How to Align the Stars: A Novel (Shakespeare Project)

Publisher's Weekly calls Amy Dressler's new novel a "sparkling debut."

This is the story of two cousins: one with stars in her eyes, the other with her eyes on the stars...

Beatrice is a stubborn, no-nonsense astronomy professor at a small college in wine country. While working toward her tenure, she spends an inordinate amount of time avoiding Ben, an annoying librarian she believes wronged her when they were students. Their rapid-fire exchanges could almost be mistaken for chemistry, if he hadn't done that unspeakable thing so many years ago.

Her younger cousin Heron is a wistful senior in college. The opposite of Beatrice, she is a hopeless romantic. After Heron's boyfriend proposes on a magical night at her father's winery, Bea is worried her younger cousin is making a mistake. Heron responds to Bea's criticism with a matchmaking scheme designed to show Bea the upside of romance. Bea and Ben become the subjects of an opposites-attract experiment, while Heron begins to question whether marriage is the right choice.

Heron's world comes crashing down when she is at the center of a campus scandal. As Heron and Bea deal with the fallout, each finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about the best course for the future. Eventually, each woman must make a choice: Bea between the comfortable role of merry spinster or a fulfilling partnership; Heron between marriage or reaching for a new dream.

A smart enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy, this book spins the original tale of Much Ado About Nothing from Shakespeare into an academic romance, ending with a surprising twist.

Amy Dressler's whip-smart debut novel is not to be missed, a tour de force of female empowerment, romantic comedy, and family friendship as she turns Shakespeare upside down in an unexpected and brilliant way for a new generation of women.

Tropes: Enemies to lovers, STEM romance, Academic feud, Adaptation story retelling, Small town college romance