Justine is working as a copyrunner at a magazine as she waits for her long-awaited promotion to cadet reporter. In the meantime, while hoping one of her colleagues will finally resign – or die - she wields her red pen on annoying typos throughout the community.
When she bumps into her old childhood friend, Nick, now an aspiring actor who has a shot at playing Romeo, she realises she still has a sweet spot for him. So what harm could it do to start altering Nick’s horoscope, to encourage him to follow his dreams as well as propel him in her direction? However, the changed horoscope for Aquarius ends up affecting a number of people’s lives too.
This is a delightful, witty debut, which tracks Justine and her quest to win over Nick over a year. I really loved the way the other Aquarian characters were introduced and how their lives converged. I could easily see this being adapted for the screen. I predict success has been written in Ms Darke’s own stars.
Star-Crossed, by Minnie Darke, sees a journalist meddle with her magazine's horoscopes to win a guy's heart.
The summary says: "Destiny doesn't happen by accident ...
When Justine Carmichael (Sagittarius, aspiring journalist and sceptic) bumps into her teenage crush Nick Jordan (Aquarius, struggling actor and true believer) it could be by chance. Or it could be written in the stars.
Justine works at the Alexandria Park Star - and Nick, she now learns, relies on the magazine's astrology column to guide him in life.
Looking for a way to get Nick's attention, Justine has the idea of making a few small alterations to the horoscope for Aquarius before it goes to print.
After all, it's only the stars. What could possibly go wrong?"
Minnie Darke is the pen-name of Tasmanian literary author Danielle Wood. Star-Crossed is out in March 2019.