Alexandria Bellefleur makes her debut with WRITTEN IN THE STARS, a fun and romantic novel about two wildly different women and their Zodiac-approved love story.

Elle Jones is one of the beloved astrologers behind the popular Twitter account, Oh My Stars. She loves what she does, reading birth charts and helping people make decisions about their lives, but she also truly believes in the power of providing people with a language to describe themselves and learn about others. That’s why it’s no surprise when the dating app OTP (One True Pairing) asks Elle and her co-astrologer and best friend, Margot, to team up with them to help nerds and geeks find true love using the stars and planets as a guide. With a book deal wrapping up and a lucrative partnership on the horizon, life seems to be looking up for free-spirited Elle. That is, until her coworker sets her up with his sister, Darcy.

"Combined with a knock-your-socks-off meet-cute, plenty of steamy but believable love scenes, and just the right amount of woo-woo, WRITTEN IN THE STARS feels fresh and original, heartfelt and fun."

Darcy Lowell is an uptight, detail-oriented actuary (whatever that is). Still reeling from a failed relationship, she has poured herself into her work and takes comfort in the stability of facts and figures. So when her brother, Brandon, sets her up with a woman who shows up 15 minutes late to their date and proceeds to pour wine all over her and her favorite dress, she decides that it’s time to give up. But Brandon isn’t backing down that easily, and before she knows it, Darcy has crafted the ultimate lie: not only does she tell him that her date with Elle went well, she makes it sound like they might be soulmates.

Needless to say, Elle is surprised to hear that their date was such a hit --- especially since she left without saying goodbye, almost cried all the way home and vowed never to speak to Darcy again. Still, she can’t ignore the pressure from her family to settle down or do something worthwhile, so when Darcy suggests that they fake-date to get their well-meaning but annoying families off their backs, she agrees. The only problem is that Elle and Darcy are insanely attracted to one another --- and they can’t stand each other. Darcy is sarcastic and jaded, always making fun of Elle’s devotion to the Zodiac, and Elle cannot tolerate how regimented Darcy is about her life, career and very white apartment.

One fake date at a time, the two start not only to like one another, but to help each other grow, too. Whether their relationship was written in the stars or not, working through the logistics of a fake relationship while being swayed by some very real feelings is tricky, and Elle and Darcy have vastly different goals for their romantic lives. One laugh-out-loud date at a time, Bellefleur crafts a delightful and whimsical love story for fans of Christina Lauren, Alexis Daria and Emily Henry.

This is the perfect mash-up of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY, and Bellefleur’s gender-swapped Darcy and Elizabeth stand-ins not only pay tremendous homage to Austen’s classic, but transform and upend it in a way that feels entirely new. I loved grumpy Darcy just as much as I loved sunshiny Elle, and the ways that Bellefleur fleshed out their careers, families and individual romantic goals made me feel as though I had known them for years, certainly far longer than the time it took me to read the novel. I am always laudatory of authors who write believable women who value their careers just as much as they value their love lives, but something about Darcy and Elle made the juxtaposition feel that much more real. Both are ambitious and excellent at their jobs, and it made their search for --- and realization of --- love that much more poignant and joyful.

WRITTEN IN THE STARS is an #OwnVoices debut, and Bellefleur announces herself as an incredible new talent. Although the book is about two queer women searching for love, she steers clear of homophobic side characters and sadness, reveling instead in the pure joy of two women finding love. While the fake-dating trope will be familiar to romance readers and rom-com watchers, Bellefleur writes it like you’ve never seen it before. She constantly finds ways to transform and uplift her characters in the process, and produces some of the best banter I have had the fortune of reading in any romance novel.

Combined with a knock-your-socks-off meet-cute, plenty of steamy but believable love scenes, and just the right amount of woo-woo, WRITTEN IN THE STARS feels fresh and original, heartfelt and fun.