Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this delightful read!

I am so glad I started the New Year with Looking for a Sign! It was just the right hopeful, fun, queer book to put me in a positive frame of mind. Gray is looking for love after the end of a 10-year relationship. It was her first relationship ever, meaning she has basically never dated at all. Her BFF Cherry suggests that she date one person from each zodiac sign for both experience and compatibility purposes. I'm not particularly into astrology, but this was such a fascinating lens from which to choose and view Gray's prospects. I was captivated by the unique traits each sign seemed to possess, and I could not wait to see my own sign, Libra (I was NOT disappointed).

Gray and Cherry are childhood friends who experienced the same deeply religious upbringing. They supported each other through it and became like family. Their evolving relationship was one of my favorite parts of the book. Note -- Trigger Warning for forced conversion therapy and religious trauma.

This book was a whirlwind of dates, most of them with women, some with nonbinary and trans folks. Somehow, though, Dumond nailed the pacing, and the book flew by despite my worry that 12 dates would feel like a million. I picked it up, and before I knew it, I was finished. This book is full of romance, spice, friendship, and, of course, love.

I give it 9/10 stars and recommend it for anyone interested in either astrology or romance. Those who like both are in for a REAL treat.

The description of this book is really what pulled me in. The idea of going on 12 dates of the zodiac to find out your dating goals after getting out of a long term relationship, was promising on the comedy part of a rom-com. Watching Gray go on her dates (both good and bad) was entertaining, as it helped her figure out what she was looking for in terms of her love life, and just life in general.
As much as I loved the concept of this book, the main love interest in this book doesn't come off as great and I did not really see the connection between her and Gray as the story developed.

This was a cute and fun book. Just getting out of a decade long relationship, Gray has moved into her best friends granny unit in New Orleans and taken a new PR job working to help a private school principal help convince her board to accept more diversity and inclusion initiatives. What Gray really wants is to find a wife and settle down to raise kids, and she feels like time is running out. After a visit to a psychic, she and her friend decide on a dating challenge where Gray will date one person from each zodiac sign to try and see what she really wants in a partner and who might be most compatible. While this premise could get very canned, the author manages to keep it fun and light with both good dates and hilariously bad dates, along with Gray’s growing investment in her job and her deepening friendship with the principal, Veronica. The ending is satisfying as Gray begins to realize what she really wants after all- and how to be satisfied with what she has rather than always focusing on what she doesn’t. Warning for readers- there are some graphic and spicy scenes, but if that’s not your thing you can skip over them without impacting the story. If they are your thing- enjoy!

Looking for a Sign follows Gray on her journey to recover from a difficult breakup while simultaneously finding true love and a chance at the family she has always wanted. Oh, and all of this needs to happen by her impending 29th birthday, and subsequently, the Saturn Return, which is just six weeks away. With the aid of her friend, Cherry, and an astrologer who is supposedly super hard to get a meeting with but meets Gray despite the fact that she knows nothing about astrology, Gray determines that she will date her way through the Zodiac. Surely this will give her a good sense of her perfect match.

I am not extremely knowledgable on the Zodiac, but I do enjoy using the signs as a way to get to know people, and of course it's fun to joke when someone's sign lines up well with their true personality. That said, within the world of this book, the signs are Bible and everyone you meet is extremely by-the-book when it comes to their expected traits. Gray dates roughly 12 people and they all felt like caricatures or stereotypes. And this included Gray herself, who "has an undercut and a nose ring" and "is so edgy and queer". This is repeated frequently throughout the book, as if to remind us, because who she is as an actual person is, yes, queer, but not all that edgy. And I think she knows this, and it's acknowledged, but this descriptor of her became one of those things I rolled my eyes at every time it came up.

Without giving too many spoilers, this book unfolds about as you'd expect. There are some good dates, some bad dates, some that result in sex, and some that don't. While some explicit scenes come up, nothing drifts too far into what I'd actually consider "smut". All of this takes place while Gray is living with her best friend, Cherry, and her husband and son, and while Gray is starting a new job, which presents its own hurdles. Even though the entire book is built around dating through the Zodiac, I am sure readers will be able to pinpoint when they've met the real love interest. Which... sort of made the rest of the dating experiment fall flat for me. Not to mention I never quite fell in love with that love interest myself. (Potential spoiler: I have seen a few other reviewers note that she comes across poorly, never really redeeming herself, and I'd have to agree.)

I am always hoping that I'll read a romance novel and actually fall in love with it. If you're looking for a light, romcom-styled "beach read" with LGBTQIAP+ representation, then this may be the perfect fit. I am typically a very slow reader and I made my way through in only a few days. With that, however, comes the understanding that things are likely going to stay on the surface, and I would say that's definitely the case here. In the end, this one just wasn't for me. I've read worse, for sure. But I never felt like there was anything at stake here for any of the characters, and that left me wanting.

Thank you Netgalley for this e-arc!

Astrology lovers and rom com lovers, rejoice! I am one of the two, group A, however, I found myself enjoying this story enough to carry on. This will be perfect for those who love a cozy story too.

This was a cute LGBTQIAP+ | Romance but I'm going to go ahead and piggyback on what another reviewer wrote and say that the love interest was very unlikeable from the get go and never really redeemed herself in my opinion. I really liked our FMC Gray and I really liked her friend Cherry. The found family that Gray had with Cherry and her family was spot on. Love that for them. I do wish FMC would have ended up with one of her other zodiac dates as I definitely felt more chemistry and attraction there as opposed to the person she ended up with. That being said, this is a fun, rom-com and I still recommend giving it a read. :)

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Dial Press Trade Paperback and Susie Dumond for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think this book has a really fun premise, but the execution fell flat for me. I found the love interest to be too unlikable to start the book, and I also didn't like how clear it was which zodiac signs the author personally doesn't like. I think this would have been a better book if none of the signs were presented as disaster people - they could have been bad fits without being portrayed as just like "everyone with this sign is the worst" (namely Cancer, Scorpio, and Virgo).

Gray Young is going to find her true love before her 30th birthday, one way or another. Her current method? Going on a date with every zodiac sign and sleep with at least one from each element, per recommendation of her believer best friend Cherry.

Each date in Looking For A Sign felt fun and unique, some even had me laughing out loud while others had me smiling and crossing my fingers, hoping they were the one for Gray. Even though we witness 12 dates, it never gets boring. You can guess who the love interest might be sometime after you get a quarter of the way through, so be prepared to stay guessing in the beginning. This book does get explicit at some points with sex scenes, but it doesn’t venture into full on smut territory, which I liked. The characters felt real and personable, even down to small details like Gray’s longing for a family unit or her godson River’s adorable one-year-old dialogue.

The only downside of this story would be the predictability of it. Once we meet the true love interest, that’s it, but the book still unfolds in a way that feels satisfying. If you want a fun, slightly spicy read, this is the book for you!