How to Align the Stars purports to be a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, though I didn’t recognize the latter story except in retrospect—and Much Ado About Nothing is one of my favorite of Shakespeare plays. In How to Align the Stars, an astronomer, Beatrice, tells herself that she is happy with her professorship, her chosen family, her home, and her cat. Her nemesis, Ben, returns to her college campus, and she immediately tangles with him, reigniting a leftover feud from their college days. Through the machinations of Heron and several other people, Bea and Ben come to terms with their anger and—perhaps—something else is developing.
Bea’s chosen family includes Heron, a college senior who is engaged to Charlie and seems to have the perfect relationship, and a couple (Heron’s father and his new wife) who own a vineyard. Bea, though, wants Heron to consider what she wants to do besides get married. As Ben and Bea get involved, cracks appear in Charlie’s love for Heron, with devastating results.
This is romantic women’s fiction, though both Bea and Heron have some growth in their psyches. I was more impressed with Heron’s than Bea’s, however, as she navigates emotional and psychological trauma from Charlie and his fraternity house in a scenario many young people these days much deal with.
