Thought the concept of this could’ve been really good but I couldn’t handle with how bad of a mum Meg had and everything she had to deal with!

Advanced Reader copy - Enjoyed this book, really opened my eyes and made me seek out other similar books to read.

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!

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.

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!

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!

STARGAZING FOR BEGINNERS was a cute and engaging story about friendship and family and space. While I'd say it was probably a bit 'young' for me, I'm finding this with more and more YA these days as I drift away from the target age group (I'm getting oldddd), and I don't think that's a reflection on the book as much as it's a reflection on me.

Things I liked:
+ That the main character is a nerd, and specifically a space / science nerd. While book-loving characters are not uncommon, they usually hate school or studying, and it's very rare to find a character who is fascinated by studying (but who doesn't like school due to bullies etc) and whose strengths are maths and science.
+ That there's a big emphasis on friendship and even though there is a very small romantic subplot, the character's journey was at least as much about making friends as about falling for a boy.
+ That one of the friends she makes is in a wheelchair, but she's a total badass and takes nobody's crap and although she may inspire Meg, she does so as a friend and not as inspiration-porn "oh look at the disabled kid that's so inspiring".
+ That her other new friends are also great and willing to help her and give up their time and so on.
+ That I actually learned some stuff about space from reading this. Did you know that moon dust smells like gunpowder? I mean, there were definitely parts of the book that went over my non-sciencey head, but I think I managed to follow it pretty well.
+ That Meg just ... can't do babies. At least at first. She's been left with her little sister while her mum gallivants off doing spontaneous aid work on the other side of the planet, and she has no idea how to deal. It's relatable -- I don't understand small humans either. I don't think I'd cope nearly as well as Meg does.
+ Meg's eccentric family, even if I wanted to slap her mum for leaving. Her grandad's electricity-generating hamsters amused me, as did the chickens. (And I loved the bit where Meg's faced with an awkward moment so she just ... picks up a chicken? As you do?)

Things I was less keen on:
- Honestly, I mostly liked this book, so there's not a lot to say here. It's more about me than it is about the book itself. It felt very 'young' for a book about a fifteen-year-old character, so I think it's definitely at the younger end of YA, maybe even older children's. The style is a bit juvenile and, while there is romance, it's definitely just of the 'crush' variety rather than the all-consuming love that tends to characterise a lot of YA (though that's a good thing in my opinion). However, as an older reader it sometimes felt a bit too simplistic.
- I also spent most of the book really angry at Meg's mum, which I think I was supposed to.
- I'm kind of annoyed it made me invested in a baby because I really don't like babies.

On the whole, this was a pretty uplifting book that made me smile, featuring a girl who really, REALLY wants to be an astronaut and is willing to work to get there, and which deals with interpersonal relationships in a nuanced and entertaining way. If I were a few years younger, I might have really enjoyed this, though I think at 21 I was definitely not the target audience.

This review is on Goodreads and will hopefully be cross-posted to my blog once I'm no longer on hiatus (so, sometime in April).

This is such a lovely read!

Meg is 15-years old and left literally holding the baby when her irresponsible, free-spirited (AKA "flaky") mother runs off to Myanmar, leaving Meg to look after her little sister.

Stargazing for Beginnings is absolutely hilarious and full of heart. Meg is a smart, strong and very lovable character who learns a lot through the course of the book. There is a very sweet romantic subplot and lots of warm fuzzies.

I enjoyed this touching YA read so much I will definitely be tracking down more books by Jenny McLachlan.

It took me a while to get into this book because the main character, Meg, and her family life were very unsettled so it unsettled me. If that makes sense. I think it took me until about 50% of the way through before I got into the groove of it and still her mother's behaviour (WHAT sort of mother buggers off to Myanmar at a moment's notice?! I MEAN SERIOUSLY?! Leaving a baby and a kid alone with a scatty grandpa I MEAN!) but once it settled past the threat of some of the typical YA tropes I enjoyed it.
Meg was fully formed and her struggles with baby sister Elsa were relatable (I, too, have no idea how babies function). She was a total nerd, and wasn't whiny about it. Just very wary of how others perceived her. She didn't try to change herself to benefit other people and she was remarkably grown up for her age, almost like having to be the adult between her mother and baby sister (and the grandpa).

Ed, the popular nerd who's Meg's cursh, was also nice, and Annie was a cool side character. The writing flowed well, I sped through the book - another under 2 hours - though at some points I admit I skipped things like chores and stuff because as much as I know they suck, Meg, I don't wanna read about those.

I put this as 4* as I did enjoy it but I wouldn't probably read it again. I would recommend it, a girl with high ambitions is VERY cool especially related to STEM and it was a good little book, but I don't think I loved it enough to have much more of an opinion on it.

Review to be posted on my blog on the 30th March