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caseythereader's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, Religious bigotry, Cursing, and Sexual content
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Pregnancy and Infidelity
mandareads222's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Outing, Lesbophobia, and Biphobia
Moderate: Alcohol and Pregnancy
Minor: Infidelity
bekkah_co's review
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Dial Press Trade Paperback, and Susie Dumond for the digital ARC! This book releases June 11, 2024.
Synopsis: Gray, after breaking up with her long-term girlfriend, moves to New Orleans for a new start. At the recommendation of a famous astrologer and her best friend (Cherry), Gray begins the quest of serial dating people from every star sign with the goal of accomplishing this before her next birthday. This story follows Gray as she navigates love, a new job and city, and tries to find her destiny.
Brief Review Summary:
- Overall Rating: 2.5 /5
- Spice Rating: 2/5
- Sapphic Rating: 3/5
Review: Despite the absolutely fascinating premise of this book, I found myself really struggling to complete this book. I am normally someone who can finish two books in a day, but this one just killed my reading streak. The style of the book seems to be suffering solely due to the amount of characters in it. While it is very clear that Gray will be moving through a large cast of "love interests", it was hard to really engage with any of them. I understand the choice to have the dates all fall into the known archetypes (and stereotypes) of their star signs, but it began to feel taxing and like the love interests were shells of their astrology. Even the main love interest, who had a considerable amount of space in the book devoted to her felt tertiary to the narrative. It cannot be easy to try and navigate so many characters in only 300ish pages. I think if this book was given more time to breathe, particularly in the back half, the development of Gray and the love interest's relationship would have been more satisfying.
I am not the biggest "astroslut" out there. I'm one of those lesbians who check the horoscope when the vibes are off and that's about it. However, I did dedicate a lot of middle and high school to learning to be an astroslut. This is purely why this book intrigued me. You have a main character who doesn't really believe in this stuff, but at the encouragement of her best friend and the famous astrologer push her into these relationships. Ultimately, there is a lesson to be learned with this in the book, but I felt like it just made everything very superficial. As previously stated, I think shoving the love interests into their astrological shoe box does harm the book overall.
I know you folks like a bit of spice in your books. This is probably about a 2 out of 5 in this category. The scenes felt rushed and were lacking a bit of pizazz. They eventually began to feel repetitious.
Where I really struggled with this book was the tone. This is probably the most common complaint of mine if you look at my other reviews: I hate the overuse of millenial / zillenial humor in sapphic romances. I get it. I really do. We are a funny group of people, but the jokes and "witty" comments the characters make don't translate well on the page. I'm sure that, if given an audiobook adaptation, it'll translate much better there. I wish the writing was a bit more diverse. I found myself struggling to understand the motivations of Gray and particularly Cherry's desire to get Gray a date. She just got out of a long term relationship, let the girl breathe. Now, in defence, of Cherry a lot of actions that Gray took were incredibly selfish, but I'll let y'all discover those on your own!
Overall, this book just really fell flat and there were some lines in the book that really made me consider DNFing. I think, when it comes to handling diverse identities, there needs to be some sensitivity to the unity behind labels.
Synopsis: Gray, after breaking up with her long-term girlfriend, moves to New Orleans for a new start. At the recommendation of a famous astrologer and her best friend (Cherry), Gray begins the quest of serial dating people from every star sign with the goal of accomplishing this before her next birthday. This story follows Gray as she navigates love, a new job and city, and tries to find her destiny.
Brief Review Summary:
- Overall Rating: 2.5 /5
- Spice Rating: 2/5
- Sapphic Rating: 3/5
Review: Despite the absolutely fascinating premise of this book, I found myself really struggling to complete this book. I am normally someone who can finish two books in a day, but this one just killed my reading streak. The style of the book seems to be suffering solely due to the amount of characters in it. While it is very clear that Gray will be moving through a large cast of "love interests", it was hard to really engage with any of them. I understand the choice to have the dates all fall into the known archetypes (and stereotypes) of their star signs, but it began to feel taxing and like the love interests were shells of their astrology. Even the main love interest, who had a considerable amount of space in the book devoted to her felt tertiary to the narrative. It cannot be easy to try and navigate so many characters in only 300ish pages. I think if this book was given more time to breathe, particularly in the back half, the development of Gray and the love interest's relationship would have been more satisfying.
I am not the biggest "astroslut" out there. I'm one of those lesbians who check the horoscope when the vibes are off and that's about it. However, I did dedicate a lot of middle and high school to learning to be an astroslut. This is purely why this book intrigued me. You have a main character who doesn't really believe in this stuff, but at the encouragement of her best friend and the famous astrologer push her into these relationships. Ultimately, there is a lesson to be learned with this in the book, but I felt like it just made everything very superficial. As previously stated, I think shoving the love interests into their astrological shoe box does harm the book overall.
I know you folks like a bit of spice in your books. This is probably about a 2 out of 5 in this category. The scenes felt rushed and were lacking a bit of pizazz. They eventually began to feel repetitious.
Where I really struggled with this book was the tone. This is probably the most common complaint of mine if you look at my other reviews: I hate the overuse of millenial / zillenial humor in sapphic romances. I get it. I really do. We are a funny group of people, but the jokes and "witty" comments the characters make don't translate well on the page. I'm sure that, if given an audiobook adaptation, it'll translate much better there. I wish the writing was a bit more diverse. I found myself struggling to understand the motivations of Gray and particularly Cherry's desire to get Gray a date. She just got out of a long term relationship, let the girl breathe. Now, in defence, of Cherry a lot of actions that Gray took were incredibly selfish, but I'll let y'all discover those on your own!
Overall, this book just really fell flat and there were some lines in the book that really made me consider DNFing. I think, when it comes to handling diverse identities, there needs to be some sensitivity to the unity behind labels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Sexual content
Moderate: Religious bigotry
caitlinromanelli's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Religious bigotry
fanboyriot's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
💕 Rom-Com
📱 Online Dating
🫶 Wholesome Friendships
Wanting to find her soulmate before her birthday, Gray’s childhood best friend helps her come up with a plan. Dating her way through each zodiac sign to find her match. Some dates go better than others but in the end maybe love is where she least expects it to be.
I absolutely loved this book. All the dates were so entertaining to read some fun, some spicy, some ending in pasta being dumped over someone’s head, it was all so good.
The plot was entertaining, the characters were well written, and I enjoyed all the queer romance moments. The friendships made through failed dates was something I wasn’t expecting. I loved how this ended and who Gray ended up with, I didn’t see that coming but was pleasantly surprised.
Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (3/5)
Release Date: 11, June 2024
POV: Third Person
Rep: Queer (MC), Bisexual (LI), Lesbian (LI), Trans (LI), Queer (LI), BIPOC characters, LGBTQIA+ characters
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Religious bigotry and Cursing
Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Biphobia
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