Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

This review was initially written in April 2021 but I finally got around to publishing it almost 3 years later. Whoops.  Is my book blog finally revived? Guess we'll see 🙈

This book, Alexandria Bellefleur's debut sapphic romance novel, follows a new-age, free-spirited astrology and social media influencer's fake-to-real romance with an uptight corporate woman. 

I did not come into this book expecting to discover a new favourite read of all time, but I will say I expected a little more than I got. The story was not bad nor was the novel as a whole but I did encounter more issues than positives.

Firstly, as this is a sapphic romance between a lesbian and a bisexual character, I really loved the representation and it felt genuine and a realistic portrayal of WLW characters (especially as this is actually written by a sapphic person). This book purely focused on the relationship between the two characters and some issues outside of their sexualities or identities - no LGBTQIA+ trauma here which is honestly refreshing.

Another positive for this read was I enjoyed reading about the strained dynamic between Elle and her family. It didn't come across as contrived or petty; I found myself empathising with Elle and genuinely rooted for her in scenes where her family was criticising her and her life choices. Related to this, one of my favourite scenes during this read is when Darcy defends Elle against her family which was a moment which cemented their relationship and made it a little more convincing. In that way, I did manage to feel a connection with Elle and Darcy, but disappointedly, I lacked a connection with the two characters outside of that specific aspect.

On a more general note, the writing wasn't anything to write home about but considering there were two perspectives, Bellefleur did a good job of making the two "voices" of the characters distinct enough that I was able to tell from whose perspective the story had shifted to even without it being overtly stated. I also really enjoyed the astrology theme in the background of the story!

However, I did come across several issues. I'm generally not a massive fan of adding pop-culture references to novels as it runs the risk of becoming dated and sounding dated very quickly. Also, it can ostracise readers from regions that are not exposed to those specific pop culture references; I find this to be a problem mostly in English language books and it comes across as a little anglocentric. This is generally a minor annoyance but in this book, there were constant Harry Potter references. I understand that HP is a series near and dear to many people's hearts but I cringe a little anytime there are references to the work due to the creator of the series being vocally prejudiced against transphobic people. Especially as this was released in 2020, I don't personally see the need to continue giving that woman clout especially as these little references added nothing to the plot and felt redundant.

Additionally, the writing just wasn't for me. I found that this book did try to be funny in the form of puns, witty one-liners, and other jokes. Aside from a few lines, the humour was lost on me and it was a bit too corny. There were also some cringy phrases like "adulting" that I couldn't get on board with, but that's honestly a me problem.

As stated above, I found it very difficult to develop a connection to the characters. All of the main cast, Elle, Darcy, Brandon, and Margot felt like empty shells to me. If you asked me to describe Margot's character and her traits, I probably could not manage it outside of super surface-level traits. Because of this, the development of the love story between Elle and Darcy was lost to me - when I was reading, they disliked one another and 2 (short) chapters later, they were having sex (though the sex scenes were genuinely fantastic!). The author failed to show the development of their relationship believably and organically, so much so that it felt like instalove.

I also really disliked Brandon for the majority of the read. He was selfish, abrasive, and hard-headed. Brandon refuses to listen to his sister's wishes about not wanting to fall into a relationship, instead shaming and pressuring Darcy into going on dates she is not interested in. Consent to being in a relationship is important and cannot be forced by an outside party. This was a problem for me and hindered my reading experience because I felt as though Brandon was written to be a relatable, sassy, and likeable character but he was not it for me.

Overall, this book wasn't bad by any means nor did I hate reading it. It was relatively enjoyable and I flew through it, but it was fine. However, it was so fine that I almost felt nothing, even the "emotional" scenes towards the end.

Overall Rating: ★★1/2