Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett Review

I don’t know about starry eyes, but I do give this book three stars.

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett follows Zorie, an overachieving planner who was stood up by her ex-friend Lennon at the homecoming dance the last year. This summer, Zorie expects an easy summer working as a receptionist at her family’s business and going on field trips with the astronomy club. However, Zorie carefully planned summer goes haywire when she is invited on a camping trip and ends up stuck with Lennon after she is ditched by the rest of the group.

Before this book, I have read three books by Jenn Bennet. First, I read Alex, Approximately which was only an average read for me. Then, I read Serious Moonlight which I seriously enjoyed. Then, this year, I read Catching Lucky which I absolutely loved. Over the course of these three books, Jenn Bennett’s writing just has constantly improved and now she is definitely an auto-buy contemporary author for me.

Of course, I had to check out one of the books that I skipped over in her line-up. Since it’s summer, I was immediately pulled in by the entire camping plot and I frequently enjoy the relationship dynamic suggested by the synopsis. That being said, Starry Eyes definitely falls in the middle of books by Jenn Bennet for me, just as it does in her progression of writing. While Starry Eyes does have some aspects reminiscent of aspects that I enjoyed in Serious Moonlight and Chasing Lucky, it also contains aspects that I wasn’t a huge fan of in Alex, Approximately.

Let’s start with what I really enjoyed. One aspect of Jenn Bennett’s books that she does really well is conveying the setting. The way she write captivating descriptions of a character’s surroundings really places a reader in the story. Since the setting of this story is extremely integral to the plot, it was necessary that it was executed well and Jenn Bennett definitely delivered in this area as usual. From her descriptions I was equally intrigued to go and see the places mentioned in the story as we all equally terrified of the threat of bears and mountain lions.

As for the romance, it was hit-or-miss for me. One aspect of Jenn Bennett’s characters that I loved is that she always slowly reveals the backstory, not only of the relationships between different characters, but of the characters individually as well. I think this brings a lot of depth and realness to the characters in her book. At the same time, Zorie and Lennon didn’t particularly grab me as a couple, and well they had some chemistry, I just couldn’t see what they had in common that really pulled them together. With a romance, you really have to click with it to be satisfying, and while Zorie and Lennon were okay, their relationship wasn’t particularly memorable for me.

As I mentioned earlier, there were some aspects in Starry Eyes that reminded me of Alex, Approximately that I didn’t like. Although I think Bennett did a good job of fleshing out the main two characters, I don’t think the relationships between other characters or other characters in general were as well fleshed out, which made them come across as caricatures. For example, all of the characters that Zorie and Lennon go camping with, as well as her father who plays a major role in the story, were so one-dimensional that there interactions came across as very unnatural. This really impacted the end of the story for me in particular where some of the conflicts between these characters were either unresolved or presented in a very unrealistic and overdramatic fashion that didn’t fit with the rest of the story.

Overall, Starry Eyes is a fun read that is perfect for the summer, especially if you’re in the mood to read a summer book not set at the beach. While it wasn’t my favorite book by this author, it was a fairly solid book that I enjoyed. I give this book three out of five stars.

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