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

When Cleo, Ros, Abe, and Kaleisha accidentally steal a space ship, the last thing on their minds is saving the world or falling in love - but they're in for the ride of their lives, and this adventure will push them to the absolute limits of their imagination.

I am not huge into sci-fi, but I was instantly hooked thanks to the humour and mystery that was present from the very first chapter. There are so many twists and turns in this tale, from the introduction of the hologram that helps run the ship to the realisation of the truth behind the dark matter machine... Each page brought new surprises, flirtatious banter, and space whimsy.

The core characters embody the meaning of found family, and readers who enjoy cozy stories as well as those who like more high octane books will find something to enjoy with The Stars Too Fondly. Romance, evil villains, environmental chaos, the power of friendship, space travel, alien lifeforms, heists... Everything is packed in but woven naturally together so the book never stagnates.

My only issue was that the latter half of the book felt less developed and did not have the same level of world building. I wished the final 30% was not as rushed, as the drama ramps up so quickly but does not give time to really develop or pause long enough to feel the weight of the situation. The earlier sections are a solid 4/5, while the ending didn't come across as strongly for me.

That being said, I can't wait to see what this writer creates next! I will definitely be keeping an eye out, as I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

I try to pick up every sapphic novel I can, and was initially very excited by the premise of this book. Unfortunately, it failed to grab me - something about the characters and dialogue just didn't connect, and I put the book down weeks ago with no plans to pick it back up. Well written and with obviously great ideas, but ultimately a miss for me.

Cleo and her group of friends break into a long abandoned spaceship in hopes of finding out what happened to its crew but things immediately go... Not according to the plan and the group of friends goes off on a space adventures they weren't prepared for.

Honestly I think where this book shines the most is its story. It's really fascinating with good twists and turns and some extremely touching moments. The relationship between Cleo and Billie is easy to care for, they are sweet and adorable and it's extremely easy to believe they could fall for each other.

What I struggled with in this story was unfortunately the writing, I think it wanted to be snappy and sarcastic but it felt overdone and it unfortunately made everyone from the group of friends feel like the same character because their behaviour seemed indistinguishable. I also felt like we didn't get enough of a real introduction to the friends as their own characters so they mostly felt like they were plot devices. Which is a shame because I think a stronger building of these characters could make this book easily one of my favourite reads of this year.

I consider it my duty to read any book that says it's for fans of Becky Chambers to decide whether or not it's true, so I was excited to get my hands on this one. Any kind of sapphic sci-fi is something I'll read.

This one was definitely worth it. It had the cozy sci-fi found family vibes that I adore from Becky Chambers. It follows a group of friends who are trying to figure out what happened to the Providence, the ship that was meant to save humanity but instead disappeared. So, Cleo and her friends break into the Providence I and then somehow the engine starts and they end up stuck heading into space with only a hologram of Billie, the captain of the first Providence to guide them.

It's a really easy, light hearted read and I raced through it in a couple of hours. I would have liked a bit more depth to the characters but that's a minor complaint because it didn't stop me enjoying it at all. The plot was fun and if you can shrug off some of the possibly questionable science in it (which I can, although which I imagine could bother some people) then I definitely recommend it because it's so joyful and there's so much to like about this book.

The Stars Too Fondly started off with a light-hearted writing style that I don't always gel with for science fiction - however, despite the science being purposefully vague at points, the tension and plot escalate to create an enjoyable read. There are great characters, although these could have been fleshed out further still, and their relationships lead to a very sweet heart of the book. The romance and friendships are very much the centre here, and perhaps more strongly written than the sci-fi thriller aspect - however, I was gripped throughout, and am keen to see what Emily Hamilton writes next.