The Universe Between Us

This is a familiar trope made fun by Esther's interpretation of an occupied scientist who gets hits in the head with love (laugh). Ana is a character I identify with as I am usually somewhere else when someone is talking to me. I do not know if I would make the decisions she made, especially if another loved one's dreams were hinged on what I would do. It is a great dilemma.

Jolie is a sweet character and not your stereotype art student. I am not sure if I like the dynamics between another character and Ana, I kind of feel that it is an easy way out when those types of relationships have so many layers.

Bottom line: this is a romance and not a general fiction story and Esther gives us a sweet romance. Don't let the Universe stand between you and this book. This is a quick, easy, weekend read.

I got this book from my library. I love my local library and you should check out yours too. Request LGBTQ+ books and they will stock them! #ebooksforall

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
DNF @ 33%

I picked this one up because I wanted to expand my reading and reading something with a lesbian romance is something I haven't read much of. Because of this need, I really tried to give this book the benefit of the doubt and tried getting through it. Unfortunately, that didn't work for me.

First off, the romance is totally insta-love – seriously, though this is insta-lust. Why do they even like each other? There is not much mentioned about why they like each other, although maybe I'm not picking up subtle clues. Then again, this book is pretty much straight up romance. If you give me something else to latch on to usually I'm decently okay with this, but I have nothing to connect with the characters with even. This book felt like it jumped to moments of them together to moments where they think about each other and just a bit of outside influence thrown in too.

The characters I didn't think were really flushed out either. Who are they? Give me some details – what year in school is Jolie? Why is Ana listening to her mother and not living her own life at the age of 26 !! when she obviously wants to stay on her farm. I know the basics, but these other details would be nice to help me get to know them and like them.
Unfortunately, the world-building left something to be desired too. I thought there was going to be explanations or detail about even the time so I could understand or get a sense of things, but this didn't happen. Instead, world-building is told subtlety with mention to: self-driving cars, global warming, sending people to the moon... all awesome, but I wanted just a bit more to ground me. Where are we? Why are people trying to live on other planets?

Why I quit? Honestly, I'm kinda bored. I do think others, especially people looking for a romance between girls will be able to power through or if people like subtle books where everything isn't told to them, but I wanted more of a story.