Review: Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur is a fake dating queer Pride and Prejudice-inspired rom-com. We follow Elle, an astrologer who is whimsical and actively looking for her soulmate, and Darcy, an actuary whose heart was recently broken and is trying to avoid love. After Darcy's brother Brendon sets the two up on a disastrous blind date, Darcy lies and says the two hit it off, setting off the need to convince Elle to be her fake date for two months to get Brendon off her back. Elle agrees because she wants to prove to her family she isn't too flighty to keep a relationship through the holiday season. As the two spend more time together, we see that their differences don't necessarily mean they aren't compatible.
I want to start by saying that I don't think this book is bad; I just think it is not for me. I am currently about 50/50 on reading Alexandria Bellefleur's next book to see if it was that I just don't like her writing style or if I just wasn't a fan of this book in particular. I assume it will be a mixture, but her covers are so cute I might trick myself into reading Hang the Moon.
I will start with the things I was able to enjoy about this book! I did think many moments of this book were sweet, the Christmas tree situation in particular. I really thought the letter Jane and Daniel, Elle's older siblings, send her was touching; it might have been my favorite part of the book. I would love more time spent with Elle's family, especially because Brendon is in this book so much, and we already knew he is one of the focal characters of the next book; his page time could have been lessened to spend more time exploring this. I also really like that Darcy didn't start believing in astrology just because she does like Elle; I will talk more about how I thought her being a skeptic/nonbeliever was handled, but I really appreciate this. Unfortunately, finding some of the second half sweet was not quite enough for me to fall in love with this book. I should also acknowledge that the book is very easy to read.
I feel a little bit unfair writing this review because I was iffy about it by 20%ish, and I knew it wasn't for me by 40%ish. I actively didn't enjoy myself through many parts of this book after about halfway through; I was optimistic during the first 4 chapters. I liked some of what went on in the last fourth of the book, but if I wasn't committed to finishing as many books as I can, I would have DNFed this book and just never reviewed it. But I did finish it, so here I go.
I thought the Pride and Prejudice elements were clunky and detracted more than they added. I went into this book not knowing anything about it, including that it had this element, and am very glad for that. I would have been more disappointed if I had gone into this book wanting a retelling and not liking it than going in, not knowing and not liking it. They were sporadically heavy-handed, and then where it subverted or didn't follow Austen, I mostly just couldn't figure out the rationale. Bellefleur was referential to Pride and Prejudice, and self-referential to the tropes being used in the book, to a degree I found grating, especially in the first half of the book.
Elle really isn't much of an 'Elizabeth,' she has many traits given to 'Lydia's' in modern retellings, and I just couldn't wrap my mind around her personality changes. She is determined not to change for a romantic partner's approval, but that is the extent of her 'Elizabeth' traits. I also am always very interested in how Pride and Prejudice retellings handle their Lydia character. It has kind of become my litmus test for retellings, and I didn't like the way Lydia was handled. I didn't think she was terrible; I just thought she didn't make the most sense as a Lydia and just seemed to be annoying and have the same name.
The Pride and Prejudice retelling wasn't my least favorite part, I just didn't think it was utilized well or in a way I liked, and I found some of the aspects that were kept or done away with arbitrary or confusing. The characterization was something that I wasn't a huge fan of in general. I thought Elle was chronically quirky to the point where it was a little hard to actually view her as a person. She, and her best friend Margot and also sort of Brendon and sometimes other people, including Darcy the 'serious' one, speaks in metaphor, uses 'funny' phrases, and just uses quirky internet jokes as parts of regular speech. I just kept thinking of the right words to describe her and kept circling quirky, twee, idiosyncratic, and zany. It felt like overkill and not like personality. I know there are folks that love this; I just very much am not one of them.
A big part of this story is that Elle is an astrologer, and Darcy doesn't believe in astrology. I already stated that I really liked that this book doesn't require either character to change their belief systems to be compatible, but that doesn't mean I think Darcy not believing was written well. I don't think people need to rationalize not believing in something, and I didn't love that Darcy, and other characters, had to do this, but my real gripe was that she didn't think about it like someone who actually doesn't believe. She never thought that charging money for pseudoscience is exploitive to vulnerable people or profiting off cultural appropriation. I am not saying that I thought she should berate Elle into not believing; I just thought she should have some thoughts that addressed some of these concerns. She seemed like a cutout of a serious person more than someone with well-thought-out reasons for not believing in or liking astrology at the beginning of the book.
I wanted Elle and Darcy to spend more time together disliking each other; they went from begrudging to actually having affection for each other very quickly. I think I would have been more interested in this story if I had had more time building their dislike so that when we tumbled into liking each other, the misunderstandings that tend to come at the end of these stories would have felt more fleshed out and earned. I was never that worried, but I also didn't really understand why they liked each other. They both thought the other was hot, and they were forced into physical proximity, but I don't understand why they liked each other in the first 150 pages.
A big part of Darcy's backstory and emotional journey surrounds her mother. I wanted a little bit more time spent with this contentious relationship, especially because she seemed to just pop in to be the third act conflict and not really have the time I wanted to feel Darcy's feelings around her mother build to the point where the conversation Elle overhears felt earned to me.
I said it earlier, but I thought Brendon had too much page time that could have been spent on some of the other relationships I wanted from this book. The next book is about him and Darcy's best friend Annie, which I know both from the summary of Hang the Moon and from the very heavyhanded foreshadowing. I especially didn't love his inclusion in the conflict resolution towards the end of the book; I thought that conversation would have had much more weight coming from Darcy to Elle. I liked the eventual resolution; I just think I would have cared more if the end was structured a bit differently.
I gave this book 2 stars. I clearly wasn't a fan of this book, but clearly, there are readers that have and will continue to love this book. If you are a big fan of books about fandom, this book might be for you; if you are looking for a sapphic romance that is a Pride and Prejudice retelling or you want fake dating, then maybe this book is for you even if those elements didn't work for me. I will continue on and try to read something more enjoyable for me; I hope this book continues to find its readers, and I continue to find books I love!
