A laugh-out-loud LGBTQ+ romantic comedy from a stellar debut talent.

Life is fraught for fourteen-year-old, zodiac-obsessed Cat. First there’s a minor bus-meets-girl accident, then there’s a boy-next-door suitor who can’t take a hint, but the most desperate disaster of all is Cat’s crush on the stunning and poetic Alison Bridgewater.

According to their star charts, Cat and Alison are the perfect match. To which Alison (woe alas!) remains oblivious.

But when the dangerously cool Morgan Delaney wades into the river to save Cat’s sketchbook of kissing Disney princesses, she sends Cat’s stars spinning.

Can Cat get over her Alison obsession and follow her heart towards Morgan? Or should she exercise caution? After all, Morgan is a Gemini, and if there’s one thing Cat’s Bible to the Stars has taught her it’s that you can never – ever – trust a Gemini…

Never Trust a Gemini by Freja Nicole Woolf is a YA book that I feel is marketed toward the younger end of the genre. The protagonist, fourteen-year-old Cat Phillips is in love with one of her friends, Alison Bridgewater, who Cat doesn’t realise isn’t into girls. Cat follows her horoscope religiously and has a horoscopes bible that she lets guide her life.

Throughout the book, we witness Cat in many surreal and awkward situations as she navigates her feelings, her home life, and her school life.

Never Trust a Gemini is told in numerous parts, all of which are named after different horoscope seasons. The plot felt current and somewhat realistic whilst Cat must be the clumsiest person going given all the situations she finds herself in or that she causes, like being hit by a bus or setting fire to her home. There is plenty of humour within the pages, plus, quite a few roll-your-eyes moments and cringy scenes too.

There were a few things that irked me a little about this book including how many times Alison’s name was mentioned – 7 times on the first page alone (and it wasn’t even a full page of writing) and that Cat is part of a clicky female group who were nasty to those outside of their group which isn’t something to be celebrated and made to sound like fun. However, Cat and the girls do change throughout the book and were not half as nasty by the end.

If you love your horoscopes and YA books then you may love this book. It is a quick, easy read and the chapter titles will give you a good giggle.

Freja Nicole Woolf is a recent graduate from London College of Fashion who has been writing novels and poetry since elementary school. She wrote Never Trust a Gemini, her debut novel, so that young LGBTQ+ people can see themselves in books that aren’t centered on issue-led trauma. Freja Nicole Woolf lives in the UK.