DNF at 27%

I can't tell if I wasn't in the mood for it, or if it just isn't for me. I liked the supporting cast. I liked the transcripts of conversations. The jump between omniscient narration and third was interesting. I didn't really like Cleo all that much. The way she treats her friends and Billie was hard to get past. The concept was kind of neat, with a bit of a Mass Effect feel to it, but I wasn't invested enough to keep going. I think I may like it better as an audiobook.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!

This is a really wonderful sapphic space romcom. I had such a fun time reading it! The connections between all the characters were A+, perfection, making this a lovely cozy, sometimes surprisingly deep book. However the biomedical research scientist in me did have to actively avoid using my brain because like. that is Not how biology works. I can't speak for the physics of the book but boy howdy was the biological science difficult to get through. I am used to that from fictional sci-fi books, though. God knows I'm not reading them for their accuracy, and the writing style was so engaging and the characters so fun I had a relatively easy time ignoring that. I just had a few other very small complaints (why for the love of everything are we still using TikTok in the year of our lord 2061 and WHY are we citing research articles from 1997????) which is the major reason this isn't a 5-star read for me. But if you're looking for something sapphic, cozy, and with surprising depth and heart, then this is the book for you.

While this book promises a space romance and a new genre of romantic fiction (spacemance), it fails to deliver on both counts.

Let's start with what I liked:
-The characters were diverse and it felt natural
-Set 40 years in the future
-The setup of the plot
-The excerpts of text conversations and reports

What I didn't like:
-Romance with a hologram
-The romance was very much "we don't like each other" to "I like you because I think you're hot" which I don't jive with
-The friends didn't seem like friends... I get it, you're stressed by the situation, but also I need to see that they care about one another
-The science didn't seem probable... and I get it... it's fiction... but the science was boring too, lol
-I predicted every plot "twist"
-The romance was really bad guys... like really bad

So yeah... I was bored. The book dragged. The characters were super one-note and annoying. I wishhhhh I loved it, but I didn't.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

The Stars Too Fondly was not at all what I was expecting. I went in with the belief that it would be a light-hearted queer sci-fi fantasy. And although that isn’t wrong, The Stars Too Fondly packs surprising depth and cosiness. But please be warned, the sci-fi aspect was lighter than I would have liked.

The Stars Too Fondly was an easy and entertaining read. The premise of this book is not original, but the writing, humour, and heart present made this read worth it.

One aspect I disliked was the insta-love feel to the romance – it seemed rushed and underdeveloped. However, the characters themselves almost made up for this in my eyes, and the banter between Cleo and her friends was top-notch.

Overall, this was a delight to read. I would recommend it to anyone after a light-hearted, sapphic space adventure.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm glad SF romance is getting to be a big enough genre to include speculative fiction about dark matter and falling in love with holograms. This book wasn't quite for me; it has a YA feel to it and leans very, very heavily on pop culture references from the 1990s/2000s even though it takes place in 2061. (This stuck out to me so much that I actually started doing math in my head about how old these people's parents might have been to have inculcated such a love for vintage media. At one point, I also considered the possibility that the characters were all living in a simulation and although they thought it was 2061 it was actually 2011, but no: the entirety of this book takes place in the 2060s.)

Besides the pop culture, what can you expect? An unexpected space ship journey, telepathy (but really it's dark matter, ooh!), a sapphic romance (with a hologram), and a fun mix of storytelling devices. I think this is definitely the book for somebody... just not me.

3.5 stars rounded to 4. This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

A sweet and cozy sci fi fantasy, I enjoyed this quirky book!

The premise is intriguing. While researching ways to evacuate humanity from a dying Earth, the planet worked to develop a dark matter engine that would advance space travel. On the day of its launch, and with the eyes of the world watching, the entire crew vanished inexplicably. Afterwards, the space program is completely shut down while the loving conditions on Earth continue to devolve. A couple decades later, a friend group of activist-minded academics and scientists break into the site to investigate, and accidentally trigger a launch. They're carried off to space on a one-way trip with only an AI construct of the mission’s captain for guidance and one hell of a mystery to solve!

The science was easily digestible, and the sci fi/fantasy elements were likewise simple to follow. The cast of characters was quirky and snarky in a way that I love, with rapid-fire banter and close-knit bonds. The romance between Cleo and the AI captain was cute, but not developed enough for me to be overly invested. I enjoyed the mission and the friendships more than the love story. The plot wrapped up a bit abruptly, but the ending was satisfying overall.

This was an impressive debut in a uniquely niche genre, and Hamilton is an author I’ll keep on my radar!

I've been attempting to broaden my horizons in regards to reading different genres - so when I saw this sci-fi romance, I was really excited and hoped that it would be a good blend for me in dipping my toes into the genre. And there were parts that I liked - I liked the side characters and the queer-normative society.

The science itself was a bit...over my head if I'm perfectly honest. I don't know that it took away my enjoyment of the book but because I was listening to the audiobook, I felt myself spacing out quite a bit during the more science-y parts. I do also think that the characters feel a bit on the younger side. This is particularly evident during the arguments that the main characters have with themselves and with the side characters. The relationship itself was also quite the slow burn (sort of by necessity given that one of the characters is a hologram I suppose).

Thank you to Harper Voyager for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I love how The Stars Too Fondly feels like a science fiction with dangerous consequences meets locked room mystery. Cleo and her friends have always wondered what happened to the space mission which inspired their love for space. The space mission with a mystery that has never gone answered and still haunts the space program. Throughout The Stars Too Fondly, Cleo and her friends end up needing to solve the mystery, not only for curiosity but their own lives. I didn't see half of the twists here and it kind of exploded into something that threw me for a loop.

Being a huge fan of Star Trek and Captain Janeway her crew and their hologram I was excited for this book. A group of youths gets trapped and sent into space but ends up discovering secrets and skills they never dreamed of. Has a lot of pop culture references and even books we enjoyed. The journey and finding family part is fun. As a gamer who loves Sci-fi games like Mass Effect, I wanted a bit more tension and action instead of cozy moments and slow burn, but that's my personal taste, I love a frenetic always risking their lives kind of space story. This one deals with emotions understanding feelings and a cozy vibe. I wanted a little more of the action and adventure, YA and NA readers will appreciate the slow burn sapphic romance and the relationships developed.
Thank you, publisher and Netgalley for this e-arc.

It feels young. There is an explicit sex scene so it’s not YA but the characters feel like hyper high school kids and not like bright 20 somethings. It’s much more about the relationships than the science so for a reader who is specifically looking for a queer early adult science fantasy book this might be the right book. I did not hate it but I’ve read better science fiction recently and I’ve read better queer science fiction/fantasy stories so I wasn’t loving it either.

Narrated by Vico Ortiz

Genre: science fiction, sapphic space romance
Space between Earth and Proxima Centauri B, 2061

Cleo and her friends accidentally activate a dark matter spaceship engine 20 years after the original mission crew vanished...and it's earned them a 14-year round trip journey to the planet Proxima Centauri B - which is only as fast as it is because of the Dark Matter engine. They awaken a hologram of Captain Billie Lucas, who may have been put in place to help untangle the complicated web of time and circumstances that activated the engine and also vanished the previous crew. All the while, Cleo wonders if it's ok to fall in love - with a hologram no less - while the fate of her friends and maybe the universe is in balance.

I ended up really loving the amount of science fiction and romance alongside one another. A great balance, with enough physics, dark matter speculation, and multiverse theory to satisfy me and enough of Cleo and Billie pining (though also grappling with the uncomfortable nature of wondering if corporeality and non-corporeality hampers compatibility...). If you’re a romance reader, the central plot of The Stars Too Fondly is the romance. If you’re a SF reader, it’s the nature of the dark matter engine and saving the world. I was fascinated that for me, neither plot overpowered the other.

This was a great debut novel. Even though the main characters are in their late 20s, and this is a slow burn open door romance, parts of it read a little YA, so reader be aware. But overall I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

The Stars Too Fondly follows space geek Cleo and her friends who, in the year 2061, accidentally steal a spaceship while attempting to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of its crew twenty years prior.

Part romance, part space odyssey, and all heart, The Stars Too Fondly was a solid read that I think will worm its way into a lot of readers' hearts. The group of friends we journey with was vibrant and interesting to read about, and the compelling mystery that drove the plot kept me practically glued to the page. While I do have some qualms with a few choices that were made along the way -- I love TikTok as much as the next person, but if it's still a popular app in 40 years I will weep tears of sorrow -- I overall loved this high-stakes and incredibly fun read. I'd also like to specifically note that I love the way it ended, because more and more I feel like narratives don't take their time near the end. The ending to this book, though, felt remarkably well-paced, and I was happy to be able to settle into the idea of our cast's futures before the final page.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

CW: Kidnapping; confinement; death; grief

Emily Hamilton’s debut perfectly blends sci-fi, mystery, and romance in an incredibly moving and addicting story. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect when I started The Stars Too Fondly, but I was quickly hooked, and I loved that this book kept me on the edge of my seat with the plot and the romance! If you’re looking for a fantastic sapphic sci-fi romance, this is it!

I was a big fan of the TV show The 4400 back in the day, and this gave me similar vibes. While I had to suspend my disbelief a bit about some of the sci-fi aspects (dark matter! Multiverses? Physics!), I was incredibly wrapped up in the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Providence crew all those years ago. I literally could not wait to see what happened to them and how it fit into Cleo and the gang’s story.

I love how the book’s narrative structure played out: We had the current-day POV, a mysterious narrator’s POV, and then snippets from archived messages and articles from the days leading up to the Providence launch. Together, those three narrative pieces worked perfectly to tell the story in a way that kept you guessing and on the edge of your seat. It was such a unique way to tell the story, but also incredibly effective. I also loved how the narrative structure helped develop the central romance between Billie and Cleo, but I don’t want to say too much about that because of spoilers.

I must admit, Cleo wasn’t necessarily my favorite, but I was drawn to Billie instantly. Cleo was a bit too optimistic for me, especially in the beginning. Her actions got her friends into this mess, and I felt she wasn’t empathizing with her friends’ reactions. But she grew on me more as the story developed, but she was never my favorite. She’s a bit rash and rushes into things without thinking, but she also does care for her friends and family, which is her saving grace. She’s also incredibly smart, and I honestly don’t know who else could have figured out everything that was going on besides her.

Meanwhile, I loved Captain Wilhelmina Lucas, aka Billie, from the start. I’m much more like her than Cleo as she’s more of a grump and sarcastic, while Cleo is the sunshine and optimist. Billie was a fascinating character. She’s a hologram, but she has all the memories of the real Billie and feels like a real person, not a computer. Getting to know the hologram Billie and the real Billie through the archived messages was amazing, and I really connected with her. She’s suffered a lot of loss in her life, which really shaped her as a person, and the relationship she had with her brother, who was also a part of the Providence crew, was incredibly sweet. I felt so bad for hologram Billie at times as she had to reckon with the fact that the crew of the Providence disappeared, but she’s a hologram so she’s not real. It’s complicated but so well executed.

Rounding out the main cast are Cleo’s friends Ros, Kaleisha, and Abe, each with their own skills that prove very useful for accidentally getting launched into space for a long time. I enjoyed the found family aspects of their friendship, but I also would have liked to get to know them a little bit more, as it did feel a little surface-level.

The romance in this was SO GOOD. It’s also extremely complicated and impossible because Billie is a hologram. But the emotions between Cleo and Billie are very, very real – so real that they feel as if they can transcend time and space. They had great chemistry from the start, and I loved watching them navigate their feelings. It’s emotional, beautiful, and romantic – all the things I want from a romance.

I was surprised at just how emotional I was at the end of the story, as I didn’t realize how invested I was in these characters and their journey until then. While this is a sci-fi story, at its core, it’s about love in all its many forms and the power of that love. It’s a story with so much heart. The ending perfectly encapsulated that and left me emotional in the best way, with many happy tears in my eyes. So do yourself a favor and read it!

If you’re looking for a fantastic sci-fi, LGBTQ romance from a debut author that will give you all the feels, then pick up The Stars Too Fondly!

Thank you to Harper Voyager/Netgalley for the ARC. All thoughts, ideas. and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Who is ready for a sapphic rom-com in space?! This joyoys debut from Emily Hamilton is a thrill to read from start to finish.

I was drawn into Cleo and Billie's orbit by their witty banter and intricate relationship that blooms over the course of the engine visit gone wrong. The surprises are plentiful and the found family of a crew is a joy as the ship cruises towards risks abound.

I was drawn in when Cleo touched that engine and I couldn't put it down for one minute-- you'll love it!

While I largely enjoyed this story, I definitely felt a bit blindsided by the resolution and the ultimate antagonist of the story. The concept was really fun, and I did like that there was as lot of queer representation, but I will say that it could be hard to differentiate between characters at times because they all had a really similar style of humor and talking. Similarly, I think that the establishment of place in this story was a bit rough--this story takes place 40 years in the future but I found that so many of the references were pointing to right now. It was a little distracting, but I also can't fathom that in 40 years any of this will be feasible. Ultimately, I enjoyed the reading experience of this, but I do wish that it had been either farther in the future/had less references that point to the 2000s with no call-out of them being retro or boomer-y, and that the characters were a little more delineated. I did enjoy this, though, so even with its flaws this was still fun and spacey.

This book was a fun sci-fi adventure. I didn't expect a lot of the twists within the story and was shocked at how some parts of it ended. There is a definite Interstellar vibe to it that was also really enjoyable. Even though the characters are stuck in a situation they weren't ready for, I found that most of them handled it pretty well. I do sometimes wish I got more about the side characters but really enjoyed following Cleo and Billie's story. I did think Billie was also an interesting character, and liked how love was portrayed within the text.

3.5 that I have to round down for just how out of nowhere the antagonist and resolution feel. I love the concept, of accidentally activating a spaceship whose crew disappeared to the exploration of so many different relationships, romantic and platonic, and the whole spectrum of queer. It's really clear that Hamilton had a blast writing this, and it's hard not to feel excited or invested when it radiates of each page.

There are some things that part of me wants to let slide because it's a debut, but ended up getting under my skin enough that I can't. There's a mix of narration styles, from using articles to transcripts of videos to chat logs to a weird omniscient third-person narrator (who keeps breaking the fourth wall and at one point calls themselves out for being a weird omniscient third-person narrator), but there's nothing really tying it together as to why we're utilizing all of these different styles. Everyone has the exact same style of typing and sense of humor in the chat logs (and at times when they're all talking with each other to the point that it was down to pronouns to differentiate who was doing or saying what), and despite taking place in 2061, the media references (and at one baffling point, a TikTok callout) are all nerd properties or arguments or memes that could be pulled from the 2010s. It's not that I mind it so much, but when every piece of media is one nerds in their 30s are talking about /now/, and no one calls them retro or classic and somehow everyone knows and acknowledges them as relevant with only one piece of media with a character reason why they've fixated on an older movie, it's a weird sort of whiplash. It just made it really hard for me to place the characters in their time instead of ours, which then made it harder to make the scientific and environmental leaps.

I also have a few qualms about letting the "rom-com" part of this slide - while there's definitely a romance developing between Cleo and Billie, it's nowhere in the "rom-com" territory. It's much more their romance is part of the core in trying to figure out what they're going to do about accidentally ending up on a ship with a 7 year itinerary, what these weird powers are, and just why Billie, as a computer hologram, is so realized and who set that up. They do also jump from "attracted to each other" to "love more than anything else" very quickly, but that's a your mileage may vary depending on your tolerance/familiarity with romance plotlines.

Mostly I feel like there were a lot of moments where the characters and their relationships were meant to carry the weight of each of the actions and consequences, and that really didn't pan out. Instead we get a lot of exposition and a lot of telling of how things happen, which unfortunately culminate in the most whiplash moment, the antagonist reveal. The antagonist has the most cardboard cutout reasoning for why they need the dark matter drive and why they need Cleo and her friends and a lot of it feels completely out of nowhere and opposite of what we'd seen from anyone at all so far. It just feels like it's what the story needed, rather than actually coming from a character moment or motivation. It feels a lot like the whole setup of "oh the Providence I crew disappeared and then everyone just suddenly got scared of space travel". You have to go with it because the story requires it, but the idea that scientists who have been working on something for decades just...drop a huge, necessary project because they're scared of it happening again or companies are scared of losing money is...laughable. Especially if we're also supposed to believe that Cleo's generation grew up as extremely interested in STEM but it's still been another 20 years and nothing else has progressed? It just all felt flimsy, which was a bad start and lowered my investment and expectations.

I received an ARC from the publisher and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up The Stars Too Fondly, beyond it being a sapphic science fantasy rom-com, but I ended up being delighted by this. I did find the narrative style a tad jarring at first, as it utilizes a mix of prose and mixed-media, reflective of the fact that one of the protagonists is a hologram. As much as I love mixed-media presentation, the way some of it was included made for a clunky read at first. Not to mention, one of the main characters also is addressed a few different ways, from a formal full name to a nickname, and it was a lot to take in. But as the story went on, I ended up really enjoying it.
The world building is fairly light, beyond being in the near-future in space, and conveying bits that are relevant to the narrative, and while the story involves astrophysics, the story isn’t bogged down by the technicalities of it all, especially as things get a bit messier in deep-space.
Cleo is a solid human protagonist, being obsessed with space and motivated to find out what happened to a prior crew who disappeared into space twenty years prior to the book’s events. Her curiosity ends up getting herself and her crew into trouble she did not anticipate. However, I enjoyed getting to know the psychological reasoning behind her obsession, with her using it to cope and escape from the apocalyptic state of the world.
Billie is also interesting, in that she’s a hologram of the captain of that other ship that disappeared. Despite having been away for so long, I love how she’s still very much a realist, helping Cleo “come back to Earth,” so to speak, while Cleo helps Billie to loosen up and not take things so seriously. While some of their romance felt a tad instalove-y, they had some very cute moments together, and I rooted for them to work out.
The book balanced the central romance and the sci-fi elements fairly well, including the mystery around the missing crew. Initial subjective prose issues aside, this was a fast-paced, yet simultaneously cozy read, which kept me invested in all the plot threads throughout, with it all coming together in a satisfying way at the end.
I had a lot of fun with this book, and would recommend this to readers looking for a fairly lighthearted sapphic sci-fi romance.

In The Stars Too Fondly, Cleo McQueary and her three best friends accidentally hijack a spaceship from a failed, decades-old interplanetary exploration program and find themselves stuck on a flight to another galaxy with only the conscious hologram of the ship's captain to guide them.

When I saw this book was billed as "part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com", I was more than a little excited. Those are basically my two favorite genres. I was equal parts intrigued and entertained by the space odyssey half of the story. The science was interesting and I was drawn in by the mystery. I appreciated the multi-media bits of narration, including chat logs and news articles. The characters are well developed and fun to read about.

Unfortunately, I found the rom-com half of the story wildly unsuccessful. Cleo and Billie's relationship is criminally underdeveloped and built of too many "tell" rather than "show" moments. The humor feels forced and bogs down the plot, giving the narration an inauthentic and irreverent tone (in a bad way). The characters are around 27-30, but they all read like they're 19, which does not help the narrative voice. Both POVs are weak and lean too heavily on the suspense and mystery to remain engaging. I think this book could have much more successful had it not tried so hard to be funny.

The Stars Too Fondly was quite an entertaining space adventure with a wonderful cast of characters! I mostly loved this one, save a couple things I didn't, so I think it best to break it down!

What I Loved:

►The premise was amazing. I was so excited about the premise, and it absolutely delivered. I mean, a whole ship of people just... vanish? And now the world is on its last legs, and then oops some randos accidentally steal the ship?! It is just such a great mix of high stakes and absurdity that I loved it.

►Speaking of high stakes mixed with absurdity, the balance of emotions was great. I mean- obviously there are going to be some harrowing moments, right? And there were. Intense, scary, sad, you name it. But they were interspersed with so many great funny and heartwarming moments that it was incredibly readable.

►As I said, I loved the characters. Cleo and her friends just had such a great rapport together. You could tell that they cared deeply for one another, but also were not afraid to call each other out when needed.

►There are so many mysteries to figure out! I loved the mystery element. There are secrets raging in the past and the present that the gang is going to have to figure out if they have any hope of getting home one day, and I loved reading about them all. It kept me guessing, and I could not put the book down because of them.

What I Struggled With:

►The romance. Sure, it's a little... unusual that Cleo and the AI have some feelings, but that isn't what bugged me. It was that they seemed to go from "moderate crush" to full-blown "I love this person more than anything in any universe" without a ton of development. It was just... not even too fast, just too understated? Like I legit wondered if I missed something, because to go from butterflies to love that quickly didn't add up.

►The ending was a little too easy/neat. It did end in a way that wrapped things up, so don't worry about that! It just seemed a little too easy for me after the entirety of the book not being easy, if that makes sense?

Bottom Line: Amazing premise and great characters, this was definitely an overall win!