Review: The Stars We Steal

The Stars We Steal 
Rating: 3/5 
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Engagement season is in the air. Eighteen-year-old Princess Leonie “Leo” Kolburg, heir to a faded European spaceship, only has one thing on her mind: which lucky bachelor can save her family from financial ruin? 

But when Leo’s childhood friend and first love Elliot returns as the captain of a successful whiskey ship, everything changes. Elliot was the one that got away, the boy Leo’s family deemed to be unsuitable for marriage. Now, he’s the biggest catch of the season and he seems determined to make Leo’s life miserable. But old habits die hard, and as Leo navigates the glittering balls of the Valg Season, she finds herself failing for her first love in a game of love, lies, and past regrets.

I really enjoyed Brightly Burning; Donne's sci-fi retelling of Jane Eyre, and I was excited to see what she was going to do next...well here it is! The Stars We Steal is another sci-fi retelling, this one being a retelling of Persuasion which I'm fairly sure I did get around to reading back in the day but I'm not entirely sure! 

The Stars We Steal launches right in with the reappearance of Elliot and we quickly get to grips with Leo and her situation as well as the way things stand in the world of the book. That being that Earth is frozen and everyone is up in space waiting for it to thaw. While there's no time wasted at the beginning of the book as the story starts straight away, the book continues to be fast paced throughout as well as fun, easy to read and very easy to get lost in. 

I liked Leo well enough. She admits her faults, I guess which is pretty much the only things I have to say about her. I did love Evgenia, however, perhaps more than I liked Leo and I would have liked to have seen a lot more of her but she wasn't our main character so. Carina was also pretty unlikeable as a character BUT my opinion of her did change as the book went on and I actually ended up quite liking her. The sisterly bond she had with Leo was enjoyable too and they had a couple of sweet moments. As for our love interest Elliot, I felt that we didn't really spend that much time with him and I don't really have a lot to say about him. 

There is lots of representation which is a point in favour of the book. The world building was solid enough for the book and I enjoyed the setting and the world that was created though we didn't go into too much depth. Although I did feel that sometimes there was a bit too much telling rather than showing throughout. 

My biggest issue with the book would be the ending though. It threw me a little because I was expecting to see everything play out but instead we had the epilogue and then time jumped two weeks on from the explosive reveals which left me feeling quite disappointed and very unsatisfied all in all. Which is a shame because despite its flaws I did enjoy this book, the ending just let it down more than anything else. 

Was it perfect? No. I wasn't too attached to the characters and don't have a lot to say about them. But it was easy to read, fun to an extent and it kept my attention with the easy to read writing style. In fact I easily binged 200 pages of this in one day. 

Review: Brightly Burning

Brightly Burning
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Seventeen-year-old Stella Ainsley wants just one thing: to go somewhere—anywhere—else. Her home is a floundering spaceship that offers few prospects, having been orbiting an ice-encased Earth for two hundred years. When a private ship hires her as a governess, Stella jumps at the chance. The captain of the Rochester, nineteen-year-old Hugo Fairfax, is notorious throughout the fleet for being a moody recluse and a drunk. But with Stella he’s kind.

But the Rochester harbors secrets: Stella is certain someone is trying to kill Hugo, and the more she discovers, the more questions she has about his role in a conspiracy threatening the fleet. 

I'm going to straight up tell you guys that Brightly Burning is a retelling of Jane Eyre and I had to read the original when I was in school....and I actually liked it okay!? So I was super eager to get my hands on this and I eagerly dove in and read it in one go. Because I have no self control, and it was really entertaining! 

I loved Stella immediately, she loves book, she's bold and she had a nice attitude. She wouldn't be walked all over and she was intelligent and I was fully on Team Stella. Hugo...I knew I was going to like him from his first line. He and Stella bond over their love of books, but he can't really handle his alcohol....not that you can blame him for drinking to be honest. He's also kinda relatable because he also prefers to be alone! Shoutout to Rori, the ships AI, because she was a brilliant touch! 

The other characters are an eclectic yet brilliant bunch, Iris, Sergei, Orion, Jon, Bianca (who I was prepared to hate and kind of did in the beginning but she turned it around in the end), I loved getting to know them and they brought some fun and life to the story. 

Brightly Burning is a brilliant reimagining/twist on Jane Eyre and I loved it, I dived in with high expectations and it exceeded all of them. I loved how things where twisted and changed and I loved anytime I spotted something or a reference to the original! I freaking loved The Rochester too, it had brilliantly creepy vibes at points. 

The world building was very well done and it was an intriguing world too, the set up with the whole "is Earth inhabitable? Do we go back down or carry on floating up here?" complete with a shady government dude. Which added a tonne of intrigue along with the mystery with the virus and the Rochester and so on. For me, it was an original/unique world and I liked the detail and depth it had, as did the characters. 

Brightly Burning has a fast pace, and there's never a dull moment. I got fully hooked and read it in one go, the plot kept me reading, as did the romance and the humour. It was a wild ride and it kept me fully entertained and I shouted at the books multiple times whenever a twist happened. Some of them may have been a smidge predictable, but it was still an entertaining and enjoyable read! I have to say, the story was beautifully wrapped up too....although I think there's room for a sequel, and I wouldn't say no to one!