I enjoyed this book so much that at 92% I had put it down because I didn’t want it to end.
First off, thank you NetGalley for providing me this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I would say this story has 3 plots going simultaneously and they are a romantic one (not spicy), a mystery, and how money affects people. Plus the plot twists were amazing. Like the one at like 30%….
This story definitely had Great Expectations vibes with hints of Charles Dickens’s other works, like Bleak House and Little Dorrit in the sense of how money or the lack there of can affect and change people. That side of the story interests me while also giving me flashbacks to my years as an Estate Paralegal. Seriously, the things people will do for “free” money. But there was also this romance reminiscent of Jane Austen with characters that think there’s so much standing between them being together when it’s just themselves.
And finally, I love Sky. This cinnamon roll of a character is my new book boyfriend. And even though I too am a cinnamon roll, I would fight anyone and everyone who would dare hurt Sky.
I loved this book and I plan ranting and raving about it to everyone I know.

The Stars Between Us is a fantasy, rags-to-riches, magical story written by Cristin Terrill.

We follow Vika, who has been supported by an anonymous benefactor her whole life. When the benefactor shockingly dies, Vika discovers she was included in the will and must travel to the neighboring planet to work everything out. While there, Vika meets Sky, a worker for the benefactors, and the two quickly figure out someone is targeting the heirs of the will. Rebellions, secrets, and danger string Vika and Sky along as they work together to find whose behind the murders.

This is a fun, fantasy filled read with turns at every page. Vika is a headstring women who's not afraid to say what she wants. This fantasy and world building create a fun environment while the mystery keeps you on the edge of your seat. I recommend to fans of YA fantasy/ mystery. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

This book blew me away! I was unable to but it down. Perfect, dazzlingly, very well written. The details the author described throughout the book was so amazing. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

I really enjoyed this reading experience. The intrigue, the mystery, the romance, science-fiction elements of surprise presented in a dystopian manner....there is something here for every "flavor" of reader! I really enjoyed the "enemies to lovers" and adventurous nature of the plot...and I know that all who read this will find something to identify with and enjoy. I will, most certainly, be purchasing multiple copies of this for my Library! Excellent!

This book was a good YA sci-fi story! I thought the world building and the “ Dickensian-inspired” setting to be so creative and unique! I haven’t read anything like it! One great thing about this book is that there is something for every reader. It’s got some romance, a little mystery, sci-if and even some dystopian elements. I did, however, not really connect with the main character, Vika. I found her kind of spoiled, selfish and bratty. But, overall, I enjoyed this one and I think would be great for YA readers that want to read more sci-fi!

I absolutely loved this book. I will be purchasing a copy for my classroom library. I have a few students who are really into The Inheritance Games, and I think this will be a great next read for them. I love the world Terrill created and think this could be a great introduction to fantasy/sci-fi for my students!

This book was really good! I enjoyed the plot and the way that we got to see the characters evolve. Vika wasn't a great character and I was unable to connect with her, but I still loved witnessing her story. This is a great book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I think this might have been a case of an it’s not you, it’s me sort of thing. The Stars Between us is a sci fi/regency era story and it was really difficult to connect with. I also had a difficult time even enjoying the protagonist, Vika. She was not my favorite in the least and I have difficulty enjoying books when I can’t connect to the protagonist.

I am sure there are lots of folks who would enjoy or different and interesting this book was, I just may not have been the appropriate audience to receive that.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a case of pretty cover, okay story.

The Stars Between Us follows Vika Hale, a poor worker who is suddenly elevated to wealthy status when it's revealed she's to marry Leo Chapin, heir to a billion dollar fortune/company. Then Leo dies in a spaceship explosion and all Vika's chances of escaping are crushed. Or so she thinks. Then the Gardeners, the new will benefactors, come to meet her and offer to take her in. Vika jumps at the chance, but what she doesn't expect is to meet Sky Foster again, a mysterious young man she met briefly before leaving her home planet. Sky works for her benefactors and the two begin to suspect outside forces are trying to shape who receives the Chapin fortune.

There were times this felt like a retelling of something. I don't know what exactly, but the vibes were there? Times I did enjoy the story, but a majority of the time I was just meh. I did really like Sky, he's such a cinnamon roll. I'm kind of surprised I didn't like Vika, but she read so shallow to me and it really did not ingratiate her to me.

Vika basically ditches her family and forgets about them when she's showered in nice things. Like she only starts sending them money after Sky suggests it to her. And she hardly talks to them after leaving, unless Sky mentions something or asks how her family is. I get she wanted to distance herself from them, but she completely shuts them out and like damn that was harsh. Especially since neither of her parents are particularly mean. Her dad is a huge softie but he gets nothing. Idk it made me sad for her family.

The mystery part was interesting, but it was shoved to the back of the story for a good part so we could see Vika living it up, blowing money on things and trying to find a rich husband. I wish there was more to the mystery and that instead of completely ignoring him at every turn, Vika gave Sky a chance at first to even be her friend. But nah this bitch is too busy looking down her nose at him.

I wanted to like this but the focus on ridiculously wealthy people is just not for me. I did like the space stuff!

Rep: All white cishet cast, majority of characters are wealthy.

CWs: Fire/fire injury, explosion of spaceship, attempted murder/murder, classism. Moderate: abandonment, parental emotional abuse, grief, infidelity (of side character), injury/injury detail, alcoholism (side character), colonisation.

Delightful. Not to be dramatic, but I would die for Vika. (And Sky.) Enemies to lovers in space, Terrill's customary excellent world building, and plot that will keep you reading up past your bedtime... What's not to love?

YA SF is a hard sell, and this book is a perfect example of why that is. It does not matter, at all, that this is set on another planet in a setting with affordable commercial space travel. The story takes place in 19th century England. That it has been costumed to look like SF does not change that, and in fact creates a number of issues.

Worldbuilding?

It's a Regency era drama. In a fantasy version of space.

The economy doesn't make sense. Philomenus, the poor planet, based its entire economy on one export, fantasy coal. Once the coal market plumetted, the entire planet's economy did as well. Simultaneously, despite the lack of demand for coal (which means there is a lot of cheap coal!) there is an energy shortage on Philomenus. Basically, no. This makes no sense.

How are poor people in the future so much worse off than poor people now? How exactly does that work? How is it an all expenses paid interplanetary commute is cheaper than hiring people who live on the same planet?

Vika has to get DNA extracted for some reason? This is done by a giant needle being jabbed into her neck instead of, you know, a cheek swab. Come on.


The physics of the world also doesn't make sense - how does it take an hour for a ferry between planets? How fast is the ferry? It takes three days to get to the moon from Earth. There are other issues - two massive bodies that close would be tidally locked, like how our moon is tidally locked to us (we only see one side of it). It's just not possible for two planets to be separated by a one hour travel time survivable by humans.

Leo was physically writing letters to someone. Why?

Paper currency is used, for some reason. They don't have mobile banking (or mobiles, which, considering even homeless people often have phones, is ridiculous).

Characters

Vika is truly awful and selfish (and this doesn't change much by the end). I despise her as a character. It's not until someone points out she can send her family money that she does. The way she and other working class characters are written makes me think this is how the author thinks about poor people: greedy, selfish, irresponsible, and cruel. The theme of "money corrupts" repeatedly manifests. It's not just how Vika acts that makes me think this, but how Vika herself thinks about and treats her family (particularly her mother and sister), her coworkers, and her neighbors.

But, she's beautiful. We get told that over and over and over and over and over...It's her only asset (her own words). Imagine writing a female protagonist in 2022 who isn't smart, brave, noble, or kind, but is merely valued for her physical appeared. Yikes.

The people around her, her benefactors, her own father, ignore how a man repeatedly makes her uncomfortable.

Sky is a creep. His plan doesn't make any sense and is ultimately pointless when the villain exposes themself at the end. It was also super obvious, from the very beginning, who that person was.

All the tertiary characters are uniformly shallow, selfish, and cruel, and have no influence on the story.

Plot

Nothing much to say here. There are a lot of parties. There's a whodunnit happening in the background which you can figure out right from the very beginning.

Much like their not-so-subtle contempt for the poor, characters regularly express disgust and shame people who "sell themselves" for money (i.e. sex workers, people who marry into wealth, etc). They are depicted as amoral, conniving, and lacking self respect. Works literally written during the Regency, such as Pride and Prejudice, do a much, much better job of sympathetically portraying the realities of women who are locked into an inferior social role, and the choices they have to make (for example, Charlotte).

I think the number of themes the author attemped here was too ambitious. Seperately none were pulled off well, and together it made a mess.

Writing

It's a YA novel, but that doesn't give any author a pass to dumb down their writing. I'm not going to go on too much about it since for the most part it was ok. A few things stood out to me as particularly silly lines:

"curled up on the carpet like a squashed bug" - how exactly does something which has been squashed then curl up?

"Unexpected watering at the back of her eyes" - what in the world does this mean?

Even without all the issues above, the story is boring. The SF element is meaningless, the characters are shallow, the plot is incredibly thin, and there are way too many parties.

I really was not sure what to expect with this title, but was so excited once I really got into the plot! The Stars Between Us was really unlike any title that I have read in the past and I loved all the glitz and glamour. Terrill very quickly pulls you into Vika's world and it was a very action pcked whirlwind journey!

think this book is supposed to Great Expectations but IN SPACE. But it's not (and, as someone who suffered through Great Expectations for AP English 12, I can say that with certainty. At least I was able to read that book.). I read the first 25% and the last 15% of this book, and let me tell, every single prediction I made in the first quarter of the book was proven true in the last 15% of the book. And that, my friends, is not good storytelling.

Vika is not a horrible protagonist; she's just the same as most of the ones you've already read. Down to the family situation. The love story is predictable - to be honest, as mentioned above, the entire story is just predictable. I just didn't care about the characters or what was happening.

In conclusion: predictable as fuck. Wish I could give zero stars.

There is a lot I wish I could say about this one but sadly it just didn’t click for me. I at least still like the cover!

The book is told in third-person but it mainly follows Vika Hale. I can’t say that I liked her much. She was very bratty and called others out for their infatuation with money but quickly became elitist it seemed when circumstances changed in her favor. I thought she was rude to one character in particular and didn’t really make sense as to why. It’s not like he ever did anything to her to warrant it. The other characters were okay but none felt like they really had any development.

The one good thing about this book is that it is very easy to read and is not bogged down but an extravagant plot in space. There is no info dumping or anything to be aware of. Personally, I needed more from the characters, the plot, and the world-building. It felt too simplistic for my taste and left something to be desired. It also felt very slow in the beginning as well which usually is a turn off for me. I was hoping it would pick up a bit and it does but still not enough for me to love it.

Overall, it was okay. I did need more from it and that’s sadly why I didn’t love it.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC of this! Also, just to clarify, this review falls closer to 2.5 stars.

Honestly, what I can say was that this was fun. It was a nice read for me, in a state where I wanted to expend very little brain energy. The plot was straightforward, the twists were fairly standard, but again: brain cotton candy.

I did like the ending, and Sky as a character. Out of any of the characters, he really was the strongest written. Which would honestly be my major issue with the book: none of the characters really felt all the way fleshed out, and I feel like there was a lot of space for drama and development that was underutilized. On a similar note, Sky and Vika, while very cute + fun, didn't feel like we got to see into their relationship and the development of, so it was the audience mostly relying on the book telling you they were falling in love. If I'm reading a testy romance of two people falling into each other and learning to trust, I want every agonizing detail, thanks.

Anyway!! Fun read, wish that it had been developed more, but overall, a nice time.

Vika is dirt poor, her family scrabbling for a living on a planet that is an afterthought at best; but Vika has had an invisible benefactor. Events happen propelling her into the world of glitz. The only problem is a mysterious guy named Sky whom she finds irritating because . . . because the book needs a hot but irritating love-hate thread going.

There was so much of this book that I liked, but the romance didn't work, in part because Sky's story was so very convoluted, presented in a jerky prose version of steadincam that broke up the story. Vika is also one of those protags who becomes a total jerk because she can. I can see the appeal--I know it's realistic for a kid who has been living hand to mouth to grab what she can get, but I don't want to read about them.

Because the romance didn't work for me, and because I didn't like who Vika was, the story became hard going for me, tempting me to skim, in spite of vivid images and fast pacing. Other readers might love everything about this book. Mileage varies--take a look for yourself!

A wonderful book with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. I would read more books by this author, based on this reading experience.

While this wasn't my favorite book of Terrill's, it was still an enjoyable right with incredible and unique worldbuilding.

I have to start with the worldbuilding because it is just so good! If everything else in this book stunk (which it didn't), I'd still recommend this book just because the imagery and uniqueness of the settings is so wonderful. Terrill has created this world with multiple planets, unique foods, animals, and even vocabulary. I was so impressed by how different and intriguing it all was. Even still, it was easy to grasp and understand as the story progressed. I didn't find myself getting negatively lost in the new world and it's vocabulary.

There was a common theme of being and feeling used. Many of the characters were either being used, feeling used, or were using. I thought this was interesting, especially considering so much of this book talked about money and the lows and highs that come with it.

This book is told in a dual pov (sorta) and Terrill really makes use of it. She even pulls a sleight of hand with them similar to The Kiss of Deception. I won't say too much on that since it's important to the story.

Now onto the characters. Vika, one of our main characters, is interesting because she's almost a morally gray character. She's not quite all good, but definitely not quite bad. She's a little selfish and rude, but also mindful and strong. There are a lot of facets to her that are so intriguing. Just when you think you have her figured out, she does something to surprise you. She kept me on my toes throughout the book even if the plot didn't.

Sky, our other main character, was just the sweetest creature alive. At first, I wasn't sure what to think of him, especially with all of Vika's negative thoughts about him floating around, but I ended up loving him so much. He's thoughtful, a bit reserved, and cares so much for those around him. He deserves all the planets in this world!

Hal, a major side character, was also quite interesting to me. We watch him change gradually throughout the book into a completely different guy than who he started as. And, of course, he has his own secrets which make him a little more interesting. I didn't expect to become so invested in him.

Mira and Ariel are also just the best. Mira is so sweet. And Ariel is the best matchmaker around. Plus, she has a cool name *wink wink*

The romance...I feel like we don't really get into the romance of this book until the second half? Sky is adorable and has all these adorable feelings for Vika, but we really don't see anything romantic happen until the second half of the book. While I wish something more would have happened towards the beginning, I loved what we got at the end. As I said before, Sky deserves all the planets and stars and suns in the world.

Unfortunately, the big mystery of the book was really quite obvious. I wouldn't have minded so much if it hadn't been such an important revelation for the plot. There were a couple of small plot twists that I really enjoyed which almost made up of the obvious reveal, but not quite.

Another big negative for me is that this book had little to no action. It was very strange and unexpected for Terrill. I usually expect sci-fi books, especially ones that have rebel groups and murder plots, to have an action-filled plot, but this one didn't. There were a couple of fast-paced moments, but they would barely last a chapter if that. Instead, the book tried to take on a more Gossip-Girl/Bridgerton feel that didn't quite come through. Many parts were still dull or seemed to be filler chapters for the 'real' plot of the book.

Overall, this was a good book. I will admit I was disappointed as this is not what I've come to expect from Terrill, however, this was still an enjoyable book.

When I received a copy of this book I wasn't exactly sure what to expect but the description and cover alone pulled me in. I was honestly surprised but how much I liked this book and how quickly I got sucked in. I was not a fan of the MC throughout the entire book but there were enough twists and turns that I could over look that a bit more. The book definitely has a lot to offer and I would suggest it to any one trying to dip their toes into sci-fi

I am literally not sure what to expect but what i got was a grand world, very descriptive and great dialogue. Some of the twists were predictable but that did not take away from the story and my enjoyment. In addition I enjoyed the book so much I already purchased her other books! Looking forward to enjoying this author further!