5 Star Review - American Girl on Saturn by Nikki Godwin

Title: American Girl on Saturn

Series: Saturn #1
Author: Nikki Godwin
Release Date: August 29, 2013

Pages: 341

Goodreads Rating: 4.25 stars

My Rating: 5/5 stars

My Content Rating: PG (Nothing more than kissing)

Summary from Goodreads: The summer after graduation is supposed to be that first real taste of freedom - but not for eighteen-year-old Chloe Branson. Just as that breeze of freedom is making its way into her galaxy, her secret-service-agent dad drops a meteor-sized bomb of bad news on her and her sisters. An attempt has been made on the lives of Canadian boyband, Spaceships Around Saturn, during their USA tour, and the guys have to go into hiding ASAP. The only problem? In the midst of the crisis and media frenzy, their dad volunteered to hide the guys...in their house.

Six-year-old Emery is as ecstatic as any self-proclaimed Saturnite would be, but Chloe and her seventeen-year-old sister Aralie watch their summer plans crash and burn like a falling star. The SAS guys aren't happy with the situation, either. Bad boy Jules picks fights with Aralie about everything from his Twitter followers to his laundry, and heart-throb Benji can't escape Emery's fangirlisms for more than three minutes.

But after the super-cute Milo kisses Chloe during a game of hide-and-seek, she finally understands what Emery means when she talks about SAS being "out of this world." If this is what Saturn feels like, Chloe doesn't want to come back to Earth.

I featured this book on my blog last year and something about it really captured my attention.  I absolutely LOVE the cover and the story just seemed so sweet - plus it reminded me of a similar book that I read last year called Unmaking Hunter Kennedy, which I loved, so I just had to buy it!  So glad I did because this book was amazing!!

The synopsis describes the book pretty well, so I'll just jump directly to my review.

The negatives:

• Nothing life-changing.  Okay, this isn't the type of book that you read because you want to alter your perspective on life.  You can't go into it expecting to be profoundly moved or anything like that. It's just not that type of book (and it doesn't try to be) - it's about a boy band, for heaven's sake! Is it terribly realistic that the band needs to stay on lockdown with them for security reasons? No, not really - but this is total wish-fulfillment fantasy here, not necessarily realism. Still, what this book does, it does so well that I totally fell in love!

What I LOVED:

• Witty and expressive writing.  I swear that I highlighted half of this book!  There were so many lines that made me laugh or smile, and I just LOVED Godwin's writing style.  She found beautiful, fun and interesting ways to describe just about everything and I was completely taken in by her metaphors. Just her descriptions of the (pretty much constant) butterflies in Chloe's stomach were so much fun - by the end it felt like they were a character in the book!  It was pretty much impossible not to fall in love with Chloe, considering the unique ways she described things!
• The romance.  Everything about this book was pretty much sweep-you-off-your-feet romantic.  I mean, let's face it, what teenager hasn't at some point dreamed that a rock star, or famous actor, or boy band singer would somehow fall in love with them. I loved that Chloe thinks at first that she'll be immune to the boys' charms (after all, her little sister is in love with them, not her!) and then she totally falls for Milo! He's pretty much the perfect book boyfriend - swoony, talented and sweet. Their romance is full of stolen moments and midnight rendezvous where they share their love of music - and fireflies.  :-)
• Friends. Not only does Chloe find romance when the boys come to stay with her, but she gains an amazing friend too!  I thought that Chloe's friendship with Noah was easily as endearing as her romance with Milo. Can I be his friend too? 
• Family. Yay!!!!  A YA book that includes a whole family - and the parents aren't completely messed up or uninvolved in their kids' lives. What a refreshing change! Chloe's little sister Emery manages to be sweet and realistically annoying both at the same time, while her other sister Aralie is moody and hot-tempered (but also realistically so - I'm wondering if we'll get to see more of Aralie's story in a future book?).

If you're looking for a sweet romance, this is definitely the pick for you!  I loved it so much that I immediately went and bought book one of Godwin's other series (Chasing Forever Down, which Godwin says she loves even more than AGoS). Can't wait to read that one and the next book in the Saturn series (which isn't coming till next year). 5/5 Stars