I need to say that the idea of the nutrition and eating habits of this story grossed me out. I did really enjoy the unique setting and the fact that the majority of the colony were good and got along. Vela and Carr are good together in what little parts they were together. The Trials were well thought out and the ending was good with no cliffhanger.

My favourite thing to do when I finish a book is to read the acknowledgements. I really like it when they give an insight to the author/book. The acknowledgement section in the back of Star-crossed tells you this book was written before Pintip Forgot Tomorrow. The author also tells us this book holds a special place with her. I'm totally in love with her best selling series. Star-crossed has a food theme and will pretty much ruin any diet or put you off cakes.

Vela and her sister, Blanca are opposites. They are heiress to the throne. Their father needs a transplant and a donor is needed. It has to be the fittest of the fit. The person will sacrifice their lives for the king. In return, their family will be well looked after. Vela is a princess in a dystopian world. There isn't enough food for her people to survive so a pill was created as a substitute. A selected few eat real food and the rest of the people take the pills. Vela and Blanca are expected to eat a lot because the pills are formed from the people that eat. In this world being overweight is seen as a luxury and is seen as beautiful. When Vela was young she used to slip a little food to her best friend, Astana not realising the consequences. Now Vela must find the donor for her father. The problem is Carr wants to help his sister, Astana and the only way to help is to become the donor. Vela has always had a secret crush on Carr now she must choose who dies and who gets to survive. This is bigger than just her future it affects the whole kingdom and if Vela can't make the right decisions her sister will become the next queen.

This is an undesirable world and the story is a rollercoaster. The story fits well with Pintip Dunn's style I just wish it didn't have a food theme. The stories good and the characters are well developed. Vela's choices are impossible and the romance is touching.

4 stars out of 5.

*I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

OMG! This book was amazing. I loved it SO MUCH. Seriously, it's one of my favorites I've read this year. So if you'd like to read a romantic YA sci-fi, then I highly recommend it.

In Star-crossed, we follow Princess Vela, daughter of the king who is planning to step down and let one of his daughters rule as the Successor. But to choose which one, they will both be tested by the Council in different ways.

The worldbuilding was so original and creative. I've never read anything like it and I was hooked from the beginning. I also loved the characters and the romance in it was really well-developed.

I couldn't have hoped for a better ending even though it was heartbreaking. Near the end, I was wondering if it was a series or a standalone (I forgot to check before picking it up) as I would have loved to read more about these characters but I'm still very satisfied with the way it ended. And honestly, I don't know if it would have been possible to have a sequel as good as this book.

This is a new author to me and after reading Star-Crossed, I am really curious to see if her other novels are as good as this one.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher & author for letting me read and review this book.

Star-Crossed by Pintip Dunn is a young adult romantic science fiction fantasy. And guess what folks, no insta-love and no love triangles! Yes, I know, color me shocked as well. And on top of all of that a creepily compelling sci-fi angle to the world building.

The story is set on a distant planet in which the inhabitants including our main character, Princess Vela, have lived since leaving Earth years and years before. The problem on the planet is there is a shortage of food and with not enough to feed everyone they have developed a system in which only a handful eat the food and then nutrients are extracted from them to make pills to sustain the rest of the colonists.

The eaters of the colony are the Aegis and the downside for them enjoying food is that they lose a huge chunk of their life span. Being the daughter of the King Vela trained early to become an Aegis and she and her sister, Blanca, are now competing to become the next Successor to their father. Vela and Blanca are exact opposites and now they’ve been given tasks that will them to their own limits.

Having read a couple of other books my Pintip Dunn and really enjoying them I was really looking forward to seeing what this one held. After finishing I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever come across anything anywhere similar to the world created in this story so an A+ for creativity. I was easily immersed in this world and really came to like the characters and root for them along the way and with a gut wrenching end to the story this one rated at 4.5 stars for me, definitely recommend giving it a try!

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I was so enchanted that once I finished reading this I couldn't focus on anything else. With vibrant sensory detail and rich world-building, it was easy to fully immerse inside this story. I've never seen food take such a prominent place in a story and it was fascinating to see how it was woven into every aspect of Vela's life. I adore Vela and Carr. The relationship dynamics between Vela and everyone in her life was intriguing and always kept me on edge to see what would unfold next. It reminded me a little of "The Hunger Games" and "The Selection" but with so much more on the line. No one pulls Vela's strings. She is clever, headstrong, passionate, and brave. It was an honor and a delight to follow her journey.

I actually loved this book.

Firstly - it's a standalone! I know, I know. I'ts so hard to find a great standalone YA science fiction novel. I usually have to slog through at least a trilogy to get to the end of a story. Here, Pintip wraps everything up beautifully in a not too long novel.

It starts off by introducing us to our main character, Vela, who is an Aegis for her people. Aegis are eaters, simply put. On Vela's colony, Dion, a malfunction while attempting to terraform a hundred years past means that there isn't enough food for everyone. The whole colony would have died in it's earliest days if a scientist hadn't have created a way for some people to eat and then have their excess nutrients removed from them into pills that can sustain the rest of the population.

Unfortunately this also means that Aegis have shortened lifespans due to the genetic modification they require in order to become eaters.

Vela's sister is an Aegis and her father the King is an Aegis. However, rather than having a reduced lifepsan, the King is kept alive through regular organ rejuvenation from fit young men willing to die for him. Keeping the King alive means that the colony is able to be stable under one ruler and continue their work of terraforming Dion, which will take generations.

Early on we find that Vela's childhood friend is sick and no one can figure out why.. So her brother and Vela's longtime crush decides to compete to be a Fittest, those whose sacrifice to the King will allow his family to eat, and potentially his sister to live.

This book was an interesting focal point on family, trust and sacrifice. I understand that this was Pintip's first book and it seems to be her passion project.

I enjoyed it immensely and I can't wait to read her others.

I loved the Forget Tomorrow trilogy and was curious to read her next novel. This is without a doubt the most unique book I have read this year.

We are on a planet colonized by humans, they expected an oasis filled with vegetation, they found a toxic and rocky planet. In order to save the colony from starvation, a solution has been found, modifying some humans to produce a large amount of nutrition that will then be extracted and redistributed as a pill. So there is a part of the population that eats 6 times a day and another part that never eats. At the head of the colony, there is a king who needs new organs every 5 years to survive. I warned you the context of the book is singular and although it is science fiction the king and princess side makes it an hybrid book and gives the impression of being in the fantasy genre. Frankly I found it super original and it's nice to have such an innovative book.

We follow Vela, she is the princess of the colony, she will have to choose the next boy to sacrifice to make the king and father live. Her action will determine if she is able to be the future queen or if her sister will be. She is a very empathic girl who gives importance to human life. She is also a young girl with a strong sense of duty. I liked that she is a heroine who has a mental strength more than a physical one, it changes from all the heroines who are sometimes a bit stereotyped. And the important point is that she is very touching and nice to read.

For the plot, the book is quite addictive, it plays on the action, but also on the psychology of the characters and that's a point I liked. The universe is completely original and that's the strength of the book. The novel is, it seems to me a oneshot and it works very well as a whole. The themes, love, friendship, duty, family are very well exploited and offer a real emotional richness to the story. I recommend this book because I find it fresh and new in so many way.

If nothing else, this book has the most unique plot I have ever encountered in a YA sci-fi story, although it could also be included in the dystopian and/or fantasy genres as it's kinda all over the place. Unfortunately, that's pretty much where the pros end for me.

The new world presented to us is divided into two classes, the Eaters and Non-Eaters. There's not enough food to accommodate the population but luckily an elite few carry a gene that allows them to convert digested food into a highly nutritious waste that is then provided to the Non-Eaters in the form of a capsule.

Yes, you read that right. It's pretty out there, a little too far off the rails for my tastes. Wait, I'm not finished....

Princess Vela is our narrator in this story, and while she's a likeable character, her dialogue is very juvenile, leaving this book firmly in the genre of very young adult, more like preteen in my opinion.

Vela's father, the King, needs a full organ transplant *eye roll* which is to be procured from the healthiest Non-Eater and lo and behold guess who ends up being the perfect candidate? Vela's love interest.

This story was not one that I could sink my teeth into. I found it borderline ridiculous most of the time and the obligatory "bad guy" was obvious from the get-go.


I was provided an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I recived an ARC from netgalley for my honest opinion.

Star rating: 4.25

I found the whole premise of this super interesting, and I found the story done well. I wasn't as big fan of the romance in this book and I found it flat and not as engaging as I would have hoped. However the book overall is very enjoyable and how the author has described food is absolutely amazing. I found the choices Vela are having to do impossible and the whole premise was all in all kinda heartbreaking.

I would absolutely recommend further.

"Star-Crossed" takes place on Dion, a planet far from Earth, where a group of travelers have gone. While the planet was supposed to have been terraformed, only a few of the terraforming machines made it and so it is difficult to grow crops or raise livestock. The people were saved by a genetic modification that allows certain individuals, labeled Aegis, to eat large quantities of food, effectively (5-6x normal rate) turn it into nutrients and then have the nutrients extracted. The extracted nutrients are then made into pills for the remaining colonists. The Aegis are revered in part because they help keep everyone alive (having a small amount of food feed a lot of people), but also because they do so at great personal sacrifice- they will live to be about 30 years old while everyone else will live to be about 90.

Vela and her sister Blanca are Aegis- they are also Princesses. The King, their father, is an Aegis who is nearing 90. He was part of the original group of colonists who traveled to Dion and has had several families since then (however, because they were Aegis, they are all dead now). He has only been able to survive by receiving a full body organ transplant every 5 years. The person who gives his life to keep the King alive is known as the Fittest because they are selected from young people primarily because of their physical health. In exchange for their life, a family member receives food for life without becoming an Aegis. Only the Aegis and family of the Fittest eat actual food.

The King has decided it is time for his last organ transplant, and during the remaining years, he will train a successor- either Vela or her sister- to take his place. CORA, the machine which computes outcomes (all human decisions are confirmed by CORA), has agreed that a blood relative would be the best successor to the King. To determine who this person should be, Vela and Blanca are given personal challenges. For Vela, who is very emotional and empathetic, she is given the task to decide who will be the Fittest and die for her father, the King.

This task is made harder by the fact that her best friend's brother and childhood crush, Carr, is the apparent front-runner. He is determined to win, because it will save his sister, Astara. Vela used to sneak her childhood friend Astara snacks from the food she was training with, and in doing so, Astara's body no longer will accept the nutrient pills. Only some people will become immune to the pills with food exposure, and Astara is unfortunately one of them. She needs food, but only the Aegis and the Fittest families receive it. Exceptions cannot be made unless one of those people goes without.

Fighting between her duty to the colony and her growing love for Carr, Vela is struggling to make the right decisions. All the while, she is judged by the leadership council, who are trying to decide between her and Blanca. However, things become even more difficult when someone begins to sabotage the trials. Vela has even harder decisions to make- and a saboteur to find.

Overall, this was an interesting and different YA sci-fi book. While most of Carr and Vela's feelings were pre-existing, we get to revisit their childhood memories/connections which builds the relationship for the reader. Dunn is a talented writer and this book was easily as fast-paced and engaging as her Forget Tomorrow series. I was fully pulled in to this alternate world and fully engaged with her characters. That being said, I did not quite understand why, in a world of such technological advancements, synthetic nutrition pills or other methods of nutrient extraction would not be more effective than the Aegis. Also, why there is not population control or other methods of simply making people and food available match. However, it was relatively easy to accept and suspend disbelief (relatively small questions). I do like how well and thoroughly this world was built, and it was easy to imagine.

As to the romance, this was great, and I really enjoyed watching Carr and Vela get closer. As to the mystery, it was pretty readily apparent who was doing the sabotaging to me, but as the mystery was not the main focus, I didn't mind figuring it out early. I did wonder about the ending, because while we get some conclusions, questions still remain as to where the colony will proceed from there, so I wonder whether there is a sequel in the works? Regardless, the main storylines are concluded, so there isn't a cliffhanger, although not everything was wrapped up in a bow. Overall, it was a great story and the writing flows so well that I really enjoyed the book (and I would love to see a sequel!).

I absolutely devoured this unique book, and I highly recommend it for YA sci-fi lovers! Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

#Starcrossed #NetGalley

Wonderful book! This was an exciting read, and there was a lot of situations that you could see a break. If you chose one way you could live with yourself, if you chose another it would eat you alive, but either way you would always wonder, what if...

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

This book was fantastic! With vivid and relatable characters and a fast-paced, intriguing plot line, I didn't want to put this YA sci-fi down!

Vela's people, originally from Earth, live in a bubble upon a new planet. While most of the people must subsist on nutrient pills, a select portion with a particular mutation gorges themselves to be sucked of the nutrients for pills. While they get to eat, they also die at age 30 instead of 90.

Vela's father, the king, has been receiving transplants from young men and women who sacrifice their life after being named "the fittest" proceeding various challenges. With the crown hanging in the balance, both Vela and her sister Blanca are tasked with different challenges to access which one should become Queen. Vela, deemed sympathetic of others to a fault, must choose a boy fit to die for the queen if she has wants a chance to earn the crown.

This book was very entertaining and had so many plot twists. Writing execution was spot on and made the book very pleasant to read. It was a clean read, which made it even better! The characters were dynamic and their development was observable throughout. The ending felt a bit rushed, however, the rest of the book was paced nicely.

Star-Crossed is my new favorite book by Pintip Dunn.
I enjoyed the setting especially, there was a sense of whimsicalness throughout the book. The characters were well-developed, distinctive, and well-written. I found the premise interesting and well-executed, and I had a hard time putting this book down.
If you're a fan of sci-fi and romance YA, I'm sure you'll enjoy this book.

I received a copy of STAR-CROSSED on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher and author.

5 stars and here's why:

Holy moly! Ms. Dunn has done it again. STAR-CROSSED gave me a wicked book hangover. She’s taken a scifi/dystopian view of the world and turned it upside down. I’m a foodie, so imagine my delight when reading this story about a colony divided between food eaters and those that get their nutrition from a pill. Ms. Dunn’s writing was fresh and the plot riveting. It’s been days and I’m still on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Highly recommend!

Um, ok so this was…weird. It’s one of those sci-fi books that’s only really sci-fi because it’s set on another planet. It reads more like fantasy despite the genetic manipulation. The world building was a little muddled with lots of complicated rules right off the bat for how people lived. Basically food is very scarce – there’s just not enough for everyone – so in an overly complex procedure, some people become eaters (losing 30yrs of their allotted span of 90yrs of life) and eat real food. The others – Colonists – receive their ‘meals’ in pill form taken from the nutrition that the Eaters have produced by consuming food. The science didn’t really hold me. At this point it would have been easier to genetically manipulate people to gain nutrition from things not normally considered food… Anywhoo, the king (because why wouldn’t you immediately set up a royal family if you were a group of colonists on a new planet where food was scarce…) is soon to die as his organs shut down. Computer prediction shows that the king is needed to live on because it would cause too much unrest if he doesn’t. So in a bizarre turn of events, a series of trials are held to find the perfect donor. As a genetic graduate, I am baffled that a series of games and trials are held to bestow the honour of dying for your beloved king, instead of say, taking a tissue and gene match. The king’s daughter, also an eater, must discover who is sabotaging the trials. Predictably she falls in love with the boy most likely to win.



On the surface, anything different about this YA SFF seems to be weird rather than innovative. However despite the book’s inability to make me suspend disbelief on numerous occasions, it has some really interesting things to say too. For instance the king is loved, not a tyrant. How refreshing is that? This isn’t about an upper class who grind everyone else into the dirt. The romance is actually quite sweet – in you can ignore the weird circumstances – and isn’t the point of the whole book anyway. And this book says a lot about our relationship with food – how we make a god or a monster out of it when really it should be about nourishment. The ending was a little abrupt but full marks for pulling off something so believably bitter-sweet. There was a lot to like about this book and I’m curious to see what the author will do next.

This stunning YA fantasy novel is an emotional rollercoaster, as it brings the reader to the depths of despair with gut wrenching losses alongside epic wins for humanity, love, and integrity!

Thank you for the early copy.

I picked this up because of the plot and it was enjoyable read. A interesting and well done novel. I recommend this for fans of science YA fiction.

The world in this book was .... odd, I guess would be the right word. I liked the characters but I felt like we didn't get a whole lot of time with them. This is a sci-fi novel but it felt a lot like a high fantasy one. The rules of this world were very complicated but I liked that for once the king wasn't a tyrant. I think this might have been the first book that I've come across in a long time with a beloved king. I would've really liked an epilogue, to see where everyone was in a few months or even a year. It ended a bit abrupt. But overall it was a very interesting read, though I did have some issues with the twist at the end.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Holy shit... that was a ride.

Star-Crossed is a mix of scifi and dystopian. People now live on a planet called Dion but because of certain circumstances there isn't enough food to feed everyone. The colony is divided into Aegis (food eaters) and Colonists who receive their nutrition through pills that the Aegis tranfer their nutrition into after eating. It's a whole genetic modification process. 
The story follows Vela, an Aegis, who happens to be the King's daughter. The romance was cute and the ending made me cry even though it was beautifully bitter sweet and fitting.

One of my favorite things is how Star-Crossed stays on theme by using foodish descriptions.

🔹️I drop my eyes. You could sauté an onion on my cheeks.

🔹️The laughter bubbles inside me like carbonated soda, as if it was always there, waiting for the tab to be pulled. 

🔹️A few Aegis lay out spreads to rival all picnics. Mountains of sandwiches, craters of chips, oceans of lemonade. 

🔹️The word washes over me, chopping my joints, puréeing my muscles.

🔹️The lines in his face are deep and unfixable, like a chocolate cake that’s been baked in a too-hot oven.

🔹️Maybe my emotions were just filling up, like the maple syrup that drips from a spigot.

I've been following Star-Crossed since it was originally titled Fit to Die. The title change and the cover are perfect. I can't wait until the official release date so I can hold my own hardback copy.

💖💖💖 Thank you so incredibly much to Entangled Publishing for approving my arc after reaching out to them to express my love for Pintip Dunn and the desire to read and review Star-Crossed.

All quotes are subject to change.

Star-Crossed releases October 2, 2018.

Fascinating premise -- the whole idea of eaters and non-eaters really drew me in. The conflict was believable, the plot was engaging, and most of the characters were plausible. I loved the vivid descriptions of taste and food at the beginning of the book (wish that would have continued). Clean romance -- descriptions didn't go further than kissing.

Cons: some of the worldbuilding seemed incomplete -- I got a fairly good sense of the world of the Aegis, but only tiny glimpses into the lives of the Colonists, or the differences between regular Aegis and the royal family. The glimpses were just enough to make me feel like we should have known more.

Several of the relationships were lacking. I was a little disappointed in Vela's relationship with her sister -- I think the author kept trying to add layers of complexity to the relationship, but it didn't start with a strong foundation and so each new reveal completely altered how I understood their relationship. Also, Vela's friendship with Astana was central to the book, but lacked enough description or back-story to make me care about Astana as much as the main character did.