I’m always drawn to sapphic romances featuring complex characters striving to overcome past mistakes. Courtney Starling is hiding from a major professional setback, retreating to work at her best friend’s bookstore in Kansas while concealing both her identity and painful issues involving her ex. Meanwhile, Thea Quinn has moved to Kansas to establish boundaries with her controlling mother. Both women grapple with self-worth and the desire to avoid repeating past errors.

This character-driven novel thoughtfully explores chronic health challenges, fear of failure, manipulative abuse, and the journey toward self-acceptance. While both protagonists spend a lot of time in their own heads, Burke skillfully avoids the typical “miscommunication” trope— even having the characters joke about it. Their honest, open conversations offer a refreshing portrayal of mature relationship-building and personal growth. The romance is tender, patient, and authentic.

I wouldn’t classify this book as containing a third act breakup because they don’t actually breakup. They take a break to work on progressing in areas in which they needed growth in order for them to work as a couple.

The supporting cast forms a warm found family that enriches the story, with well-developed backstories and distinct personalities that bring charm and depth to the narrative.

The pacing can be slow at times since this book is character driven. However, I wasn’t bored at any point.

If you enjoy richly developed characters, found family dynamics, and cozy sapphic romance, this book will definitely appeal to you.

Thank you Netgalley and Andie Burke for providing me with this e-ARC. This review is my own honest thoughts on the book.

Ahh I just eat up books about books and Thea and Courtney were absolutely adorable/ relatable characters! So thankful to have received this arc copy for NetGalley! Definitely recommend reading this book and I can’t forget I loved the little “dragon” and other critters mentioned!

Unfortunately this one fell in the "a book that I read" category and i'm bummed about it! The writing didn't work for me, but I could see other's enjoying it.

thank you so much for the approval- i cannot wait to dive in, this is one of my most anticipated reads of the year! i will be sure to leave a review on GR/retailers to come! 💞

thank you so much for the approval- i cannot wait to dive in, this is one of my most anticipated reads of the year! i will be sure to leave a review on GR/retailers to come! 💞

Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early.

With Stars in Her Eyes follows Courtney, a migraine-prone former cellist and semi-famous band member, and Thea, a photographer working in a tattoo shop as they fall for each other despite their separate difficult pasts.

I enjoyed the main characters and their own separate arcs as well many of the side characters like Sam and Ms. Jeannie. They were fun to hear about and see how Courtney and Thea interacted with them. I also really enjoyed Courtney and Thea making every excuse to spend time together at the start of the book as it was really cute.

I had issues with there being no real center plot in this book beside from everyone’s separate issues. There wasn’t a combined goal that Courtney and Thea were working towards, even if their separate personal arcs were really interesting. The third act breakup was also a little bit confusing, as was Thea not recognizing Courtney despite knowing the other band member Demetrius on sight. There were also quite a number of typos, more than I’ve ever seen before in an arc, so I hope those get fixed before the published version comes out.

However, I liked all the characters in the book and their separate stories so it still made this an enjoyable read.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley again for the chance to read this early.

Charming characters with good chemistry and a devilishly adorable meet-cute were my favourite parts. Sadly, thye were also the only aspects I truly enjoyed. I didn't like the writing and how certain themes were added to the story.

As always, though, what I liked or didn't like should never be taken at face value!

Thanks so much to St Martin’s Press for sending me this one! All views are my own. (Releases 9/16)

This was an EASY 5 stars for me. A bookstore and lesbians? I don’t think I need a damn thing else. Courtney and Thea’s love story is unconventional for the time we live in, as Courtney would say Thea lives in analog not digital. Thea has gotten her heart broken too many times and refuses to communicate via text when she’s getting to know someone. When she up and moves in with her best friend Marshall to start fresh in Kansas, she doesn’t anticipate meeting a cute girl with a pixie cut at the local bookstore however. Courtney has a lot of baggage and as Thea peels away her layers, she may have to come clean about who she really is so she and Thea can find their happily ever after.

Some reoccurring themes- religious trauma, chronic illness, sexuality and discovering yourself.

This book was wonderfully written, I love dual POV especially when it’s in first person. It was so easy to consume this book in 24 hours and it made me root for these two like they were my best friends. I laughed and cried and was thankful for my partner all in one sitting.

If you love sapphic romance with some spice, preorder this now!

This author is new to me, but I will be keeping an eye out for anything else they publish. I loved the story and the characters. The pacing of the story was great and the characters were relatable.

This was sooo good! Leaned into everything that it needed too and was soooo fun. I liked that it talked about deconstructing religion and how it intertwines with lot of people lives.

I really wanted to love With Stars In Her Eyes, but unfortunately did not vibe with the writing style and ending up DNFing 30% in.

While I did DNF at close to 50%, ai still have a lot of feedback with this one. I was drawn in by the bookish cover and hopes for a sweet, funny, maybe emotional sapphic romcom. However, I couldn’t get past the sloppy, cliche writing. This was the perfect example for why dual POV doesn’t always work. The two main characters perspectives were far too similar. Then we got a trigger warning about how this is gonna delve into religious trauma and compulsory heterosexuality and it was like every time anything to do with either it got breezed by so dang quick. I honestly had no hopes for the characters development later on either. The banter and quirky animals at the bookstore could have been very cute but I had a hard time figuring out who was saying what. Really needed a better edit, I fear. There was potential but it was rough enough that I can’t say I would pick up anything else by this author.

I just finished reading this book. The plot was absolutely fantastic! It was quite the page turner, and I could not put the book down once I began reading it. I can't wait for it to be released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

An enjoyable contemporary romance following musician Courtney Starling who, after a horrific migraine at the worst possible time in her career, decides to recuperate at her best friends little book shop in Kansas. There she meets photographer Thea Quinn, who is trying to get some space from her family while crashing at her best friends house.

I enjoyed the book, for the most part. I really like Thea. She was funny, considerate, and made good efforts to build her own life for herself. Courtney was a well written character but there were some decisions that were right for her character but still bugged me. Totally a me thing, not a book thing here. Courtney has a lot of trauma in her life, that she has grown through but there are always aspects you can't get rid of, which can be hard to read. The one writing aspect that hindered my enjoyment was it felt like there were a lot of "cliffhangers" at the end of chapters. Something would be eluded to but then wouldn't be addressed until several more chapters. Sometimes that is fine, but I found myself losing interested in the story because I kept having to wait for details that ended up ultimately being insignificant. Most of them came around Thea and her best friend Marshall. There was a whole side plot there but we got so little of it that I feel the story would have flowed better without it and it wouldn't have hamper the plot.

All in all, this was an enjoyable contemporary romance. Definitely recommend to fans of celebrity romances, small town romances, or healing ones past tropes.

Received an ARC from Netgalley.

Rounded up from 4.5 stars

With Stars in Her Eyes by Andie Burke hooked me from the opening author's note where the reader is given a heads up about one main character's religious deconstruction process present in the pages and the love our main characters will find in the midst of their journeys. Courtney is trying to find herself after a medical incident on stage throws off her plans to launch her solo music career and brings back old wounds from her Christian upbringing. Thea is trying to forge her own path as a photographer, struggling to set and maintain boundaries with her family and their expectations of her. While they are instantly attracted to each other, their relationship develops slowly as they have to push past their fears and insecurities to let themselves be open to something new. I loved seeing both Thea and Courtney open themselves up to friendship, self-acceptance, and romance, each figuring out what they want and how to fight for it. I loved seeing Courtney deconstruct her past and come into her voice and confidence, and I loved watching Thea let others help and build her own community.

I was already an Andie Burke fan after Fly With Me and Fall For Him and With Stars in Her Eyes has further cemented her as a top author. Thank you SMP and NetGalley for an eARC of this book!

With Stars in Her Eyes is the first book by Andi Burke that I have read. Based on this book, I would gladly read more things that Andi has written and look forward to recommending this book to fans of contemporary sapphic romance.
I loved the setting of this book! Both of the main characters have relocated to a small town in Kansas in order to get a fresh start in their lives. While Courtney has friends and ties there, Thea is brand new. It was so fun to get to see the two of them through the eyes of their community, and I loved all the side characters, especially Ms. Jeannie! I am a sucker for books centered on book lovers and bookstores and book communities, so these two women falling in love while reading historical romance was a big hit for me.
Another thing I appreciated about this story was that Courtney and Thea both had their issues. Neither one of them had it all together, and the way that they learned to communicate and trust each other as they became friends and then more than friends was beautiful. This book deals with a lot of heavy topics, which is an important thing to warn readers about. Sometimes working through issues is messy, even when you care about another person and I appreciate the way this book handled that.
All in all, this was a beautiful love story about people growing into themselves while finding love with each other and that is my favorite thing about romance. Thank you to NetGalley for the arc and Andi Burke for the lovely story.

Courtney is trying to stay out of the lime light after having a migraine attack during a key cello performance leading people to believe she has a substance abuse problem. So she is now helping out her best friend run her bookshop. Then she meets Thea when some packages are accidentally left at the bookshop. Instantly they both feel something for each other. But they both take their time getting to know one another. But when things start to heat up, Courtney has to deal with her past. And how will Thea take finding out one of her favorite musicians is the girl she's falling for???...

This book hooked me right away with the meet cute and so on. Courtney her whole life has been dealing with being raised in a very religious family and then being taken advantage by a man who later became her husband and now ex, once she realized she was a lesbian. And Thea has always struggled with always quitting things when things became too hard. I saw myself in both characters. I just loved how they saw each other for who they truly are and helped each other become the people they wanted to be, even with all their baggage.

Personally, I found the writing style difficult to get into. The plot fell flat and I wasn’t interested in either of the main characters. The first meeting was odd and confusing, and the rest of the book didn’t pull it together.

I can't say no to a sapphic romance with chronic illness rep. Lucky for me this book was really good. It was cute and cozy and while it did deal with some heavy subjects it handled them very well.

This was my first Andie Burke book, and I really liked it. It is a slow burn sapphic romance between Courtney and Thea. I really like the balance of heavy topics with lightness and appreciated the chronic migraine rep. It was just a really sweet book and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the arc.