I received this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I don’t even know where to begin with this review. I fell in love with this book from the very start and had a strong feeling it would be a 5 star read. I adored almost every single thing about this book. My one and only thing I didn’t like was Harry Potter references. BUT I did really enjoy the pop culture references as a whole! It made it so interesting to read because it felt like this could be real life happening without us knowing which is super fun! The main characters all stole my heart. The fact that it had multiple LGBTQ+ relationships and nonbinary characters made me insanely happy as well!! I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys dark fantasy books that take place in the modern world! A new favourite, for sure!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me an ARC via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
2.5/5 stars

I really wanted to enjoy this one, but, unfortunately, I just didn’t. My biggest issue was that it was so incredibly slow. It took me forever to get far enough into the book that I actually wanted to continue, and I only did because I was hoping it would get better and I’d see why everyone seems to love this one.

It felt really long, and slow, and like it was mostly filler. It did pick up towards the end after our main characters formed their alliance, but that didn’t happen until about 65% of the way into the book. I feel like if the characters had come together sooner it might have helped the plot to speed up, and to make it feel less like it was dragging on.

The plot sounded so interesting in the synopsis, but I didn’t really feel like the serial killer mystery aspect was actually the main focus. I thought this would be more murder mystery, but instead I felt like this took a back seat. The book felt more like it was character-driven even though there wasn’t really that much character growth from the characters by the end.

This book follows 4 main characters - Arlo, Nausicaä, Vehan, and Aurelian. I think Nausicaä was my favourite character, but Arlo is the one that we focus on the most.

Arlo is an Ironborn (half human and half fae) teenager. She unfortunately falls hard into the “I’m not special” mindset no matter what other people tell her, or what happens to her. This got a bit annoying after a while, but I did appreciate that she didn’t want to be a hero. Normally in situations where people are forced into the hero position we see them accept because they have to, but Arlo pushed against it because she just wanted to keep her normal life.

Nausicaä is an immortal (a Fury) who has been exiled to the mortal realm. She was sarcastic and interesting, but it’s to hide her depression and grief because immortals aren’t supposed to have mental health issues. I liked Nausicaä because she knew all these interesting people and she knew more about the world than the other characters.

Vehan is a Seelie Prince of Summer who’s in love with his best friend and retainer, Aurelian. Aurelian is a lesidhe fae who is also in love with his best friend Vehan. Of course neither of them knows this, so there’s some angst and tension between them. While I liked both of these characters alright, I didn’t feel like they were both fully necessary in having their POVs to further the plot.

Lastly, I was left confused by the magic systems and the creatures in the world. I think that the author was trying to be very unique, but I think that they ultimately tried to do too much. We get some hints of Greek mythology (Furies, Titans) classic Seelie/Unseelie fae, there are faeries (distinct and different from fae), alchemy, elemental powers, the Wild Hunt, and so much more. I’m still confused about the whole sidhe/lesidhe thing and what it brings to the plot to be mentioned so often. I did think having the different courts inhabit geographic regions was interesting.

Overall, this one didn’t work for me. I found it slow and it just didn’t really hook my attention. I would say that if this sounds interesting to you, and you’re a fan of books with fae and queer rep then check it out.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for providing me an E-ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book had me excited but unfortunately, it wasn't executed very well.

Even with a fairly small number of point of views, I had trouble connecting with any of the characters because their chapters were too short or seemed separate from the plot.
Another point of frustration was the pacing. There didn't seem to be any appropriate build-up for the final 100 pages.
However, i did appreciate the worldbuilding. it blends so nicely with the city of Toronto with vivid descriptions!

Received this copy for review through Netgalley. Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada!
(triggers at the end)

a solid start to what i feel is about to be an amazing, strong series! i was in for the synopsis and the fact that it was pitched to me as very adventure-filled, very queer, and very much like an RPG game. all of those were incredibly correct.

the plot is fast-paced from the start, with events and situations happening and the main characters having to figure out what to do and who to work with along the way. i have to admit, however much i enjoyed the general plot and the overarching themes, i found myself reaching a point near the middle where it was not hooking my interest. that could entirely be a me thing, and it feels like it wa,s but it took me over a month to finish this book 😭

now away from the plot, i wanna talk about the strong point of this book: the! characters! talk about a strong cast of characters. we have multiple POVS here, but our main characters we hear from the most are arlo, nausicaä, vehan, and aurelian. they're split off into duos, alro and nos, and vehan and aurelian, quite a bit before coming together, and it's amazing how much chemistry builds between each other! there wasn't a point in which they weren't gripping individuals, and i wanted to know just about everything about them.

by far, my favourite character has to be nausicaä. there is so much behind her character; the fact that she's an ousted immortal, her bitterness and abrasiveness that's really just a mask for her grief, and the connections she builds within the story. we're seeing a small glimpse into her very long life, but it felt meaningful, with the bonds she formed with arlo and the other characters; but especially arlo. i was rooting for her all the way!! bye

arlo, vehan, and aurelian were amazing main characters as well. i would especially like more about aurelian, i feel like we got a good look at who he is, but i want more... speaking of wanting more, please, for all that is holy, give me more celadon- that's a legendary person if i've ever met one; he gives me such caring, kind, yet chaotic vibes and i want nothing more than for him to join the main character team pls

lastly, the rep within this book was great in terms of queer rep. as i've read from the author, the rep goes as follows: nausicaä - lesbian (said on page), arlo - questioning, but pansexual (to be on-page in subsequent novels), aurelian (gay, said on page), and vehan (bisexual, said on page). the deities in this story are also non-binary, with the deity of luck using they/them pronouns actively in the story, and other queer characters places within there as well.

all in all, this was a solid read, no matter how long it took me to damn finish it, and i want the second one right this moment.

trigger warnings for
violence, death, grief, past trauma, loss of a loved one, body gore, sexual harassment, drug use, addiction, suicide/suicidal ideation, racism

This was so much fun. I loved this urban fantasy fae story set in Toronto, love to read a book set in a place I've actually visited! Three things that were definitely highlights for me: the witty/sassy banter, the interesting world/all the creatures and legends, and how Queer all the characters are. While I liked Arlo's character, she was a little too cliché at times; I don't need her to keep asking herself "why me? I'm a nobody, I'm not special" blah blah blah. I would have liked her to have a bit more personality beyond the reluctant chosen one trope. Nausicaa on the other hand, was amazing. She was so great, and I loved all of her interactions with everyone. Overall I really loved it, I love the whole gang and I can't wait for the sequel.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

this book was so, so entertaining! i am absolutely enamoured by the characters, the lore, and the dynamics between the two couples and the four individuals in the core group. this was straight up a masterpiece

Thank you to Netgalley, Ashley Shuttleworth, and Simon and Schuster Canada for an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

It always warms my heart when a Canadian author actually writes a book about Canadian characters IN CANADA!!!!! Being a couple of hours from
Toronto, I was quite familiar with the setting of this book and it just makes me so happy to read about Canadian settings!!!! Thank you so so much Ashley for keeping this story Canadian!

The fantasy in this story was really well done. Not being a huge fantasy reader, it had a great mix of characters, the magic was fun but not over the top, the relationships between different characters was fun and sometimes mysterious, and the LGBTQ+ representation was great!

There is a great mix of “bad” characters and innocents, and all kinds of in-between! The author was very creative in her weaving of the story and bringing many groups of magical creatures together. There were a couple things I was able to predict, and then there were moments that made me gasp!

I really enjoyed this one and the ending made me not only really wanting book two, but also left me wondering how many books there are going to be. And will they all be from the perspective of the same characters or will things get shuffled up a bit? I had so many questions at the end (in a “give me more”, GREAT kind of way!!!!) and I very much look forward to getting some answers in future books!

DNF'ed at 54%

Regardless of my enjoyment of the book, I am incredibly grateful to NetGalley and Simon&Schusther Canada for providing me with an Advance Review Copy of Ashley Shuttleworth's ``A Dark and Hollow Star``. All opinions are my own. They made me lucky by giving me access to one of my most anticipated releases of 2021.

To begin with, A Dark and Hollow Star's promise of an Urban Fantasy based on modern-day Toronto full of faeries with LGBTQA+ characters gravitated my attention toward this book. To give more insight into the plot, each of the seasonal faerie realms is divided by the Seelie and the Unseelie, faeries of light and faeries of darkness. In this world, half-faeries half-humans are called inborn. Plenty of them are suddenly murdered and our main characters are trying to figure out who orchestrated the murders and why.

This character-driven tale voices five perspectives: Arlo, a female ironborn torn between her human and High Fae heritage; Nausica, the fierce lesbian warrior wanting to avenge a loved one's death; Aurelian, the Seelie prince of the Summer Court; Vehan, Aurelian's friend; Hero, a mysterious janitor. As a Canadian person who grew up loving mythological creatures and Urban Fantasy, this story sounded like a dream come true.

Moreover, vampires, trolls, and djinns also made their way into this fantastical version of Toronto. However, their coexistence with the Fae and humans is not as well explored as I wanted to. Shuttleworth mentions in her debut novel that the Fae came from Europe and more specifically, Scotland and England, but did not expand on the historical backgrounds of other creatures. As Toronto is well-known as one of the most multicultural places in North America, I expected the author to offer more cultural history on how other creatures (who came from Eastern European, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern folklore) influenced the way this version of Toronto is built and its current patrimony.

The first issue I encountered while reading ``A Dark and Hollow Star`` is the pacing. Too many pages were spent depicting unnecessary details such as repeating over and over the character's thoughts and feelings. It felt too stretched out: Shuttleworth could have told the same information but in shorter form. The overload of needless information took me out of the story and I did not want to turn the page until picking the book back up a few days later, convinced that the pacing will improve. In brief, It was not exciting to read. The murder mystery plotline was hidden in the closet. Not any mention of it during the middle of the book.

Plus, the characters themselves are not innovative. Arlo is the usual YA protagonist who does not belong in any of her worlds she is supposedly part of. Although Nausicaa's chapters were the most interesting to me, I already read the story of the fierce and vengeful girl ready to tear the world apart until she meets her love interest who makes her softer. Vehan and Aurelian's chapters full of angst ( they have feelings for each other, but they don't want to ruin their long-lost friendship) is a territory I already landed on in the past. I do like multiperspective stories, but the characters did not meet or team up until very late in the book. If they have met earlier, it would have been a great occasion to write banter, which would have increased my interest in their adventure.

When I am reading a faerie book (or on any other magical creature), I want rich lore, folklore, rituals, traditions, etc. `Unfortunately, ``A Dark and Hollow Star`` failed to intrigues me in Shuttleworth's version of faeries. I know that fairy folklore is very common in Fantasy, but this is not a good reason to skip on what makes the Fae different from others.

At the end of the day, I am pretty sure Shuttleworth have amazing ideas, but their writing choices did not match what I wanted from her stories. I do not think their debut brings a new touch to the YA Fantasy realm, but if you are just looking for a slower-paced Torontonian LGBTQ+ version of stories you probably visited before, this one may be for you.

this book is long and somewhat confusing but still a good story. with multiple POV's you get mixed up in many different people some of which are working towards the same thing as others however all these characters are so incredibly different that it just doesn't seem to fit together as one story. although there was some confusion there is great diversity in this book with some LGBTQ+ characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. I was very excited about this story. The premise seemed right up my alley: Fae in an alternate Toronto with a very diverse cast of characters? I requested immediately.

2.5*, rounded up.

Sadly, I was disappointed. I didn’t like the writing style. At first it was pretty good. Some of the world-building elements were confusing and I felt like they weren’t explained very well, but I kept on. Towards the end, I got distinct video game vibes, which was different, but not for me. I think the author did an excellent job of trying to weave together 4+ distinct stories. Multiple POVs can be tricky and I think it was done elegantly. But, it got tiring reading through endless clunky prose and repetitive descriptions to get to the meat of the plot. And, when I did, I just … didn’t like the premise. The author took it to a place that fell flat for me. After that, I struggled to finish.

On top of that the novel felt almost… over-edited; like too many writing devices were used and added in an effort to make this novel “better”, but they just served to make it worse. There was so much going on; it felt kind of tangled. The endless descriptions of the weather and the people became very frustrating. I get really annoyed when an author treats the readers like idiots. I know his hair is “blackest black”, please stop reminding me. I just read it, the book isn’t that long. Also, it serves little function. On top of that, there were still some troublesome tense changes within chapters that were very confusing; maybe that is due to my copy being an ARC?

The magic was kind of cool, but also left mostly unexplained. I mean, it’s about Fae and Faeries (the author makes a distinction between the two – interesting choice!). It’s the same type of magic they usually have, with which Court they belong to adding specifics. The descriptions of those differences were very interesting, but less developed than I would have assumed given all the other descriptions. The background deities were more of a hook for me than the story on which the author chose to focus. A glossary may have been a helpful addition here.

Finally, I was very disappointed with the author’s treatment of the pronouns. They did a wonderful job of including a very diverse spectrum of people, identities and pronouns, but it didn’t feel like the community accepted these differences. The beauty of a fantasy novel is that you can create a world in which this is both the norm and accepted! Why stigmatize people further? To make a point? It didn’t make sense to me and it felt very preachy, which takes away from the charm of a world in which everyone’s identity is accepted without question; that’s what I would have preferred to read.

Lots of people have been giving 5*s to this novel. If you like fantasy, Fae and quests with a bit of a video game feel, you might like this. The big sticking point for me was the villain’s plan, which I won’t spoil, but I just didn’t get into it. Interesting concept though.

4.5/ 5 stars!! If you’re looking for an exciting adventure that includes Fae and great LGBTQ+ rep, with amazing found family, then you absolutely need read this!

A Dark and Hollow Star is an urban fantasy about Fae and magical beings, and it follows a group of teenage Fae who are forced to work together in order to solve a string of horrific murders. All the MCs are lgbtq+ and I really loved the plot. However, I did find the world building to be a little confusing in beginning but the author was able to pull it all together and create an incredible story. The relationships and friendships between the characters were very well developed, and heartwarming, and I was so sad to leave these characters when the book finished. I can’t wait for the next instalment of this series to see where this all ends up!

All quotes are from the uncorrected proof.

This book was solid.

I was very excited to read this book because I want to read more Canadian authors and books that take place places that I've sort of been are the best. There's something so familiar and comforting cause I can sort of picture what Toronto looks like and always remind myself that one day I should make the trek to the aquarium. I also get amazing lines like this which make me crave food from outside that I can actually go buy.

"I'll send for some tea - and Timbits. His High Majesty is quite fond of Timbits."

The strongest points of this book are the characters, the humour, and representation. I'm stealing one of Arlo's jokes next time someone bothers me.

"What are you doing?"
"Arc-welding," Arlo replied, glancing up from the book she was very obviously reading."

There are so many passages in A Dark and Hollow Star which made me stop and laugh out loud. I can't read the quote above without laughing. I loved each of the character's dead-pan humour throughout the book, it's exactly my kind of straight-faced humour. This book deals with a lot of dark topics (the summary does say serial killer) and the humour lightens the mood without making light of the plot.

I loved the narration style and the character's inside voices. There was a certain self-awareness about each of the characters that I really enjoyed. The last quarter (maybe?) of the novel features some Dungeon and Dragons style magic and it was just great to hear them say "we need to level up for this boss." If real people today were to be thrown into these situations, they'd have residual fandom knowledge to get them through. The moments where the characters sat down and acknowledged the situation they were in and didn't walk into it naively made me feel really at home with the characters. It made them solid and none of them looked like idiots.

My favourite characters were Arlo and Nos by far, and I think they were the author's too. Although the boys pulled a lot of weight when it came to the plot, I just didn't feel them pulling as heavily on the story. I didn't see as much character development in either of the boys as I saw in both of the girls. Arlo's self-worth journey and Nos' self-destruction arcs were both well laid out as destructive behaviours and examined as such. Neither of the girls are going to win "best mental health of the year", but Shettleworth examines both of their arcs with such care.

Shuttleworth puts so much care into the representation in this book, both LGBTQ+ representation and the discussion of mental health issues. From the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book, to the characters' own discussion and acknowledgment of their mental health, Shuttleworth put a lot of effort into ensuring the storyline was handled with care. There was even a discussion about how age gaps and maturity levels matter in the relationship.

There's also an entire discussion that the villain is recruited to nefarious purposes because he feels worthless due to the gap between minimum wage and the cost of living.

I also really loved the difference in expectations between Arlo's fae and human families. There's a lot of books these days about how important it is to own your culture and heritage, but I've never quite felt as home as I did in the differing expectations of Arlo's family. I've walked into family gatherings and had everyone speak a language I don't understand because they don't care. I get the invisibility treatment. I get the expectation that I will do things a certain way, the expectation of one half of my family to ignore the other half. I'm a full member of both worlds and it was just so comforting to see Arlo deal with all of it too.

I'm looking forward to the sequel where I really hope the boys level up with the girls for their character development.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

*Content TW: addiction, arson, body horror, child death, depression, drug use, human trafficking, PTSD, manipulation, racism, suicide, toxic relationship and trauma.

I truly wanted to love this book, it checked all the boxes for me when it comes to an excitingly fresh new urban fantasy. The introduction to new, queer characters and the Fae meets urban landscape is exactly up my alley but I ended up DNF'ing this book at the 150 page mark.

There were a couple reasons why this book didn't work for me: at over 20% of the book the plot was nowhere to be found, there were multiple character POVs that made it constantly confusing for the reader, and too many characters introduced at a time that I had to create a chart to review them at every page.

Overall, I won't be giving a rating for this book as I didn't finish it but I can attest that the writing was the reason I made it as far as I did and the characters did have depth but unfortunately needed a lot more flushing out. Inevitably, this wasn't the fae urban fantasy for me but I wouldn't discourage it from any readers who enjoy a more character driven fantasy story with diverse characters.

This was such a wonderful book. It's so refreshing to see a queer cast of characters going on such a fascinating adventure. I love dark, older YA, and this is exactly what I look for in the genre. I did find the first 100 pages to be a bit slow going, and I found myself flipping back to remember names, places and histories, but once I had it all figured out I was in for the ride.

I cannot wait to recommend this book!

I had the best time reading this book! I loved reading about this gang of characters, as they slowly link up with one another. I loved seeing how their stories come together, of how they were working towards a common goal of solving this crime!

I loved seeing how they handled representation in this book. All of the main characters have LGBTIA+ as part of their identity, and it was really great to see how they worked for rights that they should already have. And the situation is not really different between humans and the fae, which is a little sad, but if things get better in the future, that's hope for the real world!

These characters were all so great to read about! They might have had their problems and blind spots, from Arlo with her belief she doesn't have powers, Nausicaä with the whole situation with her sister and her knowledge that the belief that there's no mental illness or depression in the immortals is wrong. She is one complicated semi-bottled bottle of rage and chaos, a real storm of emotions. Oh, and for the boys, Vehan and Aurelian, there's Vehan's mom, who caused all sorts of trouble that only knew about.

This world was just so fascinating. We do start with Nausicaä, with her banishment to the mortal world, and I loved learning about the fae and the politics and the different fractions, as well as the immortals, the gods that have a complicated past with the fae! It was so interesting and intriguing and I loved how it tied into the mystery of the murders, with the alchemy and the history of it in this world!

Wow, that ending! It's a bit mindboggling, because this is only the first book, and so much happened. Which means future endings-and the series as a whole, is building up to something even bigger, and yeah, that just blows my mind! I can't wait to see where that ending goes from there, because I'm very apprehensive!

This was such an incredible book, and I loved reading it!

This was a wild ride in both good and bad ways. This book was very confusing, and having finished the book, I still feel really lost about what I just read. Part of this I think is the book's length. It has four POVs, and I think it could have done far better were it to have been only two. Vehan and Aurelian (while interesting characters) were put in such opposite of Arlo and Nausicaä that their plot line felt out of place and confusing. When we got to their chapters, I just did not care about them because in both location and arc, they were completely different. I enjoyed their story, and I liked them as characters, but in comparison to the others, they felt underdeveloped. SO, we had some exciting points in the novel, but most of the additional pages and plot points just added to the aforementioned confusion. Additionally, the magic system was another layer of confusion. It's based on some DND/alchemy type of magic, mixed in with understood fairy seasonal magic and I felt like it could have been better explained - and probably will be in future instalments. We were definitely told a lot of things instead of shown.
I do want to say, in regards Arlo and Nausicaä, it was absolutely amazing to finally get a sapphic fantasy in YA with fae (I mean, it probably exists, but it's the first time I read it) and I was here for it. I know it seems like I didn't enjoy it, but I did have fun reading it and I can see this being a really fun series remanent of City of Bones.

Explosive and heart-pounding, this debut is not to be missed. With the queer cast of my dreams and a protagonist to root for, I've been anticipating it since I first heard the deal, and it does not disappoint. Shuttleworth is a vibrant new voice in YA literature and I look forward to what they pen next.

With a well-drawn cast existing in a world where humanity and faerie-tale collide, this genre-bending novel defies genre limitations and adds a chilling mystery to the mix as queer teens track down a secret killer.

Also, talk about gorgeous covers! All in all, this book is a soaring triumph and edge-of-your-seat adventure that I highly recommend!

4 Stars!

A Dark and Hollow Star is an urban fantasy you can geek out in, but also feels authentic. It doesn't gloss over important social issues including metal health. It recognizes there is value in reflecting the darker feelings so many people struggle with. It is not a story centered on over coming this but instead provides representation for a group  frequently overlooked for fear of being too triggering. It is possible it may be triggering to some, and the book does feature a disclaimer so readers can make an informed decision, but there is a true value in creating authentic feeling characters that people who have or are struggling with similar metal health issues can relate to. Books like this one can help lessen the stigma associated with mental health.
In addition, I thought A Dark and Hollow Star was fantastic and I have already bought copies for my friends so they can enjoy it as well. I am excited to see where the next installment will take us.

I want to start this review by saying that I loved the author’s note with all of its content warnings. It is appreciated and more authors should do this.

We learn the rules of the magic system alongside Arlo, which is a great way to introduce us to the world whilst making sure there isn’t any info dump. The species within the world were also richer than simply faeries (goblin, troll, merman, etc.). It added a whole other dimension to the story, making it more interesting and more developed.

The spider monkey reference: iconic. I loved the different references to modern pop culture. It was done in a great way, a way that doesn't take you out of the fantasy world. It anchors the story in reality, which is great since this is set in modern-day Toronto. It’s refreshing to see such a thing done in a non-intrusive way in a fantasy book. My little Canadian heart was also very happy to see Tim Hortons being mentioned!

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

When I was putting together my list of most anticipated 2021 releases at the end of last year, A Dark and Hollow Star immediately jumped out to me as one to keep an eye on. An urban fantasy billed as “City of Bones meets The Cruel Prince” sounds just up my alley. Throw in an entirely queer cast of characters and set it in Toronto, Ontario – only a few hours away from where I grew up – and I was completely sold. NetGalley kindly provided me with an advanced copy of this book ahead of its February 23rd release, in exchange for an honest and spoiler-free review.

I’ll admit that the main thing that drew me to this book was the setting. I don’t think American readers realize just how exhausting it is to have every book set in the States. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever read a fantasy book set in Canada before, and it was so refreshing. As a Canadian myself, and as someone quite familiar with the city of Toronto, it was cool to be able to recognize little details about the environment. There’s even a part where someone has to explain timbits! I just thought it was a nice touch, and it helped me connect to the story a little bit more.

The fantasy world is also richly imagined, and the plot interesting. One of the biggest strengths of this book, I think, is the way Ashley Shuttleworth manages to craft a fantasy world that’s a little bit more divorced from human understandings of gender and sexuality than you see from most YA fantasy worlds. I’ve noticed that the fantasy genre has lagged a little bit behind the contemporary genre when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation, and I think that speaks both to a lack of imagination on the part of cishet authors and to the need for more LGBTQ+ people writing YA fantasy. Like, you can imagine mythological creatures and a whole different world existing alongside ours, but you can’t imagine a world without gender? Come on. A fantasy world that simply doesn’t vibe with human gender roles is something I’ve been craving for a very long time, and it was very refreshing to get that in A Dark and Hollow Star. I really hope this is the start of a trend in the genre.

Ashley Shuttleworth’s writing is witty and engaging, and their characters well developed. I was invested in all the love stories, the ship dynamics were fun, and I wish there had been more scenes with the full cast of characters together, because I really enjoyed their interactions with each other.

The one complaint I have about this book – which was unfortunately significant enough to bring my rating down from 5 stars to 4 – is that it suffers from what I like to call “first book in a fantasy series” syndrome. Shuttleworth has clearly put a lot of effort into crafting this world, but it’s a very complicated world, and it’s very difficult to understand. All the characters know about the fantasy world from the beginning, too, which makes it just a little bit harder for the reader to figure out what’s going on. The story is also told from multiple points of view, with lots of characters to keep track of, which only adds to the confusion. I’m definitely going to need to re-read it before the second book comes out, because I didn’t figure out what was happening or really connect to the characters until pretty late in the game, and I want to experience the story again while actually understanding the world and the characters.

This isn’t the type of book you can just pick up at the end of a long day and turn off your brain to read. You need to be paying attention, and you need to be ready to sit through a lot of worldbuilding. That’s not unusual for the first book in a fantasy series, though. If you’re in the right mood for it, and you’re willing to power through something that demands you stay engaged the whole way through, I can promise that this book is well worth picking up. I expect A Dark and Hollow Star to be somewhat divisive within the book community, but I think it’s going to kick off a truly excellent series. Now that I’m invested in this story, I cannot wait to see what comes next! I’d recommend this to any fans of urban fantasy who are looking for something that’s a little bit off the beaten path, but that still retains some of the best elements of the genre.

A Dark and Hollow Star comes out February 23rd, 2021.