DNF at 20%. I gave this book a chance, genuinely. I thought I would like it, considering I’ve liked plots like this before. Maybe it was the writing or the plot or something, but I just didn’t like it. I’m sorry to the author, but it wasn’t it for me

A super fun YA romance set in space!

I absolutely adored this sci fi romance. Victoria is such a relatable character. She is selfish and ambitious but she has a good heart and I loved watching her grow. Her character arc is intense and while I absolutely got annoyed by some of her decisions early on, I can see why she made them and how she ended up growing from the experience.

The male romantic interest (I don't want to give spoilers) is a little bland but I love the way he loves her. I like that the reader gets to know secrets the characters don't and then we get to anticipate their eventual collision and I loved every tense wonderful moment of it.

The pacing was fast with tons of intrigue and court politics and mixed motivation characters. I didn't feel like anything was a surprise at the end but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the novel. A solid, feel good, YA romance set in space and full of flawed characters doing their best within their circumstances.

I’m trying to be kind to this book, because YA Sci-Fi is a genre that has been mostly relegated to dystopian Hunger Games clones for the last decade. In theory, a Dickensian planet featuring a girl suddenly thrust into high society due to a sudden arranged marriage is at least a step in the direction of the completely unexplored concept of "Jane Austen in space." But to quote the greatest Pride and Prejudice review of all time, when you boil the story down to the barest of bare bones it really is just “a bunch of people going to each other’s houses.” The Stars Between Us is not even that.

I think I could have suffered the heroine Vika a little more if it felt like she had done anything to earn her sudden enormous wealth. But by the end of book I still wasn’t clear as to why Sky’s father picked her as his son’s future bride. I also was immediately put off by how quickly she embraced a life of frivolity and lavish expense. Her dynamics with her family back on her home planet was also bizarre, a kind of ambivalence that has no basis even any kind of bad blood between them. It was so unlike a family dynamic I’d ever seen written on page - either toxic or wholesome - that I was wondering why her sister even existed if not to occasionally pop up and make a mostly harmlessly barbed comment. Vika basically ignored them as soon as she entered the upper echelon of high society and spent almost the entirety of the novel proving her complete and utter disregard of them.

Sky was the blandest of cardboard cutout YA male leads I’ve encountered in a while, and his hilarious Clark Kent disguise of glasses and a dye job that even the woman who raised him can’t see past only makes him more of a joke. I think the whole dynamic of “rich boy humbled as he watches poor girl inherit his fortune” could have been a fun dynamic to explore. But he could have solved every single plot inconvenience and roadblock in the story in an instant by revealing his true identity and quite frankly that just makes him a very intently destructive character to the story’s integrity. It’s hard to feel like there’s stakes when one character has the power to solve everything… and then you just end up resenting that character when he refuses to solve everything out of fear of losing the respect of his "crush.”

All in all, what reads as a fun, flighty premise that could have really leaned into a Jane Austen romance in space direction falls flat when matched with two dislikeable main leads and a forgettable mystery plotline. While the actual writing here was solid, I somehow come away from this feeling disappointed despite having gone in with zero expectations and a hazy recollection of the synopsis.

Thank you to the publisher Wednesday Books for providing an e-ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

Based on the plot summary of this book, I was expecting a romance-based story with elements of science fiction and maybe a few high-tension scenes, but I was completely taken by surprise! While there is definitely romance in this story, it’s much more action-heavy than I expected. And the unexpected twists, even those just in the first few chapters are sure to take even the most perceptive reader by surprise.
The point of view of the story alternates between Vika, a young girl who is unexpectedly promised to the son of the richest man she knows, and Sky, a charismatic stranger who enters Vika’s life unexpectedly. I enjoyed Vika and found her relatable, especially given the extraordinary circumstances she’s put in. But I do feel like the author could have added even more tension by keeping Sky’s perspective secret.
One of my favorite things about reading a good science fiction novel is getting immersed in a world of high-tech and completely unique environments. And this book definitely had an enjoyable world with some cool technology to explore. However, it all felt very familiar to other SciFi books, movies, and shows I’d watched. I kept waiting for some sort of flashy element of this world to make it stand out, but unfortunately, that didn’t come.
The Stars Between Us is author Cristin Terrill’s third young adult novel. The story is a great blend of science fiction and romance and balances moments with action with tender character development. The protagonist, Vika, is a relatable touchstone through an exciting plot. While the setting was well-made, I had hoped to see something unique to the genre. I’d recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of both romance and science fiction.

I really enjoyed reading this YA sci-fi novel! Overall, I would definitely recommend reading this book!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

the boring, too long, predictable nature and not fleshed out characters makes this book mediocre at best??
it’s just convoluted and the author never makes us truly root for the main character
and romance is boring too. sorry sky.

received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. (via Netgalley)

I enjoyed this. It moved at a good enough pace that I read it all in one sitting.

This was so awesome. It was basically like Jennifer Lynn Barnes's THE INHERITANCE GAMES in space, so if you liked that, I think you'll really enjoy this one!

At first, I thought I had this book all figured out. I thought it would be one of those "I was forced to marry the billionaire and now we'll slowly fall in love," type of stories, but that trope was quickly turned on its head almost the moment it started, which was surprising and slightly disconcerting because it made the story unpredictable in a great way.

I also liked Vika's character arc. She actually had a personality, and while at times she could be vain, and selfish, and bitchy, I feel like her character possessed the complexities of an actual person. It was also refreshing to read from the perspective of a female character who was beautiful and knew it, actually liked wearing pretty things and dressing up, while being really smart and ambitious at the same time. I especially love how aware she was of her shortcomings, and how she learned from them eventually.

Lastly, no spoilers, but I appreciated Sky's character a lot, and how Vika interacted with him. Sometimes, sure I felt that her rudeness was over the top, but so many love-interests in YA are just given a pass for their creepy behavior simply because they're the love interest. I love that Vika always held him accountable when she outright caught him in the wrong, and how she always felt uncomfortable and told him to stay away from her when he did sketchy things like stare at her and follow her wherever she went. In other stories, it's passed off as romantic. In this, her reactions felt not only more relatable, but more realistic as well.

Overall, like I said before, this was awesome. I certainly wasn't ever bored, and though the mystery itself is perhaps slightly predictable, I was entertained so thoroughly throughout the rest of the book, that it hardly even mattered. Definitely glad I decided to read this one!

I really enjoyed this one. I'm getting into space-y books a lot more over the last couple years.
I like the planet hopping, the poor planet and the rich planet. I like the secrets. So many secrets.

Although I am kinda upset that Hal's secret with his secretary is never addressed.
But over all I had a lot of fun and I like the characters.

My only real criticism is I wish the chapters told you whose POV you were reading.

I have never quite read anything like this. I did no have any really expectations or predictions when I first started, but this was not bad at all.

Vika is a poor barmaid on a poor planet who finds that she’s been included in a will of a mysterious billionaire. But when his heirs are targets of a series of explosions, Vika teams up with Sky Foster to find the bomber’s identity before she is next.

The first part of this book dragged a bit for me. The second half picked up in action and I liked Vika more than in the beginning of the book. I liked all the action and the world building was decent. I also am glad the story was wrapped up in one book and not as a start of a series.

This book is out now. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for this eARC.

I will admit, I am not normally a lover of Science Fiction - I typically find it hard to read and even harder to enjoy. But this novel had all of the warmth and simplicity of a contemporary romance with such a fun setting that I couldn't help but love it so much!

That cover drew me in and I wanted to be in love with this so much!!! So I’m disappointed that I don’t. To start, Vika was cool for a hot minute in the beginning, but then she morphs into this super mega B that I just can’t stand. A little bit of bristling and snapping is understandable, but hot dang she really goes off the mean girl edge. And that, to me, was very off putting.

Sky, oh Sky… let’s discuss Sky for a moment. He had such potential!!! He could have been anyone he wanted to be, but it seems he couldn’t help being a simpering, timid, scared boy. Which is also fine for a hot minute, but gets annoying real quick.

I wish I could have overlooked the fact that I wasn’t into the characters, but they’re the main part of the story!! The plot was fine and I was fairly interested throughout, but the main characters!!!! They just rubbed me the wrong way and honestly brought the quality of this read down for me. So I settled on 2 1/2 stars rounded up.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Cristin Terrill for the opportunity to read this for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Vika Hale is a poor barmaid living with her family in a tiny flat, but she's got a secret: Since she was young, she's had a mystery benefactor who paid for her education and subsidized her family's livelihood. It isn't until his death that Vika realizes her was billionaire magnate Reginald Chapin and he's named Vika in his will. She's swept off to another planet to live in wealth and luxury… Even if it means dealing with Sky Foster, an assistant to the estate whose very presence vexes her. But when someone seemingly makes attempts to kill the beneficiaries of Chapin's will, Vika will have to team up with Sky to infiltrate elite society solve the mystery before it's too late.

I've heard some hype about Cristin Terrill's other books, but someone did The Stars Between Us dirty with the "Bridgerton meets Illuminae" comp, which suggests fast moving sci-fi adventure paired with swoony, forbidden romance. This book is... not quite that. There's plenty of mystery and intrigue in the plot, but it moves slowly and without a real sense of urgency. The pacing never quite found its footing— The plot doesn't begin in earnest until at least a quarter of the way through the book, meanwhile the big finale takes a few pages.

I will give the novel this, though: It has a couple of sharp twists that I didn't see coming! It's rare that a twist catches me these days, but this story did it.

Vika is an erratic MC. Not because she begins to buy into the world of the rich and pampered when it's laid at her feet, but because her moods change in accordance with the plot's needs, even if it’s nonsensical. For instance, she essentially Sky that he needs to stay away from her, then begs him to stop ignoring her once he needs to get close to her and involved in the plot. I could forgive her shallow tendencies if her behaviors made sense, just they often don't. The other characters are almost instantly captiviated by her and it makes no sense, because she's kind of a brat. Sky was a much more interesting character but unfortunately, we get very little from his POV.

As for the romance, it was cute but I wanted more of it. There’s so much frustrated push-and-pull and not nearly enough simple flirtation. We spend more time following Vika's failed dating antics then the actual romance that's supposed to endear us to the main characters.

I'm frustrated by THE UNRECOGNIZED POTENTIAL in this book more than anything else, I think. The worldbuilding was incredible, if only the action and romance rose up to meet the indulgent space setting. The story was fine overall, but fairly forgettable.

Let’s start with the negative. I just did not love the flow of some of the storyline, particularly the main romance. It just didn’t naturally progress in a way I would think. It would be an enemies to lovers trope (which I tend to gravitate towards), but it needed just a little more when bridging that enemy to lover gap. Also, some of the dialogue was, for lack of a better word, odd. The characters would say things that did not seem to be natural dialogue. I understand we are supposed to see a change in some of the characters' personalities as the story progresses, however, there were times where this did not work. Further world building would have been good as well. There were some gaps in the world building that left more questions than answers.

Now, here is the positive. I did like the worlds. Yes, worlds. There are two main planets involved and more planets briefly brought up. I did enjoy learning about the worlds and how they interact with one another. We do see one world as the poorer planet of the two. The leading lady, Vika, is from the poorer of the planets but has a chance to move up in the social hierarchy and go to the richer of the planets. Vika becomes an unlikable character as she loses sight of who she is and where she came from. She seems to have good intentions but truly is very selfish in her thoughts and actions.

There is a running mystery involving a murder and an explosion (not in that order). I will say I figured out the who behind everything, but could not completely pin down the motives behind the actions. All is revealed in detail in the end. I was thankful for this because it kept me interested and reading late into the night to have all the answers I desperately needed.

Overall, I do not think this is a bad book. I would like to read further on these worlds and learn more about them and their inhabitants. I also would read more by this author as I like her creative storytelling.

I did receive this as an arc from Netgalley, but all the opinions are my own.

The Stars Between Us by Cristin Terrill is a novel that was one of my most highly anticipated reads. Unfortunately, it just never quite worked for me. I think my expectations were too sky high. After all, Cristin Terrill's previous release, All Our Yesterdays, is one of my all time favorites. This novel is0 altogether different from that one, but I still had high expectations. It has a lot of potential, but the real deal breaker for me was the characters. I was invested in any of them and they were far too grating. The twists weren't exactly twists and were too predictable for my tastes. Plus, in the description it's described as Dickensian which I wouldn't really say it qualifies for. On NetGalley, it's compared to both Bridgerton and Illuminae which don't really work either. Like I said, it has potential, but it never quite delivered on any of it.

🚀 Book Review 🚀

#thestarsbetweenus
#cristinterrill
#genrebending
#NetGalley published 8/2/2022
#wednesdaybooks
#yascififantasy

🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀/5

This is one of the cutest YA books I have read in a really long time. Even though there is a very poor oppressed planet in the story. It was not written in a sad, depressing way. It's very matter of fact. It's a super easy read. No science involved. It is told in 3rd person. In the hashtags I called it genre bending. It's YA science fiction, fantasy, romance, and mystery all in one.

I'm not sure what else to say that won't give away the story. Just try it! You'll love it if you love those genres.

#stmartinspress
#bookstagram #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booknerdsbookreview #highlyrecommend #gottareadthisbook

Ultimately, this one wasn't for me. While I'm sure it's a fine book, I had a difficult time empathizing with the main character and I lost interest. This book uses tropes like will shenanigans and poor girl thrust into high society, and these are devices I normally enjoy. I would be curious to try picking this book up again at a later date, but for now I give it a three star rating.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
***
The Stars Between Us by Cristin Terrill was a sci-fi, mystery YA stand-alone novel.
Vika’s mysterious benefactor has loomed large over her life, popping in and out unexpectedly and with no known reason as to why they were or weren’t doing the things they were. Until the death of a billionaire magnate and lawyers appearing at her home to let her know that she was chosen out of several other young women to marry the dead man’s son, in fact marrying her is a necessity for the son to inherit the man’s money.
Nothing like being a pawn in someone’s schemes.
Vika wrestles with the choices. She remembers life before, when her family was fairly well off and could afford luxuries, before the economy tanked and her father lost the job that kept them well off. This could be her chance to bring them even higher than they had been. Is she marrying for love? No. But who needs love when you have money?
About the time Vika comes to her decision she finds out the ship carrying her maybe-to-be-husband has exploded and there were no survivors. Ready to give up and let all her hopes go of a better life fate intervenes again and the couple that have now inherited the money invite Vika to live with them and get a taste of what she would have if her maybe-husband hadn’t died. Vika jumps at the chance and finds herself surrounded by wealth and glamour but realizes quickly that there is a dark undercurrent to it all. A darkness that may target her if she doesn’t start looking for answers and quick. Meanwhile she also has Sky, a young man she met shortly after the death of maybe-husband, that she keeps running into, Sky makes her uneasy, something about him sets her on edge and so she does her best to keep him at a distance while trying to get answers and maybe find a new maybe-rich-husband to finish what she had already planned to start.
***
A lot of people aren’t going to like Vika. They are going to call her whiney and she is, a little, but above all else Vika is ruthless. She is goal oriented and she has her sights set on a goal and she means to reach it. That goal is money, at the expense of her own happiness, because she doesn’t expect love out of this, she expects to at least help both herself and her family and that is enough for her.
Was this my favorite book of the year? No. Was it absolutely fun still? Yes.
This book was like a popcorn movie, you know? Like, not the best but fun enough it kept you with it. Pretty predictable and nothing entirely exciting or new but the writing style was good, and kept me going. It was fun.

While I have mixed feelings about this one, The Stars Between Us was a pretty fun read.

I loved the world building and the overall plot of the novel. From the beginning, the premise of a thrilling mystery set in a Dickensian sci-fi world caught my attention. The Great Expectations is one of my favorite classics and I was immediately drawn into the world.

However, I thought that the way the plot was executed fell flat for me. While I enjoyed some of the writing, it was slow most of the time and dragged on and on until the middle half of the book. By then, I really didn't care for any of the characters except for Sky because everyone, especially Vika, was so hard to like and root for.

While this wasn't my favorite novel, I did have a lot of fun reading it and I'm excited to explore Cristin Terrill's other novels!