Samantha Young’s Much Ado About You was one of my favorite romance reads from 2021, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of her latest novel, A Cosmic Kind of Love. I was intrigued by the unique premise of an astronaut and an event planner falling for each other after secretly watching each other’s digital diary entries and couldn’t wait to see how Young would work her magic to bring this unlikely couple together.

The story follows Hallie Goodman, a successful event planner who is planning the wedding of Darcy, a New York socialite whose ex-boyfriend Chris happens to be an astronaut. While exchanging information about the wedding plans, Darcy accidentally forwards Hallie a folder full of personal videos that Chris had recorded for Darcy while he was on his last space mission. Even though she knows it’s wrong, once Hallie starts watching them, she can’t stop. She loves listening to his soothing voice as he describes what it’s like to be in space. He shows a vulnerable side of himself that Hallie finds herself very attracted to and she can’t stop thinking about him and rewatching the videos every chance she gets. She decides to record a video of herself to send to him, and although disappointed when it bounces back as undeliverable, she decides she likes to record her own personal thoughts in this way and continues to send them even if they’re not really going anywhere. Unbeknownst to Hallie, however, Chris is receiving them, and just as she was so drawn to his messages, he finds himself equally drawn to hers and begins trying to figure out how to meet her in person. Darcy’s wedding of course is the perfect opportunity…

I loved these two characters so much! They’re just so well drawn and complex, with layer upon layer that make them both seem so realistic. Hallie is a bit of an underdog, dealing with verbal abuse from parents and an ex who belittles her as a “party girl” because her job is to plan events. Her ex even goes so far as to tell her she isn’t good enough and that he’s embarrassed that she plans parties for a living. Chris is dealing with issues of his own, still trying to adjust to life back on Earth and trying to decide what he wants to do next, all the while dealing with an overly demanding father who constantly berates him for not having a clear direction for his life yet. It was impossible not to root for Hallie and Chris to find their way to each other, or at least to find their path forward and get away from the toxic relationships in their lives.

I also loved the premise of having the two of them meet in person for the first time while each already knew so much about the other because of those personal videos. Secretly knowing so much about each other added a quiet tension to their in-person meeting that really elevated the scene for me to so much more than your typical meet-cute in a romcom. The scenes where they each finally had to each confess they had watched the videos impacted me in the same way. I loved that they were able to be so open with one another and that a relationship between them brought them the love and support they had both been missing in their lives.

A Cosmic Kind of Love is the perfect blend between heartwarming, swoony romance and intense family drama that will not only have you rooting for the main characters to get together but also cheering for them both to finally tell off their toxic family members.

When I first started A Cosmic Kind of Love, I was immediately intrigued by how Hallie and Chris met. I’ve read a lot of romance books and “wedding planner falls in love with bride’s ex-boyfriend through video diaries to bride” is definitely a new premise for me. I liked that it wasn’t the cookie cutter “brother’s best friend” or “childhood friends” trope but rather something original. I also liked that the descriptions of Hallie and Chris were unique (in a good way). One of my favorite parts was the way Chris responded to Darcy after she said Hallie wasn’t extraordinary. This book managed to deal with gender, race and class issues - but all in a subtle, unforced way that is rare in fiction these days. That being said, there were definitely parts of this book that moved rather slowly and I think the conflict between them toward the end of the book felt forced. I also thought the food poisoning at the end was an odd choice? But overall, I thought the book was cute and I learned some facts about astronauts that I previously didn’t know.

Would I Recommend? Yes, Highly Recommend

Read/Listen If You Like:
❤️ Romance
👨🏼‍🚀 Hot Astronauts
🤷🏼‍♀️ Quirky Female MC’s
☄️ Cosmic/Fate Vibes

My Thoughts:
I loved the way Hallie and Christopher met in this one as it was super cute and getting to see the crushes before they ever met was adorable and helped with the insta-love vibes.

Hallie is a pushover people pleaser and I related to her character almost too much for my liking when it felt like moments of seeing myself through Hallie and how I have allowed people in my life to treat me like garbage just as Hallie has.

I also loved how real both characters were and how they both had struggles to overcome and that it wasn’t one sided where one character needed saving.

⭐️rating: 3/5
🌶steam: 3/5

this was like a cute romance, with a unique premise. it wasn’t my absolute favorite since the ending felt a little drawn out and i’m not a fan of jealousy and miscommunication being used as a plot device but other than that it was a fun time.

the vibes:
-hallie is a successful event planner but struggled with feeling inadequate and can be a pushover
- chris is an astronaut that has some daddy issues
-an unusual but original meet cute
-dual pov
-friends to lovers
-groveling
-character growth
-mexican america rep but i believe it’s not own voices

Have you ever been in love at first sight, but first sight is through a screen and not in person? Hallie, an event planner, is planning a wonderful wedding for Darcy, an environmental lawyer, and her fiance, a French artist. She asks both parties to send her inspiration so she can clash the two together.

Little did she know that when Darcy sent her information that she would send private video chats from her ex-boyfriend, Captain Christopher Ortiz while he was in space on a mission. Being curious, Hallie opens one of the videos and is startled that she was watching something so private, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off of Chris. So what does Hallie do? She decides to come clean to Chris and make her own video diaries and apologizes for watching these videos that she has watched over and over again.

Chris has a person from NASA bounce the emails so they are sent as email address not found. Chris then tells her to forward them to him anyways and just like Hallie he can’t keep his eyes off this woman with pink hair.

These two finally meet and you can tell that this book is going to be full of romance and secrets. They start as friends and fall for each other in person as well, but not is all as it seems.

This story has its ups and downs. It will make you laugh and fall for these two characters hard. I enjoyed reading A Cosmic Kind Of Love and getting to know each character. I did fall in love with this book. I hope you do too!

A Cosmic Kind of Love is an epic love story. It's sweet yet powerful. Two people that don't know each other are brought together by space. Well, sort of. A fresh take on the epistolary romance because the characters get to know each other through videos.

Hallie Goodman finds out about Chris Ortiz when a bride she is organizing a party for sends them by error. In fact, Chris used to date the bride. The videos were personal vlogs of his five-month mission at the International Space Station. The astronaut is charming and Hallie, despite feeling guilty for seeing something that it wasn't meant for her, can't stop.

So she decides to write and send him videos where she tells him about her life. She believes he is not getting them, but something propels her to continue. Chris, on the other side, is mesmerized by Hallie. They are so different and yet they are adorable. There is a lot of character growth as both have countless issues to deal with. But it's written seamlessly, so the issues don't feel overwhelming.

It takes them a while to be together but once they do, is simply magical! I can't stop thinking about this book without smiling. It's a wonderful story.

Hallie is an event planner who is planning a client's wedding shower. She goes to look at inspiration from the bride and accidentally finds video's from the bride's ex - Chris. The videos were from when Chris was an astronaut of the ISS and wanted to talk to his girlfriend. Hallie watches them all and then wants to apologize so she sends him an email.

But it is bounce backed and Hallie just went through some stuff so she starts using the email address as a video log. Since they are being bounced no one will see them right? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Only Chris totally ends up with them and a match made in the stars starts.

Y'all this book was adorable. I haven't read much this month but I seriously binged this one. If you loved Jason in The Happy Ever After Playlist I'm almost positive you'll swoon for Chris as well.

This book is angsty and steamy and exactly what I was wanting. Hallie is a people pleaser and Chris just has a heart of gold despite everything he has lost and y'all I already want to reread parts of this book.

Thank you @valentine_pr_ and @berkleypub for sending a copy of this one to my Kindle. I adore y'all so.

💥💥💥 / 5 Steam Factor
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 Stars

Gahhhh! Everything Samantha Young touches is just a dang JOY! I love that Hallie isn't your stereotypical event planner from NYC - we don't need another cookie cutter New Yorker single gal. SY does this character right! I loved the dialogue between her and Chris and the build up felt paced perfectly!

Samantha Young is an auto buy author for me. I've read all her works, and truly appreciate the effort and magic she puts into her stories. This being said, unfortunately this one just didn't do it for me. I can't really explain why, maybe it was the characters or parts of the story. It was fun and cute, but not comparable in my opinion to her other traditionally published novels. Of course, I will still read her stuff and can't wait to see what she comes up with next. Her indie romances are equally magical. And I find that reading romance can be quite subjective, so definitely give this one a chance and maybe you will enjoy it more than me!

Stupendous, mind blowing, extraordinary, never been done before, mesmerising, awesome, exquisite.. I could go on and on to prove how much I loved this one. Undoubtedly, one of the best books I have read this year. The romance was so adorable, and the characters so fun. I loved it so much!! In my opinion, Hallie and Chris character’s development was quite fabulous, and that’s something I very much look forward to in my reads

I enjoyed this book so much! Hallie and Chris had such a sweet friendship and I loved seeing that grow into more. I liked reading about this astronaut and event organizer in New York and the adventures they had. Samantha Young is my auto buy author. Five stars

This is the second book I’ve read recently that has something to do with NASA. My family just visited NASA Space Center in Houston this year so that’s kind of interesting to me. In this book, the love interest is an actual NASA astronaut and that’s definitely a first for any romcoms I’ve read. This book has cute banter between to MCs who are completely different from each other. Hallie is an event planner with pink hair and Christopher Ortiz is adjusting to life back on earth and trying to figure out what he wants next for his career.
At first, I couldn’t stand Hallie’s lack of a backbone but of course this is part of her growth as a character. I also felt like both Hallie and Chris act immature for their age. Cosmic Kind of Love includes a LI with a Mexican heritage. It’s always great to see diversity in romance characters and this was the 2nd Hispanic love interest I read about just recently. I thought it was interesting how the author addressed the issue of Chris not feeling a connection to his culture because he wasn’t raised knowing his heritage. It’s a topic that I have a lot of thoughts about and I felt it was handled well. Chris’ aunt was a great side character who added warmth to the story. This book went in a direction I wasn’t expecting initially and it really kept me intrigued.

Thank you Berkley Romance for a digital ARC and PRHAudio for a free audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Oh, I loved this slow-burn, opposites attract romance between former astronaut Captain Christopher Ortiz and event planner Hallie Goodman!

Hallie is an adorable, dedicated event planner and people-pleaser who will do just about anything for anyone. But when she's dumped by her boyfriend for just that, she finds solace in recordings from space. Her latest client accidentally sends her links to recordings that Chris Ortiz sent her while he was on the space station for six months. Hallie becomes obsessed with the fact that she is reading something she wasn't supposed to,but.. she just can't help herself.

In order to make herself feel better, she admits to Christopher that she's been watching his videos, and at first he's not interested. But then he realizes that Hallie does have an impact on him. These two are at opposite ends of the seriousness and frivolity, and that intrigues Chris as much as Hallie intrigued him.

Christopher Ortiz is a very interesting character. He's back from space, but not settled. He has some family issues that keep him up at night, and when Hallie is introduced into his life, she has an impact. He decides he wants to meet her and ends up at the wedding in order to meet the pink haired party planner.

I just loved these two. They need each other. And it's just so cute how they come together and find love. They do have a lot of family issues to deal with in addition to finding their way together, but it is Christopher's acceptance of Hallie that rocked this reader's boat.

The story did have a bit of a slow start, but once it gets going, it's hard to put down. I really enjoyed this. It had some new and refreshing characters I haven't experienced in a romance yet, and I really liked that. So overall, a very sweet and satisfying romance.

“Something tells me that no matter where we end up, it will always be together. What we have is kind of cosmic like that.”

This book was so sweet and such a feel-good romance! I've wanted to read this book since I read the title and saw the cover (so cute!!!); it gave everything and more. Check trigger warnings for triggering topics that it may be for others but I felt it was handled with care! It was such a refreshing read and I fell in love with Hallie and Chris as the main characters, as well as falling for their love story. A character that's an astronaut?! This book flew me to the moon and I threw a lasso around it, thank you.

Rating 5/5
Plot 5/5
Spice 2/5
Writing 5/5
Character Development 5/5

[I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book]

“A Cosmic Kind of Love” by Samantha Young tells the story of Hallie Goodman and Christopher Ortiz. Hallie is a successful event planner and her latest client, Darcy, sends her some files to ask Hallie if they should be included in the wedding ceremony. However the wrong files are sent and instead, Hallie receives video letters from Darcy's ex-boyfriend Captain Christopher Ortiz (astronaut) that was filmed specifically for Darcy. Hallie can’t resist watching all of the videos and forming a crush on Chris. She even films videos of her life and sends them to Chris. With Chris returning back from his last mission in space, he plans to retire and hide away, however the video letters he receives from Hallie bring light to his darkest of days. When Darcy invites Chris to her wedding, he decides to attend and hopefully meet Hallie.

This book was SO GOOD! So many relatable aspects. So many funny and cute rom-com moments. I loved the video letters and I loved seeing the character development between the main characters. The plot was interesting, the cover is soo cute. Overall, great book!

This is a slow start to the book, and I'm not overly fond of the cheating aspect (even if it was from a prior relationship and in the past). It was a bit hard to super get into, but I do think there is an audience for this book who will enjoy it fully. It wasn't quite me, though.

This was such a good book, Hallie and Chris were amazing together and I loved reading how they became friends and how easy it was for them to talk about everything, their interactions were wonderful from the start and their story was cute and easy to read.

Hallie was an event planner and she was very good at her job but she always tried to please people and she didn’t like confrontations. Thanks to a wedding she was planning she got some videos from Chris talking about his life as an astronaut, she got captivated by those videos but she knew that watching them wasn’t the right thing so she tried to reply back with videos but she never got a response.

Chris was back on earth from months now and he didn’t know what to do next with his life. He had a stranded relationship with his father so he only had his aunt to rely on. He still was in contact with the NASA so when he knew Hallie had watched his videos he decided to make her believe no one had access to that account. He also got captivated with the videos she sent so going to his ex’s party was the perfect moment to meet Hallie in person.

They met in person and it was like they knew each other for years, they always enjoyed each other’s company and I loved reading how they started getting closer and becoming friends. Chris helped Hallie stood up for herself and he always encouraged her to just be what she wanted.

Their friendship was amazing from the beginning, they both helped each other with their problems and I loved how they loved the other with their flaws and all and they didn’t criticize each other like some people did.

Their moments together were really cute and it was nice reading how their feelings started changing. They had some steamy scenes but I loved their chemistry and how they complemented each other. It was a wonderful story and I loved how they got the happy ending they deserved.

A Cosmic Kind of Love

Hallie is a successful wedding planner. She ask her latest client to send inspiration wedding pictures & instead receives videos of Chris from space.
She makes her on videos & sends them but they get sent back.

Hallie & Chris eventually meet & started a good friendship. Hallie’s feelings start to grow but does Chris simply just want only her friendship.

I loved this book! Just a sweet read about finding yourself & dealing with your parents & setting boundaries!

Such a cute unique romance that made me root for the couple throughout the whole book. Christopher Ortiz is an accomplished astronaut and during his time in space he starts to send video diary's to his girlfriend Darcy to keep in touch while he's away. Fast forward to returning to earth and those videos accidently ends up in the hands of his ex-girlfriends wedding planner. I could really feel the insta chemistry between them and the character growth, especially when it came to the toxic family dynamics around them.

Thank you to netgalley, and valentine pr for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Cosmic Kind of Love is a sweet and heartfelt story about love, family, and self-discovery, deeply rooted in its characters and their emotional journeys to finding and accepting love.

While planning an engagement party for her client, event organizer Hallie accidentally comes across personal videos of the bride’s ex, a famous astronaut, and finds herself drawn to his inspirational story and charming sense of humor. So when she decides to send a video back, intending for it to bounce and never be seen, what will happen when her astronaut crush stumbles upon her videos as well?

Right from the beginning, I was instantly immersed in Hallie and Chris’s narratives. I loved how they had a mutual secret pining for the other and that their story started as a strong, emotionally driven friendship that sparked into something more. I especially enjoyed seeing how their struggles reflected each other and how they leaned on the other for support during those difficult moments. I thought it made their connection stronger and more romantic. It just melted my heart!

Overall, if you’re looking for a romance with a bit of fun and lightheartedness mixed with a deeper, more heartfelt storyline, definitely keep this one in mind! (Plus, how cool is it that he’s an astronaut?!)

3.25/5

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*