“I feel like I’ll be chasing stars for the rest of my life.” “This feeling. This moment. I want to hold onto it forever.”

Chasing the Stars is a companion novel to Chasing the Sun. You do not have to read Chasing the Sun before reading Chasing the Stars, but I suggest that you should. If you do, you will get more background on Naomi and Theo, and you will also enjoy it. I fell in love with Naomi and Theo’s characters while I was reading Chasing the Sun. Chasing the Stars just made me love them even more.

Melanie Hooyenga writes realistic and relatable characters. They’re not perfect; they have flaws and insecurities. I was able to relate to all of the characters in one way or another.
Hunter is like a cactus. Prickly on the outside. Soft and gooey on the inside. The three quotes from Hunter that I relate to the most are:

I’m sometimes slow to warm up to new people but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you.

How can I be so good with other people’s words but so bad at explaining my own thoughts?

Books saved me that first year and now I hope being an editor will allow me to capture the magic I felt when I got lost in books—to be part of that experience for other kids who need to escape reality.

Naomi doesn’t believe in insta-love. She’s self-aware. When you don’t believe in something or want it, it usually happens to you, especially in a story. When it said in the summary about Naomi not believing in insta-love, you already know what will happen. It was not the annoying type of insta-love. Considering their age and that it’s a YA novel, it was cute and done well. I usually don’t enjoy insta-love, but this one worked for me.
Not only do the main characters shine, but the side characters do as well. You learn more about the side characters without it being a random information dump. Instead, it makes the characters more dimensional and adds to the story. I loved all of the characters as well as their dynamics. Both of the families dynamics are different yet also the same. They were able to mesh together. There were strong family and sibling relationships that you would want as your own.

Chasing the Stars was an emotional roller coaster for me. I was frustrated throughout the story. Every chance that they tried to kiss, they were interrupted. They could never really catch a break. There were also moments when I laughed. Some of the lines were just too funny not to. The rest of the time, I couldn’t help smiling as I was reading. It was fluffy and wholesome. I wouldn’t mind reading more from Melanie Hooyenga.

I received Chasing the Stars in exchange for my honest review. It does not impact my opinions of Chasing the Stars in any way. The summary was what caught my attention, and I wanted to read the novel because of it. But I wanted to read Chasing the Sun beforehand, so I bought Chasing the Sun. I’m glad that I read both; I enjoyed them.

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