I'm finally giving up on this ARC. I've tried to read it three times and I've put aside each time around the 30% mark. I loved the premise of this story but I just can't get into the book. The writing is good. I just can't get my brain to focus on the story.

This was an enjoyable science fiction story about two young men who must travel the galaxy to save themselves and their home planets from total annihilation. Great for fans of Star Wars and Star Trek.

Sci-fi shenanigans with a lovely and deep queer love story running through it all. I adored this book from start to finish, and cannot wait for the sequel!

I have elected not to read and review this book due to time constraints. Thank you for the opportunity.

3.25/5

A solid debut. A mostly entertaining sci-fi romp that could have been shorter. The characters are well conceived and the action is punchy but the world seems a little under built. It was hard to picture exactly what the futuristic tech looked and behaved like, but I guess if you picture a general sci-fi aesthetic you’ll be just fine. The slow burn romance between the two main characters was done well and didn’t become annoying until the twist at the end. When first finishing the book, I was debating on whether I was going to continue the series but the ending both left me wanting to and also afraid to do so because so much can go wrong with this book’s successor.

This book fucked me up BAD I can't even decide if I want to read the sequel immediately or NEVER because my emotions have been destroyed so utterly. But again in a very good way. So well written!

I really enjoyed reading this one! I was able to guess the main twist (no spoilers I promise) about halfway through, but I ended up doubting what I figured out a couple of times. The relationship between Gal and Ettian was so interesting and well played out. I'm excited to read the next book! I need to know what happens next after the ending. Mostly I really want to know what happens next for Gal, Ettian, and Wen.

So I received this copy for NYCC and I had so many problems with this and I am so happy that they ended up taking a lot of peoples feedback especially with the cover change and everything.

Received this copy last year and somehow my review never posted. I loved this book and so did my kids when I brought it in for them. Fun, fast-paced, action packed, and great plot twist. Highly highly recommend, I’m going to be doing a reread this year before the sequel comes out.

Great start to the series. It was action packed and characters I actually enjoyed. The only issue I thought was some pacing issues. The beginning was slow to me and I didn’t really get into it until close to the second half of the book.

If you’re a fan of action, political intrigue, high stakes, space battles, and romance, then you’ll like this book. Gal and Ettian have a great dynamic that will appeal to most YA readers. If you liked Defy the Stars, I think you’ll love this.

This was a wild ride, fast paced and full of action, but sometimes the action became a little too much for me. And my guide through it all, Ettian, left me feeling dazed and confused more than once. It took several chapters before I believed his relationship with Gal, and his feelings toward other characters like Wen flipped and flopped several times in only a few pages. I finally felt connected to the book in the second half and changed my mind about not reading the sequel. The last several pages are just too crazy, and there’s a twist you probably won’t see coming.

Thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for providing a copy.

this was a great start to a series, the characters were great and I really enjoyed reading this. i look forward to more in the series.

I was given a copy of this book for review.

Very enjoyable and fast-paced Sci-Fi . Much action and so well written, I finished this book in just a day. Really a must-read if you enjoy sci-fi.

DNF @ 64%

The writing itself is fine in this, Emily Skrutskie is clearly a talented writer. I just have concerns about pretty much this entire book. I actually won this copy in a giveaway, not through requests, but am reviewing on Netgalley as that was how the copy was sent to me.

Initially I was worried to start with, as the book is written from the perspective of a gay/bisexual Black man with a gay/bisexual Latinx love interest, but written by a white woman. I was worried about how well the POV would be portrayed, and unfortunately in my opinion I was proved correct. From here on out, there be spoilers. Be warned.

So our main character Ettian was born and raised on Rana. The Umber empire colonised Rana and built a military academy on the planet in the rubble of the destroyed world that they /invaded and colonised/ seven years ago. Ettian watched the public execution of the leaders of his planet and lived in the rubble of his destroyed city for five years, then spent two years at the military academy before the story started. I have no issues with any of this, and if the story that followed was Ettian fighting off the Umber empire with the Rana rebels, it would have been a fun space romp. But it wasn't. Instead, Ettian finds out that his best friend of two years is the heir to the Umber empire and proceeds to turn against the Rana rebels and do everything he can to help Gal get on the throne. He says this is because Gal will be a better leader than his parents, because Gal is such a nice guy. I couldn't show you ONE scene where Gal is a nice guy. Ettian turns him down and he keeps telling everyone he's Ettian's boyfriend anyway, he wants to destroy the rebels even though he apparently doesn't agree with war, and in a spectacular moment of assholery he sends a girl back to the planet where an abuser put a bounty on her head - literally sentencing her to death without a qualm. He's NOT a nice guy.

The point where I noped the fuck out of this book was when Ettian literally thought about the fact that he could have escaped as a refugee and joined the rebellion and, in his own words, not been worn down by Umber propaganda, but decides that he wouldn't choose that because he wouldn't have met Gal. Not for nothing, but 'I wuv him' isn't a good enough reason to excuse and enable genocide. I haven't read the last forty percent of the book, but I have talked to someone who did who explained it to me, so I admit that this is secondhand information but apparently he continues to go against the rebellion until outside forces make his plan fail, and THEN he decides to join them. So he's fine with the genocide of his people up until that point.

Ettian just lacks ALL character agency, and every time he makes a choice it's the worst possible one? I love characters that are awful, I love bad characters doing bad things, but the constant implication that Ettian is right to protect Gal no matter what is so irritating. Their relationship is pre-established before the book starts, so we just get told that they're friends - we don't learn to care about them - and I just think they lack all personality. I don't think a white woman should ever have been writing this book, and I think that white POV is shining through in this gross as hell coloniser-oppressed romance story. This book was marketed with so much fluffy language and cheerful ao3 tags that I was expecting something fun and fluffy and all about the space battles. I wasn't expecting a book that half-assedly criticises genocide while acting like the power of love can fix the murder of Ettian's people (and if I've been informed right, of his FAMILY).

This was such an amazing book! The yearning and romance between our main characters was so good!!! But the political problems within the plot and all the action really just tie everything together so well! There's just so many little details that just absolutely kick you once you reach the end, which I loved. The amount of unexpected plot twists really keep you glued to this story.

I like Stars Wars and was a little excited to read this book especially as it is Finn Poe. The one thing that annoys me is that this book is not ownvoices is by a white lady instead of either a Black or a Latinx author who should have been telling this story instead.

I appreciated that we got a FinnPoe story and I loved the best friends to lovers especially there is a one bed trope in it.

The characters were interesting, and I felt like they were developed enough. While I can not comment on the rep specifically even though I am queer, but I think books like these are best deserved to go to margainizled authors instead by a white author.

There’s a serious description of Skrutskie’s (Hullmetal Girls) new series starter, but I was pulled in by Skrutskie’s tongue in cheek hooks: “Galactic-level bisexual disasters” with “weaponized rainbow umbrellas,” “one hell of a pilot,” a “secret prince,” “sick stunts,” and “big space battles.” The book holds onto every one of those promises, and with hefty doses of romantic tension battling for prominence with a complex political plot. Ettian is determined to save the life of his best friend, romantic interest, and roommate, Gal, even when he finds out that Gal is actually the heir to the Empire that conquered Ettian’s own people.

Now, seeing a rebellion of his own countrymen on the one side and Gal on the other, Ettian has to figure out a way to make sure Gal makes it home—even if that means sacrificing everything he used to believe in. It also has that promised weaponized rainbow umbrella, used deftly by Wen, a half-burned street girl willing to take on an entire organized crime ring with her own know-how who steals every scene she’s in. Skrutskie at once managed to produce a light-hearted and fun space opera that still digs into the depths of what it means to belong, and who deserves loyalty: the land you’re born to, or the conquerors you’ve chosen in order to rise from the ashes. She never gives any easy answers, and that’s part of what makes this book so darn good—and has me eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Ok wow. I loved this book so much. Get this one on your radar, folks. We have a best friends - but also enemies - romance. A lot of secrets and a lot of huge consequences for keeping them - and revealing them. We have space battles and deception and an amazing girl with a rainbow umbrella. The ending had me screaming!! WHAT. WAS. THAT. I was fascinated by the decisions that these characters made for each other. The lengths that Ettian and Gal went for the other, the secrets that played into their decisions and the huge empire making, world breaking consequence of their actions. I have no idea how they will deal with the fallout. But I am now desperate for more of this tale!! Sequel, here I come!

Love Triangle Factor: None
Cliffhanger Scale: Ahhhhhhhh High

I was in love with this book for the first third, & then Wen showed up, & I really hated her, I guess, because I got to about the 50% mark while reading in lines at Disneyland & then wouldn’t pick up the book for over 6 months (even though it was for review!). Add in Gal & Ettian being stupid about each other throughout the middle (& I think that if they had burned with unconditional trust the whole time, it would’ve made the end more dramatic), & I just couldn’t make myself read further. It seemed to me like there was a much smarter solution to the boys’ problem than the route they took (& solution to the series seems clear too). I thought the climax was setting us up for book 2 to go in a different direction than the last couple chapters set up. Although I didn’t mind Ettian’s secret, I felt the big neon sign that he had one was annoying & made what it was too obvious for me. I like guessing twists based on clues, not the character telling me there is one.

Sadly it was so long between when I read the first half & the second half, I can’t really tell you about all the things I loved in the first third or the things that lost me going into my midway block, but I know that I was really into every moment (the stakes were great, the relationship was engrossing, the action was easy to read) before Wen showed up, sigh. For that I have a solid 3 stars & a completely worthless review (sorry).