Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. I am a fan of books in this genre, so I was very much looking forward to reading this one. I was not dissapointed and both the plot and characters gripped me from the start. I will definitley aim to read another by this author. Highly reccomended!

I honestly had the highest hopes for this book. I had read so much hype around it and was just so exited. I am the biggest lover of astrology and felt like it was going to be so up my street. Unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I really disliked the pace of the book, it was so slow for me and I found the two main characters just sadly unlike able tor me too. But as always, this is just a personal view and I definitely encourage you to try it out for yourself to see what you think.

I adore this novel. It was absolutely enchanting! It’s light-hearted, witty and hilarious in an oh-my-god-this-is-so-embarrassing-and-equally-relatable kind of way.

This romance is set in Australia, which is refreshing, and follows childhood friends turned sweethearts, Justine Carmichael and Nick Jordan. Justine is correcting the spelling of a green grocer’s sign when Nick, dressed as a fish promoting seafood, bumps into her. Justine finds herself thinking about Nick and how they could be in a relationship. Only there are two problems — first Nick has a girlfriend and second, he makes his decision based on Leo Thornbury’s horoscopes. Luckily for Justine, Leo writes for the magazine she works for and she decides that maybe Nick needs a helping hand to get on board with her idea.

I adored Justine’s character. Justine is working herself ragged as copy runner while she waits for her cadetship and to finally achieve her dream of becoming a journalist. She has an almost freaky ability to recall literary quotes and is a stickler for grammatical accuracy. This is to the point she carries around a sharpie to correct any errors that appear on signs, programs and menus. While I loved her character, I didn’t understand why she couldn’t just talk to Nick. But overall I find her relatable. She has this deep-seated fear that she’ll be stuck in as copy runner, never moving on to her ‘real’ life, while everyone around her is growing up.

Nick is a true dreamer. He’s an aspiring actor, who lives for the stage. He doesn’t care that he doesn’t own a car, lives off two-minute noodles and works casual hospitality jobs between his acting roles. He loves acting and doesn’t want to give it up, despite the not so subtle hints dropped by his girlfriend.

The romance is a super slow burn. It takes the pair pretty much the entire novel to get together. I just wanted them to get together right away but the wait was well worth it.

One of the things that I adored about this novel is that you can see the consequences of Justine’s actions. To her horoscopes don’t mean anything and her goal is to influence Nick’s decisions but she doesn’t realise that there are a lot of other readers who also use their horoscope as guides. There is a beautiful symmetry to this. Justine’s horoscopes affect the decisions of these readers and in turn, their decisions affects the overall plot and bring the pair together.

There is an omniscience nature to Minnie Drake writing style when we branch into the side cast. For each person we are introduced too we find out their sign and a little about them. For example, ‘Margie McGee — Aquarius, writer of haiku, bird-watcher and wildlife warrior, regular blood donor (AB negative) and long servings Greens political advisor —…’ I love this, we get a quick insight into each person and it adds to the whimsical nature of the story.

A lot of people roll their eyes at astrology, myself included, and Drake does a wonderful job as highlighting both sides. Those who rely too heavily on and place a lot of importance on their signs and those who think it’s nonsense. I do love how the book is split into each of the astrological signs, starting with Aquarius and cycling through the start signs back to Aquarius.

Star-Crossed is masterfully crafted. There is a similar feel to movies Love Actually and Valentine’s Day. If you’re a fan of these types of movies I highly recommend. The story does take on slightly ridiculous but whimsical twists which each horoscope but it had me smiling the entire time.

I loved this novel. It was full of humor with some laugh out loud moments. I loved the characters and the situations that they were placed in. It was set in Australia mostly in Alexandra Park in a large city.
It is about Nick Jordan and Justine Carmichael they were best friends when in Primary School in a small country town called Edenvale. Justine was a Sagittarius and loved words, reading and spelling. Nick was an Aquarius and totally believed in his stars.
Years later Justine is living in Alexandra Park in a city close to where she grew up and working for Alexandra Park Star a local newspaper. Justine’s job was to run and fetch as required and she was hoping to eventually be offered a cadetship in journalism.
Nick was between jobs and thinking about getting back together with an old girlfriend. Nick has been offered a part as Romeo in a small company and decided to take up the part based on what his horoscope predicted.
Justine is offered a promotion and one of her jobs is to transcribe the monthly horoscopes sent in by fax from a correspondent who lives on an island. Justine decides to slightly adjust the horoscope for Aquarius in the hope to get Nick to change his mind about getting back with his old girlfriend. Things don’t go as planned and the lives of many Aquarian's who regularly follow their stars are set off on alternative courses.
This is a wonderfully constructed plot and follows the life on many different people who are affected by the changes that Justine makes in the monthly horoscope. I loved the way it all comes together.

Really couldn't get along with this one. Far too many mentions of stars and horoscopes for me to persevere. I was so disappointed, as this sounded like it would be my cup of tea. Feel bad for a low rating but I couldn't give any more!

"I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review"

Why rely on fate when you can rewrite the stars?
When Justine Carmichael (Sagittarius, aspiring journalist and sceptic) bumps into her old friend Nick Jordan (Aquarius, struggling actor and true believer) it could be by change. Or perhaps it's written in the stars.
Justine works at the Alexandria Park Star - and Nick, she now learns, relies on the magazine's astrology column to guide him in life.
Looking for a way to get Nick's attention, Justine has the idea of making a few small alterations to 'Aquarius' before it goes to print.
It's only a horoscope, after all. What harm could changing it do.

I will firstly admit I am not a huge fan of star signs etc, so this book to a bit longer for me to get into just because of that. Also there was the main story line and little bits here and there in regards to other characters and I had no idea what the importance of these story lines (espaliers they do connect at the end)

I have to also admit I really disliked Justine so that made it hard to get into as well. Some of the choices she made just didn't make sense to me and why she would risk so much and had the chance of ruining so many aspects of her life.

Nick I liked a little more but still could not connect to his character, probably because he relied so much on what his horoscope said for him to do (I just don't understand that and that could just be me)

I did enjoy the book for the most part but I also wish there was more to the ending when it came to Justine and Nick. I did laugh out loud a few times throughout the book (most of them where when she would have a conversation with herself and her brain) and I did enjoy how it did wrap up all those small story lines and how it all connected.

I ended up giving this book a 3.5 stars not because it was a bad book I just think if I was more into horoscopes I would of loved this book so much more than I did. It also didn't help that I was sick when reading this so I would take my rating with a pinch of salt and if you are into a slow burn romance this book could be a big hit for readers. I also want to say having a book set and written by an Australian was a nice change so I will definitely be looking out for more books by Minnie.

I love supporting Aussie authors so when I saw Star Crossed available on Netgalley, I knew I had to read it. The synopsis had me sucked in from the start too.

This book started out well and kept my interest but then it seemed to flop towards the middle. The author also introduced a lot of new characters throughout the book. I understand this was to back up the story that others were affected by their horoscopes too however I think most of these were unnecessary and it took away from the Nick and Justine plot.⁣

This book would be suited to those that take their star signs seriously.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. ⁣

Not for me unfortunately, I really wanted to like this, it sounded so good, but I couldn’t relate to the characters and didn’t like them, it was far fetched and I just could find myself interested.

The prose was delightful, witty and smooth, absolutely my cup of tea, whilst the characters were fully fleshed out and easy to sympathize with. Definitely a novel that puts a smile on one's face.

Thank you to Netgally and the publisher for sending this to me for review.

In this book we meet Justine, working for local magazine The Star as a copy runner (A.K.A dogs body) unsatisfied with her life she bumps into old childhood friend and struggling actor Nick (who is dressed as a fish at the time) as the two reconnect it becomes apparent that Nick loves the Star and even more so their famous astrologer Leo, Nick makes it known he lives his whole life and makes his big decisions around Leo's predictions, when Nick doesn't return Justine's crush or respond to her hints she decides to take matters into her own hands and starts altering Leo's stars for her benefit and so hopefully Nick will notice her, however Nick isn't the only person relying on Leo for a bit of guidance and others start to interpret Justine's altered stars in their own way.

I found it really hard to rate this book, there were parts of it I enjoyed and parts not so much, there were some really funny moments in here and I liked the idea of Justine altering the predictions for Nick's sign in the hope he will ask her out and Nick totally interpreting them wrong and the whole thing backfiring, however I didn't like that we were constantly pulled out of their story to visit other characters who were the same sign as Nick and how Justine's altered predictions had an effect on their own decision making for example one character breaking up with her boyfriend, it was quirky at the start but soon became annoying and I felt there was no pay off to it really and I found myself getting more and more frustrated and wanting to get back to Justine and Nick, there is a silly love triangle introduced in this book too and I didn't like it all that well either. Justine and Nick's story was super cute however I found myself getting bored towards the end and with the constant Romeo and Juliet quotes (Nick is playing Romeo in a stage production).

Overall I'm going to rate this book 3 stars I think as I did enjoy Nick and Justine's sections I just wish the book had stayed focused on them and we weren't constantly pulled out of the story to meet other characters who weren't really relive to the story in anyway.

I'm pretty cynical about horoscopes however the concept of this story really appealed to me. Overall I really enjoyed it however I still can't decide whether the cusp sections add to the story or distract from it, I do appreciate the impact that the Aquarius horoscope had on many people and this has a snowball effect throughout it's just that it meant you had to remember a lot of characters to fully appreciate it. The two main characters, Justine and Nick, were very likeable and there were some good moments of humour throughout. I think the story played out well and although it didn't offer many surprises it was still an enjoyable read. 7/10

A fun and light, quick paced read, with a few twists but a great love story.
I enjoyed this book and the characters, with their flaws and interesting choices, a great writing style and overall a good book that it's perfect for the lovers of the genre.

I was not a fan of this book
I didn’t like the writing style it was too far fetched.
Also I couldn’t connect with the characters. A disappointing read

I really thought I was going to love this book, and trust me I really TRIED to love this book, but damn I just couldn't do it.
I feel like the author was using a thesaurus to find extravagant and unnecessary words and it was just exhausting to read. There were so many supporting characters and the plot seemed messy.

When I spotted this book on NG, it sounded like the perfect read for me. I thought it would have a light dusting of astrology mixed in with a charming love story.

Reader this was incorrect. The sheer volume of references to astrology is overwhelming. It's as if the authour was trying to convince us of the merits of astrology. On every page.

There are also a LOT of side characters to tend with. I think the book could have been 20-30% shorter, and with a couple of characters taken away, and would have been a bit more fast paced.

I was so looking forward to this, but it fell a little flat for me. Though, it is set in Australia, so that will always be a big plus for me.

This book is so different from what I usually read and it took me good few chapters to get my head around of what is happening and who is who. While it was disturbing factor at the beginning later I really liked the way it spiced up our main story and sprinkled it with extra elements and facts adding more excitement to the whole picture.

The author used very quirky and rare approach to tell us Nick and Justine’s story. It reminded me a lot of the movie "Love Actually" except it was a written version of it.
We have our two main characters that story evolve around but the author introduces reader to many more interlocking stories that at the beginning makes no sense but at the end gets somehow connected and bridged together.

Nick and Justine known each other since they were born, only to be separated after Nick’s parents moved out of the town they lived. Now Justine is working at well-known magazine while Nick is still chasing his actor’s dream career. When they reconnect, Justine finds out that Nick is a huge astrology believer and never misses his monthly stars column published in the magazine she works for. Because childhood crush is still there Justine comes up with the idea of dabbing in to horoscopes in hope to send Nick a message to give them another chance. Will Nick get a message Justine is trying to send or will the stars align a completely different plan for them?

I found this story unique, witty, quirky and funny and got easy addicted to it

An excellent book! Had fun reading it, and kept me on my toes the whole time. Great character development and fascinating storyline.

This was a slow starter, but I'm glad I pushed through because there were a couple of things I really loved about it.
I really enjoyed the seemingly random characters introduced throughout the book that (mostly) all ended up being connected in some way. There were some really cute sliding doors moments with the horoscopes and star signs.
Overall this was a really cute read that left me with warm fuzzies after it ended.