Review: Written in the Stars

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finished on March 20, 2021

Favorite Scene/Quote: "This was it. Boom. End game. A lifetime of butterflies."

4.5/5 rounded up

I really loved this book. Sometimes it takes me a while to get into a book, but I was hooked on this one immediately.
    
Darcy is an actuary burned by love in the past and her brother keeps setting her up on blind dates. Her most recent date was Elle, an astrologer who recently tied her social media account to Darcy’s brother’s matchmaking app. The two don’t exactly hit it off but Darcy lies to her brother in an attempt to get him to stop setting her up. Elle believes in soulmates and Darcy is terrified to fall in love again but the two agree to start a fake relationship in order to get their families off their backs.

I really liked both main characters in this book. Darcy is serious and terrible with her feelings, but I loved that she wasn’t just that. She’s a closet nerd who can make some really bad jokes. Bellefleur also wrote a really good reason for why Darcy is so hesitant to fall in love to the point of denying what she feels. Elle on the other hand is free-spirited and fun. She wants to fall in love and, up till the disaster date, keeps trying to meet and find her one. She is such a sweet and honest character but she’s also hesitant about things and has some family issues.

The chemistry and budding relationship between the two is cute. It’s nice that Darcy learns more about astrology because of Elle and it was nice to see Elle playfully tease Darcy about being a nerd. The relationship development from fake to something else made sense and was delivered nicely.

I also liked several of the side characters, even the ones that weren’t necessarily nice to begin with. They made for good characters for the main characters to play off and it was nice to see the established relationships between the friend/family groups. I have some conflicting feelings about Brendon. As sweet as his attempt is, personally I would hate someone pushing me that much to go out on dates. He’s nice, but it bothers me that he wouldn’t just leave his sister be. He even gave a good reason as to why he did what he did but personally I just don’t like it.

Really my only complaint about this book comes from the ending. The drama at the end of the book felt a bit forced and rushed and, to be completely honest, even a bit lazy. Darcy and Elle are at Brendon’s Christmas party and Brendon is there with his and Darcy’s mom. Darcy and her mom don’t exactly see eye-to-eye and Elle is at least a little bit aware of the drama and frustration between them. While Elle and Brendon are dancing, Darcy’s mom pushes her about Elle and Darcy says something along the lines of it’s just fun and I don’t love her. Elle overhears and runs out and Darcy chases her. They have a fight outside and Elle leaves. The fight just didn’t seem realistic to me. Elle knows about some of Darcy’s feelings about her mother so why didn’t she try to talk to Darcy about what she said? She also called Darcy heartless and implied that she was unfeeling even though a chapter or two previously she said that Darcy cares, a lot, without expecting anyone to care for her back. It just seemed overblown and forced. I think drama about the two of them getting caught would have been better or even just no drama and allowing the two to slide into a happy relationship. I am a bit disappointed that there was no epilogue for this book though. I liked the very ending of it but would have liked more.

Even with my issue with this book it was a sweet read and I loved the zodiac sign memes that were dotted throughout the book. I probably won’t read the sequel focused on Brendon, but I’d definitely read another book by Bellefleur.

Bonus Favorite Scene: The escape room and the zodiac sign memes