This has a very cozy sci-fi, sapphic rom-com vibe that I am 100% here for.

Twenty years ago the crew of Providence I were meant to head off on a colony mission to Proxima Centauri B. Instead, the spaceships dark matter engine fired up and everyone on the ship disappeared.

Twenty-something Cleo and her friends sneak on to the, now abandoned, ship to investigate what happened and end up accidentally sending it, and themselves, on its originally intended journey.

Our four main characters have a real found-family vibe and they are a very diverse group. They did seem to read as a little younger than intended (they are meant to be 27) but that didn’t make them any less likeable.

The plot itself is very slow to develop and by the 50% mark nothing much had really happened. Again, this wasn’t really an issue for me and I still found myself wanting to pick it up whenever I could.

The romance was, sadly, one of the things that just didn’t work for me. I would start to buy it and then remember that Billie was a computer-generated hologram of a real person, not an actual person, and it would stop making any sense. I could see why Cleo might fall for the hologram, but not how the hologram could possibly have real feelings for Cleo. There’s also a huge plot point that actually made the whole thing feel even more weird and uncomfortable.

The end all felt a little too convenient, but it also made me smile so I’m not too bothered by it.

For a debut this was really well written and I had a very enjoyable time with it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion Publishing for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Space? Check. Sapphic? Check. Rom-com? Check.

There was no way that this sci-fi debut was escaping me, and I loved it from the first page - ‘The Stars Too Fondly’ has sailed into my favourite books of 2024. I flew through it in only a few sittings after struggling through a reading slump for a few weeks.

Part space odyssey, part Sapphic romcom and all spaceship-stealing fun, Emily Hamilton's breathtaking debut is a wild tale of galaxy-spanning friendship, improbable love, and wonder as vast as the universe itself.

So, here's the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn't mean to steal this spaceship.

They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace. But then the stupid dark matter engine started all on its own, and now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri, unable to turn around, and being harangued by a snarky hologram that has the face and attitude of the ship's missing captain, Billie.

Cleo has dreamt of being an astronaut all her life, and Earth is kind of a lost cause at this point, so this should be one of those blessings in disguise people talk about. But as the ship gets deeper into space, the laws of physics start twisting, old mysteries start crawling back to life, and Cleo's initially combative relationship with Billie turns into something deeper and more desperate than either woman is prepared for.

Lying somewhere in the subspace between science fantasy and sapphic rom-com, The Stars Too Fondly is a soaring near-future adventure about dark matter and alternate dimensions, leaving home and finding family, and the galaxy-saving power of letting yourself love and be loved.


This book manages to be a kick-your-feet rom-com while also sustaining a substantial dose of science in the sci-fi and edge of your adventure and action scenes, all coming together for a heck of a book. All of that is balanced with a lot of focus on character development and the interpersonal drama between Cleo, Ros, Kaleisha, Abe and Billie is equally as important to the story and the characters as the precarious situation they find themselves in onboard the Providence.


The diversity and inclusion in ‘The Stars Too Fondly’ is effortless when it comes to gender and sexuality with a sapphic relationship, a non-binary aroace character, a lesbian protagonist and a bisexual love interest with strong racial diversity too. I really love it when these elements are just there, present in the story in the way that they are in life without any focus on coming out or someone coming in contact with hate and ignorance; they’re allowed to exist in the world, and the story, as they are.

There’s also some really interesting commentary of capitalism, the climate crisis and the environment on Earth as this is set on 40 years in the future in 2061 where the Earth is starting to steeply decline and becoming nearly dangerous to live upon. It not only shows the future that we are likely to be facing in my lifetime with the environment, but also the cost of progress at whatever cost and the chokehold of large corporation and the power held by those in charge of big pursestrings.


Playing alongside this we have a complex romance between Cleo, the mastermind of the Providence mishap, and Billie, the hologram of the original captain of the ship. I love the rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic and their banter and the challenges they face in deciding whether to follow their feelings or not. The little moments between them and the way that the rest of the crew reacted to them was so sweet and often funny too and I was completely sold on it. I was championing Cleo and Billie so, so hard from the beginning.

‘The Stars Too Fondly’ is a spellbinding debut. It’s romantic, tense, and brimming with the warmth of found family learning to survive among the stars in a cosy sci-fi romance that I’ll be recommending endlessly.

Thank you to harperVoyager and NetGalley for the review copy.

Written by Sophie

3.5 stars rounded up.
"Though my soul may be set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

When Cleo, Ros, Abe, and Kaleisha accidentally steal a space ship, the last thing on their minds is saving the world or falling in love - but they're in for the ride of their lives, and this adventure will push them to the absolute limits of their imagination.

I am not huge into sci-fi, but I was instantly hooked thanks to the humour and mystery that was present from the very first chapter. There are so many twists and turns in this tale, from the introduction of the hologram that helps run the ship to the realisation of the truth behind the dark matter machine... Each page brought new surprises, flirtatious banter, and space whimsy.

The core characters embody the meaning of found family, and readers who enjoy cozy stories as well as those who like more high octane books will find something to enjoy with The Stars Too Fondly. Romance, evil villains, environmental chaos, the power of friendship, space travel, alien lifeforms, heists... Everything is packed in but woven naturally together so the book never stagnates.

My only issue was that the latter half of the book felt less developed and did not have the same level of world building. I wished the final 30% was not as rushed, as the drama ramps up so quickly but does not give time to really develop or pause long enough to feel the weight of the situation. The earlier sections are a solid 4/5, while the ending didn't come across as strongly for me.

That being said, I can't wait to see what this writer creates next! I will definitely be keeping an eye out, as I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

I try to pick up every sapphic novel I can, and was initially very excited by the premise of this book. Unfortunately, it failed to grab me - something about the characters and dialogue just didn't connect, and I put the book down weeks ago with no plans to pick it back up. Well written and with obviously great ideas, but ultimately a miss for me.

Cleo and her group of friends break into a long abandoned spaceship in hopes of finding out what happened to its crew but things immediately go... Not according to the plan and the group of friends goes off on a space adventures they weren't prepared for.

Honestly I think where this book shines the most is its story. It's really fascinating with good twists and turns and some extremely touching moments. The relationship between Cleo and Billie is easy to care for, they are sweet and adorable and it's extremely easy to believe they could fall for each other.

What I struggled with in this story was unfortunately the writing, I think it wanted to be snappy and sarcastic but it felt overdone and it unfortunately made everyone from the group of friends feel like the same character because their behaviour seemed indistinguishable. I also felt like we didn't get enough of a real introduction to the friends as their own characters so they mostly felt like they were plot devices. Which is a shame because I think a stronger building of these characters could make this book easily one of my favourite reads of this year.

I consider it my duty to read any book that says it's for fans of Becky Chambers to decide whether or not it's true, so I was excited to get my hands on this one. Any kind of sapphic sci-fi is something I'll read.

This one was definitely worth it. It had the cozy sci-fi found family vibes that I adore from Becky Chambers. It follows a group of friends who are trying to figure out what happened to the Providence, the ship that was meant to save humanity but instead disappeared. So, Cleo and her friends break into the Providence I and then somehow the engine starts and they end up stuck heading into space with only a hologram of Billie, the captain of the first Providence to guide them.

It's a really easy, light hearted read and I raced through it in a couple of hours. I would have liked a bit more depth to the characters but that's a minor complaint because it didn't stop me enjoying it at all. The plot was fun and if you can shrug off some of the possibly questionable science in it (which I can, although which I imagine could bother some people) then I definitely recommend it because it's so joyful and there's so much to like about this book.

The Stars Too Fondly started off with a light-hearted writing style that I don't always gel with for science fiction - however, despite the science being purposefully vague at points, the tension and plot escalate to create an enjoyable read. There are great characters, although these could have been fleshed out further still, and their relationships lead to a very sweet heart of the book. The romance and friendships are very much the centre here, and perhaps more strongly written than the sci-fi thriller aspect - however, I was gripped throughout, and am keen to see what Emily Hamilton writes next.