Reviews

When Stars Collide by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

alexandra_bitter's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

isabellamini's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

ufcasey's review against another edition

3.0

This is not this author’s best, but it’s not her worst either. If you haven’t read this author before, don’t start with this book. If you have read this author before, you might be surprised to learn that the female main character is NOT poor (which is the case for most of her books I have read). Having a book that heavily references opera, something I know nothing about, was also a nice change of pace. I mostly liked this book up until a couple of big reveals

Spoiler

Olivia is being stalked/assaulted and the perpetrator is someone you literally cannot guess because they enter the story almost immediately before they are revealed - and this happens twice!

. On top of that, there’s the whole break up scene that every contemporary romance must have and this one makes as much sense as they usually do - which is to say it doesn’t make sense at all.

So basically if this story had it’s ending changed, I would have rated this higher. But as it is, it’s good just not great. I’ll still keep reading these books by SEP though.

beckylewis82's review

5.0

4.5 - This book is #9 in the Chicago Stars series but my first and I can't wait to go back and read the others in this series! This one follows Olivia who is a world renowned Opera Singer and Thad who is the backup quarterback for the Chicago Stars. The two are paired together for a month long ad campaign for luxury watches. This started out as a classic enemies to friends to lovers and I loved every minute of their story. My favorite parts were the insight into the opera world and I kept googling performances that were mentioned in the book. I also really enjoyed Thad and his dedication to his team. He knows he is second string and even though he wants to be a starter he never doesn't give his all in training the young quarterback who is the starter. I loved how Thad referred to him as the idiot and I really hope he gets his own book because I loved his character so much!! This was such a fun romance with a dash of mystery and I highly recommend checking this one out! Thank you William Marrow and Netgalley for my gifted copy for review, this book is out 6/29/21.

meikemuis's review

1.0

Don’t get me wrong, I love Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I think she’s brilliant. But this book? It was like traveling back to the eighties, right down to the many, many descriptions of the female MC’s clothing. The further I got in the book, the faster I started to skip through. The many ‘plot twists’ felt more forced the further I got, the drama kept repeating itself. I am now on page 241 of 279 and I don’t know if I have the will to go on. Very disappointing.

jessalex610's review

dark funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I picked up bc the synopsis was “Mozart meets Monday Night Football”. If you read something that absurd, how can you not read it? Unfortunately, i found out many reasons why. This book was all over the place and not in a good way. Phillips tried too hard to make it a romance/thriller while packing in all the thriller stuff at the very very last minute, adding too many strange plot twists and conclusions at the end and resolutions that were way too short. The moments when we’re introduced to POC characters and their involvement in the story were so lazily written. Phillips basically had a whole paragraph being like “they’re here because diversity is so important!!” but only take up maybe half a page of space, with the exception of Sarah. Also, the sex scenes were so corny. Honestly, the book overalls was a cornball, not in a good way. One more thing, this isn’t a spoiler just messed up: the book opens up with olivia attacking thad bc her “friend” told her that thad assaulted her, which the friend lied about so her bf at the time wouldn’t get jealous. WTF?? And that conflict only lasted like a page and half?? And THAT’S how they’re relationship starts. A grossly false SA allegation that was over as quickly as it was introduced. talk about a whiplash! Like…yay, thad’s a decent person and we now know false SA allegations are bad?? what was the point of that??i honestly should’ve DNF’d this just by that but i was holding out hope it would get at least a tiny bit better. And it did at parts, there were funny and cute moments, and then things got weird with the whole “thriller” plot lines and Thad being aggressively protective. 

I was hoping to have a thoughtless good time with this book, and I only had that for like 35% of the book. I’m disappointed 

lateresita27's review

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

ameliaowdom's review

emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

lnpatch's review

emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

avrilk's review

4.0

Yaaaaas! I'm always frustrated by authors who write men who are so sure of themselves, successful, wealthy, while the women they write are a hot mess professionally and are still finding themselves, even into their thirties! SEP does a lot of that too, and in recent years I've found it to be annoying.

HOWEVER.

Olivia Shore is NOT that girl. She is smart and talented, driven and successful, and has wealth of her own that wasn't some inheritance. And she knows it. She was such a refreshingly satisfying character to read.

I did think the mystery could've been pulled together a little better, only because it was a little too far- fetched to have so many bizarre things happening at once from different and unconnected actors.

But it's a relatively minor quibble since the book is a romance and not actually a mystery.

I've seen others bemoaning the lack of the alpha male in this Chicago Stars installment, but I found Thad to be nearly as refreshing to read as Olivia. He wasn't terribly manipulative or controlling, and he wasn't a bully, which are qualities I get sick of reading in heroes. A decent man with integrity is someone I can root for, and Thad is both of those.