A review by cocoonofbooks
Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee

4.5

This was very cute! It felt authentically middle school to me. (The characters are in eighth grade.) I wish the book description of "Mattie plays Romeo opposite her crush" hadn't been a spoiler (Mattie doesn't know she has a crush on Gemma until halfway through the book and doesn't end up as Romeo until two-thirds of the way through), but also I might not have picked it up without that premise, so ::shrug:: There were a couple of plot threads that I feel like got lost along the way (Did Liam end up getting cast as Paris? I feel like I missed something, because he was helping with props and I was waiting to see who they found to play Paris, and then suddenly he's onstage?) but nothing that majorly derailed the story. The ending felt a little rushed to me, but at the same time it felt pretty accurate for eighth graders, so again it didn't bother me too much. I do wish the exploration of bisexuality had been a little more solid; Mattie's sister says something about how kissing a girl (as Mattie does as Romeo in the play) isn't any different from kissing a boy, and that's called bisexual, and I was like, "...???" But if you're looking for something that's cute and sweet and has f/f rep for a younger audience, this is a great pick.