I swear! Lauren Layne can do no wrong by me. She is on a short list of authors who I trust to bring happiness to my day via their stories, and she has done it once again with Miranda in Retrograde.

Miranda was a professor of astronomy at a prestigious university where she was well loved and known for her ability to bring science to the masses. Think Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael Faraday, and her star was rising. But after being denied tenure and forced to take a one year sabbatical by the university, Miranda believed her future in academia had hit a dead end. She was struggling with her personal identity and a lot of self doubt. So, she changed tack and decided to put her trust in the stars.

What started out as a rather disappointing year turned into something life changing for Miranda. She began her sabbatical shrouded in disappointment and confusion, but her year ended on a high note after a lot of self discovery and introspection.

One thing that made a difference in Miranda's life was the friendship she formed with the artist next door who seemed to be your typical brooding artist There was a less than friendly beginning to their relationship, but it slowly grew into something wonderful. It seemed to have happened by accident with simple gestures that were not grand but meaningful. Their shared meals and nights on the roof were some of my favorite moments along with getting to know Archer better. Like all great characters, he had layers, and I loved peeling them back to find that heart of gold.

My undergraduate degree is in chemical engineering, and thus, I adored any and all science incorporated into this story in addition. I loved that Miranda wanted to make science accessible to all and used her position and platform to share her love of the universe. As much as I enjoyed that aspect of this tale, I found my interest piqued by the astrology bits. I never knew much beyond the signs of the zodiac, and learning a little more about how people believe their lives are influenced by the stars and planets was sort of fun.

Overall, this was another incredible book from Layne! Filled with wit, humor, and sparkling banter, it was delightful to spend this sabbatical with Miranda as she learned to trust herself again, found her focus, and fell in love.

Another winner from Lauren Layne. I was skeptical about how much I would enjoy this book because I don't really care for astrology or astronomy but I fell in love with the man characters. And really the astrology was just a means to try something new and break out of old habits and ruts for Miranda. I love that Miranda found a way to integrate the various versions of herself to create a more fulfilling life. Layne continues to be an auto-read for me!

This book was such a unique premise and I enjoyed it immensely! I adored the dynamic between Miranda and Archer, it was fun and silly and I laughed out loud many times. A quick, captivating read, Miranda in Retrograde is a wonderful rom-com and super fascinating with the science and astrology elements.

This was my first time reading anything by Lauren Layne and I loved her writing style! Definitely look forward to reading more of her books.

I will admit, Layne is hit or miss for me. I love her premises, but her characters don’t always resonate. This is not one of those times. I loved Miranda and Archer and their easy interactions. The astronomy angle is fresh, though it won’t be for everyone. Overall a fun read for a summer afternoon.

In Miranda in Retrograde, Miranda did not receive tenure for her position as an astronomy professor so on the advice of her aunt, during a forced sabbatical, she decides to live her life by her astrological chart. This book was really cute. Miranda was highly intelligent and logical and I liked seeing how she faced the challenges in her life, balancing what was rational vs. what was emotional. She had big and small decisions to make and was pulled in both directions, follow the chart or follow your heart. Nothing was impetuous but well thought out and analyzed. Overall, it was sweet romcom about a strong woman in STEM that was a quick, heartwarming read.

🤍Book review 🤍

Miranda in Retrograde
by Lauren Layne


Miranda in Retrograde by Lauren Layne is a delightful rom-com that blends science with astrology in an entertaining way. After being denied tenure, Miranda, a physics professor, decides to live by her horoscope for a year. This leads to a journey of self-discovery, where she learns to embrace change and trust her heart.
The romance between Miranda and her grumpy artist neighbor, Archer, is sweet and slow-burning, with great chemistry and enjoyable banter. The story is engaging, with well-crafted characters and a steady, realistic progression of Miranda’s personal growth. I especially enjoyed the chapter titles aligned with zodiac seasons and daily horoscope predictions, adding a fun touch.
While I wished for a bit more depth in Archer’s backstory and more complexity in Miranda’s family relationships, the book still provides a satisfying and heartwarming read. The epilogue ties everything together nicely, offering a perfect happy ending.

Very grateful to the publisher for my copy, opinions are my own

This was such a well done, quick romance. The characters were great. I loved the main female character having a career in science. I loved the grumpy artist male neighbor. The chemistry was great and their banter was so fun to read. Just enjoyable from page one.

Thank you NetGalley for my advanced reader copy.

4 Stars
One Liner: An enjoyable story

Miranda comes from a family of toppers and achievers. She is the face of physics and the youngest physics professor in the university. However, her world turns upside down when she is passed over for tenure. Her life no longer follows a plan.
Dejected, Miranda decides to take her bestie’s advice and use the sabbatical to live life without rules and science. Instead, she decides to make decisions based on the stars and astrology. Things have already gone wrong. They couldn’t get worse, right?
What does this sabbatical teach Miranda? Will it help her find some love too?
The story comes in Miranda’s first-person POV.

My Thoughts:
Well, the cover and the premise were cute enough to make me want to grab this book. Unlike Miranda, I love astronomy and astrology equally and believe that both can co-exist. I hoped it would be fun to see how the FMC realizes the same, and it was.
Miranda’s character is well crafted. The transition from someone who follows rigid rules to someone who embraces change by replacing the rules with another set to finally a person who learns to trust her gut and heart, the progress is steady and unhurried. This feels realistic without being drawn out too long.
I knew there would be a love triangle of sorts. Thankfully, it doesn’t get messy or awkward (or annoying). While I think the other track could have been a little shorter, I also see why it was necessary to go as far as it did. It plays a part in the FMC’s journey.
Archer is an adorable grumpy artist. I wish we had more of him in the book and his backstory came out a little more detailed. He is the king of grump you’d want to love!
Some side characters like Lillian, Daphne, and Kylee make a strong impression. While the other guy was good enough, I didn’t feel anything for him.
The chapters were titled according to months and zodiac seasons. Each chapter began with a horoscope prediction for the day and aligned with the events that take place in it. I loved this approach and had a great time reading those little nuggets of ‘wisdom’.
The romance was pretty mild with only a wee bit of steam. However, the relationship between the FMC and MMC was great to read. It started with a not-a-meet-cute and progressed slowly, so that made sense. I wouldn’t have minded a little more spice, though.
While the track of Miranda’s relationship with her family started realistically, it got resolved a bit too easily, IMO. I wish it continued to be realistic and bittersweet.
There’s an epilogue (my favorite) that gives us a proper HEA and all.
The author’s note was delightful and gave a glimpse into the research and work she put into the book. I always love reading such details.

To summarize, Miranda in Retrograde is a light and steady-paced book (not fast) you can finish in a couple of sittings. It works as a summer read or a starry night read on the rooftop. You don’t need to know anything about astrology to understand the contents.
My thanks to NetGalley, and Gallery Books, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

"Miranda in Retrograde" is one of those books that straddles the line between romance and "women's fiction" (I hate that term). While the plot is primarily romance, it's far more focused on Miranda's personal development than the development of the couple. Without spoiling anything, the plot structure isn't my favorite romance plot structure. But I think that's a personal problem. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

I loved Miranda and seeing her development throughout the book. As an aspiring astrology girlie (I can never seem to get the hang of it...) I also loved getting a crash course along with Miranda. One of my favorite things in romance novels is when the two leads' stories balance each other out, which this has albeit it's not explored all that much.

I do think that Archer was a little underdeveloped. However, like I said, the book was mainly focused on Miranda rather than him. I feel like I knew very little about him, even at the end of the book, and he didn't go through much character development. It almost felt like he was an NPC waiting for Miranda to complete certain plot advancing actions. But don't think I didn't notice that he's literally named after one of the Zodiac constellations. That was cute.

Overall, this was a fun read but just not my personal favorite romance structure.

3.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

t was only last month that I read my first Lauren Layne book (Emergency Contact), and I enjoyed it so much that I immediately started looking into her backlist. I also requested her upcoming one from NetGalley and was thrilled when it was approved! Miranda in Retrograde is the story of a genius Physics professor who is denied tenure and takes a year off of teaching to evaluate her future career plans. Her best friend convinces her to try a new, non-STEM project, and follow her horoscope for the year. And of course, she has a couple potential love interests, and will get to know her true self during this year.

I am not a STEM girl at all (Science and Math were my least favorite subjects in school), but I have studied Astrology in the past and find it all fascinating, so this part of the book intrigued me. I haven't dabbled much in it for years, and actually learned a few things in this book (such as reading the daily horoscope for your Rising sign instead of your Sun sign). But even if you are not interested in Astrology or STEM, it's a fun read. Relatable characters, good dialogue, humor, and a fun plot - I love LL's writing style and would have happily read it all in one setting if it life hadn't gotten in the way.

5 stars for this fun read, and a huge thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Miranda is a popular physics professor who has just been denied tenure. She finishes out the semester and takes a year long sabbatical, but she’s not sure where her career goes from here, and she’s not sure how she will fill her time over the next year.

She decides to take on a year long project of reading her horoscope daily and doing whatever it says. If it says she needs to do a house project, she completes it. If it says to get a let, she gets a goldfish. If the stars say one man is her perfect match, then she should date him right?!?

What Miranda didn’t count on was her grumpy artist neighbor, and how spending long nights on their respective roofs would lead to an unlikely friendship and her questioning if her horoscope is leading her in the right direction.

This was a fun read, first of all I had no idea there was so much that went into astrology. I learned so much about the topic and maybe made me want to check my horoscope out.

I liked Miranda, I’ve had the feeling of having. To change direction when the thing you loved didn’t seem to work out. She really had to learn to listen to her gut and her heart and let her brain rest.

I loved Archer, I loved the relationship between the two of them. I liked how they slowly developed a friendship and this was the slowest of slow burns and I love a good slow burn. The build up of the tension was 🧑🏻‍🍳💋 good.

The grand gesture at the end made me absolutely swoon!

Thank you to @netgalley @laurenlayneauthor and @gallerybooks for my arc of this book. Miranda in Retrograde is out now!

This was an entertaining, well-written book. It was fun, sweet and kept me reading. I wanted to find out what was going to happen. I enjoyed this book and will look for more books by this author.

Miranda does not believe is astrology. As an astrophysicist, she has looked down on that field for years, until a sabbatical from her job leaves her with time on her hands to explore the cosmos in a new way.

I loved the focus on astrology and the way Miranda chose to listen to her horoscope to make her decisions, it was such a unique and fun plot! Her slow belief in astrology and growing belief in herself developed at an authentic pace, and I thought these self discovery parts were done extremely well.

There is a love story as well, featuring a grumpy x sunshine trope (one I adore!). Loved seeing their connection grow through time spent together focused on the moon and stars, and truly adored the grand gestures in this one.

Thank you to Gallery for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Gallery Books for the advanced reader copy and to Simon Audio for the complimentary audiobook. These opinions are my own.

When Miranda doesn't get tenure as an astrophysicist, she takes a sabbatical and starts investigating astrology and following her horoscope. I enjoy many of Lauren Layne's books and was so pleased to see this new novel from her. And I am always keen to read about a professor. But wow, that's not how academia works. I really struggled with suspension of disbelief for the set-up of the book. Once I got further in, I enjoyed it for the fantasy world it was.

This asked some interesting questions about what we use to guide our life choices. And it included some great characters with neat story arcs. It's a very quick and light read.

Jennifer Jill Araya narrated the audiobook well. Her performance helped engage my interest when I was rolling my eyes at the start.

3.5 stars rounded up

3.5 Stars.

I was wary of the astrology theme in this book, but since it was Lauren Layne, I decided to still give it a try. While I’m glad I read it and did enjoy most of it, I do have to admit that the astrology content did bring the book down for me.

The fun banter between Miranda and Archer was great. I really enjoyed watching their friendship develop and their slow burn romance. I also appreciated Miranda’s journey to figure out what she really wanted out of life and not just follow a path that had been laid out for her.

While I don’t care for astrology, I must admit to occasionally reading my horoscope when I come across it and I did learn a lot more about astrology while reading this. However, it was way more than I wanted. In the Author’s Note, Layne details how much research she did for this book and that felt very obvious in how much is shared in the book. I would have rather had more of the science stuff – and that’s something I never thought I’d say. I also didn’t like how specific all the horoscopes were and how she perfectly followed everything. I appreciate that she wanted to keep an open mind, but I expected at least a little more skepticism, especially since she’s a scientist. I can read my horoscope and think it fits me, but then I can ready every other sign’s horoscope and think they fit me. It just seemed a little unrealistic how all in she went and it took me out.

Overall, Miranda in Retrograde was a mostly enjoyable read with some great banter and a good slow burn romance. I could’ve done with a lot less of the astrology, though. I also wished the side characters were a little more developed. Miranda’s best friend and aunt were both quirky characters that we rarely saw. I’ll look forward to reading whatever Layne does next, but hope it’s something a little closer to her usual books I love.

I love Lauren Layne’s romances as they feel so real and this book felt like I was watching a movie. I was pulling the whole time for Archer who was a grumpy, curmudgeonly sort of character. This was a grumpy/ sunshine trope and a slow burn at the same time which are two of my most favorite tropes. I was into this story from the beginning and basically read it in a day. Miranda and Archer were two of my favorite characters even though they were at odds a lot of the time. I especially enjoyed the whole slow burn aspect as it is only the last chapter that they finally get their HEA.

A heartwarming and charming story! This is my new favorite by Lauren Layne.
Miranda is at a crossroads, her career ambition to become a tenured professor has been stalled and now she must decide what’s next. She moves into her aunts house as she explores what will be next. Her science brain initially rejects astrology, however she takes on a project to study how her horoscope can affect her life. She crosses paths with a grumpy neighbor, Archer, whose verbal sparring keeps her on her toes. The dialogue between the two was perfect and the way astrology was used to weave the storyline together was so well done.
Ultimately this story is about being true to oneself in the face of expectations and of course about being open to love. This book was truly a joy to read and highly recommended. Thank you to Gallery Books for the opportunity to read an early copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4.5 ⭐️
Wow what a fun book! I’ve been really enjoying romance books where the FMC has some kind of STEM background and so that’s what drew me to this book.

I have absolutely no knowledge of astrology or horoscopes so I was a little nervous about that going in, but the author did a fantastic job of making the information interesting but not overwhelming.

I really liked all the characters in this book. It was fun to share a name with a character, I’ve never had that before so that was a fun first for me! And I felt like the character growth and development was great throughout the book. The banter and romance was so fun. This is a closed book so the tension between characters was on point. Overall I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it!

You’ll like this book if you enjoy:
•FMC with a STEM background
•Grumpy/Sunshine
•Banter/Tension
•Opposites Attract
•Forced Proximity

I’d like thank NetGalley, Gallery Books, and Lauren Layne for the advanced reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If Lauren Layne writes it, I will read it. There is something about Layne’s writing that perfectly encapsulates the golden age of rom-com movies from the 90s that we all know and love, except in book form. She always nails the emotions and feelings every single time, and I find myself completely devouring her books in record time. Miranda in Retrograde delivers a beautiful slowburn romance between a renowned astronomer at a crossroads in her life who is trying something new by putting her faith in astrology to guide her and the grumpy artist next door who she keeps running into at night on the rooftops.

Lauren Layne is the queen of contemporary romances in my book, and she gave us the most beautiful emotional slowburn romance between Miranda and Archer! I know some people don’t like slowburns, but I love them as they always deliver big emotions and some heartache along the way, with the best payoff in the end. While this book is low on the spice, it packs all the emotions I want in a romance. I was kicking my feet up in the air with the biggest grin on my face – I was so giddy the entire time I was reading it!

The chemistry between Miranda and Archer is there, but it’s a slow simmer as they clash at the beginning, but they form a strong, deep friendship that clearly feels like there is more to it. They both clearly have these deep feelings for each other, and Layne teases the romance so perfectly, giving you the perfect hints of what could be between them if only they both are willing to push aside their own fears and embrace the love that’s in front of them. When the realization of how deep those feelings are, Layne gives us the perfect rom-com movie worthy moment that had me feeling all the things. It’s like their love was written in the stars.

Recently, I’ve been struggling with first-person single POV in contemporary romance. I like to know how both characters feel in a romance, and in a first-person, single POV, that can be lacking and hamper the romantic development. However, I did not have that problem at all with this book. Layne did an excellent job giving us Miranda’s internal thoughts and feelings but also showing us how Archer was feeling even though we weren’t in his head. Archer was so far gone for Miranda, and it comes through in such tiny little ways that Miranda, as the narrator, might not fully pick up on, but the reader will, which contributed to why this romance worked so well for me.

I also loved how well the romance worked with Miranda’s journey of self-discovery. Since she was a young girl, she’s always been driven to be the best she could be academically, reaching acclaim, and even fame, as an astronomer. But when she’s denied tenure, her whole world and her identity get thrown for a loop. This book is really about her journey toward self-discovery and finding herself and her passion, and letting go of the expectations she and her family have put on her. She’s so uptight and starchy initially, but so much more free and calm by the end. I love how she turned to astrology, something she considered totally fake at the beginning, to guide her.

Astrology definitely plays a big role in this book, and I loved how Layne wove it into the story, walking us through each of the astrological signs throughout the year and starting each chapter with Miranda’s horoscope. I’m not a big astrology buff, but it was so fun seeing how the horoscopes would apply to Miranda’s life in ways she wouldn’t expect, and it helped set the chapters up really well. In my opinion, I also loved how the horoscopes also played into the romance, as Miranda would expect one thing based on her interpretation of the horoscope, but the real meaning was only apparent to the readers.

And then we have Archer, our grumpy neighbor next door. I loved this man. He was the perfect grumbly grump who also always seemed to be hanging around Miranda, even though he claimed to be annoyed by her. Initially, there were some antagonistic vibes, but their relationship quickly reached a steady rhythm, similar to that in a grump/sunshine romance. I also love that there is a little bit of mystery to Archer. He’s a very famous artist, but he’s a bit protective and secretive over his art. He’s also got some hang-ups from things from a previous high-profile relationship, and I, like Miranda, found myself wanting to know about him.

I feel like I could go on and on about this book, as it was so stinking cute! It’s the perfect, light-hearted contemporary romance that will give you all the feels! It’s pure escapism in the best possible way. The romance, the characters, and the astrology worked so well together that I couldn’t help but feel giddy while reading this! I will definitely be adding Miranda in Retrograde to the list of Lauren Layne books I have designated as comfort reads when I want a cute, swoon-worthy romance with heart!

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

Well, I certainly did not expect to love this one quite this much! I LOVE Lauren Layne and will literally read anything she writes. But, I'm also not a huge believer in astrology. However, I can tell you by the end of this book, I bought an astrology app to learn more! Only Lauren Layne could get me into astrology haha!

This was done so well. The romance was absolutely adorable. It is a super slow burn with closed doors. The characters were all easy to love. There was really no one to dislike in here. The storyline takes place over a year, yet the book flew by. I did not want to put it down. I would recommend this one.