Under The Stars by Linn B Halton

Katherine Dale’s life is in a state of chaos.

She has just been made redundant from her job as an accountant and she finds herself with no career, no direction in life and no relationship to fall back on. 

To make matters worse, the one thing that she could always depend on – genius astrological readings from her idol, Mark Ainsley-Thomas – is even beginning to fail her.

At a crossroads in her life and starting a career as a full-time writer, Katherine cannot believe that the readings from the world-renowned astrologist are failing to guide her through this tumultuous time.

She sends an email to Mark’s webpage, venting her frustration at the recent unhelpful readings.

Little does Katherine know that Mark’s busy publicity schedule and his overbearing agent are taking over his life and that he has hired an assistant astrologist, James, to take over the readings.

James, returning to astrology after a failed business career and disastrous marriage, is also at a vulnerable stage in his life and reacts angrily when he receives Katherine’s emails criticising his work.

Their heated email exchange reveals the frustrations in both their lives but the reappearance of Mark Ainsley-Thomas helps to smooth this friction over, and Katherine and James begin a tentative friendship which soon blossoms into something much more.

Katherine, James and Mark realise just how small the world is when their complicated lives become forever entangled.

Amidst the chaos of their lives, including a cat named No. 4, a local writing group, a difficult ex, an old war veteran named Jake, a potential book deal and a last-minute trip to LA, will there ever be a happy ever after for Katherine and James…? 

I've come to read Under The Stars recently as in the next few weeks I shall be reviewing Linn B Haltons sequel to the novel for her up and coming blog tour.

I didn't have the synopsis to the book so wasn't really sure what to expect. What I got was a light weight, easy going love story.

As the blurb suggests, Katherine  is at a loose end after losing her job and decides to write a novel. Each day she religious checks her horoscope and tries to judge her life by her stars by her all time favourite astrologer Mark. When Mark hires James to help him out, Katherine realises something isn't right when she feels she can no longer rely on her trusty scopes.

In a moment of madness, she emails off to the webpage which sets of a heated conversation between her and James. Little does the pair know that they have also been set up together by Katherine's sister and hubby as James is known to his mates as Jim.

When Katherine works out who James is she goes all out to be nice, at the same time she's turned to talking to her cat, been roped in to become a guest speaker at a local writing group and trying to complete her novel... One busy lady!

Under The Stars is a book that highlights how paths are crossed, it shows how small this world really is, how secrets effect relationships and how some people go to no ends to get where they want to. Despite all this there is an underlying love story.

The book was made up with a lot of short chapters told by each of the three characters, Katherine, Mark and James perspectives.

For me personally the book lacked a little something to begin with, when I hit chapter 33 I felt the conversation between the characters really got going and that's where my interest really struck up.

Overall Under The Stars was well written with a good story line and I'm looking forward to reading more of Katherine and James' story in the upcoming sequel, Quintessentially Yours.