Publication Date: Out now!!!
Formats: Paperback & Ebook
Price: Pb £9.99/ Ebook £4.99
Publisher: Verve Books
I would like to say a huge thank you to Verve Books for inviting me onto this tense, and intriguing book’s tour. I would also like to say thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review a digital copy of this fantastic book. I would also like to say thank you to the creative talent, Laurie Petrou, in creating such a brilliant and evocative cast of characters, especially the two girls, one wanting and obsessing over the others life and will do anything to achieve it even if it means destroying them and the family in the process and the other knowing that the grass isn’t always greener from the inside and yet finding this other, stronger more alluring girl fascinating. Intrigued? Let’s head over to the blurb and find out a bit more.
It’s a fine line between admiration and envy.
Diana Martin has lived her life in the shadow of her sadistic older brother. She quietly watches the family next door, enthralled by celebrity fashion designer Marianne Taylor and her feted daughter Aurelle.
She wishes she was a “Taylor girl”.
By the summer of 1995, the two girls are at university together, bonded by a mutual desire to escape their wealthy families and personal tragedies and forge new identities.
They are closer than lovers, intoxicated by their own bond, falling into the hedonistic seduction of the woods and the water at a remote university that is more summer camp than campus.
But when burgeoning artist Diana has a chance at fame, cracks start to appear in their friendship. To what lengths is Diana willing to go to secure her own stardom?
As soon as I turned the first page of this compelling and intoxicating book, I found myself hooked on a story of obsession, envy and a powerful need to be wanted and seen and also loved for who they are. These two girls, Diana and Aurelle, are both from wealthy and privileged families, but one of them has what the other desires, a family that is loving and looks supportive and also has a famous gloss that glows and beckons out. Whereas the other family has an ignored and mistreated daughter who constantly has to make sure her older brother is always in the spotlight or made happy so that they are not abused (mentally) by him.
I find their relationship with each other slightly disturbing as it’s not that equal, we have Diana who is more out going and more determined to get what she wants and we have Aurelle who’s more quieter and shy until she almost becomes invisible to everyone. I won’t go any further and spoil what is a fantastic and compelling story.
If you love an in depth look at how friendships can both be good for one another but at the same can also be used as a weapon to destroy. I find myself not liking Diana and just wish she could just leave Aurelle and her family alone. This is a marvellous book and one that I would highly recommend to anyone.
Ratings: 4 🌟s with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰
Author’s Blurb:
Laurie Petrou is an award winning author, and Associate Professor at the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University. She lives in Niagara with her family. Stargazer is her fourth book.
I hope you have enjoyed this fascinating and intriguing novel about relationships and how easy it is to use someone for your own ends. If you are wanting your own copy, you can find this in Waterstones, any independent store and of course on Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!
Zoe's Book Nook 