Say hello to my first 5-star read of the month 🫶 I devoured this book in under twenty-four hours, and it's truly a testament of the author's ability to get me invested in the lives of these two very cute, very queer pop stars 🤭💕

(My only complaint? They aren't real 😭😭😭)

In the story we follow Eden Sands, one of the biggest pop stars in the world. She's 36, recently divorced, and she's been going through a bit of a creative rut. Her latest album preformed poorly, her tour hasn't sold out, and her managers think that the best way to solve the problem is to have her team up with an up-and-coming pop star with a large fanbase.

Enter Anna Moss. She's 27 and has been in the music industry for a few years, but she can't seem to shed her teeny-bop image that came from being cast as a 16-year-old at the age of 22 on a popular show. She also happens to be a lifelong Eden Sands fan who can't help but be a liiiittle starstruck when she finds out Eden Sands wants to perform at the Grammys with *her*.

Their story is one of self-discovery, self-love, companionship, and music. It very much leans into the celebrity romance subgenre complete with stan twitter, paparazzi, a global tour, and the loneliness that comes from being so high at the top ✨

After I finished this book, all I can do is quote Lady Gaga when I say "talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular" and I mean that emphatically. STARS COLLIDE follows 36 year-old pop star Eden Sands, who has been producing hit after hit since she was 16 years-old. She has won numerous Grammy awards and can't really go out into public without being swarmed by fans. Since her divorce and her most recent album, however, her overall album and ticket sales have been waning, therefore her management suggests she invites rising actress turned music sensation 27 year-old Anna Moss as the opener on her summer tour. While Eden is disappointed that she has to resort to this tactic to sell out her venues, she is intrigued by Anna's earnest and bubbly personality. Anna, who is openly pansexual, is just as excited to open for Eden, who has been her idol since she was a teenager. As the two of them tour together, they start to form a friendship that has the potential to be more as both Anna and Eden learn new things about themselves along the way.

I was giggling with my feet up in the air practically the whole book. It was such a fun ride and STEAMY as hell. Similarly to the characters of Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo, I finished the book wishing Eden and Anna were real pop stars whose music I could look up on Spotify and obsess over. What I wouldn't give to watch them perform "After Midnight" together IRL!!! Also, while the cover of the book clearly shows Eden with black hair and Anna with blonde hair, I honestly caught a vibe of a Taylor Swift and an older Olivia Rodrigo scenario, so make of that what you will. Furthermore, if you are a Gaylor or an LGBetty, then this book is for you!!!

Rachel Lacey has done it again! I always enjoy her books so much, she just has a way with writing that transports you straight into the story and as a reader, you can really connect with the characters.

The representation in this book was amazing, I loved the fact our one fmc was pansexual, and the fact our second fmc was an older woman discovering her sexuality. I think we need more books with this rep on the market and Lacey did it amazingly.

Both Eden and Anna are so well developed as characters, and Lacey takes great care with Eden’s past and journey. The way their romance blossoms had me smiling from ear to ear. Would definitely recommend

I've been a fan of Rachel Lacey since I read "Read Between the Lines." I absolutely love Lacey's writing, reading it makes me feel as if I'm watching a movie, not even reading at all. I love the diversity she brings into her books. If you are wanting a cute, "coming out in later life", this is your sign to go read this book!!!

EDANNA FOREVER BABYY! ✨💖

I LOVED THIS!
I ate this story up! Slow burn romances aren't usually my favorite but this one worked so well for me!! A romance between 2 pop stars!! SO GREAT!!

Eden went through a beautiful journey discovering who she was and learning how to express that!

Anna was such an amazing character! She was so lovely and suppportive and you could just feel the passion between her and Eden flying from the pages! 😅 Y'ALL I LOVE THEIR CONNECTION!

They also had great communication, the ending conflict made perfect sense to me. This story was fun, exciting, steamy, and so romantic! I had the best time reading about Anna and Edan's love! I can't wait to read more books by this author!

(4.75/5⭐️)

This was such a fun little romance. Anna and Eden had great chemistry and it was so fun to see them figure themselves out as they figured out their feelings for each other- I loved their friendship and warmth and how that turned into a spark. The way their careers and celebrity factored in made the story even sweeter- it was such fun to get lost in!

What happens when multi Grammy winning artist Eden Sands meets rising star Anna Moss in an attempt to create some buzz for her performance at the Grammys? Eden, the older, well established star is determined to dislike Anna. Eden just got divorced and her last album didn’t do too great in sales and she resents the fact that she needs this younger rising star to help boost her up.
But then what happens when the performance goes so well that Eden invites Anna to tour with her? Well, sexual awakenings happen, apparently. I love a good slow burn. As many of us do, so I know it’s not an unpopular opinion or trope.
And a sapphic slow burn? Even better.

Watching Eden make sense of her sexuality and realize how in love with Anna she is was so much fun and very relatable for those of us who have tried to convince ourselves that we’re straight. Watching Anna unapologetically be her rainbow wearing self, a representation of the pansexual community, was also so comforting and so sweet. This book is so fun and cute and I recommend it to anyone wanting a cute slow burn sapphic romance with just a tiny bit of spice.
The only real negative to me was that I kind of lost interest once our two FMC’s got together. And honestly the miscommunication in the last part of the book was a bit frustrating because it was so silly.
All in all, a decent book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a big fan of queer romances where one of the love interests is unaware that they’re queer until they meet and fall for the other because there are so many people out there who, thanks to society’s heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality, have this same experience, and shedding light on it is so validating.

It didn’t hurt that this book was the perfect amount of fluffy and steamy and the two leads were so dynamic. And the fact that the big conflict is resolved by the two characters actually sitting down and talking to each other? Chef’s kiss. I love it when people in books have real, honest conversations with each other. It makes my heart warm.

OH MY GOD! I LOVED THIS!

Very cute celebrity sapphic romance. I want to cry. I loved this story so much and Eden and Anna's story. I am crying while writing this review.

Eden's struggle was so real, and I wanted to give her a huge. Her journey is so beautiful, and Anna was the best compliment for her. I have no words and I will continue crying.

Rachel Lacey is one of the few authors whose books are an auto read for me. She has consistently impressed me with her charming characters and well written stories. When I heard she would be writing a celebrity romance, I was thrilled and she did not disappoint.

Eden Sands is a singer who has been famous since she was a teen and now, twenty years later, her star seems to be fading. She reluctantly agrees to perform a duet at the Grammy's with up and coming star, Anna Moss. Their duet is a hit and Eden's people invite her to join Eden's tour, which is having lackluster ticket sales.

Anna is a ray of sunshine and Eden can't deny that she enjoys her company. For Anna, it's completely surreal to be on tour with one of her idols and a woman she has crushed on forever. What begins as a friendship slowly evolves into more the more time the women spend together.

I love a good coming out story, especially a later in life one, as it reminds me of my own self discovery. What makes this even more enjoyable is how well these two communicate. Communication is sexy and the basis for a wonderful relationship that can withstand any obstacle that may come along. I thoroughly enjoyed Eden and Anna's journey and will be waiting anxiously for Rachel's next release.

An ARC was received from the author for an honest review.

This book was such a fun time!
Stars Collide is a Sapphic Novel about two pop stars, Eden Sands and Anna Moss. Eden has been a start since she has been sixteen and Anna is a rising star. Eden needs more sales for her concert tour so she decides to invite Anna to open up for her. Throughout their tour they start to become close friends and Eden starts to question her sexuality, which she thought she has known for the past 30+ years.
This story was so wholesome and sweet and I had such a fun time watching their love story unfold. Seeing their relationship blossom and all of the fun times they had while performing. I felt like I was on tour with them!
Rachel has a way of writing that makes you really root for her characters and their love story and there is also the perfect amount of spice in them!
I had a hard time getting into this at the beginning, but after the first 50 pages or so, I was all in on Anna and Eden's journey!

3.75 stars

This was so cute!!
I liked the strong plot the dialogue and the pacing was perfect.
I liked that we had an our FMC discovering who she was in her late 30s and an strong supportive system around her that helped her!
I adored Ana's character. She was amazing. I liked their relationship and how much they helped each other. It was like they were the pieces they needed in their lives.
The steam and chemistry were fantastic and I adored a queer romance with a beautiful HEA so this was a win for me.
This didn't get a higher rate because the last 25% were a bit predictable but it didn't affect my overall enjoyment for this.
Definitely recommend this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

WOW! This book was just soooo good!! I absolutely loved this age gap romance between two singers who join up for a tour to help boost each of their careers.

Anna is a young, out pansexual rising star, while Eden is a divorced older woman trying to make a comeback. Together the two strike up a great friendship and Eden starts to really question the things she's always thought about herself as her feelings towards Anna become increasingly more romantic.

The representation in this book was so well done and important! I loved seeing an older woman discover her sexuality and realize the things she had thought about herself forever just weren't really true. Conversations when she 'comes out' to herself and Anna as a lesbian (as well as her ex husband) were incredible and sensitively handled and just felt very natural.

Highly, HIGHLY recommended especially for fans of authors like Meryl Wilsner or books like I kissed a girl Jennet Alexander. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. This was also good on audio narrated by Quinn Riley.

CW: toxic/emotionally abusive past romantic relationship, toxic parental relationships

Veteran pop star Eden revitalizes her career by partnering with newcomer Anna. The onstage chemistry between them is shared offstage as well. Eden has always identified as straight, so her attraction to Anna blindsides her. Can their budding romance survive the rigors of an international tour?

This uplifting sapphic romance immersed me in the story from the beginning. Eden struggles with loneliness after the breakup of her marriage, while Anna carries the wounds from a controlling ex. Both main characters are kind and sensitive—like people you'd want to be friends with. The well-paced plot explores the depth of their emotions as friendship blossoms into love. It's a beautifully written and heartwarming novel.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

At thirty-six, Eden Sands is in a slump. And yes, she’s a superstar but she’s also relatively recently divorced, her shows don’t sell out in a few minutes anymore and her last album is doing okay. Okay isn’t enough and while Eden is mostly okay too, it’s not enough for her either. When her team suggests bringing on a younger pop star for a duet at the Grammy ceremony, Eden puts her frustration aside and agrees to give the idea a chance, not expecting Anna Moss to send everything she thought she knew about herself flying all over the place.

I was looking forward to this book, and not just because I named the cat in it (thank you, Rachel, for liking my suggestion): Rachel Lacey’s books always make me happy. I’m not going to lie, her indie books are usually my favourites, the mainstream ones feel a little less lively to me, a little rushed. I can’t exactly pinpoint what makes them different but the one thing that doesn’t change is that I enjoy reading them every time.

First things first, I love the characters, and not only the MCs. The secondary characters are very much in the background but they feel right, especially the MCs entourage (and, obviously, Villanelle the cat).

Anna is up and coming whereas Eden worries she’s on her way down. She’s lonely and not exactly sad but unsettled and anxious about her career, her life, everything. Not in a dramatic way but constant, permanent. Despite hating the idea that she needs a younger star to help her get back to the top, she’s charmed by Anna’s genuine enthusiasm and talent almost from the start. I struggled for a while to find the right word for what Eden made me feel at first but then I settled on melancholy. It can’t be easy to be a pop star and feel melancholy, unless you want to specialize in ballads. Also, isn’t melancholy a very pretty word? It has the perfect sound and rhythm and, to me, it fits the Eden of the beginning of the story exquisitely.

Speaking of words and sounds and meanings, I love that Eden’s surname is Sands and Anna’s is Moss, one dry but warm, the other soft and refreshing, and I had this image in my head of Eden going from the unattainable beach below her L.A. appartement to the embracing green of Vermont, with Anna as the portal to the journey.

Stars Collide is a rather low-angst romance but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in feelings. The moment Eden understands that she might not be straight after all, that feeling of having misunderstood herself for so long, is poignant. There’s some sadness to this story but it isn’t a sad book. It’s a wrong made right, a child thrown into adulthood too quickly and sheltered from herself rather than from the world. How do you imagine yourself if you don’t know you can be? Beyond the human beings that are Eden and Anna, Stars Collide is also about the music industry, the power dynamics (parents, mentors, managers), appearances. This sentence Anna says at one point made me freeze: “They treated you like a woman when you were a child and they won’t let me grow”. The MCs’ experiences are both opposite and close enough that they understand each other.

It might feel too instalove for some but Lacey makes it make sense. Eden’s been Anna’s celebrity crush forever and having it turn real feels natural, just as natural as Eden falling hard for the one person who makes her feel something. If these two were my friends IRL, I’d probably worry a little about them going too fast, especially knowing how hard it is to make a relationship work in the spotlight, but they’re both surrounded by good people and believing they’d succeed wasn’t too hard. Bonus points to the author for once again making communication and respect sexy.

4.25 stars

Stars Collide is a slow burning story about identity and love, set in the performing arts world.

Eden has been a star the majority of her life, and is at a point where she is personally and creatively tapped out. Anna is a rising pop star who isn’t afraid to be herself, but wonders if she’ll ever be taken seriously as an adult. Coming together for a duet at the Grammy’s both women realize they just might need the other one… both professionally, but perhaps personally as well.

Author Rachel Lacey deftly threads the needle between power dynamics and with identity in really interesting and powerful ways. You can cut the romantic tension with a knife it is so heady. And the tropes employed here are done is such refreshing ways. I was enthralled from beginning to end, slight pacing issues notwithstanding. I also appreciated that the conflicts found in the story were organic and real, as opposed to manufactured.

If you love simmering romantic tension, emotional connection, and the subversion of tropes, this is going to make your top ten list this year.

Thank you to Montlake and NetGalley for the ARC.

Fantastic!

Eden's career has taken a bit of a dip but new singing sensation Anna is just the boost her latest tour needs. Hesitant at first, Eden is surprised at how much they have in common.

So cute! I loved the premise of this, especially with Anna being such a fan of Eden's. Her internal struggle between being starstruck and wanting to fangirl but also to play it cool and professional was just the sweetest thing. Eden was so respectful of Anna despite her initial worries about them working together and I absolutely admired how she asked questions and genuinely tried to learn about Anna's views and sexuality. For Eden that was such a strength, especially as she started questioning what she'd never paid attention to with her own feelings in life.

I loved both their professional and personal moments. It was so natural how they clicked, shared experiences, and learned from one another. The descriptions of the shows, from the costumes to the performances made it so easy to become immersed in the moments and feel as if you were right there either watching or on the stage. It was slow burn romance but totally worth all the hesitation and wait as it afforded time to get to know these characters intimately. So many of the moments had me falling totally in love with everything about Eden and Anna, and just like their fans, I completely shipped them right from the beginning when I was getting all caught up in Anna's excitement about working with Eden.

Such a great story that I couldn't put down because I was having such a great time. Hope for more stories about Eden and Anna in future!

SWOON SWOON SWOON !!!!! AGE GAP, POPSTARS, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, SPICE 🌶️🌶️!!!!! WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT????? #EDANNA FOR LIFE ⭐️ Eden and Anna’s relationship was so beautiful and Anna being able to help Eden realize who she really was was truly incredible! I loved all of our incredible side characters as well, I loved Eden helping Anna to grow up and learn how to stand up for herself. Imagine performing on the Grammy’s stage with your long time crush??? What a dream!!

Anna, who is rising star, gets the opportunity to tour with her favourite celebrity Eden Sands and comes to like her even more in doing so. We get to read how Eden discovers and explores her sexuality and how Anna lets go of the past and open herself up.
Such a cute romantic book that is not overly dramatic, but has a reasonable plot. I loved the two protagonists, who (I think) had relatable problems and did not deal with them too perfectly or nothing at all. We get two watch the two of them grow closer and establish their relationship.
I absolutely recommend this book if you need a down to earth and cute, but also serious romance story!

Stars Collide is a sapphic celebrity romance, focusing on pop stars Eden and Anna. Anna joins Eden on her tour, after their shared Grammy performance gave both their careers a boost.

I liked that this was a later in life, but overwhelmingly positive coming out story. Reading about Eden learning to accept new facts about herself and being encouraged to be her true self by Anna was great. I also liked the main characters and their surrounding friends and teams. This is a friends to lovers story, and I loved seeing the characters come out of their shells and learning new things about themselves and the world they are in!
I didn’t like that the third act conflict doesn’t happen till very close to the end and then very much gets rushed. This could have happened in another way far earlier so we could see the characters actually forgive each other and not just kind of, forget.

If you liked IF THIS GETS OUT or FOR HER CONSIDERATION and are looking for a new queer sapphic romance this might be for you.