Early ReviewersAmy Dressler

This is the story of two cousins: one with stars in her eyes, the other with her eyes on the stars…

Beatrice is a stubborn, no-nonsense astronomy professor at a small college in wine country. While working toward her tenure, she spends an inordinate amount of time trying to avoid Ben, an annoying librarian she believes wronged her when they were students. Their rapid-fire exchanges could almost be mistaken for chemistry, if he hadn’t done that unspeakable thing so many years ago.

Her younger cousin Heron is a wistful student in her final year of college. The opposite of Beatrice, she is a hopeless romantic, pinning her hopes on a future with her boyfriend Charlie.

When Charlie proposes to Heron, Bea is worried her younger cousin’s needs are taking a backseat to his ambitions. Heron responds to her cousin’s criticism with a matchmaking scheme designed to show Bea the upside of romance.

As Heron and Bea deal with the fallout from a campus scandal, each finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about the best course for the future. Eventually, each woman must make a choice: Bea between the comfortable role of merry spinster or a fulfilling partnership; Heron between marriage to Charlie or reaching for a new dream.

Amy Dressler’s whip-smart debut novel is not to be missed, a tour de force of female empowerment, body-positivity, and family friendship as she turns Shakespeare upside down in an unexpected and brilliant way for a new generation of women.

This is the story of two cousins: one with stars in her eyes, the other with her eyes on the stars…

Beatrice is a stubborn, no-nonsense astronomy professor at a small college in wine country. While working toward her tenure, she spends an inordinate amount of time trying to avoid Ben, an annoying librarian she believes wronged her when they were students. Their rapid-fire exchanges could almost be mistaken for chemistry, if he hadn’t done that unspeakable thing so many years ago.

Her younger cousin Heron is a wistful student in her final year of college. The opposite of Beatrice, she is a hopeless romantic, pinning her hopes on a future with her boyfriend Charlie.

When Charlie proposes to Heron, Bea is worried her younger cousin’s needs are taking a backseat to his ambitions. Heron responds to her cousin’s criticism with a matchmaking scheme designed to show Bea the upside of romance.

As Heron and Bea deal with the fallout from a campus scandal, each finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about the best course for the future. Eventually, each woman must make a choice: Bea between the comfortable role of merry spinster or a fulfilling partnership; Heron between marriage to Charlie or reaching for a new dream.

Amy Dressler’s whip-smart debut novel is not to be missed, a tour de force of female empowerment, body-positivity, and family friendship as she turns Shakespeare upside down in an unexpected and brilliant way for a new generation of women.