What odd choices! That's my initial impression of The Stargazer's Sister, a novel based on the life of Caroline Herschel, astronomer and assistant to her illustrious brother William (discoverer of the planet Uranus). Brown makes several significant changes to the historical record (most notably, deleting the existence of William's son and notable scientist John Herschel), adds several imagined characters (two of whom are inserted to give Caroline's life some romance), and omits some of the documented events in Caroline's life that I personally find most interesting.
Overall, I still found this a relatively engaging novel, especially as it made me think about the entire genre of historical fiction. Obviously there are always gaps in the historical record, which is where the imagination of the historical novelist comes in. Perhaps just as obviously what draws an author to a particular subject will be the aspects of that subject that they find more interesting -- which may or may not align with the reader's interests.
Which is to say that Carrie Brown is most concerned with Caroline's internal life, especially her intense devotion to her brother and to his work, and she is not as concerned with Caroline's intellectual life and with her scientific accomplishments. Personally, I found this disappointing. The Stargazer's Sister is not the book of Caroline Herschel's life that I would have written, or that I would have preferred to read. That doesn't make it a bad novel, but I would warn readers primarily interested in the Herschels to read some nonfiction instead (like The Georgian Star, which is quite engaging), or even Caroline Herschel's memoir.
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