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Verdict: A funny, warm sapphic second-chance rom-com and the highest-rated book of its own trilogy, undercut by a central conflict that exists only because nobody asks one obvious question.
Best for: Readers who want a low-stakes sapphic rom-com with real spice and a proper series send-off, who like a blunt guarded grump, and who can live with a plot that runs on withheld information.
Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — romance.io’s “explicit open door”)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.9/5 — a 3.94 Goodreads average across 29,221 ratings, held just under it by a conflict one honest conversation would end)
Tropes: Second chance, friends-to-lovers, grumpy-sunshine, forced proximity, roommates, first love, dual POV, found family, wedding planning, commitment-phobe heroine.
Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur is the third and final book of the Written in the Stars trilogy, a contemporary lesbian romance published by Avon in February 2022 and set across one Seattle wedding season, in which Margot Cooper, who has built a personality out of not doing relationships, tours a venue and finds the wedding planner is Olivia Grant — her childhood best friend, her first love, and the person she has not spoken to in eleven years.
It has a 3.94 average across 29,221 Goodreads ratings, starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal, and the distinction of being the highest-rated book in its own trilogy. It also has a review section whose loudest complaint went unmentioned by almost every outlet that covered it — and the one outlet that did name it is the outlet the publisher quoted anyway. Both halves of that split are worth understanding before you start.
What Is Count Your Lucky Stars About?
Count Your Lucky Stars is a contemporary sapphic rom-com and, more precisely, a second chance romance — which matters, because the cover copy sells it as best friends turned lovers and the two are not the same book. The friendship it keeps referring to ended eleven years before page one; what the novel dramatises is two adults in their thirties working out what the other has become. Seattle is the setting again, drawn with the real-locations specificity Bellefleur used across the trilogy.
Margot is the friend group’s designated cynic: casual hookups, no strings, an aversion to being anybody’s forever that she treats as a personality rather than a wound. Olivia knows better, because she was there first — and she comes back divorced, professionally precarious and carrying obligations she has never learned to put down. The book runs on dual POV in third person, which lets you watch each woman badly misread the same conversation from opposite sides.
What Makes This Sapphic Second-Chance Rom-Com Work
- The chemistry: The most consistently praised element by a distance. Readers call the attraction immediate and sustained, and USA Today singled out Bellefleur’s willingness to let both women openly yearn.
- Margot herself: Blunt, caustic and loyal, she is repeatedly named as reviewers’ favourite character in the whole trilogy — rare for a series’ last lead.
- The comedy: StoryGraph readers tag the book “funny” at 67%, and one particular scene involving a cat is the single most-cited moment in the reviews.
- The friend group: All three couples get screen time, and readers who came through the trilogy describe the reunion as the reason the ending works.
- The prose: The one thing nobody attacks. Library Journal’s starred review praises the “sparkling prose, heartfelt dialogue,” and even the harshest reader reviews concede the writing is good.
Book Synopsis
Margot Cooper has watched every one of her closest friends pair off, and she has an answer ready for anyone who asks when her turn is coming. She does not do relationships. She tried once, and the wreckage was thorough enough to settle the question permanently. So when she is drafted as Best Woman for Brendon and Annie’s wedding and dragged along to tour venues, the plan is to be supportive, be funny, and be somewhere else by evening.
The wedding planner turns out to be Olivia Grant. Eleven years earlier Olivia was Margot’s best friend and then, for one week, considerably more, before everything collapsed and neither of them ever said why. Since then Olivia has married her high-school boyfriend, divorced him, and moved to Seattle to restart a career from close to nothing. This wedding is the account that decides whether that restart works.
Then Olivia’s living situation falls apart and Margot, who is a Very Good Person and has no other motives whatsoever, offers up her spare room. What follows is a wedding season in close quarters with the one person who knows exactly what Margot is like underneath the deflection — and who has her own reasons for not asking the question that would settle everything. Both of them remember what happened eleven years ago. Neither remembers it the same way.
My Review
This is the funniest book in the trilogy and the one with the best lead, and I want to establish that before I complain, because the complaint takes a while. Margot Cooper is a genuinely good character — the defensive one-liner as a load-bearing wall, a woman whose whole social function is being the one who is fine. Bellefleur writes her with affection and precision, and the friend group is used properly rather than wheeled on.
The prose is the other genuine pleasure, worth saying plainly because it is unusual for a book with this much reader friction. Two trade outlets starred it: Library Journal called it a warm hug of a queer contemporary romance and singled out the dialogue, and Booklist praised the same qualities. Readers who disliked the book almost never blame the sentences.
Where it struggles is the engine, and this is not a minor objection from a handful of readers — it is the single most repeated criticism in the reviews, to the point that one Amazon reviewer titled hers “Miscommunication: The Book.” The whole plot is powered by Margot’s refusal to clarify one thing, and that same refusal ended the friendship eleven years earlier, so one withheld sentence carries both timelines. The falling-in-love happened off the page, leaving the present-day relationship built almost entirely out of physical chemistry. Several readers put it bluntly: the two of them are not really talking until the final chapters. Then the third act arrives at speed — “rushed” is the second most repeated word in the reviews, with the epilogue credited for the closure the ending does not supply.
Two expectations to reset. Amazon’s subtitle promises best friends turned lovers; this is a second chance about a friendship that ended in a one-week disaster over a decade ago, so if you came for the slow build, the build is backstory. And the tone runs darker than the packaging: 86% of StoryGraph readers tag the book lighthearted, but the same readers file emotional abuse and a toxic relationship as graphic content warnings. It is a rom-com with more bruising in it than the cover admits.
My honest note: The best-written and funniest book of the three, running on a conflict that one direct question would dissolve. If withheld-information plots make you want to shout at the page, this is the wrong book. If you are here for Margot, the jokes and a proper goodbye to the friend group, it is the strongest the trilogy gets.
| Element | In Count Your Lucky Stars |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Margot Cooper & Olivia Grant — commitment-averse grump and divorced wedding planner, reunited first loves |
| Core tropes | Second chance, friends-to-lovers, grumpy-sunshine, forced proximity, roommates, found family |
| Setting | Seattle, across the wedding season leading up to Brendon and Annie’s wedding |
| Heat level | 4/5 — explicit open door |
| Series | Written in the Stars book 3 of 3 — the trilogy’s finale, complete arc and an HEA, reads standalone |
| Content notes | Explicit sexual content, emotional abuse, toxic relationship, infidelity, parental illness and medical content, alcohol, death of a parent |
How Spicy Is Count Your Lucky Stars?
A 4/5. romance.io places it in the “explicit open door” band — one notch below the top, reserved for books where the sex is graphic and recurring rather than occasional — and StoryGraph readers file sexual content as this book’s single graphic content warning. Readers treat the spice as a headline feature; one Amazon reviewer warns off anyone who does not want to be turned on.
The element worth flagging is not a kink but a proportion. A recurring criticism is that the sex crowds out the conversation the plot needs — the leads are intimate long before they are honest, and more than one reader found the physical relationship doing work the emotional one should have done. A couple of reviewers note repetitive phrasing inside the scenes. Beyond that, no reviewer I found flags specific kink content. For this level of heat elsewhere, The Fiancée Farce and Delilah Green Doesn’t Care sit in the same band.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you read rom-coms for the jokes and the friend group, you want a guarded grump who is funny about it, you want explicit heat in a low-angst package, and you came through the earlier books for the reunion.
You may want to skip it if: withheld-information plots infuriate you, you need the falling-in-love shown rather than referred to, you want the slow friends-to-lovers build the blurb promised, or you want a third act with room to breathe.
In short: the best-written book of the trilogy, built on the one plot device most likely to ruin it for you.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (August 2026)
The unusual thing about this book’s reception is how well it was reviewed and how little argument it generated. Four trade outlets covered it — Booklist and Library Journal both starred, Publishers Weekly and BookPage both positive — LibraryReads made it a February 2022 pick, USA Today gave it four stars, and the Seattle Times ran a feature marking the trilogy’s close. Reddit treats it as furniture rather than a topic: searches of r/RomanceBooks and r/sapphicbooks turned up no dedicated discussion thread, only recommendation threads for grumpy-sunshine sapphic romance, spicy WLW with a plot, and second-chance friends-to-lovers, where it recurs steadily. Wider Reddit searches were rate-limited and did not complete, so read that as two subreddits checked rather than the whole site.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Chemistry first and by a clear margin — it is what the five-star reviews name, and what USA Today, Paste and every blog review I read name too. Then Margot, who a striking number of readers call their favourite character of the trilogy. Then the humour, and specifically one scene involving a cat, which comes up more often than any other moment in the book. Readers who finished the series praise the send-off: all three couples appear and the epilogue is repeatedly called the best part. Olivia being divorced draws its own appreciation.
Lauren Sweet’s narration has a following carried over from book one. She reads the whole trilogy for HarperAudio, runs about eleven hours here, and released alongside the book on 1 February 2022 — listeners who liked her on Written in the Stars follow her over.
Prefer audio? Listen to Count Your Lucky Stars on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
What readers argue about and complain about: Miscommunication, above everything. It dominates the low-star reviews, it is named in four-star reviews that otherwise loved the book, an Audible listener flags that the device recurs, and one Amazon review is titled nothing but “Miscommunication: The Book.” The mechanism is specific: Margot never asks or answers one question, that same silence is what broke the friendship eleven years earlier, and the book leans on it for both timelines instead of showing the rebuild. Second: the rushed ending, named by four separate low-star reviewers, who describe the final stretch as a train with no brakes. Third, and connected: the physical relationship outruns the emotional one, with several readers observing that the two women barely talk until the last chapters. Beyond that, two reviewers call the characters flat, and one names the book’s whiteness directly — which StoryGraph’s crowd backs up, splitting 41% yes against 37% no on whether the cast is diverse. Opinions divide on pace: some praise the absence of the flashback whiplash second-chance romances usually suffer, others found the middle boring.
The series question everyone should ask first: this is the finale and it finishes the job. Margot and Olivia get a happily-ever-after, the trilogy closes, and readers consistently say it works as a standalone. The interesting part is the middle. Book two, Hang the Moon, is Brendon’s and it is male-female; it sits at 3.77 across 20,674 Goodreads ratings, while this book, sapphic again, has 29,221 at 3.94 — roughly 8,500 more. Readers of book one are skipping straight here, and the ratings suggest they are right to.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Count Your Lucky Stars end on a cliffhanger?
No. It is the trilogy’s finale, Margot and Olivia get a happily-ever-after, and the epilogue ties off all three couples. The recurring complaint is the opposite: readers find the resolution rushed and say the epilogue does the ending’s work.
Do you need to read the first two books first?
No. Each book follows a different couple and this one reads alone, though you lose the returning friend group. Book two is the male-female entry and most readers skip it: it sits at 3.77 across 20,674 Goodreads ratings against this book’s 3.94 across 29,221.
How spicy is Count Your Lucky Stars?
A 4/5. romance.io places it in the “explicit open door” band, one below the top, and StoryGraph readers file sexual content as the book’s only graphic content warning. Some readers feel the scenes crowd out the emotional conversation.
Is it really a friends-to-lovers romance?
Only partly, and it is the most common expectation mismatch. Amazon’s subtitle sells best friends turned lovers, but the friendship ended eleven years before page one — what you get is a second chance between two people reconstructing who the other has become.
Is there an audiobook?
Yes — Lauren Sweet for HarperAudio, about eleven hours, released 1 February 2022 alongside the print edition. Sweet narrated all three books and her performance has a following of its own.
If You Loved Count Your Lucky Stars, Read These Next
The obvious next step is backwards: Written in the Stars is book one, gives you Elle and Darcy at the same heat level, and swaps the second chance for fake dating. If it was Bellefleur’s voice rather than these characters that got you, The Fiancée Farce is her highest-rated novel and runs a marriage-of-convenience engine in the same register. And if grumpy-sunshine was the draw, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care gives you a sharper, angrier grump at the same explicit heat.
For more in this register, browse our second chance lesbian romance reading list or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Count Your Lucky Stars is the book this trilogy needed to end on, and it very nearly is. The prose is the best in the series and two trade outlets starred it, Margot is the strongest lead of the three books, and the friend-group reunion gives the whole thing a proper landing. It is also built on a single withheld conversation, resolved at a sprint, between two women whose reconnection is asserted more often than shown. Whether that trade works depends entirely on your tolerance for miscommunication as a plot engine — but if you can take it, this is the funniest and best-written entry in the series. Check Count Your Lucky Stars on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Count Your Lucky Stars ranks as a polished, warm-hearted trilogy closer — the funniest and best-written book of its series, held back by a conflict one honest question would end, and best approached for Margot and the friend group rather than for the second-chance arc itself.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ 3.94 average across 29,221 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ Starred by Booklist and Library Journal
- ✓ Highest-rated book of its trilogy
- ✓ Miscommunication dominates the criticism
Romance ★★★★☆ 4.1/5
- ✓ Chemistry is the near-unanimous strength
- ✓ Both leads openly yearn, per USA Today
- ✓ No flashback whiplash, unusual for second chance
- ✓ The falling-in-love happened off the page
Characters ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Margot named favourite of the trilogy repeatedly
- ✓ 87% of StoryGraph readers found the cast loveable
- ✓ Returning friend group used properly
- ✓ Kirkus calls the leads less developed than the series’
Writing ★★★★☆ 4.2/5
- ✓ Two starred trade reviews for the prose
- ✓ 67% of StoryGraph readers tag it funny
- ✓ Even the harshest reviews spare the sentences
- ✓ Repetitive phrasing inside the sex scenes
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Olivia’s divorce carries real weight
- ✓ Margot’s fear of abandonment is honest
- ✓ 54% of StoryGraph readers tag it emotional
- ✓ Stakes dissolve the moment anyone speaks
Heat Level ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ romance.io’s explicit open door band
- ✓ StoryGraph’s only graphic content warning
- ✓ Readers treat spice as a headline feature
- ✓ Crowds out the conversation the plot needs
Ending ★★★★☆ 3.5/5
- ✓ Complete HEA, no cliffhanger
- ✓ All three couples get a send-off
- ✓ Epilogue is widely named the best part
- ✓ Rushed is the second most repeated complaint
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Series finale pulls readers back through all three
- ✓ Lauren Sweet’s audio is a strong second pass
- ✓ The cat scene has genuine rewatch value
- ✓ The misunderstanding loses tension once known
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