Andie Burke's steamiest book yet! While you do need to commit to buying into the secret-rock-star of it all, Thea and Courtney's connection is undeniable. Fantastic banter, incredible chemistry, and multiple characters who I would love to see Burke dive deeper into next!

With Stars in Her Eyes is such a cozy, feel-good sapphic romance. It follows Courtney, a cellist laying low after a big career mishap, and Thea, the charming tattoo artist next door who owns a bearded dragon (yes, really). Their chemistry builds slowly, and the banter is on point.

It’s got some great tropes: grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, bookstore romance, and healing after trauma. Add in a small-town setting and a sweet found-family vibe, and you’ve got a perfect comfort read. Loved it!

This was a cute, lesbian romance. I really liked the banter between the MCs, especially related to smutty books. It had important themes around being your true self, which I thought was very well written (and not stereotypical of a queer romance, which was a nice change of pace!). I wish we saw more of Courtney's past because I think there was a lot of the religious upbringing that could have really added more to the character.

This was a very sweet and well written story. The main characters are well developed and are portrayed in a realistic manner. Everyone has their flaws, but the growth and relationships are a joy to witness as a reader. Some minor "real-world" issues are raised in an appropriate manner, and greatly increases the relatability of the characters. Would recommend to a friend. Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this and give my unbiased opinion.

I truly loved this, this book is a love letter to romance letters (which Thea would love, because letters are definitely a lost art).

I love that it leaned into romance trope stereotypes and had fun with it. These characters were wonderful and communicated really well. It had me kicking my feet and sighing at the end. Loved!!

This book made it official, Andie Burke can do no wrong in my eyes!

I found myself immediately relating to Courtney and absolutely swooning over Thea. I felt like the town and side characters were fleshed out enough to make the story immersive without taking over which can be a hard balance to strike. I also loved the way tropes and conflict were handled in this book. There was enough “tension” for me to want to keep reading without resorting to making the characters childish and frustrating. Not to mention the spice was 10/10

I will be definitely recommending this book when it releases!

“With Stars In Her Eyes” is a delightful sapphic romance that will pull you in from the first page - thoroughly enjoyable and such a fun read. This is a dual POV romance featuring Thea (a photographer & tattoo artist, new to a small town in Kansas) and Courtney (a musician and undercover rockstar who is lying low in small town Kansas, after some unexpected bumps in her career). The two hit it off pretty quickly and their courtship is sweet and charming and you find yourself rooting for them both easily and all the way through.

They each navigate their own personal struggles (a chronic illness, recovering from PTSD, reckoning with challenging family dynamics, coming to terms with people pleasing) and learn from each other and grow in tandem. The character growth felt very real, honest, and the stakes were compelling. I really appreciated the ways in which they pushed each other in productive ways and their ultimate growth felt well-earned.

I really enjoyed Andie Burke’s writing style (this was the first of her books I’ve read) and her dialogue was smart, funny, and relatable. The pacing was great and I had to read this all in one shot because I just had to know what happened next.

For fans of Emily Henry, Ashley Herring Blake, and Tessa Bailey, this is definitely a good one to pick up next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book, in exchange for an honest review!

Review published on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7556864159

I wanted to thank Netgallery and the publisher for the ARC and allowing me to be able to read this.

While I did enjoy the book, the beginning of the book was a bit slow for me. I understand the characters were getting to know one another, Thea mentions her family and her issues with them and she has conversations with her mom and she goes and hangs out with them but I feel like its made to be way more of an issue than its written out, like Thea makes a big deal out of nothing. Courtney is on a break with her career over something she could just explain to people but she would rather people think the worst of her. There's a lot of miscommunications between the 2 characters that bothered me a lot as a reader, lol. I didn't really care for either of the characters, I enjoyed the side characters much more than the main ones. I feel like there wasn't a lot of development with the characters either, things just well into place with them. And there were grammatical errors that had me rereading pages over again.

I thought the ending was cute and overall I did enjoy it, I just kind of wish there had been more of a conflict, the only conflict was Courtney's overthinking and Courtney being blackmailed by Jeremiah was pointed out here and there and then just vanished.

Overall, it was an easy read and cute, I'd give it a 3.5 stars

Mein Leseerlebnis

Denke ich an meine Zeit mit "With stars in her eyes" zurück, so tue ich so mit gemischten Gefühlen. Der Liebesroman hat so einiges zu bieten, perfekt für mich funktioniert hat er aber trotzdem nicht.

Beim Lesen habe ich mich mit dem Schreibstil teils überraschend schwer getan. Ich hatte immer mal wieder Probleme, in einen guten Lesefluss gekommen. Das begann gleich auf den ersten Seiten. Konnte ich in einen guten Lesefluss kommen, so habe ich es genossen, die vielschichtigen, interessanten und sympathischen Hauptcharaktere näher kennenzulernen.

Die von Andie Burke erschaffene Liebesgeschichte ist komplex und beim Lesen gibt es viel zu entdecken. Ich mochte den Humor im Buch und ein paar der ruhigen, emotionalen Szenen haben mich berühren können.

Im Leben von beiden Heldinnen ist recht viel los, vor allem in Bezug auf Courtney war mir das phasenweise etwas zu viel. Der Beziehung zwischen den Heldinnen wurde meinem Empfinden nach dadurch etwas Raum zur Entwicklung genommen.

Aufgrund der erwähnten Erfahrungen mit "With stars in her eyes" tue ich mich mit einer Bewertung schwer. Bei einem bin ich mir aber sicher: Ich kann mir sehr gut vorstellen, dass der Roman viele Leser:innen mitten ins Herz treffen wird, da er viel zu bieten hat.

🖤🖤🖤 1/2

Für wen?

Wer komplexe Liebesromane mag, in denen die beiden Heldinnen ihr Leben je neu ausrichten und in denen Bücher sowie Musik eine wichtige Rolle spielen, für den könnte das Buch wunderbar sein.

This book just did nothing for me and I ended up DNF'ing quite early on. For some reason I was just not drawn into this story, I didn't care for the main characters and I kept zoning out while reading it. I am sure this book will be lovely for some, but if it cannot grab and hold my attention, I have to DNF.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for the opportunity to read in advance of publication. My thoughts are my own.

3.6 if I’m honest.
Is it an enjoyable read? Absolutely. And I very much recommend. But be ready for ‘casual love’. This could be my own type of trope preference but I felt like there was a bit too much conflict or … something that made things feel a bit odd with the pacing. But I very much still thought this was super cute and a good reas!

After devouring COME FLY WITH ME, I eagerly jumped at the chance at reading Burke’s WITH STARS IN HER EYES and was not disappointed. With a deft hand as usual, Burke portrays an emerging love story with believable characters dealing their own complicated histories while navigating their feelings for each other. This book crackles with sexual tension and made me shout “JUST USE YOUR WORDS!” On more than one occasion.. When they finally confess their feelings for each other; I was practically giddy. Absolutely recommend this for any fans of slow(ish) burns, adorable bookshops, a delightful cast of characters and a couple of chaotic queers getting in their own way.

With Stars in Her Eyes is a charming, heartfelt romance that blends humor, healing, and a touch of stardust into a compelling love story. Andie Burke delivers a cast of likable, layered characters, with strong chemistry between the leads that makes the slow-burn payoff worth every page.

The emotional depth—especially around themes of grief, identity, and second chances—adds weight to what could have been a lighthearted romcom. Burke strikes a thoughtful balance between swoony romance and real-life struggles, and the result is a story that feels grounded and emotionally satisfying.

That said, there were a few pacing issues in the middle, and some side characters felt underdeveloped. Still, the writing is warm and witty, and the central relationship is absolutely worth rooting for.

Perfect for readers who love queer romance with heart, a little angst, and a whole lot of hope.

Honestly, I didn’t love it. I really enjoyed Andie Burke’s first novel, but this one felt very forced. There were too many conflicts and too much hot and cold. It was not for me.

3.75 ⭐️ With stars in her eyes is a slow burn sapphic romance between Courtney a musician with chronic migraines and Thea a piercer/photographer looking for a fresh start. Though the writing wasn’t perfect and it could use a little bit more editing, I thought the story was really interesting and I really liked all the characters. The town gave off major Stars Hollow vibes which I loved and the fact that the two main characters basically fall in love while reading historical romance novels was a major plus. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend anyone who loves sapphic romance to check it out.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Griffin for the ARC of this book.

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed Andie Burke’s previous two books so I was really disappointed that I ended up not loving this one. The premise was interesting enough but the book just felt kind of unfinished. I felt like we didn’t know a whole lot about the characters and even though the book is in first person pov I never felt like I really understood how the characters thought. Throughout most do the book Thea and Courtney are in kind of a casual relationship there’s not really an explanation of why. I never understood Thea’s hesitation or why she was so closed off. There’s implications that she has issues with her family but that doesn’t really play much of a role in the story. Even though Thea says it’s some big traumatic part of her past she also seems to just brush it off.
I kind of understood where Courtney was coming from in regards to not being honest with Thea but as far as her career I could not figure out what she was thinking. At times she acts like she hates it and wants no part of that life and then suddenly a relationship with Thea would hold her back from her dreams. I just felt like Courtney let other people tell her how to feel and never actually made up her own mind.
The two main characters had good chemistry at times but in general I was just kind of overwhelmed by their relationship. The book happens in short, disjointed segments so you don’t see much development because so much time goes by in such a short portion of the book.
I highly recommend Andie Burke’s other books but if I’m being honest, this one is probably a skip. Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC!

First of all, I'd like to thank the author and publishers for allowing me to read the ARC of this story!

Overall, I really liked this book. It was a very sweet, sapphic romance. The writing overall flows very well. I LOVED the depictions of chronic illness, which I think is very underrepresented in media, and when it is, it's only mentioned when it's convenient. This book doesn't do that. This book interweaves the chronic illness into every part of the character's life and scenes, which is accurate to chronic illness. I also liked the way Courtney is depicted. There's definitely some neurodivergent/autism coded themes with her, but without making too big of a deal of it in the book. I love the way Courtney and Thea bond of cheesy and old romance tropes and references, ones that feel so relatable to the modern audience. I liked the way the side characters interacted with the main characters, though I do wish we got to see a bit more of Courtney's social awkwardness with other minor characters. The cringey scenes were written well. It didn't feel like someone tried to write something smooth and instead it was cringey, rather it truly felt like you were cringing along with Courtney as she word vomited awkward things at the beginning of knowing Thea.

Most of my critiques are pretty minor, but there was a few things I noticed:
- there were a few grammatical errors throughout that might have been missed during editing, a few past vs present tense inconsistencies, and some perspective inconsistencies where things were written in third person rather than first
- when Courtney and Thea finisbed each other's sentences multiple times during their first meeting, it felt like a bit much.
- in Chapter 2, the person on maternity leave in Sam's store is called Ellen most of the time, but then in chaptee 4 she's called Fran.
- it was hard for me to visualize what someone with '5 dimples' looks like when she's describing different levels of Thea having dimples across scenes. It might help to describe where some of these show up- corner of mouth versus lower, on the middle of the cheeks, etc
-my biggest feedback was that the timeline shifts can be hard to follow. Both in terms of how long has passed between chapters/scenes, as well as when we go from present scenes to flashbacks. Later in the book, I believe at least one of Thea's flashbacks is written in italicized font, which did make that helpful, so I think it that's applied throughout, or even if some symbol/spacing is used to show the difference, that could help a ton

Overall, a really fun and cozy read! I'll definitely be recommending! :)

With Stars in Her Eyes is a cozy, queer rom-com with plenty of charm, soft longing, and bookstore magic. Courtney and Thea’s meet-cute is delightfully awkward, and their growing connection is sweet and sincere, with just the right amount of flirtation and vulnerability. The small-town setting—with its book clubs, reptiles, and tattoo shops—adds a quirky, comforting backdrop to their budding romance. While the pacing can lag a bit and the drama feels slightly convenient at times, the emotional payoff and gentle humor make this a lovely, low-angst read for fans of character-driven love stories with heart.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

🏘️❤️📖

The premise for this book of being a small town sapphic romance really got me intrigued and was excited to check it out, but for me, it didn’t click for me.

While reading, I felt confused by who was who and what was going on. I do understand that this is an ARC and that the book isn’t in its completed format yet, so maybe i’ll check it out again when it officially comes out. But as of right now, I just couldn’t click with it

Courtney Starling, una talentosa violonchelista que sufre una crisis de salud en medio de una actuación crucial, se refugia en la librería de su mejor amiga, intentando escapar del escándalo y de los rumores malintencionados. Lo que empieza como un retiro temporal se transforma cuando conoce a Thea Quinn, una tatuadora y fotógrafa aficionada que también ha llegado al pueblo en busca de un nuevo comienzo lejos de una familia que no respeta sus límites ni sus sueños.

Ambas protagonistas están heridas, pero en diferentes niveles. Courtney vive atrapada entre el trauma de un pasado abusivo y la constante presión de ser perfecta. Sus migrañas crónicas la obligan a ocultar parte de sí misma, incluso a costa de su carrera. Thea, por su parte, es una mujer amable que ha pasado gran parte de su vida complaciendo a los demás, olvidándose de sí misma. Kansas representa para ella un espacio para sanar, pero también una oportunidad de reconectar con lo que realmente le apasiona.

El vínculo entre ellas se desarrolla con calidez, humor y una química palpable. Sus encuentros, primero torpes y luego cargados de tensión emocional, evolucionan en una relación sincera donde ambas se ven y se aceptan más allá de sus máscaras. Courtney se permite ser vulnerable, mientras Thea aprende a establecer sus propios límites. Juntas se convierten en algo más que una pareja romántica: son cómplices en la reconstrucción de sus propias vidas.


Al final decae un poco.


Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest.