The Stargazers

by Ava Lauren Grayson

On Earth, you live. On Luella, you survive.

Attending an elite NASA training program, the American Space Academy, in 1999, Julia Mastroff, Ky Nolan, Natalie Díaz, and Milo Fry become the newest members of The Stargazers Project, a top secret program that creates working teenage astronauts.

On a test mission, The Stargazers’s space shuttle is sucked into a portal and they crash on a magical planet with a past of its own. Now stranded somewhere in the universe and threatened by fae hunters, unidentified creatures, and secrets beyond their imagination, they must find a way to survive or a way to get back home.

But it gets even more complicated when Julia is saved by a Luarian hunter and she discovers she has magical abilities she did not possess before. With love entanglements and betrayals, The Stargazers must survive the creatures hunting them and unravel the mystery of the truth behind The Stargazers Project. Julia can’t and won’t leave Luella until she finds out exactly what her destiny is.

“A lively space adventure with enchanting worlds and twists I didn’t see coming!” – Livia Blackburne, NYT Bestselling author of MIDNIGHT THIEF and ROSEMARKED (Disney-Hyperion)

Genres: Fantasy

Hardcover

Expected publication September 15, 2026

About the author

AVA LAUREN GRAYSON is an award-winning author, director, and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. Grayson graduated from ArtCenter College of Design’s Undergraduate Film program with Distinction. She has worked as an editor at Quill and Flame Publishing House and founded her own production company, Hip Librarian Productions. She is a debut author with Quill and Flame Publishing House and has worked on over sixty films from award-winning shorts to features.

Grayson is passionate about blending fantasy with historical comedy, writing kick-butt female heroines, and making you enjoy tragic romances. If she's not writing or directing, you can probably find her rewatching The Empire Strikes Back or putting together an overly-elaborate photoshoot.

Reviews

[thepemberleyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Stargazers by Ava Lauren Grayson is a page-turning, stay-up-all-night-to-read adventure into another galaxy. The book is told through four POVs of teenage astronauts, Julia, Ky, Natalie, and Milo and each brings their own personality to the page with Julia the Commander being brave to the point of reckless at times, Ky the Mechanic, a secretive misunderstood bad boy, Natalie the trustworthy Engineer bringing the most reliable grounded POV, and Milo the Astronomer with his nervous rantings, the comedic relief. Altogether, they create a family of friends with a dynamic that shifts and swirls throughout the story. Set in 1999, the four teens have been selected as an elite team to travel to the moon, but something goes wrong and they crash land on an unknown planet. As they try to survive against unknown elements and strange creatures, they begin to unravel the mystery of The Stargazers Project. The character arcs take the four teenagers from thinking mostly of themselves to thinking about each other as it takes being lost in another galaxy to truly find themselves. Ultimately though, this is Julia’s story and her journey. She is the heart of the book, and she literally transforms from the beginning to the end.

Without giving any spoilers, there are dangers at every turn on this planet but also incredible beauty. A slow burn romance between Julia and Ky is complicated by secrets and conflicting loyalties and a rival for Julia’s affections. Spoiler Alert: I am 100% Team Ky.

The dialogue is very cinematic and really moves the story forward, as do the cliff hanger endings of each chapter while the world building is extraordinary and really takes the reader on an immersive and thrilling ride.

“His eyes search mine for a quick second before he tangles his fingers—the same ones that wrapped around mine only moments ago—in my hair and pulls my lips to his. And I forget about everything we’ve endured. I forget about the crash, the doom of us being trapped here, the threat on our lives, the pressure to solve impossibilities.”

Can’t wait for Book 2 of The Stargazers!

The book is clean content and suitable for teen readers.

[Erin Darling · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The premise immediately caught my attention, and one thing I can absolutely say is that the author has a vivid imagination. There's clear ambition behind the worldbuilding and concept.

Unfortunately, the execution didn't work for me. I ran into frequent errors that made the reading experience difficult, including not only occasional typos and grammar/punctuation issues, but also awkward syntax and a number of continuity inconsistencies that pulled me out of the story. I also noticed that the title on the cover appears differently from the title listed on Goodreads and elsewhere, which added to the sense that this ARC was not fully polished.

Another issue I struggled with throughout was the multi-POV structure. One POV in particular felt unnecessary, and the POV shifting every chapter affected the pacing, especially early on. In some sections, the narrative leaned too heavily on backstory, which made the opening feel slower and more exposition-heavy than I would have liked.

As someone who was a teenager in 1999, I found the dialogue and internal monologue of the teen characters to be anachronistic for the time period, which made the setting less convincing for me.

I also had trouble with some of the story's internal logic. While I'm very open to sci-fi fantasy asking readers to suspend disbelief, the story is framed within a recognizable 1990s Earth setting and references real-world institutions like NASA, so I needed the worldbuilding to feel more convincingly rooted in that reality. Here, some plot points felt underdeveloped in ways that made them harder to accept.

That said, the planet itself was imaginative, and I could see the creativity behind the author's vision. Ultimately, though, the number of mechanical, structural, and continuity issues made it difficult for me to stay fully engaged. While I can appreciate the ambition of the concept, this was not a successful read for me.

[Leiana Day]

DNF 10%. I hate dnfing indie books, but I couldn't connect with any of the four main characters. They seemed selfish and immature, and I wasn't interested enough in the story to overlook this.

The rest of the review contains spoilers.
Let's start with Julia. She ignored her instructor and could've died (should've died, according to conventional logic), and then she has the audacity to sass him and roll her eyes when he's understandably just worried about her safety. Then she proceeds to abandon her mom and little brother for astronaut school, breaking her mom's heart in the process. Not cool. Being rude to authority figures to "follow your heart" is one of my absolute least favorite microtropes.

Then we have Ky. The "bad boy". Drives a Harley, wears a leather jacket, has a criminal record, the works... except then he describes a girl's eyes as "bluish silver with a hint of lavender" and is quick to tell a shy kid "I'm not gonna hurt you, I swear" (which seems at odds with the bad boy persona he's clearly worked to build up). He just doesn't act like boys act.

There's Natalie. She's the closest I came to liking a character; the type-A who's an organized planner. Then she yells at her roommate and doesn't bother apologizing. Just says she hopes they can be friends. Which is a huge red flag in any relationship.

Finally, Milo, the anxiety-ridden astronomer. This one's purely personal preference: I've never liked wimpy boys, and Milo is no exception.

So that pretty much sums it up. Wish I could've liked it more, but the characters just didn't do it for me.

[Jennifer Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic, swoony, mysterious, and binge-worthy. The Stargazers kept me not only turning pages but thinking about the characters and the story. With a delightful ensemble cast of deeply-drawn characters, this book pulls you in from page one and doesn't let you go even after the last page. (That last page has me counting the days until I can get book two!)

Julia, Ky, Natalie, and Milo each have such unique voices and elements of charm. Even when they're making decisions you don't agree with, you GET it. You understand why, and you feel so deeply for them. And that mystery... No spoilers, but I wondered what was up with character XXX, and was worried about so many things along the way, but was still surprised when all the dominoes started falling. Don't miss this one!!!!!!

AHHHHH! What can I say? The Stargazers is exactly the kind of science fantasy I love to read - the perfect blend of action-packed sci-fi and fantasy. Perfect for fans of Star Wars, Firefly, Avatar, and Aurora Rising.

[Nikolai Kreiling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t even know where to begin with my review because there aren’t enough words without spoiling it! I freely admit that after finishing the last page I ended up DMing with one of the other ARC readers who also finished at about the same time and we just screamed about it for a few minutes, haha

I was intrigued by the idea of space travel meets Lord of the Rings, and this was brilliantly done and exceeded all expectations.

Everyone has secrets and then the secrets are even more complicated than anything I suspected. When I started to figure out who the villain is, I don’t actually even know the half of it. Everytime I thought I knew where the story was headed, I was blindsided with a new twist.

I absolutely recommend this book!

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you @ for the ARC opportunity!! This is my honest review.💕🫶🏻

Julia, Ky, Natalie, and Milo are the newest members of the Stargazers Project, and when a test mission goes wrong, landing them on a mysterious planet, they must not only find a way home but also fight to survive against the creatures living there 🌌🛸👽

Whew, what a wild ride this book was 🔥 I loved everything about it, the action, the characters… looking at you, Milo 👀💙 It was fast paced and my goodness, each chapter just sucks you in. I couldn’t put it down. I NEEDED to know what happened next 🫣

If you’re a fan of enemies-to-lovers, survival adventure, magic/fairytales, and a Star Wars meets LOTR vibe, don’t miss out on this amazing book and add it to your TBR 📚

[Kat M]

Ava Lauren Grayson does an amazing job in writing a really good space opera story. It had that world-building that I was hoping for and enjoyed from the first page and thought the overall feel worked as a start to this series. I cared about the characters and what was going on during the story. It uses the NASA elements and other planets perfectly and I didn't feel like the other planets were just a copy of Earth. I was invested in the characters and am glad I got to read this and hope to read more from the author and from this series.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Sierra Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Literally the first book I have everrrr DNF’d. I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t.

The author is very imaginative and clearly wants/tries with her world building, but it just wasn’t quite there for me. I understand it is sci-fi, but so much within the little I read was so far outside of logical.

The dialogue seems out of touch for the timeframe of the story.

The characters seemed flat and very self absorbed.

The book itself is full of too many errors. Grammatical, structural, etc. Normally, I can look over these when they are few and far between. However, there were too many to overlook. I sincerely hope this gets a strong edit before the final release.

[Emily Hourihan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Milo, ky, and Julia. I loved luarins/ the aliens in the book. I love ardon. I loved the writing and exploring space. I thought that the world building was great. The pacing was great. I also loved how we were exploring and going on a space mission in the beginning. Then at the end, we landed in another planet/world. I loved the cliffhanger at the end and can’t wait for book twos I also wonder if Julia is going to be exploring where she comes from in the next book because that would be interesting. I also loved the love triangle/romance. I would definitely read the sequel. I want to thank the author for giving me the earc early. Overall, a great read.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really fun and engaging YA read. Milo was my favorite character and I love his journal at the end of creatures to run the heck away from. I never felt bored during this book. It held my attention the whole time.

[Hope Griffin Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

pending

[Lecia Kade · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐2.25

Review soon™️

[V. Romas Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whimsical and fast-paced story perfect for any sci-fi lover!