Thank you to NetGalley and Shirley Anne Edwards for the opportunity to read this for an honest review!

I hate that I didn’t love this. I kept me reading but I feel that there may have been a lot more that it could have.

Unfortunately , I didnot like the plot. The storyline was bit messed up and I could not dive deep in the characters to understand their chemistry and read further.

I am thankful to @netgalley and the publisher for providing me this book in return of an honest review.

I throughly enjoyed this novel. In fact, it’s one of the few lately that has held my attention throughout the entire story. While I could see a few things coming, I never felt like rushing though it. I would definitely recommend it to friends.

Unfortunately, I didn't love this book. It wasn't terrible but I had a difficult time following the plot at times and the chemistry between the two mc's was seemingly nonexistent. Definitely might be a book for somebody but it wasn't for me!

The cover is beautiful. It's the reason I choose this book. Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advanced reader copy.

I wanted to love this book. While reading I felt like I had to reread multiple paragraphs to make sure I didn’t miss something. Characters were introduced later in the book and they seemed to be more “thrown in” that actually serving a purpose. The book was underwhelming to say the least

I really wanted to like this sapphic romance but with all of the errors in the book it was unreadable to me. I just kept being taken out of the story. DNF @23%
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions expressed are my own

Thank you to NetGalley and Shirley Anne Edwards for the opportunity to read this for an honest review!

There was a lot of potential in this story, but it felt like it was a first draft. Shirley desperately needs to have a professional editor go over this story, both for copy editing and line editing.

Firstly, there's a formatting error at the start where, after the first chapter, it then goes back, repeating the dedicating, (for some reason) the synopsis of the book you're about to read, and then the first chapter repeats.

The story starts promisingly with Natalie in the bar mourning her brother on the anniversary of his death. Nat and Gem's meet-cute with the dog was good, appropriately cute as well as mysterious. Why was this big popstar in Nat's (small/medium/large...the size of Albee was unclear) town? I wish I could have pictured the characters better. I don't think the author ever lists hair colours, eye colours, distinguishing characteristics.

We really start to run into troubles when the pair spend the night together at Gem's lakehouse. Every sex scene in the book is fade to black, which would be fine, spicy scenes aren't mandatory, but this is marketed as a romance, at least on Netgalley, but it's very cold in it's interactions. The author writes about the two characters kissing a lot, but it has all the feeling of a doctor's exam.

The morning after their first time, Nat calls Gem Allegra, her legal first name, but later this is contradicted when Gem has dinner with Nat's family the first time, and Nat is shocked, seemingly learning for the first time that Gem isn't her real first name.

From there things get rougher as Nat spends spring break in California with Gem. People speak in a not very naturalistic manner. They of course run into Nat's sort-of-ex Addison at an art gallery that Nat's never talked to Gem about. It's never clear why she so stringently wants to not talk about Addison except for plot drama reasons, especially considering it seems like Addison was Nat's only other relationship. And Addison's pissed at Gem because Gem was mean to Reiko (there are SO MANY named characters who never actually show up on page!), and it's talked about so much about how she was mean, but we never learn how or why. And then they have a fight about it, and I just...couldn't understand any of it. Everyone was just acting weird. And then there's the father's heart attack, and the way Addison's the one who comes to the house it honestly seemed like Shirley was trying to pull a fast one and have Addison be the final love interest because I wanted Gem to drop everything and run after her girl, because it's heavily implied that Gem feels more about Nat at that point than Nat does about Gem. And on and on. The dad's weird non-apology for being weird about Nat's sexuality for 5 years. Gem eventually showing up to...I don't even know. As another commenter noted, the only instance of the paparazzi that Gem is so concerned about is when the two are pictured together their first night, it's never explained why.

And finally, we end with this positively bonkers epilogue set, what, 38 years later talking about Mars and Moon concerts (so we know it's the future) and the pair's kids...it was weird.

This book started promisingly, but kinda feels like that was the premise that the author had the strongest, 'everyday girls meets a superstar when they save a dog together, and sparks fly', and then she wasn't really sure how to turn that into book, but tried anyway. Unfortunate, but props for trying.

I love nothing more than jumping into a short sapphic romance for a quick read. But unfortunately this one didn’t work well for me. Natalie Benton is 21 and finishing college while still living at home. She also works for her parents veterinary practice. After drinking a few drinks on the anniversary of her brothers death she is walking home when she meets Gem Grove. Gem is a world famous singer who is staying out of the limelight while her brother and singing partner is in rehab. All that is a good start but after the meet up I didn’t buy into the story much. Gem isn’t overly nice or forthcoming, constantly on the lookout for paparazzi or on her phone with her manager. But somehow even though the press doesn’t know she’s in town they get outed on a night they spend together. I felt there were too many coincidences and plot holes. There was no chemistry or build up before hooking up. And intimacy is off the page so there is no chance to gage emotions or feelings. There were parts of the story that didn’t make sense to me like Gem wanting to get into high end modeling. If she’s a superstar singer why would she want that? And then when she decides she doesn’t want it she “gifts” it to someone else. It isn’t hers to give to another person. Also Natalie’s ex just happening to be at the only California party she attends with Gem. It is all too coincidental and angsty for me. I wish I enjoyed the story more. Thank you to NetGalley and Shirley Anne Edwards for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.