Amusing, well written, good engaging story. Very easy to promote to teens who I am sure will love it.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley. 

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. 
Natalie.

I was initially interested in reading this book, however my tastes have shifted and I do not think I will be able to get to it now. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a digital copy!

This book is perfect for aspiring female scientists, showing just what you can do if you put your mind to it. 
Meg feels alone, she studies too hard and tries her hardest to look after her hippy mother and her young baby. When she's forced to take part in a group project at school, she finds her first friends and the importance of friendship and love.

Unfortunately, I found this rather deathly boring. It's basically about 15-year-old girl who is a science and astrophysics nerd, goes to school, practises a speech, and sits about eating biscuits with a group of kids she's being forced to be friends with. I do realise it's geared at younger YA but just nothing exciting was happening and I wouldn't have been engaged reading this at 15 either.
There are also so many bad messages this book sends out like Meg's mum is a "wild and free spirit" and she just up and goes to Myanmar for 2 weeks leaving her 15-year-old daughter to babysit the 1-year old sister the whole time. It is not okay to neglect your children. And the worst thing is Meg basically forgives her and says "no, never change, Mum! this is who you are" and then they go back to being a big happy family. NO.NO and No! This is completely and utterly wrong, you can neglect both your children and leave a child in charge of everything and force her to balance school, finances, food, shopping and take care of a baby which are extremely high maintenance. 
I honestly can’t believe I made it all the way through this novel without DNFing it because of all these poor messages, I understand the author wants to give the reader a happy ending but you just can’t brush all these negative things under the carpet to do that.

Stargazing for Beginners tells the story of Meg, it follows a fairly brief but important part of her life. It’s a story of both strength and weakness, of both discovery and self-discovery and the importance of friendships.

Meg the central character of the tale is named after Megara from Hercules by her Disney obsessed mother. Meg is the opposite of her mother, studious, focused and organised, Meg does not do flighty, she is however in awe of space and determined to fulfil her long held ambition to become an astronaut. She has spent her life slowly working through the steps to help her achieve her dream, next up is a trip to NASA. Her family can’t afford to pay the several thousand pounds so her only hope is to win the local schools’ competition. Only problem… the competition is a speech writing contest and Meg hates public speaking, trying to get over her fear she starts working on her speech only for her mother not to return from dropping a friend at the airport, instead Meg gets a phone call from the plane to find her mother is instead heading to the other side of the world for two weeks leaving Meg to watch her baby sister.

I really struggled with this part of the book, Meg’s mum just made me so angry! I’m not a parent but I can’t imaging leaving my teenage daughter, telling her I’m just dropping a friend at the airport when the whole time I’m actually planning on vanishing to the opposite side of the world for two weeks. Meg’s grandpa also annoyed me a little at this point, he’s really in no position to look after Meg and Elsa although he does his best to come up with ways to make the situation work, he makes excuses for his daughter, he;s not angry that she’s left her two children, with no notice, no money, and no real thought about what they’ll do while she’s away, he just dismisses it as being just like her, always free spirited.

I kept going with the book, as despite the two adults in her life making me so angry, the book was well written and I identified with Meg, I was a science geek growing up, although I was never abandoned by my parents! I’m glad I carried on as I really enjoyed what followed, despite the book covering such a short period of time I really enjoyed seeing the development in Meg, moving from being isolated and quite determined to rely only on herself to realising that letting people in isn’t a bad thing. I really enjoyed the emergence of the Broken Biscuit Club and the development of her friendship with Ed. I loved the whole ‘It takes a village’ feeling I got by the end of the book.
 

Would I Recommend?

 Yes! Overall it’s a well written tale of the importance of friendship, with added science! The portrayal of several adults within the story annoyed me, but that’s not to say it’s not true to life for some people, no matter how much my parents may have annoyed me as a teenager I will always be grateful for the fact I knew that they would always be there when I needed them. The story of the teacher that made Meg lose her confidence also made me incredibly grateful that all my teachers were hugely supporive of me, always willing to encourage and give me extra work to challenge me, they certainly never mocked me in front of the class. Again I know for some people this type of teacher is the reality and it saddens me to think how much potential we could be losing. At the same time I know for everyone of these teachers there are hundreds more encouraging their pupils to be all they can be and I loved Meg’s development. I could easily of read more about her, Ed and the Broken Biscuit Club, if we’re lucky maybe we’ll get it!

This was a sweet read but definitely felt for much younger audience than me. Still cute though!

This was a lovely story that only took me a couple of hours to read. It's not your typical young adult story with Meg being 'a geek' but she was such a great character. I connected with everyone and followed the story as if I was there watching - even holding my breath as I read Meg's speech - nervous about what she was going to say! Blog post up soon, thank you for the chance to read and review this!

This book was lovely! When I was a kid I read (nearly) nothing besides UKYA, Louise Rennison etc, and boy this took me back. The humour was delightful, Meg is a very inspirational and awesome character, the romance was super adorable but not overbearing, and the family relationships were varied and well thought out. Reading the growing bond between Meg and her baby sister Elsa was special, and one of the things I loved most about Stargazing for Beginners.

I would highly recommend!

I love when a book takes me by surprise. I expected this to be a run of the mill YA romance where the nerdy girl likes the popular boy. I thought i’d enjoy it at the time but it would be forgotten as soon as I put it down. How wrong I was. This is such beautifully written and heartwarming story. It covers themes of love, loss and self-discovery, all of which are handled very well.
	Meg is a breath of fresh air as far as female leads go. She’s quick-witted, resourceful and ambitious but she’s also wonderfully flawed. She suffers from crippling social anxiety which makes her seem stand-offish and rude. She was someone I could completely relate to, parts of her reminded me of myself when I was younger - minus the incredible knowledge of all things space! I thought she was brilliant. 
	Meg’s mum puts far too much responsibility on her, when she jets off on holiday leaving 16 year old Meg caring for her baby sister. Through this unwanted authority, she begins to find out who she really is and finds the courage to be herself. She made unexpected friends who helped and pushed her when she wanted to run and hide. I really enjoyed watching all her relationships grow and develop throughout this book. 
	The ending is enough to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I was captivated from start to finish.

Meg dreams of going into space. She has her course to become an astronaut carefully charted and has already started to learn Russian in preparation. Her next step is to win the Reach for the Stars competition which will guarantee her a trip to Houston Space Centre. All Meg needs to do is overcome her fear of public speaking so she can deliver a talk on what space means to her.

The mission plan becomes more complicated when Meg’s Mum spontaneously jumps on a plane to Myanmar to volunteer with an aid agency for two weeks. Meg is left in charge of her little sister, who she has never made any real effort to bond with. Despite a lack of experience or interest in babies, Meg figures if she can pull a computer apart and put it back together again she can get a toddler to sleep. Chaos follows as Meg struggles to get to school on time, experiences her first detention and attempts to keep pace with her main competitor, Ed King, while attempting to hide her mum’s disappearance from everyone. 

Stargazing for Beginners is an enjoyable book suitable for teens and young adults. The story slowly builds over the first few chapters to become an absorbing tale. The characters are authentic, interesting, and diverse. I really enjoyed the way the characters are introduced through Meg’s strong viewpoint and, as the story progresses, unexpected facets of each character is revealed.

This is a sweet, geeky and very touching tale. It shows how hard it can be when parents don't take care of their children as they should and the way that elder children have to pick up the pieces. Meg does a really good job of keeping her life together when she has every right to fall apart. And she even has time to learn a thing or two about the importance of friends along the way. 

The characters that McLachlan creates are so vivid. Meg and Elsa are very well defined and unique (especially considering Elsa is only a baby), but so is Meg's grandfather, Ed and the whole of Biscuit club. It's the characters I think that make McLachlan's books so fun to read. You really get to know characters who feel real. 

The friendships that Meg found felt really real as well. Even though there was some teacherly intervention at times, none of them felt force. It felt so real and believable to see them fall into friendship with each other. 

Though sad, this is also a very comforting book to read. I think I could read Jenny McLachlan's books forever.

Stargazing for beginners is such a great contemporary and although there is the cliche nerd girl ends up liking popular boy it was so cute and adorable I didn’t care.

Meg is a teen, smart, ambitious, shy, and riddled with social anxiety when presented with groups of people. She can seem stand offish or “snobby” which rang true if you’re awkward and shy a lot of people can see you like this which sucks but hey so can people, especially high schoolers.

Meg’s mum is a free spirit to say the LEAST, after her Mum decides an unexplained trip will be fun Meg A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD is left caring for her baby sister, she does have the option of going to her grandpas but umm uhhh he has chickens, hamster powered electricity and maybe a brewery with the chance of exploding plus he smokes inside and is all round a freaking mess. He’s clever and sharp but eccentric and seemingly carefree so it’s not the best environment for a baby let alone a human.

 

Deciding stuff her Family, Meg takes care or her baby sister Elsa, goes to school, studies her speech for the chance to win a trip to a space station and maybe get that one step closer to her dream of becoming an Astronaut.

I really loved Meg’s resolve, her finding a place in herself and a responsibility, but my fave thing was all the relationships she developed.

Meg found a connection with her baby sister Elsa she didn’t know she could have, she made un expected friends who were an amazing addition to the story and helped push her and support her, she got crazy with science and had fun, she was still shy and had anxiety but she worked on it and found she could be weird and talk science and have people listen and be interested.

The ending felt just like the feeling you get after watching a warm and fuzzy movie that ends well, everything’s just perfect and I was smiling about how happy for Meg I was, I kinda expected some upbeat pop song to start playing and credits to roll.

To sum up, Cute, Nerdy, Fun 4/5 stars!

Poor Meg has a completely insane family, which is probably why she like to be so organised. It feels a little bit childish to start though I think she is in her early teens, but the end is wonderful and well worth the read. I could completely relate to Meg's nerves at trying to get her speech just right, I'm going through something similar, wondering how to get my own astronomy enthusiasm across. An uplifting and inspiring read.

Reviewed on Goodreads and my blog.
Meg is a science geek. She is determined to win a competition, but is left stranded by her free spirit mother.
Unbelief was.

Stargazing for Beginners to a straight up brilliant book. It's well written, well researched. The characters are strong and hold this story with this wild personalities. Meg may be one of the most relatable characters I've read about in terms of how she feels afraid to speak out. It's interesting to show how what other people see to be harmless jokes can have a serious affect on someone's self-esteem, and it's so heartwarming to read about her overcoming that fear.
I definitely appreciated this more living in England and having visited the University of Sussex and all the surrounding places. It makes this story familiar and really close to home, which I think works really well considering the themes that are discussed throughout.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book, would definitely recommend!

I absolutely adored this! I actually read it entirely in one sitting today, I didn't want to put it down... Meg was an awesome character, in fact ALL of the characters were awesome - I loved the Biscuit Club to bits, loved Ed, loved Bella - the dynamic between her and Meg was just great, you could tell Bella was kindhearted and Meg's friend throughout but poor Meg was just too suspicious! Bless. Her trials and tribulations of looking after baby sister Elsa made for a fantastic read as well, as did her display at the science show... gotta admit I loved the nerdy side of this too :) Pretty much everything was just perfect and I am definitely keeping my review copy on my kindle for all time.

This is the kind of book I wish I had been able to read in high school and Meg is the kind of girl I would have liked to know.  She is the ultimate science geek and ridiculously intelligent, but more than that I love how focused she is – and I think this is really inspirational.  Ultimately the story forces Meg to look at who she is and why she's that way and to try and let people around her help her, but the greatest thing is that they are all supporting her and telling her to push for her dream – despite how far-fetched it might seem – and this is always a fantastic message to reminded of, no-matter what age you are. 
Within pages of starting this book, I have to admit I wanted to shake Meg's selfish mother, or worse! Who leaves their two daughters home alone for a fortnight, whilst they travel to the other side of the world?! However, the event is not portrayed unrealistically by McLachlan and without it Meg wouldn't what she does. The characters are generally realistic – being both likeable and irritating – however the teachers do feel a little too cliched (but perhaps I'm just a jaded teacher myself).  Elsa, however, is a bit of a confusion – I'm not sure how old she is, but at times she does things a toddler would do and at others things a small infant would do.  Whilst this irritated me at times, it doesn't detract from what is a positive and uplifting story and one I would happily press into the hands of many students.

As soon as I saw this book, it caught my eye, I’m a sucker for stars and anything space-based. As soon as I read the synopsis, I knew it was a book I’d have to read immediately, dropping all responsibilities to be truly absorbed by a book.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a contemporary like this. My first instinct is to compare it to the writing of Holly Smale and the characters of Katy Cannon (AKA the recipe for Maddie’s Perfect Book.) I was even more delighted that, by the end, I could add YA Cathy Cassidy book to my list of comparisons. Stargazing for Beginners was perfectly made, and here’s how I think it was done!

1. A character with a passion – it’s so much easier to relate to a character who loves something, because even though you may not have stars in your eyes like Meg, passion is universal. Jenny McLachlan also deserves props for writing about girls liking STEM subjects too, as there’s been a huge push for that recently and I get happier with each book I read about it.
2. A hint of Disney references – Meg’s full name is Megara, named after Meg from Hercules, of course. (Although, Ed hadn’t ever watched the film and it only came out in 1997, my birth year, and I’m pretty sure every five year old was subjected to ‘Who put the glad in gladiator?’) Her little sister is named after Elsa from Frozen. This confirms to me that it’s now socially acceptable for my daughter to be called Cinderella.
3. Rag-tag group of friends – There’s nothing I love more than a mismatch bunch of teens being put in the same room, and eventually having a real bond form between them. It’s in The Breakfast Club, Lemonade Mouth and any good movie, really. The Biscuit Club is definitely something I want to be apart of, especially if I get to make a friend as cool as Annie.
4. Diversity in said friendship group – I don’t need a reason for this. It’s just awesome, period.
5. A romance that’s well grounded in friendship first – Ed and Meg were perfect for each other because they weren’t always perfect for each other. They shared interests, shared revision materials, gained each other’s trust and then went on a cute star-gazing date. I felt like I wished on a star for something like this in YA, and it really happened, guys. Thank goodness.
6. Family drama – I love reading about when things go…awry. Meg’s mum decides that she needs to get on a plane and desert her fifteen year old daughter to look after her baby sister, with only a slightly kooky Grandad with a hamster factory in his house to look after them. It was giving me very Indigo Blue vibes which I didn’t know I needed so much. Basically, as soon as a teenager is given non-teenager responsibilities, the book gets an instant star from me.

And I think that’s it. All the ingredients that went towards making Stargazing for Beginners one of my favourite books of the year so far, if not ever. It’s fun and it’s heartwarming and I can’t wait for more people to read it! A constellation of 5 stars is what this book deserves!