Abandoned by Booklikes

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

Younger me would have been all over this book. A book about how your astrology sign rules you life? I loved reading all of that stuff and figuring out what aspects of being an Aquarius I had. My friends and I all loved tarot cards and fortune tellers. Heck, I had a best friend who would go on about how her boyfriend was such a Gemini which meant full of contradictions and selfishness at times. 

"Star-Crossed" has a lot of heart. We don't just follow the two main characters of Justine (Sagittarius) and Nick (Aquarius) we follow a bunch of other secondary characters who are affected along the way too. Not everyone gets a happy ending, but I found myself smiling and even tearing up a bit here and there. I also loved that the setting is Australia. I am all for romance books not always taking place in London and New York. The ending was definitely a great HEA.

"Star-Crossed" follows Nick and Justine from the day they were born and allows how the date of their birth is nudging them along. Nick and Justine's mothers are very good friends so these two do grow up together. But after one of the family's move, the two don't see each other again until they are 15 years old. And after that, almost another 10 years goes by. And when Justine runs into Nick again, she finds herself thinking about him and how maybe now they could have a relationship with each other. Nick has a girlfriend though. However, when Justine realizes that Nick's favorite astrologer writes for the magazine that she is employed at, she starts to wonder if maybe fate needs a helping hand. 

I honestly took a little warming up to Justine after a bit though. I wasn't down for what she was attempting to do and I honestly didn't get why she couldn't just talk to Nick. That said, she leans a lot more Aquarius at times I thought with her sense of romance and how fate keeps throwing Nick in her path. Justine is sarcastic and obsessed with grammatical errors to the point I kept cracking up about it. She dreams of being a reporter and is worried that she's not going to get a real life while she watches her friends and family couple up and move on. 

Nick was a dreamer, but I thought at times quite pragmatic. He's trying to make a living as an actor and finding it hard going. His model girlfriend is quite tired of him being poor and wants him to give up acting for more steady work. And though he is thinking about it, he keeps getting pushed by Justine to stay with acting.

The two together have a wonderful shared history and I loved their backstory. 

Darke also follows a ton of other characters influenced by their horoscopes and this is where sometimes you will end up laughing or be sad. I thought it was great to follow them all from the beginning of the book to the end. Heck, we even get a dog as a character in this one and I won't get into his side-plot, but I was worried for the dog for a good portion of the book. 

The writing takes a bit to get going along with the flow. However, once it does, the book really snaps along. I had a hard time putting this one down while I was on the road. I know a lot of people will probably roll their eyes about astrology, but honestly I think Darke does a good job of showing both sides of things. Those who rely too heavily on their astrological signs and those who focus too much on things being black or white. 

Darke follows the secondary characters in the Cusp sections so at first you get introduced to a lot of new people, but she circles back to them again though so you can follow the progression of their stories separately from Nick and Justine (though sometimes they do interact with the cusp characters). 

The ending was pitch perfect and I was sad to put this one down. I will definitely be on the lookout for future Darke books.