I was really excited to read a romance with an astronaut protagonist as it's something that you don't typically see in the contemporary romance genre. I was really impressed with the author's attention to detail when describing Chris' experience in outer space as well as his inner dialogue regarding his challenging acclimatization back on earth. I learned a lot of interesting things about astronauts while reading this novel, and one thing in particular that I really appreciated was the fact that Samantha Young didn't just sugarcoat and romanticize it. Not only did we see the rewarding side of Chris' job, but we also saw the realistic difficulties that people in the field may go through.
Captain Christopher Ortiz was such an endearing hero. He very much has the "Golden Boy" image because of his high profile job and social media popularity, but secretly he's lost in many ways. He poured his heart and soul into making it to outer space to honor his late brother, but now that he achieved that unimaginably difficult goal at such a young age, he's at a crossroads.
For years I’d had focus, I’d had goals,and now that I had none of that,it was like the nineteen years sinceshe’d passed were but months.
Not only does he feel conflicted about continuing his career at NASA, his personal life is simultaneously in shambles. Chris is not one of these commitment-phobe, womanizing jerks whom you see all too much in romance. He's that long-term relationship unicorn guy who's an all-around good person. Which makes it all the more awful that the woman he cared about selfishly cheated on him. Another issue Chris has is his broken relationship with his father. Their relationship has been toxic for some time, and causes him a lot of frustration and turmoil. While he wishes they could somehow bridge the huge gap between them, there's a lot of built up resentment and anger towards his father that he doesn't know how to get past. All of this is weighing heavily on his mind when he meets Hallie.
Hallie Goodman has an unhealthy relationship with her parents as well, but rather than avoiding them like Chris does with his father, she tries to slap a band-aid on the situation by putting up with their childish behavior. Seriously, the parents in this book were absolutely horrific. Trust me, you're going to be internally screaming at the sheer audacity of their abuse. Hallie's issue in dealing with her parents is that she's anti-confrontation and pro-placater. In other words, she's a tragic people pleaser who doesn't know how to say no. She often puts herself in the middle of very uncomfortable and unfair situations in order to make others happy, but ends up making herself miserable. Some might say that this could turn her into a bit of a doormat with those who knowingly take advantage of her kindness, but the one thing that saves her from that is her self-awareness. She is completely cognizant of the fact that she has a problem, and she would like to adjust her behavior, but unfortunately she doesn't know how.
She was messy but cute. And from what I could tell,her life was messy and not cute. Just like mine.Though my messy was an empty kind of messy,while hers was mostly definitely becauseshe had too many things going on.
Chris and Hallie have a unique meet-cute over private video messages. The unusual thing is that neither one of them know that the other person is watching their videos. Hallie stumbles across Chris' messages to his ex (her client), and she knows she shouldn't watch them, but she's incredibly drawn to his humor and vulnerability. Chris receives her videos that are more of a personal diary, but she is emailing them to him thinking that they are all bouncing back to her with him none the wiser. When they finally do meet in person, Hallie immediately comes clean about her transgression, but Chris is too afraid to confess because he fears that she'll write him off before they have a chance to really get to know each other. Obviously starting a friendship rooted in deception is not going to end well, and becoming romantically involved further complicates Chris' predicament. I give him major points however for keeping her in the friend zone until he can drum up the nerve to tell her the truth. On a positive note, this creates a lot of anticipation and tension as they both grow deep feelings for one another that they have to keep bottled up.
There was something about her . . . I felt likeI could trust her, and there weren’t many peoplewho came into my life I felt certain about like that.That seemed worth exploring, even if only in a friendship.
I love how Chris accepted Hallie's awkwardness, but also helped her become confident enough to avoid those awful situations by setting boundaries with people. Aside from one really good friend at work, she hasn't had anyone in her corner who is rooting for her to live her best life. This couple's relationship developed naturally and realistically with low drama/angst. That's not to say that there weren't any conflicts, there were, but the two of them handled things in a pretty straightforward way.
A Cosmic Kind of Love was funny, unique, and super sweet. Hallie was the goofy, quirky girl that everyone sells short who somehow snags one of the most eligible bachelors out there. How can you resist that kind of opposites attract theme? Also, if you're a fan of friends to lovers books, this one will most likely hit the mark. I think this couple will very easily win you over.
My whole life I’d done the chasing, the people-pleasing.No one had ever chased me. No one had ever prioritized methe way I was willing to prioritize them. Until now.