This story follows Marnie, who has gone on a 6 month holiday trip in order to escape a failed relationship, the breakdown of her parents marriage and a gossipy small town.

While out taking a breathe from her life she meets Nova who brings a glimmer of happiness. This is very much a Cinderella at the ball type meeting .. they have one night together and then Marnie returns home.

The first part of the book you meet Nova and then you don’t hear about her again until about half way through the book. This made the pace feel a little slow as really that’s the part I wanted to read. However once Nova comes back into the story it definitely becomes interesting.

It explores toxic relationships and I really related to what Marnie went through and what she overcame. It also explores autism in the mainstream school setting and how Marnie supports a child being let down in Education.

It’s a feel good sapphic romance, which is really easy to read and heart warming . Thank you
to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for sending this as an E-arc.

Mein Leseerlebnis

“Love lessons in Starcross Valley” fing für mich sehr gut und unterhaltsam an. Ich mochte die Energie in der Geschichte und fand Marnie als Character interessant. Nach dem Start des Buches, der in Kanada stattfindet, spielt der Rest in Marlies Heimatstadt. Das Tempo der Geschichte war dort ein anderes und wirkte auf mich gemächlicher.

Im Fokus dieses Großteils der Geschichte steht Marlies alltägliches Leben, ihre Arbeit an einer Schule und ihre Beziehungen zu ihrer Familie, Freund:innen und Kolleg:innen. Zu all diesen Dingen gibt es sehr viele Details, die von der Autorin auf eine eher ruhige Art präsentiert werden.

Zunächst fand ich das alles auch noch interessant, nach ein paar Kapiteln fing es aber an, mich etwas zu langweilen. Die sich langsam entwickelnde Liebesgeschichte brachte etwas neuen Schwung in den Roman rein, aber auch sie konnte mich nicht komplett mitreißen. Dazu fand ich die Charaktere insgesamt nicht interessant genug und zu viele Details der Geschichte nicht faszinierend genug.

Die Geschichte plätscherte im Großteil des Buches so vor sich hin. Sie war ganz nett, konnte mich abgesehen vom Start aber nicht vollständig überzeugen. 🖤🖤🖤

Für wen?

Wer eher ruhige Liebesromane mag, in denen man die Nebencharaktere gut kennenlernt, der sollte sich den Roman mal näher anschauen.

Although I am usually a fan of Lucy Knott this one wasn't for me. I didn't connect with the main character Marnie and didn't feel it flowed. Thank you netgalley for the advance copy

DNF at 25%

Love Lessons in Starcross Valley is a romance following 35 year old Marnie, a woman that has just returned from a spontaneous six month trip to Canada after going through a traumatic break up, and Nova, a paleontologist that loves to live in the moment. They meet at a hockey game, spending a great night together. After meeting again in England a few months later, it seems that fate has brought them together.

I was really really excited for this book. It looks so cute, and the description just seemed so interesting to me. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations at all. Marnie’s character is mediocre at best, and there is too much time spent right at the beginning of this book learning *all* about her. Talk about info-dump. I swear, in the first chapter I thought I had heard her entire life story only to find out that I was wrong, there’s more boring backstory in the next chapter. The descriptions of literally everything in this book are about 5 sentences too long. Not to mention that in the first quarter of the book there are absolutely zero plot developments made. I genuinely couldn’t sit through another second of it. I didn’t even get to necessarily meet Nova yet, aside from during the prologue where we really only learn where she works. Seriously, the first 25% of this book is Marnie whining about how horrible her life is and how scared she is to be back home. The story isn’t even supposed to take place here, yet they haven’t even made a suggestion towards her going to England.

Overall, I’m sure this book would’ve turned out great had it not tried to suffocate me with random information right at the start. Or had the exposition gone a little bit faster. Or if the main character wasn’t so annoying from the get-go.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange of an honest review.

Wow I was so pleasantly surprised by this book, it isn't your average romance novel and I thoroughly enjoyed every page.
Initially there's the adventures of solo travel as Marnie embarks on a trip to Canada, and whilst she's clearly dealing with a traumatic time in her life, she's bravely facing new experiences and this leads to a chance encounter that changes her trajectory.
Back in the UK eventually we meet her twin sister Jovi, and her best friend Antonie and slowly her secrets are revealed as well as her new start. I adored Marnie, her vulnerability was hard to witness but her integrity, loyalty and compassion was wonderful to see, Nova was the perfect balance to this story and such a fabulous character too (hurrah for geeks!) Paislee was just a sweetheart! It is more than just a light-hearted, uplifting read, it truly explores the importance of friendships and staying true to yourself.
The representation in this story is perfect and the themes of acceptance, love and understanding that not every adult or child is the same was both well written and personal; I applaud and appreciate the thoughtfulness and intricacies of the stories in this book

This book was super cute. Marnie ran from her life after everything seemed to fall apart. When she returned, she realized everything wasn’t as bad as it seemed. It was a cute little simple read. Nothing real spectacular.

Since the vast majority of the books I read are romance and people regularly ask me for romance recs, I feel like I should start by saying Love Lessons in Starcross Valley is a romance in the traditional sense - it has a happily ever after - but other than being introduced to the love interest in the prologue, we don’t see her again until halfway through the book. So while this book does have a lovely, sweet, heartfelt romance, it’s more women’s fiction, with the main journey being Marnie’s story of self-discovery, healing, and her relationships with the people closest to her.

I really liked Marnie and saw a lot of myself in her, especially her fears and anxiety. I enjoyed watching her come into her own, repair her relationships, and open her heart after being hurt and inflicting some unintentional hurt herself. I felt like I was part of her wonderful little group of friends and family (side note: I'd love to see a story about Antoni!), and the town of Orion and its people felt very real. Being Canadian, I also loved all the Canadian references and the fact Nova was Canadian. Nova was a wonderful character too, and I loved that she was an unapologetic nerd because I’m very much the same way!

I loved Marnie’s passion for teaching and, as someone who was once an early childhood educator myself, I appreciated how Marnie advocated for Paislee when no one else would. The other teachers wouldn't take the time to help her properly and saw her as a ‘problem to be dealt with’ but Marnie saw her as the complex, amazing person she was, and she was determined to make sure the little girl had everything she needed to learn, grow, and feel safe.

Love Lessons in Starcross Valley is for you if you enjoy women’s fiction with well-rounded, realistic characters, explorations of self-discovery, healing, and relationships, and sweet sapphic romances that will leave you with a smile on your face and a happy heart.

love lessons in starcross valley is a cute, quick read. torn between 3 and 4 stars, so i'm going to call it 3.5 rounded down.

cws: cheating subplot (not the mcs, but one of the mc's exes), a lot of food mentions, ableism (against an autistic child).

the first little bit of the book was hard to follow. we immediately open in the prologue with our main character, marnie, talking about things that had happened in her life (her parents split, she's no longer with her bf), and it was a little disjointing to read/understand at first. i thought i was reading a sequel to a book that i hadn't read. things become more comprehensible as marnie goes back to her hometown, but then we don't see the love interest again for the first half of the book - marnie focuses on her platonic relationships instead, such as with her best friend and her sister.

i did, though, love the love interest. nova was unique, well-rounded, blunt, and just such a great love interest. her being a paleontologist is cool and i was so jealous of her. i am prepared to defend nova with all my heart. she has done nothing wrong ever.

one of my biggest flaws with this book was its repetitiveness when describing mundane things, like marnie's outfits. there are a LOT of descriptions of her outfits and hairstyles & its reading like a wattpad fanfic (not an ao3 fic) at points. (like it reads like: she threw her hair up in a messy bun and put on this exact outfit btw heres the polyvore link to the outfit i just described in painstaking detail).

however, my biggest issue with the book was the autism portrayal. 1/3 of the way in, we have a plotline "dealing w" an autistic child. i cant find anything about the author being autistic (someone please correct me if im wrong), so this entire thing feels like a neurotypical savior. the mc literally is like “wow people aren’t treating this child nicely. i will be the first nice person in her life.” the main character was very proud of herself for being one of the only people to treat this child nicely. as an autistic reader/reviewer, this felt infantilizing to an extent, and i understand it was done as a plot device (one of the kid's special interests is dinosaurs, the love interest was a paleontologist, i see where the author was going).

i was just like paige when i was younger; i was angry when people couldn't understand me/when i couldn't understand them, and i loved dinosaurs. overall though, i didnt LOVE the autism portrayal in the novel, nor did i find it completely necessary. autistic people are not plot devices. that said, i did appreciate some of the less popular stims being included like playing w someones hands. i am only one autistic reader/reviewer and obviously other autistic readers and reviewers will have different takes on the rep in this novel. i love that autism is becoming more normalized in literature, i just think this could have been handled a little less savior-y.

all in all, i likely would recommend the book to friends - i love sapphic books, i love that autism was included on the page, but i would caution anyone to go in with a scrutinizing gaze for autism being a plot device like that.

thank you to netgalley, head of zeus publishing, and lucy knott for this advanced copy in return for my honest review.

Massive thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read and review this ARC!

This story was a pleasant surprise! I enjoyed the story more than I thought I would after i read the prologue. I immediately thought that this wasn’t going to be a book for me. It was definitely a do not judge a book by the cover (or in this case, don’t judge a book by the prologue!) situation!
The characters were likeable and really enjoyed their journey.
I loved that it wasn’t just a story about loved it was a story about family and finding yourself after difficulties.

I was a bit surprised by this book. It is not the type of book, I would usually choose to read, but I really liked the cover and the description.

At first I found it difficult to follow, as the first few chapters, seemed to jump around a bit, which made it hard to follow initially. But with all books, I always make sure I read 100 pages or 10% before I give up, and I was really grateful to have persuaded with this book as it is thoroughly enjoyable.

Marnie has recently had her personal world, fall apart around her, i.e her long time boyfriend had cheated on her, her parents were getting a divorce, and she had been terminated from her career as a teacher. On a last minute whim, Marnie decided to flee from all her problems in her small town where every body knew everybody and she want on a 6 month vacation to Canada on her own.

The escape to Canada, was just what she needed, a break from everything back home, Marnie was able to enjoy some hiking and ice hockey games, and was able to spend one very special day doing a guided tour of Canada by a special stranger she had met at her first ice hockey game.

6 months later when Marnie had come back home, things had changed, but it seemed for the better. Her Mum had a boyfriend, and her family where all happy to see her, despite her taking off and leaving them for 6 months without so much as a goodbye.

Upon coming home Marnie is unsure how she will go settling in to her old life, she is anxious about seeing her best friend Antoni and her family again. Like all good family and friends, they embrace her with open arms.

Marnie finds a new job at her niece's school as a Teacher's Aid, she is assisting a little girl (Paige) who is behind in her learning and tends to have issues with frustration and anger.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Marnie build a relationship based on trust with Paige, it really is beautiful to see how much she helps this young girl and bring her out of her shell, build her confidence and improve on her studies.

Marnie's love life is becoming more interesting each day since her return home, I won't give anything away, apart from keep reading the book, the story is wonderful.

Thankyou to Netgalley, Head of Zeus Publishers and Lucy Knott for this advanced copy in return for my honest review. This truly is a lovely story. I rate this novel 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

Marnie, heads to Canada after her long relationship along with her parents marriage breaks down and she doesn’t be mice in love no longer. But once she’s there, away from her loved ones and her twin sister, she’s not having that l experience she thought she would or wanted to have.

That is, until she meets Nova, who loves dinosaurs and everything to do with space and believes in living in the moment. So, agent having a wonderful time in Vancouver together, they go their separate ways. Marnie isn’t happy and she assumes it just goes to show that finding and being in love again isn’t for her and should try to move on with her life.

Back home, she Reyes to keep the confidence she had in Canada but finds it hard when she’s getting the cold treatment from some of the community members, even though her family and friends ask her to ignore them. She also finds a new job in a school where she feels the same from her colleagues.

But, whilst on a school trip, she unexpectedly meets someone she previously knew. Trying to sort through her feelings, she decides to take a chance to find happiness. Will she find love for herself?