The Stars Too Fondly

by Emily Hamilton

In her breathtaking debut—part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com—Emily Hamilton tells a tale of galaxy-spanning friendship, improbable love, and found family.

So, here’s the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn’t mean to steal this spaceship. They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace, but then the stupid dark-matter engine started on its own. Now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri and unable to turn around while being harangued by a hologram that has the face and snide attitude of the ship’s missing captain, Billie.

Cleo has dreamt of being an astronaut all her life, and Earth is a lost cause at this point, so this should be one of those blessings in disguise that people talk about. But as the ship travels deeper into space, the laws of physics start twisting; old mysteries come crawling back to life; and Cleo’s initially combative relationship with Billie turns into something deeper and more desperate than either woman was prepared for.

Genres: Science Fiction, Romance, Queer, LGBT, Lesbian, Fantasy, Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2024

About the author

Emily Hamilton is a science fiction author who writes about women kissing in space. Her debut novel, The Stars Too Fondly, is available from Harper Voyager (US) and Gollancz (UK). Formerly an award-winning staff writer at the alt-weekly newspaper Seven Days, she lives in Burlington, Vermont with her wife and their tiny dog Mimi.

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

gotta make sure the queers in space have their iced coffees and rom com fixes

The Stars Too Fondly is a cozy and queer science fiction debut about the price of progress at the expense of the many, and a generation seeking salvation among the stars. Featuring: a diverse cast and fun twisty spacetime adventures –not to mention the accessibility of iced drinks and rom-coms on a spaceship (a priority if you have queers in space). Prepare to fall hopelessly in with Hamilton's crew of loud and loveable characters that feel like their own kind of family and love just as large. Emily Hamilton manages to pack a ton of information into her debut, balancing out the interpersonal conflicts with a compelling discussion of space exploration and scientific hubris. I loved learning more about the lore of the Providence crew and what went wrong in the initial launch, and the reveals with the dark matter and its powers. Altogether just a delightful mashup of romance and science fiction that will appeal to many readers inside and outside both genres.

thank you to emily for sending me an arc!!

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[charlotte, · Rating 1 out of 5]

On my blog.

Galley provided by publisher

The Stars Too Fondly was a book that so perfectly checked every box of my (personal) how not to do sci fi list. And yeah, sure, this is probably another case of why didn’t you conclude this from the blurb alone. I mean, even if the blurb hadn’t signalled not-for-me-ness, then reading the first two pages definitely should have. In fact, that’s probably where I should have called it a day.

For a certain audience, this is a book that will hit all the right spots. From the second page of this book (coincidentally where it’s revealed that, in 2061, we still have TikTok, of all things), it was abundantly clear that I am not part of that audience. I will never be part of that audience. Every aspect of this book made me want to poke my eyes out with a sharp stick. You may think that an exaggeration, but no. It very much is not.

First things first: I wouldn’t often call writing bad, because it’s very much down to individual readers, I think. And then I come across books like this and I think I am absolutely justified in calling this writing bad. From the godawful textspeak (which doesn’t sound remotely like anyone would speak let alone text), to the character descriptions shoehorned into the text in the most awkward of ways, to lines like “also looking incredibly heist-chic in her black dress and leather jacket”… Yeah. Simply on a surface level this writing was bad.

I can’t say that a good plot would have saved this for me because once I’ve decided I don’t like a writing style, that’s it for the book. So, in that sense, this book was a lost cause from page one. Things didn’t improve in other areas, though. These characters are supposedly late(?) 20s, but they read like a bunch of hormonal teenagers. And, hey, to each their own, but if I’m reading an adult book I want to feel like I’m reading about adults and people with adult concerns.

On top of this, there’s a whole lot of telling and not a lot of showing. Take, for example, the found family that’s clearly being driven towards by the narrative. How do I know that’s what happening? Well, not because I’m being shown it, that’s for sure! It’s an exercise in the author being like I’m gonna hit all the sweet spots for found family and I’m going to describe them to you in detail so you KNOW that’s what I’m doing. This is just an illustration of how the entire flipping book progresses. Combine this with an annoying omniscient narrator who seems to know everything — and I mean, a question gets raised in Cleo’s POV and you think, okay, here’s something, only for that question to be fully answered by this omniscient narrator and any tension that might have been building plummets like a lead balloon — and you just have a really boring plot. Much of it, too, you can see coming a mile off. There was, briefly, a moment where there came something I didn’t expect, but it was so late in the game that it didn’t exactly have much impact. Somewhat predictably, this had a knock-on effect on the relationships (including the found family as mentioned above). Billie and Cleo’s in particular felt very weak and watery, which was a pretty big problem since this is effectively a romance novel with them at the centre.

My last gripe is more to do with marketing than the book itself. This is not science fiction. I would barely even call it science fantasy because that implies there’s some actual science involved instead of whatever this wishy-washy mess was. This book is more like fantasy wrapped up in some scientific words. But that one’s on marketing, I think. Just don’t go reading this one for the sci fi aspect.

Anyway, this all added up to a 1-star read for me that I could have seen coming from the very first few pages. One day I will learn to DNF books. Maybe.

[nikki | ཐི༏ཋྀ​​݁ ₊ ݁ . · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

rating: 4.25★
a grown-up heartstopper meets andy weir's the martian meets x-men, i adored this and desperately need more sapphic hope-punk science fantasy!

It’s stupid how much I love you. Except it’s not stupid at all, because loving the light in the darkness is the only thing in this universe that makes any goddamn sense.

a lovable queer found family and a heist turned space mission, it's a fun ride with moments of tenderness and hope. the mystery was intriguing and i honestly got a little kick at the idea of tiktok being around still in 2060 😂

it was a fast read - nothing was overwhelming even w the science / physics jargon and i simply didn't want to put it down.

“You’ll find her, Cleo. And she’ll love you, because she’s me, and there’s no version of the universe where any version of me doesn’t love you.”

[L (Nineteen Adze) · Rating 2 out of 5]

After some reflection: 2.5 stars. I'm rounding this one down because every time I've thought about this book in the weeks after finishing it, it’s because I’m dissatisfied and picking at small details. The story is full of potential and plot threads that I wanted to explore in more detail, but the execution wasn’t great, so I’m forced to conclude that my initial take of 3 stars was grade inflation for the story’s heart being in the right place.

Spoilers for the whole book and all its minimal plot twists follow: let’s get into it.

Back in college, some friends and I were cooking dinner together. When my friend was asked how long to boil potato chunks to make mashed potatoes, he confidently said “oh, we should let those go for a while.” We returned to check on them forty minutes later and found that the pot was full of watery, lightly salted starch. This reading experience was often like that for me: it’s hard to enjoy a story so lacking in texture and flavor.
Update: the friend in question has read this review. Sorry, buddy, but in my defense, it was extremely funny. I should note that he makes excellent mashed potatoes now and is a smart guy generally-- we're all just a little ridiculous and missing some cooking wisdom in our early twenties. I hope the author's future books follow a similar level-up trajectory.

Characterization

The marketing pitches the book as a found family story, but to me it felt hollow because of how focused the story is on Cleo and Billie. Kaleisha, Abe, and Ros have occasional good moments, but they generally feel more like Cleo’s background singers and relationship coaches than people with their own lives. Abe in particular feels like little more than the token nice guy in the group, calling “good job, babe!” from the background and occasionally providing historical facts while the rest do superpower training. Stories like Six of Crows (or my niche favorite In Other Lands) do a great job of making each member of the found family or friend group feel like an interesting person with their own arc that isn’t just about one member of the group. I am even forced, with great reluctance, to compliment Legends & Lattes here: the people in Viv’s friend group have their own dreams, whether of being accepted despite prejudice against their species or inventing new foods, so Viv’s journey supports their goals.

The character ages also don’t click at all for me. The author apparently started writing this at twenty-two and finished the project at twenty-seven, which explains a lot. The characters all feel more like teenagers than adults, perhaps college undergraduates at the oldest: they simply do not come across as adults with careers. I suspect that mapping everyone to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight was to minimize the age gap with Billie (who is thirty), but it comes at the cost of grounded character realism for the majority of the group. I'd love to see this re-imagined as a story about the teenage children of the authority figures in this situation getting over their heads and saving the day from there.

I expected the biggest issue on the age front to be with Cleo, who sticks out her tongue and makes fart noises mid-conversation. The whole group has silly moments, but her communication style is particularly immature. I think that this could be interesting to explore if it was framed as more of a flaw or developmental stage, with Kaleisha and Abe planning the next steps in their adult life and Ros locking into medical school while Cleo desperately tries to keep everything the same. Breaking into the spaceship as a “one last adventure before someone has to move” moment could have been a great catalyst for conflict and growth on all sides.

Despite Cleo’s issues, though, my actual sticking point was with Billie, both as a hologram and a living woman. The early chapters talk about her background as the public face of this project, as a competent and charismatic commander, but she doesn’t sound notably different from Cleo’s group. I was hoping to see some development as the hologram’s memories come back. The interplay of what the preserved Billie feels and her more polished persona as Captain Lucas could have been amazing, especially as she deals with grief and confusion about the loss of her crew, but she just engages in high-drama arguments with Cleo and company like any teenager blending into a new social group rather than someone with a background in public relations and command authority. When we meet the real Billie in another dimension, she's almost identical-- just a little more wistful, and still barely thinking about the people on her crew.

In the end, many of my complaints come down to the entire shape of the narrative being sculpted by what will be most cozy or romantic rather than thinking through what would make the story interesting and following those threads.

For example, the state of the pop culture references in this story is absolutely dire. The characters like Star Trek: Voyager, which is fine (and fitting for their long distance from the rest of humanity), but it also went off the air in 2001, sixty years before the start of the story. They also watch While You Were Sleeping (1995), but there’s no mention of pop culture that came into being during the lifetime of these characters– it’s an incredible missed opportunity. We know that after the Providence I disaster, people stopped talking about space travel: how has that affected pop culture? Star Trek gets some new show or movie every few years, so did the Providence I disaster mean that they stopped making new adaptations afterward despite the long successful history of the franchise? Did science fiction in general take a hit, with pop culture pivoting more toward nostalgic settings and historical drama? Was sci-fi represented only as dark futures about the growing climate disasters and the world falling apart? Does this spaceship's surprise new journey start changing the media landscape? Any of these questions would be fascinating glimpses of this era’s culture, but instead the narrative leans only on references that are familiar and cozy to the reader.

Relationships

The core of the romance is also shockingly under-explored. Billie is a hologram of Captain Lucas, gradually trying to piece her memories together and grieve the loss of her crew: she can project herself all over the ship, but she can’t be touched. Cleo has had sexual relationships in the past and is constantly imagining what it might be like to touch Billie, but as her romantic feelings deepen, she believes that a relationship without touch will be enough for her. This could have been a great chance for some conversations with Ros, who is established in a throwaway line as aroace. Cleo’s sex-forward history could have led her to believe that she is aromantic as well, and a nuanced discussion about the difference between that trait and Cleo’s different experience of being surprised to fall in love for the first time would have been a good chance to give Ros some better scenes.

Instead, the whole friend group just teases Cleo and Billie for flirting with each other or reassures Cleo that her feelings are real and important. That’s very sweet, but I would have loved to also see their concerns, even if they don’t share all of them to her face. Cleo is used to being in very physical relationships, so she might struggle in this one. (Sidebar: showing a chat thread of the others worrying about this and then going straight to the human/ hologram sex life with Billie telling Cleo where to put her hands or controlling ship-generated technology like a vibrator remotely could have been a great way to defy expectations. That kind of flexibility would have deepened Cleo’s struggle by showing that she and Billie are creative enough to build a sex life, but she’s longing for cozy non-sexual touch as well, and perhaps even more so.)

Late in the book, hologram-Billie dies (about when I had expected her to) in a heroic act of self-sacrifice. Cleo grieves for a few chapters, but then she meets the real Billie who’s been alive in the Other Place dimension, they have an awkward “oh I understand that you don’t want me” conversation where everything is immediately fine, and there’s a rapid transition to running off to have hours of sex without exploring the fact that this Billie is different. The hologram skipped straight from the launch disaster to twenty years later; the real Billie has spent twenty years in another dimension with alien beings while she drifted away from her identity and then faced aliens wearing the face of her dead fiance. This is just never explored, though. Instead, the Billies are treated as interchangeable because the real one was carefully watching events on the ship and falling in love with Cleo exactly the way the hologram did, with no apparent blur where she might have missed a moment or misunderstood something because she’s not actually there.

It cheapens hologram-Billie’s sacrifice and role as a real person to erase the distance between them… and there’s such a missed opportunity for Cleo to experience the complexity of being with the woman she loves while also mourning the version she loved first. This whole tangle could have been the high point of the book, especially if Cleo chose to have a conversation with the version of Billie in the black box to say goodbye, and instead it’s the emotional equivalent of a kid dropping their ice cream in a puddle and crying until their parents quickly buy an identical cone (now with the added bonus of sprinkles, or in this case, the ability to touch each other). When Billie touches Cleo, she thinks that’s it’s all exactly the way she imagined, even the texture of Billie’s fingers: there’s no room for the real Billie to be a surprising person in her own right, someone who’s grown and changed, or for Cleo to surprise Billie with things that she didn’t say to the hologram version during their time together. It’s all too simple, without any “I’m so happy, but this element of the relationship is still hard” anchor to give their love some texture.

Plot

I would ordinarily make this the first section in a review, but the plot is little more than a shaky framework for the romance, which is ordinarily fine in romances… but the story opens the door to some complex themes and then lets them drift. Before I get into that, though, the structure is simply weak. I just can’t take “this drive is pulling energy from another dimension and the people there are suffering, so they teleport the crew out, but without leaving any kind of message, and then no one ever tries to do more research and testing on this point– by the way, the guy who kicked all this off is too powerful for a whole species to fight, and their solution is to give three random passers-by superpowers to teleport the spaceship to where it’s going so they can fight him” seriously. I could poke holes (why not give a few of the already-present crew members these powers and train them up? Are we really supposed to believe that in a capitalist system, no one else is trying to market space travel to billionaires using a different engine type?), but it’s beside the point.

The plot is built around giving the group time to bond through superpower training and having movie nights, which is fine for short chunks, but the story also wants to have everything both ways. For me, this peaked when Billie had to negotiate for the weight allotment of her late fiance’s ashes in one chapter intro when we’ve already seen that she has a whole giant library suite full of books and cozy hobby materials. It’s fine to have the emotion of picking and choosing precious belongings to fit the demands of space, or fine to hand-wave that the propulsion drive made questions of weight irrelevant, but having both highlights some shaky editing and the book’s core problem of gesturing at sci-fi problems and then ignoring them when they would conflict with either the coziness or the romance.

Thematically, the story tries to hinge itself on whether there’s hope for the future of humanity. Earth is having a climate crisis and there was an attempt to create off-planet settlements (leading to this vanished crew), but it’s more a background smear of despair than a serious question. The story gestures at a conflict between Cleo reaching for the stars and Kaleisha the botanist trying to grow a life on Earth, but never gets into the core point that even with functional space settlement, a lot of people will be left behind on a dying planet. Does Cleo come around and see saving the planet as a worthwhile pursuit once she’s less focused on running away? Does this whole mission result in scientific discoveries like a safer method of propulsion that doesn’t drain this other dimension? What kind of public reaction has this sudden mission gotten back on Earth, and what does that imply about future changes when the ship returns? Who cares when our heroes all get to click their heels together three times and teleport home to live happily ever after, I guess. There are some little flickers of genuine pathos here, but the story keeps steering away from them for the sake of the romance.

Overall: if you like cozy stories or rom-coms driven by love-at-first-sight impulses like constantly blushing or standing too close to each other “for some reason,” you are more likely to be the right audience for this story than I am. It's also a casually queer story featuring a lesbian, a bi woman, an aroace non-binary person, and their token straight-guy friend. On the other hand, if you have a single impulse toward poking at plot holes or prefer your science fiction to bear more of a resemblance to science than to superhero comics, give this one a miss.

//
First impression: a weak 3 stars. The story's heart is in the right place (and I think it will be more of a hit with people looking for a cozy space adventure). To me, though, it kept raising intriguing and sticky points but then glossing over them, perhaps because digging too deeply into anything but the romance would have undermined the sweet tone. RTC.

Other recommendations:
- For an F/F fantasy romance about a messy woman who keeps getting in her own way but finds friends and a happier life path, try The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry.
- If you’re interested in the “can we live on Earth or somewhere else?” question and want some nuanced alien species in the mix, try A Half-Built Garden.
-If you’re mostly interested in the found family angle with a sprinkle of speculative elements, try the cozy juggernaut Legends & Lattes. I don't love either book, but I think they have similar vibes.
- If you want to lean harder into the science of a snarky person surviving far from Earth and see the evolution of public response, I can't skip mentioning The Martian.

[Joyly Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an ARC. All opinions are my own.

I’ll be completely honest, the moment I read that title my mind immediately went to the quote “I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night” and with a pretty cover like that, an instant need to read this story came over me. When I read the synopsis—part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com—and saw that its release date is on my birthday in the middle of pride month, I was sold. And then imagine my glee when I find said quote in the epigraph! I thought things couldn't get better.

So to say that I absolutely did not like this book guts me. I’m so incredibly disappointed to say that there isn’t a single thing I liked about this book. It was such a drag to get through and I always picked it back up with a long face only to fight my way through it, my eyes skimming half the words.

My issues with the book started from the beginning. At only three chapters in, my first irk was solidified. To me, writing is one of the most important things in a book. It can make or break a story. One can have a brilliant story idea but not have the skill to properly articulate it. Sadly I feel like this was the case here. Taking the fact that this is a debut author into account, I do not entirely blame them for the abysmal writing and the many inconsistencies. In this case feel like the editor is partially at fault too. Because I felt like this book was missing some serious rounds of edits. It read like a first draft, its sentences jumping from one thing to another to the point of giving me whiplash.
To take an example sentence out of context to show you what I mean:

He was Chinese American, tall enough to rest his chin on the top of Cleo’s head, and bouncing on the balls of his feet so rapidly that his floppy black hair was getting in his eyes.

This is just all over the place. What does his ethnicity have to do with his height and how does it move on to an off-handed description of how he moves and a description of his physical appearance in the SAME sentence? These phrases have nothing to do with each other and it would have read smoother if they had been in separate sentences. On top of this, the book is written in the third person from Cleo’s perspective. If this man was resting his chin on top of Cleo’s head, there was no way she would be able to see whether his hair was getting into his eyes. Such inconsistencies should be edited out.
There were plenty more sentences like this, with phrases that don’t connect well but are forced together with nothing but a comma separating them. It doesn’t read smoothly and it can really throw the reader off. There were also plenty more of these inconsistencies that are (admittedly) very small details but in the grand scheme of a book matter a whole lot and should have been edited out.
Of course, this can be a personal preference. Other readers might not spend as much time on such details or on the writing style as I do and therefore take no issue with the way this book was written. I just feel like this is something the editor should have taken up with the author to try and elevate the writing of this book.

A second thing I took issue with was the characters and their age. This is an adult sci-fi, the characters are all 27+ or even 30+ years old. I was so excited when I found out. As much as I love reading about teens taking over the galaxy, there is something special about seeing queer adults get their spotlight as well. As a queer 26-year-old myself, this was heartwarming and refreshing to see. Unfortunately, I did not feel like the characters acted their age. It felt more like I was reading about a cast of 14-year-olds. I mean, what adult in their right mind says “LOL” in a normal oral conversation? Not even teens say LOL out loud. I’ve read YA sci-fi books with characters who acted more maturely than the adults depicted in this book. There wasn’t a single character I liked, especially none of the characters in the squad. They constantly threw tantrums, unable to get a grip on their emotions. They had petty fights that were resolved in the next chapter in a “now shake hands” kindergarten kind of way. Only for them to start another fight the chapter after that.

After the initial chapters took off the story and the group of characters found themselves in space, the plot fell flat. What followed was a sequence of boring chapters in which the characters spent their time mostly doing useless things. The reader only reads about Cleo watching rom-coms from the 80’s or reading poetry. She and Billy, the ship’s holo computer program, constantly talked about old movies from the 80’s(?) and Shakespeare and other dead writers. Then JFK was thrown into it and I was left wondering why on earth the author would write a sci-fi set in the future if all they were going to focus on was the past. It’s the future for God’s sake! An exciting blank space of things that have yet to happen. You can fill it with your wildest imagination! Why focus on the past and things you can’t change?
But what bothered me most of all was why the characters were constantly doing these mundane things instead of trying everything in their power to find a solution to their dire situation. If I was stuck in space with the possibility of never making it back to Earth again, I wouldn’t have time to watch romcoms and read poetry. I’d be up at all hours doing research and experimenting to try and fix this mess.
The world building also had some serious issues and its construction overall felt very lazy to me. Things just were. There was no real grounding for any of the science/magic/whatever you want to call it. There’s this “Other Place” around which the plot revolves and it is all constructed in a too-convenient way that doesn’t make sense if you really think it through. To top it off, the ending was very deus ex machina and didn’t require any real effort from anyone’s side. It was underwhelming and did not leave a lasting impression. It’s not something to be blown away by.

And then there was the romance. Ugh, the romance. Cleo falls in love with a hologram. I don’t care how realistic the AI programming is. How much the holo Billy resembled Billy the human. It’s not an actual person. It’s not real. It’s just a computer program with a very complicated algorithm. I couldn’t ship it. I just couldn’t. To me, it wasn’t real. It was like reading about a person falling in love with an innate object. And while I know there’s a Greek myth out there that could pull this kind of plot off, this book couldn’t.

All things considered, I would normally give it a one star because, as mentioned before, there wasn’t a single thing I liked. Nothing stood out to me. This book did not make me Feel the Feels not blow me off my feet. The only reason I’m giving it two stars is because it’s queer. And as a queer person, I always try to support other queers, especially queer literature because I think it is important to broadcast queer media in this day and age. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to compromise my integrity by lying and saying I loved a queer book when I didn't. I hope it finds the audience it is meant for and that there are other readers out there who will love the book and find whatever they need in it.

[Mallory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had a little bit of everything (seriously it was sci-fi, fantasy, romance, comedy, heartwarming). I’m a little surprised this was a debut because it was such a treat to read. I’m glad I found this on vacation so I could devour it in one day because it was a wonderful ride. I would love to see this book be made into a movie (even if a movie would have a hard time capturing all I loved about this story). The Providence 1 was the salvation for humankind. A mission with over 200 people to populate a distant moon that could be habitable. But on the day of the launch every single person disappeared and was presumed dead. 20 years later Cleo and her 3 friends are determined that they have the skills necessary to solve the greatest mystery of humankind. Despite having no intention of stealing the ship they launch into space and while they do learn what happened to the crew of the Providence 1 they learned so much more. This was the queer space rom-com I never knew I needed but I did.

[Rachel L · Rating 2 out of 5]

This read like a really awful CW teen tv show (except this is an insult to the CW) with a lackluster plot and sloppy worldbuilding. I went in mostly blind and was genuinely shocked when listening that one of the characters was 27 and that they weren't all teenagers because they all spoke and behaved like teens. And most of the characters were unlikable. If this author works on writing her characters their ages and fine tunes her worldbuilding I think she could be really great.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is being pitched as a “science fantasy sapphic romantic comedy.” My only complaint with that description is, in my experience, rom-coms usually don’t have nearly this much depth, and very rarely this much heart.

The story here starts 20 years before the book itself does. The privately-owned starship Providence I is off to Proxima Centauri B to found the first extrasolar colony, powered by its (details kept secret by the corporate owners) dark matter engine. Except when the engine is activated, the entire crew of the ship just … vanishes. Twenty years later, Cleo and her friends (having grown up first obsessed with humanity’s grand project colonize the stars, and then crushed with disappointment after the program was abandoned following the disaster) decide to break into the derelict Providence I to see what they can learn about what happened to the crew.

They had no intention of triggering the launch sequence and stealing the ship, but shit happens.

Next they discover that the captain of the ship (Wilhelmina Lucas, Billie to her friends) uploaded a copy of herself into the ship’s computer, and her hologram is there to boss them around and snark at them.

The story progresses as Cleo and her friends figure out how they’re going to survive and, hopefully, get home; what happened to the crew twenty years before; and how Cleo is going to manage her growing desire for a relationship that is obviously impossible.

As I said at the top, this is a book with heart. The science-fiction aspects were well done, and I was thoroughly invested in both what was going to happen and learning what happened twenty years before. But what really kept me going was the growing relationship between Cleo and Billie. The challenges of a relationship between a human and a hologram have been explored before, but seldom so seriously (though Rimmer and Lister kissing remains one of the funniest moments in television history). I wasn’t sure, for most of this book, whether it was going to make my cynical heart grow at least three sizes, or if it was going to rip it into a thousand pieces.

Since I don’t want to say anything more, I need someone else to read this so we can talk.

My blog

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

The vacuum of space is anything but dark when your found family is with you. This cozy space opera is delightful and full of heart.

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all]]

You had me at sapphic sci-fi romcom but then I realized the title is a Sarah Williams quote so you can count me IN!

[James McRay · Rating 5 out of 5]

[June 2025] The degree of difficulty in writing a delightful sapphic romance and an exciting sci-fi adventure must be high. In this book, Hamilton sticks the landing on both. Happy Pride Month.

[June 2024]
There was so much I loved in this book. So much. A bulleted list is needed:

1. Improbable romance. This is my ultimate catnip. Probably why I read The Host like 12 times. In this case, Cleo falls in love with a hologram. It’s just awesome that you’re thinking, how’s this going to work? Then when it does… Double whammy feels.
2. Sapphic love. The romance between Cleo and Billie was just lovely. The pacing to the love declarations was a little fast but fit well in the overall plot of the story. This book was a specific Pride Month pick for me.
3. Space adventure! A clever mystery unfolds as the heroes hurtle through space.
4. Found family. Our quartet of intrepid explorers are like any loving family. They bicker, they call “BS” when BS is called for, and they love and support each other 112 percent. This story works because all four in the main group get their moments to shine.
5. Debut novel? Bravo. Though some of the prose was a little clunky in parts, that just means Hamilton has room to grow, and I expect she will.

I read this book twice since I got it five days ago (now three times), and I know I’ll read it again and again.

[Savannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I no longer feel bad giving things 1⭐️ ratings. I read this at work over the weekend and I wish I had spent my time reading something else.

This entire story is ..debatably science fiction. Granted, I am not a scientist but it’s clear that this was just a found family story with some science words tossed in and that just didn’t work for me. If anything, it’s a fantasy with sci-fi flavoring.

Also, the main purpose I even read this was for the romance and that was also bad AND weird?? Like I can’t even begin to explain …

- this story takes place in 2061? But ALL of the pop culture references are referring to things that we talk about in modern day. Why? Why would they be mentioning JFK, Molly Ringwald, or TikTok in 2061? Not only that, but in this version of 2061 we have created the science to hyper jump and send humans to different solar systems? Just set the story in some far distant time like 2161. Like 2061 is firmly within a lifetime that I can be alive in.

- this isn’t YA, but all of the characters read like they’re 16. This would’ve been less annoying if it had been marketed as YA tbh. Every character in this story is allegedly a PHD level scientist but they’re all immature and emotionally volatile. It was irritating to read

- the romance is between Cleo and a hologram on the ship named Billie. Billie was the pilot (?) of the mission going to this far away galaxy and obviously the mission went bad so here she is, as a hologram. The story does nothing to mention the issues that would arise from a relationship with a computer. Like if you’re gonna make it that, at least give me some semi-realistic explanation behind the alleged science that’s going on in universe.

- the plot is told in time jumps and character dialogue which makes the whole thing turn into a scooby doo episode by the end. It takes them 10 minutes to fly past Jupiter, and then what was described as a 7 year journey to this random planet happens in the span of 3 weeks lmao. Okay. This was a larger issue with plot overall because things got extremely convenient for “reasons”.

Everyone gets powers and becomes the avengers with the way they master them within the week. Also the plot for them saving the galaxy and the human race is ..how did we get from the beginning of the story to THAT.

- the villain was mustache twirling and his motives made very little sense to me.

- the romance as mentioned above made no sense. Cleo is “in love” with a hologram, mostly because she’s horny. Zero discussion on the ramifications of that. Extremely unbelievable that they would have fallen in love after the brief time they spent together on the ship, but maybe had this been told without a time jump on every page we’d have believed it.

Whatever. I could go on and on. Save yourself and read a better sci-fi and a better romance.

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This!!! Was!!! A!!! Delight!!!!

[♥Milica♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love you, little queer found family in space, I love you so much.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have DNF'd.

I wanted to like this so much better than I did.

The concept? Brilliant.

The execution...meh. Filled with plot holes, an obnoxious amount of telling, uneven pacing, cardboard characters, a villain who did everything but twirl his mustache, shoddy world-building, and forced chemistry to cover up the patchy bits. At a mere 336 pages it felt 100 pages too long, as if if would have benefited more being a novella than a full-length novel.

It felt very much like it didn't quite know what it wanted to be, and so at points it tried to be everything, from space heist to star-crossed romance to found-document who-dun-it to environmental dystopian to YA dystopian to Chosen-One new powers saga to...you get the picture. There was a lot going on and most of it did not mesh well.

But there are some quotes in there that caught my breath with brilliance and love. That sang out to me as a queer person.

Unfortunately, a handful of gorgeous quotes does not a good book make.

I think a lot of it is Cleo McQueary and the author's obsession with calling her by her last name. And how truly meh a character Cleo is. She's not bad, I enjoyed reading her POV, but I quickly became exhausted how every other POV showing her blathers on about how brilliant she is, how much she glows and sparkles, how everything rests upon her...and her POV doesn't really reflect that in any way. I don't like being told how brilliant and wonderful a character is time and time again, when the evidence to support this exists only in the telling and not within the character herself.

I feel like if you enjoy Casey McQuiston's writing style, you will like this. No dig because I LOVE their work, but sometimes their writing style can feel very...heavy handed in spoon feeding you backstory and emotion, and this book is that and then some (but without the stunning secondhand characters that make up for the flaws in McQuiston's writing—I wanted to love Ros and Abe and Kaleisha, but they always felt like puppets waiting for their strings to move and their friendship quartet didn't really work for me. They felt more like teenagers instead of brilliant late-twenty-somethings with PhDs in various fields).

[Fem loonieslibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book features one of my all-time favorite themes: GAYS IN SPACE.

Imagine ‘Interstellar’, but instead of Matthew McConaughey, the protagonist is a lesbian who falls in love with TARS, now a hot, bisexual hologram. So, who could blame her?

✨ Plot ✨

The Stars Too Fondly is a cosy, queer sci-fi rom-com about a group of friends who accidentally get launched into space after sneaking into an old spaceship.

Twenty years ago, an attempt to colonise an exo-planet went horribly wrong when the entire crew of over 200 people vanished without a trace. Cleo and her fellow space-obsessed friends sneak into the old craft to uncover what happened all those years ago. Unexpectedly, the engine activates and propels them into space. Their only hope of returning to Earth lies with a snide hologram modeled after the ship’s old captain, Billy. As time passes, Cleo uncovers more about the vanished crew, all while grappling with confusing (and distracting) feelings.

Is it the most innovative, groundbreaking sci-fi book? No. But the lovely cast of likeable and diverse characters makes this sci-fi tale unique. We have lesbian, bisexual, non-binary, Black transfem, and Asian-American characters, each with distinct personalities, even though the story is told from Cleo and Billy’s points of view.

The characters are supposed to be 27-30 years old, though it reads more like a YA book. I love YA, so this didn’t bother me much. However, the audiobook narrator uses rather childish voices for some characters, which I personally didn’t find fitting.

Perfect for fans of:
- One Last Stop (sapphic, time/space mystery)
- Six of Crows (found family, powers)
- On a Sunbeam (sapphic love story in space)
- Cosmoknights (more gays in space)
- Becky Chambers (queer sci-fi)


Thank you to Libro.FM for the ALC!

[Jukaschar · Rating 3 out of 5]

edit 01.08.24: After some thinking I'm pushing this up to three stars. When I compare the book with other books that I've given a rating of two stars, this is simply better. Even though I still feel like all the points I made below are still valid, it's not as bad in comparison to other books.

Original review:
Where to start? First I want to say that the queer representation in this book is great and I really appreciate that. But I'm probably not the main audience for The Stars Too Fondly.

In my opinion the characters who are supposed to be in their late twenties felt younger than that and some of the communication was cringeworthy to me. The main character is a very emotional person and some of the descriptions seemed a little awkward. It's not easy to put feelings into words, not when talking in real life nor when writing a book. I think in this area it is very noticeable that this is the author's debut.

There were also some minor plotholes and scenes that would've benefited from more explanation to make more sense.

All in all, I don't think this is a bad debut at all, it just really wasn't for me. But still I finished the book and I will look out for more works of the author in the future.

[Emma Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. It’s a sapphic romance, it’s set in space, AND it’s well-written. Absolutely incredible.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy!

[Stefani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so, I just finished this and I liked it, it was fine, but I didn’t love it.

I feel like this should have been a young adult? For some reason I kept getting Big Hero 6 vibes, from like the main four characters and the bad guy? But I kept having to remind myself these characters were almost 30 which is wild, because I just wasn’t getting that from how they were written, and how they were speaking. The girl falling in love with a hologram felt very teenager lost in space.

Some of the writing felt a little lazy, like the aliens were called “the other place” or something and that felt weird. The bad guy was really easy to take out at the end.

I don’t know, I don’t read a ton of sci-fi, and I’m all for the romance storyline, but I don’t think it all came together as strong as it should have.

Overall, just okay for me. The cover is STUNNING though.

Thank you @harpervoyagerus for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

[Anniek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really entertaining audiobook, but it didn't feel like a very solid sci-fi story. There were a lot of fun elements, but I felt like these clashed a little with the more serious plot. I would have liked for the story to lean even more into the cosy elements, like the hilarious accidental heist, the found family, and the romance. I felt like the more serious plot element of a threat to the multiverse took away from that, and I didn't feel like this was done strongly enough to be convincing.

[Emily Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah yes, the tale old as time of being a lesbian in love with a bisexual hologram.

The humour in this is genuinely everything. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but this book has so many iconic one liners.

It’s heartwarming, funny, and yet even with the romance focus there, doesn’t skimp on the sci-fi story side. I would say both the romance and sci-fi side of the plot get equal attention and are both well developed. My only dislike was the romance was a tad insta love in pacing, which isn’t what I personally prefer.

Over all, I highly recommend this whether you’re looking for a fast paced sci-fi or a slightly out there romance that will leave you smiling ear to ear.

(There is also a tiny dash of spice.)

Rep// Lesbian MC (she/her), White Bisexual MC (she/her), Black Non-Binary Prominent SC (they/them), Aro/Ace Prominent SC. Central romance is sapphic / WLW.

TWs listed below, please skip if you don’t want vague spoilers.






TWs// parental abandonment (past), kidnapping, death, sex (on page, brief), terminal illness.

[Shannon Miz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Stars Too Fondly was quite an entertaining space adventure with a wonderful cast of characters! I mostly loved this one, save a couple things I didn't, so I think it best to break it down!

What I Loved:

►The premise was amazing. I was so excited about the premise, and it absolutely delivered. I mean, a whole ship of people just... vanish? And now the world is on its last legs, and then oops some randos accidentally steal the ship?! It is just such a great mix of high stakes and absurdity that I loved it.

►Speaking of high stakes mixed with absurdity, the balance of emotions was great. I mean- obviously there are going to be some harrowing moments, right? And there were. Intense, scary, sad, you name it. But they were interspersed with so many great funny and heartwarming moments that it was incredibly readable.

►As I said, I loved the characters. Cleo and her  friends just had such a great rapport together. You could tell that they cared deeply for one another, but also were not afraid to call each other out when needed.

►There are so many mysteries to figure out! I loved the mystery element. There are secrets raging in the past and the present that the gang is going to have to figure out if they have any hope of getting home one day, and I loved reading about them all. It kept me guessing, and I could not put the book down because of them.

What I Struggled With: 

►The romance. Sure, it's a little... unusual that Cleo and the AI have some feelings, but that isn't what bugged me. It was that they seemed to go from "moderate crush" to full-blown "I love this person more than anything in any universe" without a ton of development. It was just... not even too fast, just too understated? Like I legit wondered if I missed something, because to go from butterflies to love that quickly didn't add up.

►The ending was a little too easy/neat. It did end in a way that wrapped things up, so don't worry about that! It just seemed a little too easy for me after the entirety of the book not being easy, if that makes sense?

Bottom Line: Amazing premise and great characters, this was definitely an overall win!
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

[KMart Vet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This was amazing.

This is a blend of space adventure and sapphic rom-com that hits all the right notes. This is a heartfelt story that will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the power of love and friendship across the galaxy. If your brain needs to feel like you've gotten an accepting hug, this book is for you.

Cleo and her friends accidentally commandeer a spaceship that was previously involved with the disappearance of 200+ colonists looking for a new world. The mystery of the vanished crew, the shock of the unexpected seven-year journey, and the moody hologram of the former captain set the stage for a thrilling story.

The character dynamics in this book are its strongest suit. Cleo’s evolving relationship with Billie is beautifully portrayed. The found family aspect is executed flawlessly, celebrating platonic and romantic love in its many forms. Conflicts among the crew are resolved in mature and satisfying ways, making their bond all the more compelling. I love these smart dummies so much.

Diversity and inclusivity are woven into the story. The characters’ diverse backgrounds and identities are represented with care and authenticity. It’s a joy to see such a wide range of experiences and perspectives celebrated and accepted.

Hamilton’s writing is beautiful and the themes of acceptance and love brought a tear to my eyes so many times. This is a rare feat, making this book even more special to me. There are darker themes here, but the positive and hopeful tone is uplifting. My brain really needed the sugar-sweet goofy romance.

However, there is a minor flaw in the audiobook narration. The voices for Ros and Abe are too similar for me and I have to wait to hear who is actually speaking. While this initially distracts, it becomes less noticeable as the story progresses. Despite this, Ortiz’s narration overall is wonderful.

This is a gorgeous and moving debut that excels in its portrayal of found family and diverse, inclusive love. Hamilton has crafted a story that is both entertaining and emotionally satisfying. I felt so content and happy after the last sentence. Cozy sci-fi fans looking for excellent characters will adore this.

Thanks to Netgalley, Avon/Harper, and libro.fm for the copies. This review is based on a complimentary pre-released copy and it is voluntary.

[Melany · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up

This felt very YA vibe, so it kind of made me want to stop reading it. The little twists were what truly made me keep reading it. Then, the little spicy moment near the end made me realize it's not completely YA vibes. Overall it was a decent read. I enjoyed the sci-fi/mystery aspect and the LGBTQ+ aspect.

[Lea Pizzarea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so intrigued by that first line on the blurb “So, here’s the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn’t mean to steal this spaceship.” And had high hopes for this book! It’s a shame 70% though I just feel so either annoyed at the characters or just disinterested to continue.

The Good:
-I do like the 3 perspectives- Cleo, Archive Texts & A “Mystery” Narrator. It was fun art the start when the story was stronger but as it went on It got a little weaker but overall I consider it a highlight.

The Meh:
-For a bunch of late 20s-early 30s PHD’s every character reads like a hormonal whiny teenager. Undergrad & High school are the peaks of these characters lives, not medical school or their doctoral research. They feel more realistically, like they would be at home being social media interns than working in a lab or as respected scientists/doctors. None of them read as mature adults, let alone mature teenagers.

-They stole a spaceship. Yes it was an accident, yes it was a spaceship that was essentially bricked for years and years due to a tragedy, but nonetheless they trespassed government property and launched the single most “biggest  failure in human history” into space and you mean to tell me NASA isn’t pissed off to high heavens along with the US Govt? but a characters daddy can send them “itll be ok <3” messages?
“Perhaps because I DNF they do get into some heavy heat for this but it just did not feel “realistic” that there is no consequence for their actions that’s building up. Imagine if we had the wreckage of the Challenger (the biggest Space related tragedy in the real world) to steal, never looked into what went wrong, and then some people stole it. Omg r u ok :(!<3

-Just a lot about Space that also, while yes being sci-fi, doesn’t make logical sense. Decades old hormone medication lets just take it? Earth is in dire trouble & downfall, but a perfect food synthesizer was on the Providence?! We had interstellar travel, lightspeed travel & were ready to take hundreds of civilians on a manned mission….but then they poof away and we just dust off our hands and call it a day on these HUGE scientific advantages?! What.

-Also this planet they are/were going to is hellish hear on one side and deadly ice on the other with only a small strip of salvageable land in the middle? THIS is better than the current state of Earth? This was where humanity was going to rebuild? This?! Ok. Sure!

-I felt like the romance between Billie & Cleo comes out of nowhere. Cleo is dreaming of Billie and… omg I’m in love! They do have a lot of off camera interactions sure but they were in LOVE? I felt more for Billie and her dead ex-Husband. Love?! When did that happen?! I really didn’t get it. Besides the characters “knowingly” seeing the chemistry that apparently exists between them, it was Halfway through I remembered oh yeah this is marketed as a love story. I think it would have been way stronger as just a space mystery, romance adds nothing to this plot.

-This could just be something I personally had a hard time with but the names got really confusing. Switching from using first names to last names left and right got a bit too much. Reid…Cleo…Billie…Whilemnia…Lucas…

I think this had a strong idea that could have been a really exciting book with more mature characters, more focus on the science and humanity and a lot less of “ooo u have a crush” or “wah im sad my dark matter powers aren’t as cool as urs not fair hmph!” energy.

And finally, a critique only I care about, I have never heard anyone say Voyager is the worst Trek. Its a lot of peoples fave Trek…Maybe because this book is very similar to Discovery (an actual Trek that’s heavily divided among fans) is why the Trekkie main character didn’t mention that….Also why does TikTok exist.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was a pretty mixed bag for me. There were things I enjoyed (the mystery kept me reading, some very funny lines, likable characters). And some plot elements that I didn’t love for subjective, taste reasons (super powers and “space magic” are not favorite tropes of mine).

But for me there were some authorial choices that just didn’t work, and these choices over time made the book completely fall apart by the end. My main quibble is that the book had a bit of an identity crisis. Other than the main characters’ ages (mid-late 20s) this really felt like a YA novel. I wish it had been--I think it would’ve been much more successful. Every relationship—from the friendship between the four main characters, to the romance, even to the brief mentions of parental relationships—felt very young and didn’t have the qualities of adult relationships. The romance especially felt like a first relationship between teenagers. Some of the plot turns also felt very YA (see: space magic). The villain’s motives were muddy and he was too much a generic super villain to be satisfying. The MC’s emotional growth entailed learning “it’s okay to talk about my feelings,” which again would make a lot more sense in a 15 year old. As an adult novel, it didn’t feel successful to me. The Illuminae Files is a YA series that nailed the space opera/romance I think this book was going for.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing an advanced copy.

[hailee · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”

this was so cute and a lot of fun!!! cozy sci-fi rom com is a genre i didn’t know i needed until now

[Jude Silberfeld-Grimaud · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t remember how I first came across this book, probably thanks to Libro.fm’s ALC program, but I do know the title is what caught my attention. Let’s be honest here, I’m not well-versed in poetry beyond what I had to read in school—having a poet as a friend is, however, (very slowly) widening my horizons—so I’d never heard of Sarah Williams or her poem The Old Astronomer from which these words, “the stars too fondly”, are quoted. It’s the perfect title for this cosy space opera.

Cleo, Kaleisha, Abe and Ros have been friends since they were kids. Now in their late twenties, they decide to break into the spaceship that, twenty years earlier, was supposed to save humankind by taking the first ever group of people to another planet they would colonise. Instead, the spacecraft never left and its crew vanished. When the quartet makes its way to the groundbreaking dark matter engine, the ship suddenly takes off.

I love the idea of space enthusiasts stealing a ship by accident, it sets the stage for the comedic aspect. The Stars Too Fondly is, essentially, a romcom in space, with superpowers and a super villain as a bonus. At the centre of the story is a romance arc between Cleo and Billie, a hologram of the ship’s captain, that raises a lot of fascinating questions (is a computer into which a human’s consciousness has been uploaded AI? Is it sentient? What makes a person?), then there’s the mystery surrounding the spaceship crew’s disappearance. I’m not sure the science is very plausible but for readers like me, who know nothing but like stars and space operas, it’s fun.

The author describes herself as “the offspring of a Trekkie mother and a Star Wars father”, and it shows, especially in the overall atmosphere of the story. I was also reminded almost immediately of The Leftovers, one of my favourite TV shows, not for the group of friends or space, but for the disappearances and the unknown.

While I really enjoyed this book—in part thanks to the narration (more about that below)—there are some issues I’m (sort of) surprised made it through editing. There’s a lot of telling and head hopping, both of which are common with debut novels, but I don’t expect them as much with traditionally published novels. The characters, in particular the found family gang, feel younger than they’re said to be, surprisingly immature at times, especially since they’re all supposed to be smart and pursuing brilliant studies. They all sound very much alike, including Billie, who’s older and from a different background. I also feel like all the pop culture references being from our time is a missed opportunity to have fun with setting the story in the future. Except for the fact that the space program seemed more advanced than where we are at the moment (until it wasn’t), everything feels very much like our present. And though simultaneously too long and rushed, the ending is mostly satisfying.

However, the narration made listening to this audiobook a very engaging and fun experience, despite all this. This was my first narration by queer non-binary actor Vico Ortiz, whom I know from watching a few episodes of Our Flag Means Death. I loved it. I could listen to them for hours—and yes, I did—even though their voices for the characters aren’t as different as other narrators would have made them. I’m not sure I can explain how they make up for it, with tone and pacing, and tiny details that make it a joy to listen to them. If you’re into space operas, don’t mind the improbable science and adults sometimes behaving like they’re still in high school, I recommend this audiobook with no hesitation.

I received a copy from Libro.fm and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Read all my reviews on my website (and please get your books from the affiliation links!): Jude in the Stars

[Wonkyjaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cleo McQueary is lost in life and absolutely obsessed with what happened to the crew of Providence I. Twenty years ago all 203 of them had simply disappeared and no one at NASA seemed to care enough to figure it out. Cleo and her friends, though, hatch a drunken plan to break into the space ship to puzzle it all out for themselves. The plot spirals out of control from there in ways the official synopsis doesn’t touch on so I feel obligated to leave out as well.

The Stars Too Fondly is marketed as a queer space odyssey rom-com and while I can see where they’re coming from, it (along with the mention of a heist) wasn’t anything like what I was expecting. I’d compare it to Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers more than just about anything else and it has too much heart to be distilled down into just ‘rom-com.’ I can see it being an absolute hit with the right audience. That audience just really wasn’t me.

First of all, this is very much science FANTASY more than the hard sci-fi I’d expected. I’m a chronic overthinker so every modern day pop culture reference and impossible piece of science magic sent me spiraling. And there was a metric ton of that. So, if you’re the kind of person who will wonder why TikTok and Thomas the Tank Engine are still relevant in 2061 or if a ‘food extruder’ would be super convenient or a hellish prospect for someone with celiac, then this might be a skip for you. I think I’d have had an easier time with all of it if Providence I hadn’t been launching a mere 17 hypothetical years from now when it seems people from 2061 had made little to no new scientific advances (despite so many kids purportedly having gotten obsessed with Providence and then going into STEM fields). And also if there was a single pop culture reference that wasn’t from 2019 or later. I care far too much about the logic of it all and this is a book that requires the reader to largely just go with the flow. It is intentionally silly and often requires a hefty suspension of disbelief.

Because I am nothing if not nitpicky, a couple smaller things that made it difficult for me, personally, to stay within the narrative: Sometimes conversations lacked dialogue tags and it tripped me up every time. This is about a group of 20-somethings, but it absolutely leans very YA (by which I mean I haven’t read someone sticking out their tongue so often since fanfiction in 2010 but also the cadence of the writing/narration is very bright and young and often immature). I just cannot pinpoint why the formatting chosen for this novel didn’t work for me. It flips from a close third following Cleo, to old Providence I reports and private messages, to a [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] perspective rapidly within each chapter. Usually I love having multiple weird perspectives, but I think there was a lack of separation, especially at the beginning, that got under my skin as a reader.

Probably the biggest issue I had over all was honestly a marketing problem where huge parts of what the plot of this book is about were fully left out of any synopsis I read before or after. I was honestly so excited to read this book (between sapphic space heist, the title, and the cover I was so sold) and I’d have never requested it if I’d known that it contained a plot point (plot gimmick, trope, ??) that I almost always dislike. For the record, it’s a totally fine plot point/trope and doesn’t require a content warning of any kind, I’m only not being explicitly clear about what I’m talking about here because they chose to leave it out of their marketing and I’m writing this review before the book is actually out. I’m trying so hard to avoid spoilers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not holding marketing decisions against Hamilton, it’s just super frustrating in general.

I feel like I’m being so negative when I don’t necessarily mean to be. This debut was not all bad. Not in the slightest. I can recognize that it wasn’t meant for me. It didn’t focus on what I wanted it to and I went in with all the wrong expectations. It’s just that as someone who often reads reviews before I pick a book up, I want to get all the reasons I wasn’t 5-star in love with this out of the way first.

So now for some of the things done right: There’s what I can see being a solid romance here and beautiful found family dynamics. I enjoyed the diversity and the different places each character was coming from and how easy it was to distinguish where their priorities differed. There’s action sequences that fully drew me in. I love the inclusion of multimedia bits, especially the ones that give new information from an unexpected direction (I mean, the one that’s very clearly the abstract for a scientific article? So good!). There are ideas and themes here that I absolutely adore, like how far people will go for those they love and how easily power can corrupt an ideal and just the messy business of still having growing to do into your twenties and thirties and probably forever. I can absolutely see this book being loved. Truly and fully.

I’m just so utterly bitter that it couldn’t work for me.

[I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Huge thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for this eARC.]

[seasalted.citrus (Topaz, Oliver) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded down. For a science fiction novel, “The Stars Too Fondly” is pretty terrible: every explanation of sci-fi phenomena within this book doesn’t even loosely read like science—more like fantasy plot elements with scientific terms tacked on—and a multitude of plot holes are left in its wake; the attempted meta-ness of the writing date this book, even with a setting decades into the future; and the cast talks and acts like they’re perpetually between 18 and 19 years old. I’m not one of those people to read a book “for the vibes”, and while I get that a “cozy rom-com in space” like this one will garner an audience, I’m definitely not in it. Nonetheless, I had a ton of fun reading.

Sometimes to its benefit, often to its detriment, this read like fanfiction. There were some pretty quick shifts from arguments to emotionally vulnerable moments between Cleo and Billie, I already referenced the dated references and how the characters are too immature for people in their late twenties, and some parts of Billie’s internal monologue sounded like they were written by an angsty teen. Case in point:

Love makes you stupid became her mantra, and by "stupid" she meant "sad." and by "sad" she meant "weak," and by weak" she meant “daring to believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the universe has anything to offer but darkness."

And then, of course, there were some lines that seemed more ridiculous than angsty:

“That’s—thank you,” she said.
Billie narrowed her eyes, but in that way that was closer to a smile, Cleo was quickly learning, than a scowl. “For what?”
“For revealing that you’re not just an asshole, but an asshole with a heart of gold, which is way cuter.” What? What are you saying, Cleo?

(I am not going to also directly quote the entire sentence where Cleo jokes about “wanting to climb Billie like a grumpy tree”😐)

While the narrative was knowingly tropey, I did not think it acknowledged those tropes in a tongue-in-cheek way. I can’t like the grumpy x sunshine romance, for example, if it’s painfully obvious from the writing who is the sunshine and who is the grump. This, subsequently, also made the found family feel a little too on-the-nose.

However, I did enjoy Cleo’s friend group. (Which is a relief, considering them and Billie are the only people on the actual Providence I ship.) They might’ve had their cringey lines, but I know too well the kind of powerful bond a friend group can develop in order to cope with dysfunctional home backgrounds. They sometimes interacted with each other like siblings(minus Abe and Kaleisha, with them being a couple lmfao), which I enjoyed, and I liked how they helped each other cope with the situation of being stuck in a spaceship for 7+ months. But of the side cast, Ros was easily my favorite. Powerful super-powered characters spiraling about hurting the ones they love is definitely its own trope, but I liked how that tied into their mental health decline, which I could understand with the long period of isolation. (Their abilities were also awesome. I haven’t read about many ice magic-users since TWB, lol. And coincidentally, both characters were nonbinary!) Ros’s self-experimentation and occasional log to go with it were also very interesting.

And for how much I shit talk the plot, the inter-dimensional travel..warp fuckery..was undeniably cool. Even if the visual descriptors got repetitive. And the explanation for how the Other Place worked(uncreative name, I know) made no sense.

I’ve talked about my gripes with the writing, now I can actually talk about what I liked about the style. There were some genuinely(and intentionally) funny parts of dialogue. And I loved the melodrama in Cleo and Billie’s sapphic romance that literally breaks space and time, their dynamic was fun and, at times, tooth-achingly sweet. (But also, if I think if I had read a book with all of these issues, and it was about a straight romance, I would’ve wanted to strangle someone.)

I can’t even joke about points being taken off because of the lack of hologram sex, since I’d already settled on a 2.5 rating before I knew that there wouldn’t be any, but I will say that was a bummer. Come on guys, let’s get creative!

Perhaps someone will read this review and think this book sounds right up their alley, perhaps someone else will yank it off their TBR (or keep it a couple feet further away from said TBR), but I can at least say I was invested for most of this. I’m even stealing “then what, pray tell, the fuck?”. (And maybe even “Got too many thoughts bonking around in here”, because it kind of sounds like Adventure Time dialogue. I catch the irony.) (I miss Fionna And Cake.)

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pre-review
It’s actually 2.5 but I’m not rounding that up lmfao. This was frequently terrible and I don’t think a single thing in this book was explained without creating a dozen new plot holes. I still loved reading it though