Stars In Your Eyes by Kacen Callender

Stars In Your Eyes by Kacen Callender

The rundown: When Logan, Hollywood’s bad boy, and Mattie, an up-and-coming golden boy, are cast as leads in a new romantic film, Logan claims that Matt has “zero talent,” sending the film’s publicity into a nosedive. To create positive buzz, the two are persuaded into a fake‑dating scheme—but as the two actors get to know their new characters, real feelings start to develop.

The review: Callender really took the idea of a cozy, warm romance and gleefully ripped it up into tiny little pieces. Then he took those pieces and rearranged them into a love story that burns as it goes down. Because this romance is neither pretty nor easy. It’s a long, difficult road for Logan and Mattie to reach their happily ever after (yes, there definitely is HEA!). 

A central thesis of Stars In Your Eyes is that trauma poisons all aspects of a person’s life and a romantic relationship, even a safe one, is not the solution for recovery, a lesson that the romance genre widely could stand to acknowledge more explicitly. To that end, I really appreciated that Callender allows Logan to be and stay messy and traumatized. Nothing about what he struggles with is solved immediately after or because of his relationship with Mattie. He continues to make bad decisions, motivated by the PTSD of his trauma (both new and old). Mattie also comes to understand that his own trauma, stemming from his father’s homophobia and emotional abandonment, has led him to over-invest in caring for Logan and consequently neglect his own health.

And because of all that, we have the most necessary third-act break-up of all time. THIS, my friends, is how you utilize a break-up for the betterment of the romance! It was so, so good. Painful and cathartic, like the emotional climax of a romance should be. I love how Callender wrote the break-up, and though I want to rave about it in detail, I’ll contain myself to avoid spoiling it for readers who haven’t had the pleasure of reading this book yet. I’m not generally a fan of fake dating, but this was a superb execution of the trope to serve the larger story. Highly recommend.

Goes well with: Readers who enjoyed Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour, which is sapphic, not Achillean, may appreciate this one, as well. While the settings are very different, both books explore the characters’ trauma and how it impacts their ability to be in a healthy relationship.