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A review by readingrobyn
Written In The Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
2.0
I love opposites-attract romances and trope-filled hallmark-adjacent love stories, so I was surprised when I found this book disappointing. It delivered on the premise, but I just did not connect with the characters or their relationship.
It physically hurts me to rate a wlw story this low. I honestly debated upping my rating just because I wanted to love this, but I wasn't swooning over it. I couldn't stop thinking that our two gals would probably be better off as just pals, if even that, because romantically there isn't a spark here.
I did not understand what Darcy and Elle saw in each other. According to the story, they were falling head over heels in love with each other, but I could not tell you why. The book does a lot of telling-not-showing and maybe that is why I just couldn't get it or maybe the story was so side-tracked by the astrology stuff that it didn't build enough of a bond between the two women for me to notice it. I feel like both of these characters could find a better romantic match in someone else or maybe *get a therapist* to solve some of their emotional baggage before trying to bring all that into a long-term romantic relationship? (If Brandon had half a brain he wouldn't have been trying to push his sister to date, and instead would have been pushing her to speak to a professional.)
One of my other big issues is that the fake dating didn't have equal stakes for both characters. If they did get caught in the lie, the negative consequences for Elle were astronomically higher than they were for Darcy. It could have legit ruined Elle's life if the book wasn't so determined to be sunshine and roses about everything.
That was the other thing that threw me off, the tone.
There were a bunch of serious family issues that felt super thrown into the story. Although I think it was all meant to humanize our characters, it felt out of place for a story that was trying to be primarily fluffy. Also, the way the stuff with Elle's family was 'resolved' at the end was just bizarre. Like the story suddenly remembered that they had a mess to clean up and just stuck a bow on it.
Overall, the story was cute, it was tropey. There was a full-on 'maybe you weren't what I wanted, but maybe you are what I needed' moment (said out loud by the characters in a moment that had me seriously questioning the writing, but still.) I can understand why people like it, but it was not what I'm looking for in my sapphic romances.
It physically hurts me to rate a wlw story this low. I honestly debated upping my rating just because I wanted to love this, but I wasn't swooning over it. I couldn't stop thinking that our two gals would probably be better off as just pals, if even that, because romantically there isn't a spark here.
I did not understand what Darcy and Elle saw in each other. According to the story, they were falling head over heels in love with each other, but I could not tell you why. The book does a lot of telling-not-showing and maybe that is why I just couldn't get it or maybe the story was so side-tracked by the astrology stuff that it didn't build enough of a bond between the two women for me to notice it. I feel like both of these characters could find a better romantic match in someone else or maybe *get a therapist* to solve some of their emotional baggage before trying to bring all that into a long-term romantic relationship? (If Brandon had half a brain he wouldn't have been trying to push his sister to date, and instead would have been pushing her to speak to a professional.)
One of my other big issues is that the fake dating didn't have equal stakes for both characters. If they did get caught in the lie, the negative consequences for Elle were astronomically higher than they were for Darcy. It could have legit ruined Elle's life if the book wasn't so determined to be sunshine and roses about everything.
That was the other thing that threw me off, the tone.
There were a bunch of serious family issues that felt super thrown into the story. Although I think it was all meant to humanize our characters, it felt out of place for a story that was trying to be primarily fluffy. Also, the way the stuff with Elle's family was 'resolved' at the end was just bizarre. Like the story suddenly remembered that they had a mess to clean up and just stuck a bow on it.
Overall, the story was cute, it was tropey. There was a full-on 'maybe you weren't what I wanted, but maybe you are what I needed' moment (said out loud by the characters in a moment that had me seriously questioning the writing, but still.) I can understand why people like it, but it was not what I'm looking for in my sapphic romances.