Title – Stargazing for Beginners
Author – Jenny McLachlan
How I Got It – From the publisher
Pages – 256 pages
Publication Date – April 6th 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN – 9781408879757
My Rating – ★★★★/5
When Meg looks up at the stars, she sees adventure and escape. She sees her future. Meg’s dream is to become an astronaut.
But her life is thrown into chaos when her mother drops everything, including Meg and her sister Elsa, to go on one of her trips. 
I received a copy of Stargazing for Beginners from Bloomsbury Australia to review.
I don’t read a lot of contemporaries. Or I didn’t read a lot of contemporaries. I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did. But I found myself not wanting to put it down. I was drawn into Meg and Elsa’s life and I needed to know what was going to happen to them. And I was really hoping Meg would tell her mother where to shove leaving her and Elsa.
Anyway, I really liked Meg. I found her funny, strong and awkward too but in a good way. Meg had been put into a group at school and I always looked forward to reading about their meetings. There were a few characters from the meetings that I loved. I especially loved Annie.
Stargazing for Beginners had the cliche nerd falling for a popular guy but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Ed wasn’t the typical “popular guy” – he was actually a nice guy and smart too. And for a nice change it didn’t feels cheesy to me. I liked Meg and Ed together.
I was really angry at Meg’s mother for just leaving without plans for her children first. Yes, Meg was supposed to take Elsa to their grandfather but Meg was more responsible then him. I guess she had to be with a mother like hers. I found it so selfish of their mother to just up and leave without a thought to how Meg and Elsa would feel. I don’t have kids but I feel like parents don’t have the right to just leave without making arrangements for where their kids should stay first. And you know, have food for them to eat while they’re gone.
For someone who wasn’t a big fan of contemporaries, especially with cliche love stories, I really enjoyed Stargazing for Beginners. So I’d definitely recommend this if you are a fan.
*Thank you Bloomsbury Australia for sending me a copy to review*
– Aimee.
My Life in Books 