This was an interesting piece of historical fiction set in England from the 1930s until the '60s. Alec is an orphan from India (his father was in the British army) who goes to live with an aunt in England. There he meets June and they grow up together and fall in love. When WWII starts, he joins the RAF as a pilot and she becomes a code breaker - first in England and then in Alec's beloved India. They reunite after the war, marry and start a family, and continue on in their lives and careers.

So, that sounds pretty good, right? Instead, it seemed to stretch on for a very long time (nearly half a century in the book) and ended up being a look into honesty in a marriage. It was sad more than it was bittersweet, and I hoped for more for Alec and June.

I guess because it was billed as a 'sweeping WWII novel", I thought that would be the extent of the book. And it was very WWII heavy with maybe 50% of the book taking place over the course of a few years, but then the last third or so took place through 20 years. Unfortunately, the last third is where I felt it dragged.

My thanks to Penguin Group Viking and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes books have a way of sticking to your innermost thoughts. Others leave you breathless, Some make you cry. This novel did that. It started out abruptly, not knowing where it was leading up to., I kept going. The main character was probably feeling the same way, though. It wasn't until they ended up meeting the other main character that it made much sense. I thoroughly enjoyed the first few chapters they meet, but after those, I felt my interest drifting away. I know this because I kept skipping around. I couldn't just read it straight through. It was too much. The story has too many layers to it, that it felt like the layers were more important than the characters. Why didn't they expand their story? Why couldn't they share their innermost secrets? Were they really in love at all? I felt bad for them both. My favorite part was when June was doing her thing during WWII. I wish that part could have been the main storyline. It was much more interesting than the rest of the book, to be honest.

The Stars we Share by Rafe Posey. was a very disappointing book. This is a story that takes place from when the two main characters were children through their courtship, and years into their marriage. While much of it takes place during World War II the setting is diverse and far flung. The main characters are frustratingly ignorant to each others needs. Given the fact that they were friends from childhood it is completely baffling to me as to why they wouldn't know each other. The story asks the reader to wade through this lifetime of frustration. It drags and never seems to pick up speed. The only interesting tidbit was that the main female character does work for the British Intelligence during the war. She truly enjoys it and is good at it. She feels she can never explain to her husband that she needs a life away from being a wife and mother. Frustrating. I almost stopped reading it. I wanted to give the author the benefit of the doubt so I trudged through it.
I would like to thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dare I say.. This title may be among 2021's best!

I felt a strong pull toward Alec and June. I loved their relationship and also the tension in the novel. The writing was superb and I felt the pacing was excellent. I really enjoyed the development of both Alec and June was protagonists in the story.

For those who are fans of historical fiction, I know you will love The Stars We Share.

Highly Recommended!

When Alec's parents die, he moves from India to a small English town. There he meets June, an intelligent girl with a knack for geography and patterns. At the outbreak of WWII, Alec enlists as an RAF pilot and June joins the secret work at Bletchley Park.

I found this book to be extremely repetitive. It seemed that every chapter was the same. I had a hard time getting into Alec and June as characters. I think with some editing, this could be a much better read. Overall, 2 out of 5 stars.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

The first half of this book was really captivating to me. Posey weaves Alec and June's converging and diverging paths that was both beautiful and gut-wrenching. You could see the foundation of everything that would come between them, and Posey hit every emotional beat with grace and expertise. The craft of this book was exquisite and on a sentence-by-sentence level I was both impressed and impacted. However, once I got to the second half of the book, I did kind of feel like my emotional connection to the characters started to waver. As a woman with a career, I felt for June every step of the way as her career aspirations became unaligned with Alec's desire for a family, but there were times that I felt like her assumptions about Alec's reactions didn't quite fit with Alec's personality. Would he have actually been upset about moving to Oxford so that she could teach? This made sense when it came to Austria, but I felt like her assumptions were based more on what the plot needed and not totally what the characterization of Alec and others supported. Additionally, there were times when Alec's reactions didn't quite fit with what we knew of him as a character, like when he learns of June's secrets. His anger didn't feel all the time earned, and I found myself caring less about a resolution for them as a married couple and more about just wanting to get to the end. I do think that the ending is fundamentally more sad than it appears, because ultimately, everyone loses something huge, and framing it in this kind of hopeful end certainly leaves you thinking on if settling can lead you to a "happy enough" outcome, and maybe that is sometimes enough. It's certainly a book that I will carry with me in thinking about my own relationships, and in that, it's a triumph and a great debut.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I found that at the beginning I was a bit confused, but then as the story progressed and Alec and June's stories intertwined I found their stories very different and intriguing from anything I had read before.
We see these two characters together when they are young and they go off and do their own things, deal with war, loss, love, heartache, and come back together and figure out what they mean to each other. There are secrets between them but also such a dramatic sense of depth in their relationship. I think this will be a book I find myself thinking about for ages to come.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!