I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Where to begin? I don't even know! This book, ya'll this book was amazing! I will be the first to admit that I'm a sucker for ya sci-fi. I don't even need a synopsis, it's an instant buy, every.time. So I read alot of this genre; but this book still managed to keep me up half the night, needing to know what happened, loving all the twist and turns.

I really enjoyed the sleeping beauty element. As well as the unique language of the characters. The world is ruled by cyborgs but in this story they are called "mocks." Another unique element was the passage of time. The story begins with humans ruling/owning mocks and then in the span of a hundred years, (while Talia sleeps) the humans become the oppressed and enslaved. It made for a slightly traumatizing moment when Talia realizes this world is much different from one she left.

This book also has the sweetest, slow-burn, beautiful to watch romance. BEAUTIFUL.

I loved it! Go read it and enjoy it!

This was such fun! I kept away from heavy sci-fi after reading the disappointing (to me, don't jump at me here ) Carve the Mark, so this brought me right back into the genre with a bang. It put me in mind of The Lunar Chronicles quite a bit (which is a sci-fi masterpiece), but this stood on it's own in story. To be honest though, that gorgeous cover was enough to make me hammer that request button on NetGalley.

The world building was spot on. At no point did I feel lost or detached from the story with terms, history or events. The progression of their reveal was well-done, a considerable feat in my option when you consider this was written by two people. For this, the dual POV worked really, *really* well. Ship captain Will shows us what life is like as a mock a hundred years after the fall of the Starchaser family, and princess Talia shows us what life is like as a human at the height of her family's power. The clashing of the two as the timelines merge together was just so well done!

I really enjoyed the cast of characters. When they mock crew were first introduced, I admit I had difficulty telling them apart. It was too much at once without any real distinguishing qualities. That said, as the story unravelled, I came to know each character well and had soft-spots for several of them. From hard ass Lux to the conflicted captain Will, I came to really love each character. I really liked Talia as the female main character as well. I wish we could have gotten a bit more inside her head though. The snippets we got of her past made me want to know more.

The only thing that kept this from being a five star read was that there were some connections missing. By this, I mean I felt a lack of there being transitions between character feelings. The shift from Talia disregarding mocks as lesser in status, and in turn the Odysseus' mock crew from accepting Talia and agreeing to wholeheartedly help her and the cause she ultimately comes to represent was a little too easy. The emotions, the thoughts, and perhaps that real pivotal event were either missing, glossed over, or not given the power they should have had. I think if the book were fifty pages longer, this issue could have been fixed easily.

I'm not clear if this is a series, but I certainly hope so, and I look forward to reading more!

Our Dark Stars by Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade

I was given this title throught NetGalley, in behalf of the publisher - Blaze Publishing. In return for my Honest Review. 4/5 🌟

Talia Starchaser was the next in line to take the throne of the seven planets. Her plan was to marry, a fly a starship with Ailat (her mock droid). However she knew at least part of that would never happen. Princesses don't fight wars. Not to mention she wasn't a fan of the oil Prince. No, it was what she did not know would happen, that changed everything.

After being sent into cryo sleep, and shot into space, Will Perrult came into her life. He and his crew found her pod years after. A scavenger ship captain, trying to redeem himself to the queen. Will however had secrets of his own. His demoted due to his human ways, and savagery, he was part human after all. Will had been hoping her pod was his big break, and their lives intertwine in ways they would have never thought.

Title is due to Release March 6, 2018.

Fun book! The whole plot line was very unique and I really liked how the story built up. There is Talia who is a human princess with a kind heart even though a bit of a bratty princess. She's not exactly loved by her family and forced to marry a guy no one would really want...Then when have a jump in the time line and under certain conditions she meets Will Perrault. That is where the real fun begins! Some have compared it to Lunar Chronicles, but I would not.

Our Dark Stars by Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade is an interesting read. Don't do what I do and actually pay attention to the dates. It's important otherwise you'll be finding out from Will that something isn't quite what it seems. I'm normally not a huge fan of space novels but it changed my mind and reminded me of the Lunar Chronicles. I fell in love with Will instantly and it took me a while to warm up to Talia. Although I do have a soft spot for especially when it comes to her screw ups. I will admit some of the things were predictable but there were a few twists to have me holding my breath.
If you are a fan of The Lunar Chronicles, Star Wars, and other space movie/novels then you'll definitely love this book.

I gave this book 4 stars. I actually read this one fairly quickly, I wanted to burn through a few books and this one is being released soon so I figured I would get on that one.

This book revealed to me a new trope that I found utterly frustrating. A female character who is privileged that is a spoiled brat, yet somehow still a doormat. I’ve noticed this a lot, there is this girl a lot of the time the daughter of someone really important and they think they’re better than everyone, but “not really” and they like bossing people around. Then the moment their parent or higher up tells them they have to do something, usually horrible, they jump to do what they want. I just don’t get it.

Now Talia did have some good qualities, she actually had a lot of skills that helped her out. She wasn’t completely useless when they were all fighting, but she did have a lot of character flaws that were just plain annoying.

I wish the authors had given us more background on the world and what exactly happened. We don’t really find out what happened between our current time and theirs. We can make obvious inferences, but that’s all we have, we don’t have any fact.

I think I would recommend this to those YA sci-fi lovers out there.

3.5 stars, solid fantasy tale that reminded me of Battlestar Galactica.

It's the future, humanity has taken to the stars after Earth was destroyed, robots and humans have been at war, and there is just one hope. The story is told from two points of view (one written by each author, I presume) and jumps between the past and present a bit. The writing is consistent, although it feels a bit disjointed at the start. There are little nuances that come through that probably would have been better told from first person rather than third since there are literally two different voices authoring the characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and while it reminded me of themes explored in sci-fi (particularly BSG) it brought its own creativity to the table of the genre. Unfortunately I found Talia's narrative point of view a bit more difficult to read, perhaps because of her inner monologue but I couldn't really place it. Will's POV seemed more fast paced and certainly less whiney, which considering this is YA I can forgive. What I had a difficult time with was some plot/continuity/logic holes that didn't seem to make sense: why Talia never thought to ask what a flesher was, why they didn't tell her what year it was, Talia's sudden distrustfulness/hate of mocks ("the last person she ever thought she'd received comfort from was a mock" which is disingenuous considering her best friend was one and earlier parts of her narrative indicate her struggling with reconciliation, if a brain was destroyed how are they the same person with their memories when made into a mock. It seemed that the only reason everyone was content to not clue the other in was for no other reason than to create conflict. I would be interested in seeing what is in store for Talia and Will moving forward and hope that this becomes a series.

This is one of those books you want to read due to the amazing cover but you never really think the story will be any good. I was wrong...each character has destinct traits & are well rounded . At times I did think I enjoyed some of the smaller background characters a little bit more then the stars of the story ...but all up, I loved this book !

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend if you are looking to get lost in a good story!

I first heard of Our Dark Stars when I was looking through Netgalley. At first, I was a bit hesitant to request this one. Though the synopsis interested me, I was hesitant to read it because the book is only 316 pages. For such a complex plot, I suspected at least 400 pages. Though I had my doubts, I enjoyed myself reading Our Dark Stars and I recommend it, despite the couple issues I had. Also real quick: that cover?! Hat's off to whomever designed that!


Our Dark Stars is a YA science fiction novel told in dual point of views. Talia Starchaser, a human, is set to inherit the galaxy. However, a party before her eighteenth birthday leaves her family and the fate of the galaxy in shambles. One hundred years later, Will Perrault and his crew find Talia in suspended sleep. Will is a half-mock. Mocks were servants to the humans when before Talia's birthday, but now they rule the galaxy instead. The roles of humans and mocks are reversed, and with Talia discovered, everything is subject to change.

The first thing I want to talk about are the friendships. Will and his crew have a close knit bond. Though some of these dynamics were convincing, I wasn't that invested. When a crew member was hurt or in peril, I didn't care. I didn't have enough time with each character or characters' interactions with each other to truly empathize with the story. The one friendship I really enjoyed reading about was Talia and Ailat's. Ailat was Talia's mock (before everything blew up in Talia's face, quite literally), and that is what struck a chord with me. Talia's struggle to see Ailat as her equal while having to traverse politics led for some great internal debates.

As you might have guessed, I definitely favored one point of view over another's. I don't know how the two authors wrote this; maybe they each wrote one POV or they collaborated, but I loved Talia's side of the story. I found her to be an interesting character to dive into the mind of, and I loved how her internal struggles were reflected into the external problems. Will, on the other hand, I didn't like that much. It's not that I hated him, but I just didn't care about him or his issues. He whines and pines for about half of the book about what could have been, and I had no patience with him. When I was reading the book, I found myself looking forward to Talia's chapters and just getting through Will's.

Maybe it was because of my bias, but I also thought Will's part of the story was confusing. Setting up a complex world is a lot to handle, and the ball was dropped a little. I completely understood Talia's POV, but then switching over to Will's gave me whiplash. Will and Talia's worlds are complete opposites, so reading them back to back left me a bit confused. Plus, there are many characters to keep track of, and it was hard to do in the beginning. It wasn't enough for me to put the book down, but I did have a hard time getting through the first 15 percent and feeling like I had a good grasp on the world.

I know it seems like I'm railing on the book, but I only have one last (small) complaint: the length. I was actually worried abut the length of this right from the get-go. Only 300-ish pages for the start of a science fiction series, that needs to set up the world, make me love the characters, and get fully immersed in the story? At least for me, Our Dark Stars was not developed enough. Yes, I liked the book, but if there were even just 20 more pages that dug deeper into the interpersonal dynamics or world-building, I would have liked the book even more.

Now, onto the romance! As you might expect from the synopsis, there are hints of a romance between Will and Talia. They both are physically attracted to each other, but the book is mostly just hinting at it and building the tension. I thought this was done really well, and I didn't mind that the action was the core focus of the book. There's not too many scenes in the book devoted to their relationship, and instead it's about a crew of people working together for a cause. If there is a second book to this series, I am expecting some more lovey-dovey scenes though. :)

As for the plot in general, it's a great concept! Talia's presence really changes the whole galaxy. I loved how the dynamics were switched, and Talia's reactions were great to read. It does take a while for her to realize that she woke up 100 years in the future though. Like, wouldn't that have been one of the first questions she asked? The main action doesn't kick in for awhile, but I didn't mind too much. The rising action was done well. When the climax did happen, I was hooked. I do think that more time could have been spent of the falling action. Everything seemed a bit too easy at the end, but maybe that is the point and there will be a sequel!

Side note: there is one scene where a character is revealed to be gay, or bisexual. I don't really like how it was done. Afterwards, the next couple scenes focus on how the rest of the crew felt betrayed and how this person was lying to them. I don't think it's healthy to depict someone being in the closet as lying to others. People come out when they want to, and though I understand people can be shocked, they were pretty rude about it and made the whole thing about themselves. Also, one of the characters mentioned how the person that came out had been with people of the opposite sex, and how it must have been a ruse. This is a clear case of bi-erasure. There's this thing called bisexuality, where someone can, you know, like members of either sex. (ever heard of that before, authors?) Just because someone had sexual encounters members of the opposite sex and now is with someone of the same sex doesn't mean their past interactions were just an elaborate lie. *sigh* Can you tell that I wasn't trying to spoil anything?? Anyways, this really bothered me. Also, stop trying to make queerness a plot device!!


Besides my angry rant above, I did like the book. I don't think either authors had intent to dismiss bisexuality, but I do think it's important to point out. I think every book can be problematic, and it's our job as readers (and critics) to point these issues out, even if we did like the book (especially so).

Even though most of my review was detailing what I didn't like about this book, I promise you that I enjoyed it. There's enough loose ends for a sequel to happen, and I hope there will be one written! The plot was unique and kept me interested, despite the shaking world building at first. I didn't hate Will's chapters, but Talia's were more compelling to me as a reader. I'm interested in reading more from these authors and from this series in general!

With that, I give this book
3.5 out of 5 Stars!

1 word: Incredible!

I loved this book so much. Will and Talia were fantastic characters and their love story was riveting. The rest of the story was just as amazing! Can’t wait to read more from both authors.

OUR DARK STARS caught me off guard! I found myself enjoying this novel and practically flew through it. It had fun, interesting characters, as well as a very unique world. It was completely unexpected, too! I was taken aback by the human and mock relationships and just how everything had changed. It was a bit confusing in the beginning but as the story unfolds, I was able to pick up on the differences between the two main character's POVs--which, at first, were a hundred years apart. After that, I was too into the story to even think of anything else--the writing was just that engrossing!
I was also glad that romance was left until the very end! It definitely added more to my enjoyment of the novel. I'd highly recommend this one!

Initially what I saw when I first noticed this cover was a book by Amie Kaufman which I loved so I decided to read this. It was a thrilling, diverse ya sci fi that had me on the edge of my seat. I love the plot and characters. I especially love the time gap. Overall if you love sci fi check this out 4/5 stars!

This book really wasn't for me - it looked like an Amie Kaufman book and it sounded like the plot was going to be really, really good, but I just couldn't get into it at all.

Recipe for a good book:
- Racial diversity ✓
- Sexual diversity ✓
- Anti-abuse messages ✓
- Anti-racism messages ✓
- Cool space crew ✓
- Down-to-earth romance (muaha) ✓

This book was something out of this world, literally and figuratively speaking. Seriously though, I am hesitant to compare this to our beloved space gospel The Lunar Chronicles; however, dare I say that I might have enjoyed this a tiny bit more? DON'T YOU DARE JUDGE ME!

This is categorized as YA, however, the content is meant for mature readers as it contains swearing, sexual remarks, references of brothels etc. This book is told in dual POVS and alternates from past to present. So major kudos to both of the authors for making this easy to follow along because that is hella tricky to execute so the reader isn't left confused with a fried brain.

Alright, so you're probably like, "Hey dude, what is this book about?" Welp, you're following a princess that has just turned 18 years old and is betrothed to a horrible prince because he does not believe that "mocks" aka human replicas are capable of emotions. However, the horrible dude tries to charm Princess Talia anyway...

But Talia is smart and quickly discovers that this "prince" is a bigot when he demonstrates his hate towards Talia's servant/friend--a mock!! Dun dun dunnnn.

However, Princess Talia Starchaser does not want to disappoint her parents, so she is willing to secure this marriage even at the expense of others and herself in order to create an alliance to prevent another war. Cuz, you know, when you're an adult you got responsibilities.

All of a sudden, things go from bad to worse! Princess Talia's horrible fiance asks her to do something despicable in order to prove her loyalty.

"Death is a tsunami, and all the pain in the world can't stop the waves of grief about to crash over you."

After a series of unfortunate events (no, not *actually* after that series, dingus), Princess Talia's parents and younger brother are under attack and must save Talia, the heir to their kingdom: Talia is put in this space capsule that is meant to freeze and preserve her body, and off into space she goes leaving her family behind.

One hundred years go by...

Then BAM. Princess Talia's world collides with the devilishly handsome, half-mock Captain Will Perrault and his super selfless, witty space crew. But, ughhh, these two don't seem to get along at first.

Honestly, just mark your damn calendar for 6 March 2018 and grab yourself a copy. This was an awesome read and I will be purchasing a hard copy for myself! And although this book doesn't really necessitate a sequel, I feel like the odds of us getting one are pretty high *crosses fingers*. I will, however, throw a massive tantrum, round up my babies and protest if I don't get a sequel to this glorious book.

Thanks a million to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. Quotes are subject to change upon publication.

The cover, characters, plot, and whole book was beautiful.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first opened this book. There'd been a bunch of criticism about a YA aimed sci-fi novel with a cover like this one, people saying it was incredibly reminiscent of Their Fractured Light, third novel in the Starbound series by Amie Kaufman.

I thought to myself, goodness, I loved Amie's books and I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about a knock off.

And so it was a really good thing that this was, apart from those superficial things documented above, nothing at all like Amie's work! It is entirely its own, with more twists and turns than certainly I was expecting.

Honestly, I don't want to spoil the story itself, but Talia and Will come from different times. Like, a hundred years apart. And you don't realise just how different that makes them until you get really into the story.

This is a story about a war between humans and mocks, and the reasons behind it, and the reasons people of both sides fight. It's about righting wrongs in a lot of ways. About coming face to face with hard truths about yourself.

I personally think that the story would have been better without trying to shove Talia and Will together. I didn't see a lot of chemistry there, largely because this was so plot heavy a book that there weren't a lot of opportunities to flesh out their character interactions. Really, I would have rathered see Talia with Leo than anyone else, that would have made sense and linked well with the plot.
2 likes

. A space opera that halfway through decides it is also a romance novel. However, the main theme, that robots will come to enslave humanity, was interesting.
While compulsively readable, there were several plot points that felt lifted from various other space operas, specifically, Jupiter Ascending, Firefly and Star Wars: A New Hope. For example, in one scene, Talia actually records a hologram message that is very derivative from Princess Leia’s “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi” message.

Our Dark Stars
Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade
5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Excellent story!!! Such a creative and emotional sci-do/fantasy novel. I am pretty picky when it comes to sci-fi books and this one bypassed all my expectations.



While she sleeps, the whole universe changes.

Princess Talia Starchaser has it all. Wealth. Status. Adoring citizens. But on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she’s forced to publicly betray her best friend, a companion mock she’s had since birth, setting events into motion that lead to the destruction of the humans, and the princess floating through space, a remnant of a time when humans ruled over droids.

One hundred years later, half-mock captain Will Perrault and his ragtag crew discover a device floating in space. When a very human Talia emerges from its depths, Will suspects she’s the key to buying his way back into the regiment he once commanded against the last remaining rebel humans—and the ruling mock queen’s good graces.

Both Talia and Will would rather get space-tossed than trust one another, but with the queen’s forces chasing them across the galaxy and the fate of both worlds hanging in the balance, they’ll forge the unlikeliest of alliances to survive.

Thanks NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Fans of The Diabolic and Ilkuminae will love this epic sci-fi space opera set in a well-developed world.