot who makes massive life decisions based upon the cryptic advices of a horoscope. He literally decides to get back together with a girl he hates and then propose to her and abandon his dreams. Such a person is not stable. Why is Justine so invested in having a relationship with him? Especially when she knows he's only one errant horoscope away from breaking up with her.

Moreover, after Justine starts sleeping with her boss and is caught for her morality infraction of altering the horoscopes she immediately does it again. She takes the horoscope off the fax machine when she KNOWS that her boss (who has already warned her never to do it again or she's fired) is in the building and likely to come find her at any moment. When he predictable does, she hides the horoscopes and then loses them and is "forced" to fabricate a whole set of horoscopes for every sign instead of just Aquarius. This course of action was so comically unlikely that I violently rolled my eyes. Nevermind the obvious fact that Justine could have simply done nothing and the contributions manager would have reached out to the horoscope author to resend his predictions, but she actually goes out of her way to buy a vintage type writer so she can compose a convincing counterfeit. Naturally she's immediately caught. It was all just so stupid. And she should have lost her job. It's crazy that the book ends with her still gainfully employed at the same magazine.

In the end, I was left deeply ambivalent about Justine and Nick's relationship. It's not clear why they like each other and it's extremely clear that they are only together on the flimsiest pretext. This was not a compelling love story, but it was a fairly expertly constructed little novel about intersecting coincidences and the rebounding consequences of small decisions. show less