All the Stars Align

February 15, 2025
A teen is torn between a friend and the boy she's destined to be with. Eighteen-year-old Piper Hadley doesn't feel like she belongs in her family. The Hadley women share a Blessing from Fate: the ability to instantly identify true love. But Piper's mother contradicted the Blessing by divorcing Piper's father, something her family finds unacceptable. Piper worries that her genetic disability--which left her with scoliosis, a missing finger, and only one kidney--caused her parents' divorce and indirectly ruined the Blessing. To gain matriarch Aunt Helena's favor and someday take over the family jewelry store, Piper must get her parents back together and cement her own fate by kissing her one true love. When Fate tells her that handsome Forest MacIntosh is her person, Piper seeks dating tips from her estranged best friend, Leo...and in the process falls for Leo, too. If she makes the wrong choice, will her aunts ostracize her? The relationships between Piper and her parents are movingly portrayed, realistically illustrating the complex feelings surrounding divorce and its aftermath. Unfortunately, the rest of the story falls flat. While Piper's desire to fit in with her family is sympathetic, her expository narration blunts the emotional impact. Her respective love interests feel two-dimensional, weakening the romantic tension, and Leo and Forest's objectifying "game of tug-of-war" over Piper strikes a jarring note. Most characters read white; Piper and some secondary characters are cued queer. Disappointingly underdeveloped.(Romance. 14-17)

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April 1, 2025

Gr 8 Up-Piper lives in a small town where Fate herself once visited and blessed her family. With the blessing, family members can to tell when they've met their soulmate. This bit of magic, and one day inheriting the family jewelry business, has been Piper's sole focus since she was a small child. But lately things have not been going well. One of her best friends has stopped talking to her, her soulmate parents have gotten a divorce, and she already feels like an outsider in her family due to a physical disability. With all of these obstacles, Piper will finally have to learn to trust in herself and not depend on fate to lead the way. This romance is a fairly quick read and a stand-alone that includes some fun tropes, like a love triangle and fated soulmates. While the book has a magical component, that is the extent of the magic. The teen characters are all 18, but there is no sexual content in the book, just some cursing. Piper is white and other characters' races are not explicitly noted. In addition, disability is well portrayed by the author, who also has a physical disability. VERDICT A good purchase for libraries looking for more romance with physical disability and queer rep.-Hannah Pohl

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