Ever since last year’s homecoming dance, best friends-turned-best enemies Zorie and Lennon have made an art of avoiding each other. It doesn’t hurt that their families are the modern day, Californian version of the Montagues and Capulets.

But when a group camping trip goes south, Zorie and Lennon find themselves stranded in the wilderness. Alone. Together.

What could go wrong?

With no one but each other for company, Zorie and Lennon have no choice but to hash out their issues via witty jabs and insults as they try to make their way to safety. But fighting each other while also fighting off the forces of nature makes getting out of the woods in one piece less and less likely.

And as the two travel deeper into Northern California’s rugged backcountry, secrets and hidden feelings surface. But can Zorie and Lennon’s rekindled connection survive out in the real world? Or was it just a result of the fresh forest air and the magic of the twinkling stars?

 

Yes! A contemporary I really enjoyed. I swear this year has been full of fantasy, sci fis , and non fic but Starry eyes was the perfect book to break it all up.

I really really love friends to relationships, it’s just the best trope and awesome to see best friends fall for each other and try to work out how they work so well together in new ways and the transition from best friends to being intimate, i don’t know I just have a soft spot for that trope and can’t think of a book that’s done it horribly wrong.

a short summary: Basically Zorie and Lennon ex-best friends get thrown together on a camping trip that goes bad causing them to end up trekking alone together in the woods, adventure ensues from here.

The only thing that stopped me from giving this a 5 star rating was the beginning. It takes a little bit to get going and being a little slow i was a bit meh but that may have been my sci fi filled brain learning how to read contemporary again because by time the ending came round I was speed reading in the early am’s trying to see what would happen next.

Now this may be abrupt but let’s talk about bears, because camping in American equals bears right? (Let me know if this is true or just a stereotype) I know I have American followers and I know everyone’s kinda like BUT CASEY AUSTRALIA HAS SPIDERS AND SNAKES HOW DO YOU CAMP. Well AMERICA! How do you just go camping with bears?! Like whoops we left the cookies out and now there’s BEAR! A BEAR that can eat you, I can squash a spider but A BEAR! no thank you i do not have a shoe that big. I once had a koala break into our kitchen tent and I wouldn’t have messed with that smelly fluff bear so I have no idea how you do it with a full grown sharp clawed bear.

i have enough trouble with mumma Magpies I wouldn’t leave the house if there was any chance of a Mumma bear being around.

I did enjoy the inclusion of bears though, and all the camping info as well as some pretty amazing descriptions of what walking in the woods for days is like. The camping I’ve done is all pretty tame compared to some campers that carry everything on their back and hike so I loved reading about that.

Starry eyes isn’t just full of bears though, there’s complicated friendships, solid background stories for secondary characters and some really lovely mother daughter moments, also some heartbreaking ones. The family story’s pulled at my heartstrings and I may have been misty eyed for a lot of it, especially the ending.

If you’re looking for a great contemporary with bears look no further! No but seriously you should read it for the friends to lovers trope coz it’s so good.

 

Have you read this? What  did you think? DO YOU CAMP WITH BEARS! WHY! also please let me know that everyone would prefer spiders over bears right? I mean spiders aren’t bigger then you and don’t steal your cookies so I’d much rather all the spiders.

*side note* I would take 50 spider sized bears over 1 bear sized spider, now that shit I would not go near. 

4/5 stars

Thank you so much to the publishers for allowing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.