Maggie Blackbird

Today, I’m hosting author Dottie Sines’ debut release Where the Stars Cross, a historical romance. Be sure to read my review. And don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

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Title: Where the Stars Cross
Series: N/A
Author: Dottie Sines
Genre: Historical Romance
Length: 257 pages
Release Date: September 11, 2024
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Blurb: In the depths of the Great Depression, Ellie suffers another crash—that of her marriage. She’s left struggling to restore her shattered life, feeling as damaged as the stained-glass panels she refurbishes for Chicago’s historic structures.

While visiting her aunt in Marietta, Ohio, a charming river town, Ellie encounters towboat captain Wyatt and feels a searing attraction to him. But thanks to past and subsequent wounds, her attempts at opening herself to love seem futile.

Her hope for love and her determination to find the place she belongs are further complicated by her tendency to make impulsive decisions. In her journey, Ellie draws on an unrealized level of courage and learns she must identify her brightest passions in charting her course.

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Where the Stars Cross is on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list for 20th-century historical romance!

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Once the world creaked back to a tentative rotation and time again began ticking away, Ellie salvaged the remnants of herself and hobbled to her feet. She shoved her hair from her face and brushed away the bits of grass pasted to her arms. How long had she lain there, on this deserted patch of ground? Long enough for the world to have revolved away from the sun. Long enough, apparently, for Earth’s gravity to pull the life from her, because the only thing she felt or thought or knew was the faint echo of a crippled heartbeat.

Ellie hugged her arms and looked to the darkening sky. She’d fallen asleep, obviously, but for all this time? Even amid all the darkness, the stars still twinkled. Damned stars. She’d taken Aunt Lillian’s little fable about finding one’s place according to where their three stars crossed too seriously. It had been intended simply as inspiration. Wyatt was gone, so he obviously hadn’t been some fairytale second star. And she never had figured out what her would-be third star was.

Time to get her heart out of the stars and her head out of her behind. She’d been selfish. What about all the other people suffering in the wake of the devastating flood? What about all those who had it much worse than she during this never-ending Depression? Those were the people she needed to look to the stars for, not her own self-serving wants, so she closed her eyes and made a wish for everyone but herself.

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Ettie is facing a divorce.  Needing some time away, she heads for her aunt’s house in Ohio.  What she doesn’t expect to meet is a handsome riverboat captain.

I enjoy historical romance, especially something different, like Chicago during the Great Depression.  I would class this more women’s fiction than romance because this is Ettie’s journey of self-discovery.  Although the blurb states she’s impulsive, she sure isn’t when it comes to romance.  Here, she is very cautious after being burned by her cheating ex-husband.  But it’s her aunt who helps Ettie find her direction.

I must say I adored Ettie’s aunt.  The aunt has her own love story happening within the novel.  So you get two for one!  And her aunt is a wise woman.  I love the tale about three stars and understand why this novel is aptly named Where the Stars Cross.

The novel is filled with vivid descriptions of the period, the quaint town of Marietta, and steeped in some history too.  It’s a sweet tale, so if you’re looking for some steam, it’s best to look elsewhere.  This story is about Ettie’s arc from a lost divorcée and a just as lost divorcé meeting by chance.

I liked Wyatt.  His time is minimal in the story up until the end.  He knows what he wants, and he wants Ettie.  If only he could get her to agree.  As I said, the divorce burned Ettie bad, and although her friends think of her as impulsive, she is weighing every outcome when it comes to another romance.

The author does a great job of tying the aunt’s romance in with Ettie’s big decision.

This is a heartwarming novel, filled with great characters.  Some might find it very slow-paced, so if you like something fast moving, it’s best to look elsewhere.  For those who love something to savour slowly, then you’ll enjoy this sweet romance.  The author is a talented writer, and creates sympathetic and wonderful characters.  Do yourself a favour and get a copy.

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Dottie scratched out her first fiction as a little kid transfixed by the books she read all those lazy summer days on the front porch swing. Two of her short stories have been published in The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park’s literary journal, Hemingway Shorts, having placed among the top ten entries in its annual short story contests.

Follow Dottie: Website | Facebook | Instagram

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