“As I turned my head, a flash of pink caught my eye.
My Breath hitched in my throat as I looked out toward the rooftop and saw her.
Hallie Goodman.
She was in profile to me, murmuring with a server, who nodded at whatever she had to say and strode away. Hallie turned to survey the party, and suddenly I felt nervous. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt nervous about a woman. In fact, I think the last time I was seventeen and it was a girl.
I couldn’t resist a smile as I stared at Hallie in the flesh for the first time.”
A Cosmic Kind of Love is an out-of-this-world rom-com that you will want to read again and again.
When event planner Hallie Goodman receives party-inspiration material from the bride of her latest wedding project, the last thing she expects to find in the files are digital videos from Darcy’s ex-boyfriend. Hallie knows it’s wrong to keep watching these personal videos, but this guy is cute, funny, and an astronaut on the International Space Station to boot. She’s only human. And it’s not long until she starts sending e-mails and video diaries to his discontinued NASA address. Since they’re bouncing back, there’s no way anyone will ever be able to see them…right?
Christopher Ortiz is readjusting to life on earth and being constantly in the shadow of his deceased older brother. When a friend from NASA’s IT department forwards him the e-mails and video messages Hallie has sent, he can’t help but notice how much her sense of humor and pink hair make his heart race.
Separated by screens, Hallie and Chris are falling in love with each other, one transmission at a time. But can they make their star-crossed romance work when they each learn the other’s baggage?
Get ready for some major gushing on my part because this book is so freaking good. I love Samantha’s books; her fantasy romances, contemporary romances, and rom-coms always leave me feeling very satisfied. A Cosmic Kind of Love hooked me in and stayed with me even when I wasn’t reading it. I just couldn’t get enough of Hallie and Chris’s love story. Ok, so what makes this book so darn special? Well, for me, it checks off all those rom-com boxes, likable and relatable characters (check), romantic chemistry that leaps from the pages (check), fabulous best friend or best-tea (check), and a story that entertains and touches my heart (check).
Samantha is a master at creating a fun, humorous story that is light and will have you laughing, but at the same time, she is tugging on those heartstrings with more serious topics and moments. The humour and the angst balanced perfectly in this story, and she used them to create a really engaging and entertaining book. I loved all the space talk in this story. Seeing and learning what it was like to live on the ISS was fascinating and such a cool, unique element to add to the story. I felt like I was learning something, which doesn’t usually happen when you read a rom-com.
I think Hallie is one of my favourite rom-com characters ever! She is smart, fun, and just an all-around good person. The situations she seemed to find herself in at the beginning of the book had me laughing. Yes, she can be a bit of a pushover at the beginning of the story, and her relationship with her parents is definitely unhealthy (I’ll talk about that in a moment), but her character really grew as the story progressed. I found myself cheering when Hallie started to stand up for herself. Many of Hallie’s insecurities come from growing up in a dysfunctional home. Hallie’s parents didn’t have the healthiest relationship, and like most children, Hallie wanted to keep the peace and make her parents happy so they wouldn’t fight. This shaped how Hallie interacts with the world as an adult. I will admit there were times I wanted to smack her parents upside their heads and tell them to f-ing grow up. But then I remember her parents aren’t bad people; they are human and, like most humans, make mistakes.
Chris is just the swooniest book boyfriend. He had my heart racing many times in this book. I think his vulnerabilities and insecurities made him so swoony (besides his fabulous butt, of course). They made him feel more real and not a person that could only exist on the pages of a book. Chris’s character also went through a lot of growth in this story. When we meet him at the beginning of the book, he is lost; he doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. His relationship with his father is not good (his father is an asshole), and his mother and brother have passed away. It was really heart-warming watching as he tried to figure out his life with the help of his Aunt and Hallie.
This is a slow-burn romance at its best. Samantha did a great job building up to that moment when Hallie and Chris would first meet. For the book’s first quarter, these two only know each other through video diaries. Hallie stumbled upon Chris’s video diaries (that he filmed while living on the ISS) when his ex-girlfriend accidentally sent them to her. She sends a video to Chris apologizing for watching his video diaries, but when she thinks he isn’t getting her videos, she starts creating more videos and sending them as a way to vent about her life. I have to say that using this kind of way to connect to characters romantically was interesting. As a reader, I could tell that both Hallie and Chris could feel that connection and chemistry from watching each other’s videos. They both felt that they had met someone who understood them. By not having them meet in person right away, Samantha really created this feeling of anticipation in me. I needed to keep reading because I wanted to see what would happen when they finally met. Even after they finally meet in person, they don’t start a romantic relationship until the second half of this book. Which meant there were lots of will they won’t they moments, and I devoured every single bit of it.
I also have to say that Hallie’s fabulous pink hair had me wanting to dye mine pink or purple. But then I remembered how much work that would be and decided to stick with red instead.
A Cosmic Kind of Love is a rom-com I will read again and again.
Thank you, Berkley Publishing, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
