Unfortunately this wasn't for me. The characters were annoying and hella immature. The writing needed a heavy-handed in the editing room. Thank you for the ARC!

The Stars Too Fondly is THE sapphic space opera of the moment and the future.

A sweet and cozy sci-fi romance filled with disaster queers absolutely going through it on an accidental epic space adventure. The Stars Too Fondly begins as a sci-fi rom-com but evolves into a gut-wrenching exploration of the price of scientific progress.

I was immediately sucked into this book because of the new space age vibes, culture, and history. It's the not-too-distant future, and Earth is on its last legs. In a desperate attempt to find a new home for humanity, a group of ambitious and brilliant scientists, astronauts, and citizens disappear from the launch pad right at the moment of rocket ignition. The world is left reeling and confused. Twenty years later, a group of late-20s science nerds bite off more than they can chew when they break into the facility housing the cursed rocket and its mysterious dark matter engine.

A chaotic, unplanned trip to space ensues, and the found family group is forced to reckon with their present issues and unpredictable future while digging into the shocking truth of the past and what really happened to the Providence crew.

I loved this book - the dialogue, the banter, the pacing, the weird science, and the dizzying climactic ending. My only complaint is that many of the characters, especially the main character Cleo, are surprisingly immature for being in their late 20s. Even the computerized love interest, who is supposed to be years older, lacks maturity. Still, their forbidden, unlikely romance was sweet, steamy, and satisfying.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and publishers.

The Stars Too Fondly is at its heart, a fun space romp for every nerd who grew up with Star Trek and Bill Nye and learned to love science and be hopeful for the future. And then some of, hopefully not all, grew into adults who looked around them at the conditions on our planet and felt only despair. This is the story of one of those possible futures, and a heist to accidentally take a spaceship to another planet, and a love story along the way.

Unfortunately I am going to have to DNF this one at 25% in.

This is a case of the book just isn't for me. I think this book would have made a great YA book, but it's just not working for me with the ages they are supposed to be. The characters are immature and the dialogue is not good. This is not my favorite writing style. Also as a scientist it is very hard to get past the bad science.

There have been some funny moments, but I just am not enjoying the book overall..

The Stars Too Fondly is like a queer roadtrip book in space.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t reach for sci-fi these days nearly as much as I used to. I find a lot of it to be pretentious. The Stars Too Fondly is <i> not </i> pretentious or preachy or Star Wars fanfiction. (And I say this as a person who reads—and loves— Star Wars fanfiction.) And I think Ender’s Game really put me off the genre for a while.

Cleo and her crew grew up after the disappearance of the Providence I crew, each of them having been impacted by the crew at a young age. On a drunken whim, they decide to steal the ship from its hangar, but in the process, they end up launching it instead. Once aboard, they meet a hologram of the former (missing/presumed dead) captain, Billie. She’s a little bit prickly and snarky but eventually she and the crew form a friendship and work together to figure out the disappearance. Along the way, Billie and Cleo form a friendship that develops into more.

I highly recommend this one! It wasn’t overly techy or science, and the sci-fi speak wasn’t beating me over the head, demanding to be acknowledged.

I received an advanced copy for review. Thanks to Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Emily Hamilton for the ARC!

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton is a Sapphic sci-fi romance that plays a bit with structure. When Cleo and her friends, Kaleisha, Abe, and Ros, sneak onto a spaceship from an abandoned mission twenty years prior, they accidentally awaken Billie, a hologram copy of the captain of said mission…and launch the ship into space.

There’s something very 80’s sci-fi about this with the Fantastic Four-ish elements of a handful of characters getting powers from dark matter and love crossing dimensions that I really loved. I’m a huge fan of that bombastic, earnest, interdimensional aspect that 80’s sci-fi had so seeing it here, just as earnest and openly Queer, was a real treat.

Billie was previously engaged to man before he passed away and Emily Hamilton uses their relationship to directly address Biphobia. Before her engagement, Billie was known to mostly be in Sapphic relationships and when her engagement went public, she was asked ‘didn’t you used to date women?’and Billie’s POV reminds the reader that Bisexuality exists. As a Bi, this moment might be brief, but it is really important because it’s poking at a very serious issue regarding the erasure of Bisexuality and how society basically says ‘oh, you picked a side?’ or ‘what do you mean you’re with someone of this gender? I thought you were Bi’ instead of ‘congrats on finding a partner!’

Cleo and Billie’s relationship was very cute and leaned more romcom as they slowly learned more about each other. Billie loves romcoms herself, shocking Cleo because it doesn’t fit the stern image most people have of Billie. Cleo, on the other hand, makes Billie feel things that she hadn’t felt since the death of her fiance. I believed in their love and how they would still try to make it work despite Billie being a hologram and Cleo being a more physical person when it comes to affections.

I would recommend this to fans of Sapphic sci-fi, readers looking for a cross-dimensional romance, and those looking to dip their toes into Queer speculative fiction

Emily Hamilton’s debut novel, The Stars Too Fondly is a space opera with a dash of rom-com and found family thrown into the mix, and it’s a great read for this summer. Our protagonist, Cleo, and her friends get stuck on a spaceship, the Providence, hurtling through the galaxy after a heist to investigate its abandoned remains goes horribly wrong. Once underway on a 7 year journey to Proxima Centauri, the group meets Billie, a back-up hologram of the Providence’s old captain who disappeared along with the rest of the crew twenty years prior.

With a diverse cast and a fun love story, this novel immediately thrusts the reader into the action and makes the 7 year space journey a perfect balance of action and character moments. Conflicts arise and are resolved, and even the intrepid captain, Billie, develops as a character. I found myself heavily invested in the developing love story, which held several amazing emotional moments near the conclusion of the novel. Queer found family and sapphic love story balance each other well, and Cleo’s friend group reminded me of my own.

I really enjoyed this book, it’s face paced and even though the characters are primarily confined to the singular spaceship, the setting is claustrophobic but Hamilton makes it work. The Stars Too Fondly is what I’d class as a breakout debut, a well-written, well-rounded story that’s well worth the read. I highly recommend it, especially for anyone looking for their next sapphic sci-fi read.

The Stars Too Fondly, written by Emily Hamilton, is a captivating blend of a space odyssey and a sapphic rom-com. Hamilton skillfully crafts a suspenseful, charming, and joyous tale that explores themes of fierce friendship, improbable love, and the vast wonders of the universe. Once I started reading I was taken on a journey through the cosmos as I delved into this enchanting story that will leave you spellbound.

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

The story kicks off with Cleo and her friends breaking into a spaceship and unintentionally setting off towards Proxima Centauri, a journey that will take them seven years with no way to stop the ship. With the assistance of a sarcastic hologram of the ship’s captain Billie, the crew unravel the mystery of the missing crew and passengers, and find themselves entrenched in a battle that will determine the fate of the entire universe.

This is a really fun genre blend of sci-fi and fantasy, and really goes to places I didn’t expect of this. The characters are all fantastic, except for maybe the antagonist who is … fine. There’s a few places where, it’s like I don’t follow the book’s train of thought, if that makes any sense. But the ride is so wild, and so much fun, it’s easy to forgive the book for it.

Iloved all the character dynamics, how the characters all grow and change with each development. The plot is fun, the mystery wild, but for me, it was the interpersonal relationships that really sell this book for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for a copy of this ebook in exchange for a review.

This started out fun with a great cast of characters with beautiful found family dynamics, who are witty and funny. But very quickly the stakes became high and the science of being in space became hand-wavey and downright fantastical, and the romance was so forced. The writing and pacing was gripping enough to keep reading but it really hit me how much this wasn't working for me when the villain literally says "oh so we're all talking like cartoon characters and not scientists, got it". This would've worked much better as a space fantasy film, but in print this was quippy and cozy in a way this premise has no right to be.

3.5 stars.

I'm pretty sure I was invited to read this and when I got the email, I felt based on the cover alone it would be up my alley.

It was. And it wasn't. I thought a space odyssey would be a little more sci-fi, maybe I was thinking too much about Andy Weir. This has a more fantastical side to it which, hey I love too. I just was expecting more science less magic. No biggie.

It had a lot of moments where I blew through, excited to continue and some parts where I was hoping to get back to something else. I'm also a huge mood reader so this is likely a more me problem.

The premise and everything about it is interesting and I quite enjoyed falling in love with the captain as well. I'll gladly read more from the author

I picked up The Stars too Fondly without knowing much of anything in terms of the book’s plot, and I’m so glad I decided to read it. The vibes of this book are seriously so great. It had some of my favorite bookish elements – found family, great banter, forced proximity, and women in STEM. It is also a delightful mashup between romcom and SciFi/fantasy mix. This was such a cozy read while also forcing you to think. At what point is progress going too far or how do you choose between your world’s survival if it harms another. I loved watching the relationship development between Billie and Cleo. They had a superb push/pull type relationship which forced Cleo to grow and become a better version of herself. I thought Hamilton did well to produce an interesting plot line that kept you guessing on how it would all turn out in the end. I also really loved the dual timelines as I felt the flashbacks were crucial to understanding the current plot. It also helped me become more invested in certain characters. Really, though, the main selling feature for this book is the emotion if will invoke. The one thing I was missing with this book is that I felt it stayed too surface level at times, and I wish there was more development. I highly recommend adding it to your TBR pile.

A grown up version of the 1986 movie Space Camp but with dark matter, pissed off aliens, and a hologram. I really enjoyed this one, for both the adventure and sapphic romance parts, as well as the dimensional physics. Cleo and Billie should have talked to Horatio and Hayden from. THE DEATH I GAVE HIM for some AI/human pointers.
The info dump at the beginning slowed me down a little but once I was past that, I essentially read the book in. 2 sittings interrupted by my sister’s wedding.. Looking forward to more from Hamilton.

💫 The Stars Too Fondly ARC Review 💫

Thank you so much to Emily Hamilton, Harper Voyager and Harper Collins Publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book

The Stars Too Fondly is a sci-fi sapphic romcom. Twenty years ago, the crew of the Providence disappeared mysteriously. Now, Cleo and her friends are curious why and they snuck aboard. What they didn’t plan for is the ship being operational and taking off with them all on board

This was an interesting read. This book had an intriguing mix of sci-fi and fantasy elements. Cleo and her friends were fun characters and I liked their strength in this book. As always this will be spoiler free, I did struggle a little bit with a few turns the plot took but it was a good read

Overall this was a three star read for me. Interesting characters and sci-fi fantasy story. This book did have some darker elements, so please check triggers if you’re sensitive. This book did have a romantic subplot and some on page spice later in the book, so two flames for spice

If you’re a fan of sci-fi fantasy with fun characters, interesting storylines and impossible love stories, then definitely pick this one up.

Please Note: review will be posted on Amazon upon publication

The Stars Too Fondly is a sci-fi odyssey with a diverse (and very queer) group of college students who accidentally launch themselves into space. While they figure out how to get home, Cleo, the main character, falls in love with Billie, the ship’s hologram captain.
I wanted so badly to like this book. Unapologetically queer sci-fi with an ensemble cast, a little epistolary-style writing, and space shenanigans? I was so ready to have a new favorite book… and unfortunately, it wasn’t.
Personally, I found the first 25% to be the best part of the story. I was so invested in the characters and the mystery of the space magic (yes, there’s space magic — you should at least read it for the space magic).
However, once I got past the initial excitement of the beginning, I found the story to be boring. There were times throughout the book where it would get exciting, but as soon as I got invested, it would switch to something else.
It felt like it was trying to cover too many genres in one book, and I didn’t feel a strong connection to any particular element. I also found that the characters read as very average YA, despite being college-age geniuses.
Now, I definitely recommend this book at least for the diversity. The main cast is 100% queer, at least 50% POC, and 200% badass😎 Definitely pick it up if queer sci-fi books are your jam.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the ARC!

CW - isolation; death; kidnapping; panic attacks; medical content; sexual content (closed-door)

Do we have a term for science fiction "romantasy" yet? Because that's what this felt like. A little hand-waving with the science in favor of the romantic relationship, which was fine. A fun, queer read, but ultimately kind of forgettable. Will definitely recommend to people who like romantasy, but not necessarily my personal cup of tea.

3.5 stars rounding up for the recommendation potential

Cleo McQueary is lost in life and absolutely obsessed with what happened to the crew of Providence I. Twenty years ago all 203 of them had simply disappeared and no one at NASA seemed to care enough to figure it out. Cleo and her friends, though, hatch a drunken plan to break into the space ship to puzzle it all out for themselves. The plot spirals out of control from there in ways the official synopsis doesn’t touch on so I feel obligated to leave out as well.

The Stars Too Fondly is marketed as a queer space odyssey rom-com and while I can see where they’re coming from, it (along with the mention of a heist) wasn’t anything like what I was expecting. I’d compare it to Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers more than just about anything else and it has too much heart to be distilled down into just ‘rom-com.’ I can see it being an absolute hit with the right audience. That audience just really wasn’t me.

First of all, this is very much science FANTASY more than the hard sci-fi I’d expected. I’m a chronic overthinker so every modern day pop culture reference and impossible piece of science magic sent me spiraling. And there was a metric ton of that. So, if you’re the kind of person who will wonder why TikTok and Thomas the Tank Engine are still relevant in 2061 or if a ‘food extruder’ would be super convenient or a hellish prospect for someone with celiac, then this might be a skip for you. I think I’d have had an easier time with all of it if Providence I hadn’t been launching a mere 17 hypothetical years from now when it seems people from 2061 had made little to no new scientific advances (despite so many kids purportedly having gotten obsessed with Providence and then going into STEM fields). And also if there was a single pop culture reference that wasn’t from 2019 or later. I care far too much about the logic of it all and this is a book that requires the reader to largely just go with the flow. It is intentionally silly and often requires a hefty suspension of disbelief.

Because I am nothing if not nitpicky, a couple smaller things that made it difficult for me, personally, to stay within the narrative: Sometimes conversations lacked dialogue tags and it tripped me up every time. This is about a group of 20-somethings, but it absolutely leans very YA (by which I mean I haven’t read someone sticking out their tongue so often since fanfiction in 2010 but also the cadence of the writing/narration is very bright and young and often immature). I just cannot pinpoint why the formatting chosen for this novel didn’t work for me. It flips from a close third following Cleo, to old Providence I reports and private messages, to a [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] perspective rapidly within each chapter. Usually I love having multiple weird perspectives, but I think there was a lack of separation, especially at the beginning, that got under my skin as a reader.

Probably the biggest issue I had over all was honestly a marketing problem where huge parts of what the plot of this book is about were fully left out of any synopsis I read before or after. I was honestly so excited to read this book (between sapphic space heist, the title, and the cover I was so sold) and I’d have never requested it if I’d known that it contained a plot point (plot gimmick, trope, ??) that I almost always dislike. For the record, it’s a totally fine plot point/trope and doesn’t require a content warning of any kind, I’m only not being explicitly clear about what I’m talking about here because they chose to leave it out of their marketing and I’m writing this review before the book is actually out. I’m trying so hard to avoid spoilers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not holding marketing decisions against Hamilton, it’s just super frustrating in general.

I feel like I’m being so negative when I don’t necessarily mean to be. This debut was not all bad. Not in the slightest. I can recognize that it wasn’t meant for me. It didn’t focus on what I wanted it to and I went in with all the wrong expectations. It’s just that as someone who often reads reviews before I pick a book up, I want to get all the reasons I wasn’t 5-star in love with this out of the way first.

So now for some of the things done right: There’s what I can see being a solid romance here and beautiful found family dynamics. I enjoyed the diversity and the different places each character was coming from and how easy it was to distinguish where their priorities differed. There’s action sequences that fully drew me in. I love the inclusion of multimedia bits, especially the ones that give new information from an unexpected direction (I mean, the one that’s very clearly the abstract for a scientific article? So good!). There are ideas and themes here that I absolutely adore, like how far people will go for those they love and how easily power can corrupt an ideal and just the messy business of still having growing to do into your twenties and thirties and probably forever. I can absolutely see this book being loved. Truly and fully.

I’m just so utterly bitter that it couldn’t work for me.

[I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Huge thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for this eARC.]

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader's copy of this in exchange for an honest review. TLDR: Science fiction that reads like YA. It's cute, it's funny at points, and it's decently lighthearted, but it also lacks substance in a very real way. Easy read, but not particularly memorable.

I blew through this book over a long weekend, and finished it on a particularly slow day while the AC wasn't working and I had to wait for an appointment. I picked it up because that cover is lovely, it gave me similar vibes as Becky Chambers (no one could ever measure up - ugh!), and the premise sounded interesting. Plus, I'm listening to another science fiction and I also am reading a very literary science-fiction-ish book right now, so I thought, why not just fully commit to the sci-fi bit going into the summer? (please also keep in mind that this might impact my review because of comparative bias).

I liked a good deal about this. The characters were fun, and the premise was cute. Accidentally stealing a spaceship was a fun idea, and the coming-of-age parts of the story were a blast! Here's the issue though - it shouldn't be a coming-of-age story. The characters are all adults. Like, very adult-y adults with Ph.Ds and what not. So the weird 'who am I and what am I' vibes, and the 'slow-burn' romance that was actually just kind of awkward and emotionally immature romance wasn't really working. Had you told me these characters were 19? Hell yes I am on board and I'm buying it. But you're telling me they are in their late 20s to early 30s and still can't seem to communicate, with each other or themselves? Nah. They're too emotionally available in some regards for me to buy that. And that annoyed me.
Also, some of the science was neat, but other parts were just.... crazytown. Like, I love a good science fiction book with HARD science. Project Hail Mary comes to mind when I think about this particular genre - LOVED that book. I also love me some science fantasy. Don't care what the science is or if this is plausible. I just want a good plot. But you can't (shouldn't) have it both ways. This did some science-y stuff, but then it did some weird magic dues-ex-machina stuff that really annoyed me. Either be science-y or be magic-y but don't try to do both. If you're going to focus in on one part of the science, commit to it fully, or don't focus on it at all.

Nicole, you might be thinking, you ripped this apart.
Yea, that's not fair of me. All things considered, this was actually really cute. It has 'fun summer-y science fiction' vibes and it really was an enjoyable read. The dialogue was cheesy at points and the writing was very debut-novel and very YA, but the story was super interesting, and the pacing was on point. I liked some of the twists and the way the whole thing was set up, with the story, and a weird unnamed narrator peaking in at points, and the declassified briefs woven in. So there's that. This novel isn't bad. It is just perhaps misbilled and, like the characters within it, could use some more clarity on what, exactly, it is and what, exactly, it's trying to do.

Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Avon and Harper Voyager for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Stars Too Fondly is a Sci-Fi set in the near future of 2061. Following the tragic loss of the Providence I crew in 2041, the world became STEM obsessed and fearful of ever attempting to navigate the stars again. But when Cleo and her friends decide to break in to view the spaceship in person, things take an unexpected turn. Part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com, this story combines fierce friendships, improbable love, and wonder into a sweeping adventure. The Stars Too Fondly comes out on June 11th and is available for pre-order now.

There was so much to enjoy in this one which makes me so, so glad both that Lala from BooksandLala talked about it in a video AND that the publishers let me read it early. I’ve been missing Sci-Fi so much lately and the absolute joy and wonder that the friend group experienced was exactly what I needed. The characters were so fun and fresh while still having their flaws. Each had their own distinct personality and their own relationships with each other (not just a friend group where everything’s about the main character). I enjoyed seeing this take on intergalactic travel and how boring it can get. How completely wonderful and amazing and yet also emotionally draining being stuck in a tin can flying at near-light speed can be. I found the world they’re traveling to to be so extraordinary and I wish we had more time to explore what kind of hardships they could have faced there. I know that’s not the point of the novel but it would have been so much fun.

I wish there had been more of an explanation for the Other Place because, without it, the ending felt a little too deus ex machina for me. I also felt like it wasn’t enough of a hard Sci-Fi for me. This one is totally a me problem and not a book problem. Since reading The Expanse, I’ve been really longing for a hard Sci-Fi with good character work and it’s been difficult to find something similar to that. But this story had so much else going for it and there were so many other places it went that most people won’t care about it being a…softer(?) Sci-Fi.

Overall, this was such a fun (and sometimes tense) read for me. If I had more available free time during the week I probably would have finished this one in a couple of sittings.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. The Stars Too Fondly was a fun, bubbly space-opera. It did read more as late YA/early NA over Adult, which I don't mind at all. I thought it was fun and adventurous, and I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, and the adventure. I'll be keeping my eye out for more of Ms. Hamilton's works! A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.