Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for my first ARC.

What a stunning debut. I usually like to highlight particularly moving phrases but I fear doing do in this novel would leave me with a fully highlighted text.

Beyond the gorgeous language, Siegel has delivered a hauntingly beautiful story as much about humanity as it is about the delicate balance of love and its darkness. I will be thinking about these characters and their journey for years to come.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

As soon as I saw that this was for fans of Addie Larue I had to read it!!! I get a very similar vibe and it definitely kept me reading.

I did find that the pacing was a little uneven and some parts felt so fast while others seem to drag a bit. But all in all a solid read

If you like sapphic romance and Addie Larue, definitely pick this up!

A dark and immersive journey following a pact made between a witch and a demon that spans hundreds of years. Miriam, a demon with a hunger for souls and a serious lack of empathy, is captivated by Cybil, a witch whose soul seems especially dazzling. Cybil's status as a first-born daughter is viewed as a curse by her family, especially by her father, and by her male cousin who would have inherited the family magic had Cybil been killed in infancy. In an attempt to break the curse, Cybil agrees to turn over her soul to Miriam if she is unable to break the magical misery that has been her lifelong companion. Though the prose is atmospheric, taking the reader through several centuries as Cybil repeatedly dies and reincarnates, the romance between Cybil and Miriam felt somewhat underdeveloped, or at least underexplained. Overall, an engaging gothic read, perfect for fall.

I love this book so much. I truly don't know what to say or what to compare it to because it is so unlike anything else I've ever read. "As Many Souls As Stars" takes inspiration from Aesop's Fables and it is so much like a modern fairytale. It is a story of loneliness, a story of coming into your own power, and a story of poetic justice. It is a love letter to the human affliction of passion and redefines passion as what it truly is; hunger. I don't know that the love that is shown is truly healthy, but this is the most powerful romance I have ever read. I cannot think of a more fitting end.

If you want to read a story about love and hate (simultaneously, in fact) and have it not feel forced, this is the one for you. Similarly, if you like stories about hope and taking your own fate into your hands, I'd recommend "As Many Souls As Stars." If all prior information is not compelling enough, consider reading this because it has a sapphic villain who literally worships the ground her love walks on. It's a needed addition to any bookshelf, trust me.

Thank you to both NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read such a spectacular work in exchange for an honest review. Extra thanks to Natasha Siegel for creating it in the first place. I will be purchasing a physical copy as soon as it releases. Absolutely 5 stars.

This was pitched for fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue which is my favorite book of all time so of course I had to request it. I’m a sucker for books that follow different characters and are set over centuries so I couldn’t wait to dive into this one.

This book is a slow burn that definitely delivers on the gothic atmosphere. Definitely recommend if you like a darker, more toxic sapphic relationship.

This book reignited my desire to read again! It's a sapphic delight of a story, with it's Faustian deals and exploration of the desires for freedom, rebellion, revenge and love driving the plot. The main characters are enticing and exciting, and their entanglement through the centuries is enticing and consuming.

As many souls as stars takes us through the short lives of three witches, and their struggle against a darkness looking to consume their souls during each lifetime.

A Faustian bargain is made by a desperate young girl - to return to another life in exchange for her soul. This bargain plays out over time and generations, with Miriam (a dark spirit/ soul consumer) and three witches whose souls are the brightest Miriam has ever come across.

Miriam’s magic survives and thrives on the souls she consumes. Her existence is dependent upon the souls she garners through exchanges and deals with humans.
“Miriam measured her existence in deals instead. She was always hungry, and her greatest pleasure remained the fullness consuming a soul gave her: the brighter it burned, the more intense the satisfaction. And there were always exchanges to be made … She needed them as much as they needed her, after all. All magic was give and take, light for dark. With no light of her own, Miriam needed to take it from others.”

Enter Cybil, whose light may be the strongest Miriam has ever encountered. And she wants it. What follows, is an odd relationship of off and on, hate/ obsession - love? between them.

Miriam is desperate for Cybil’s soul.
“… her extraordinary soul, which… glowed so brightly and so intensely, it pressed a bruise into Miriam’s vision. When she glanced away, Miriam could still see the burn of it: the shifting blue-black stain of a self so furious, so powerful, that it could feed her for decades.”

Miriam’s desperation for this particular soul is woven throughout time in the book, and into two later characters, Esther and Rosamund.

There is a building of power in Esther’s story and it is critical to the introduction of the final soul, Rosamund. Esther struggles with the creeping memories of Cybil and her feelings for Miriam. Lies and betrayal during the first soul incarnation in Cybil clouds Esther’s relationship with Miriam (if you can call it a relationship?). It’s a very intense back and forth that exists between them - feelings of hatred, desire, love and obsession.

The ultimate showdown occurs during Rosamund’s lifetime. She essentially carries both Cybil and Esther in her, and she’s determined to free herself from Miriam forever. Again, we see a back and forth struggle of emotions from Rosamund when it comes to Miriam. But Rosamund is full of memories and power of the ones who have lived before her.

The ending to this is fantastic. I loved the last few chapters and if there’s some lingering questions (yes!) I’m ok with that.

So grateful for an early read of this. I was desperate to read it the second I read the synopsis. Thank you netgalley!

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!
I was very intrigued by the description of these characters, sapphic storyline, and a wonderful premise. The writing is brilliant and the language as well. I wish I could get attached to these characters more, but I was very confused by hate sex in general as a concept, which is probably a me issue. I was also struggling with the different time periods and keeping it all straight in my head, I practically had to write a note to myself of what was going on.

5/5

Drawing together Faustian bargains, gothic splendor, and reincarnation across three distinct periods of English history, As Many Souls as Stars is a historical novel for the ages and Natasha Siegel’s masterpiece. A witch desperate for survival bargains away her soul, a demon endlessly hungering for souls discovers the brightest, and both will be ruined in their association by journeys end. The Faustian bargain is not a new concept, not in the slightest, so to stake claim on such a tale is to promise something inventive and unique in the telling. In As Many Souls as Stars, Natasha Siegel ingeniously twists the Faustian bargain into a lesbian game of cat and mouse spanning multiple centuries and incarnations as an immortal and a witch engage in a toxic romance tinged with obsession. Cybil Harding and Miriam Richter, witch and demoness, hunger both—for love, for souls, and for the continuance of their survival. Drawn into a demonic bargain to suit their purposes, neither intends to lose the parts of themselves they believed intrinsic, nor ill-fated love taking flight. Questioning fate and personhood, Natasha Siegel’s As Many Souls as Stars is a tangled dance of violence, hunger, and destructive romance, in everlasting opposition as misguided bargains can ever be.

I think an apt description of As Many Souls As Stars would be Addie LaRue but make it sapphic, and I loved it.

As Many Souls As Stars was such an interesting and original story! The relationship between Miriam and Rosamund had all the tension I look for. The story is told with time jumps and this allows for more development, especially for Miriam.

I am obsessed with this book. I love messy love interests, and Richter did not disappoint! If you liked addie larue but wished that the sapphic element was more prevalent and that the antagonist was absolutely diabolical and omnipresent, this is for you.

Sensual, provocative, tragic, mysterious. This book is everything. I loved it from beginning to end. Harding and Richter are the PERFECT match. Chaotic, sexy, powerful.

I adored this book. It was so unique and gorgeous. I've never read anything else like it! In my booktok review I wrote "beautifully written force of nature chases her witch girlfriend through multiple reincarnations to try and eat her soul--yum!" and credited Net Galley with giving me access to a pre-release copy.

As Many Souls as Stars is a rare, gothic story that delivers tension, toxicity, and depth. It examines the pull between light and dark, as well as the thin line between love and hatred. It’s a tale about the ordeal of being known, and I was on the edge of my seat. At first, I didn’t find Miriam complex enough, whereas Cybil became more layered and formidable with each rebirth. But slowly, I realized that Miriam did as well. They were so poetically intertwined, the perfect mirrors of each other, that one could not evolve without the other. This is a beautifully and intricately written book. I admired how each historical setting was purposeful rather than just aesthetic too. Cybil, Esther, and Rosamund have to contend with witch hunts and societal expectations in addition to their curse. All of these things pose an equal barrier to her accepting her true nature and coming into her power, which makes the story feel more raw and real. I really have nothing bad to say about this, other than the word “mayhap” was used way too many times. It didn’t quite have that 5 star spark (it’s probably a ~4.5) for me, but it undoubtedly could for others. Reminiscent of S. T. Gibson and V. E. Schwab, Natasha Siegel will be an author to watch for me from here on out!

Reading a dark, sensual, gothic Faustian novel in the spring was oddly perfect. The prose is velvety rich with descriptions I legit gasped over.

I was hooked from the start when we first meet Miriam Richter, the shadow that is the catalyst of this tale. She is summoned by Cybil Harding's father in a ritual and meets the soul she will scour the earth to devour. Cybil is cursed as a First Daughter of her family. Cybil wants to be free of her curse but also burn the world down and Miriam wants nothing more than to give her what she desires.

The story spans centuries with the deal the two strike together. This was the part that lost me until about 35% through. Cybil didn't appeal to me much; I wanted more fire from her and not only literal fire.

But then we meet Esther and the plot twists and turns and picks up the pace. Her and Miriam's connection is volatile and beautiful, Esther has a fierce spirit, unlike Cybil, and made me interested in the battle between her and Miriam, their attraction and the deal with the devil that keeps them apart. I dove right in, experiencing the lust and love between them. The horrors that Esther's cousin keeps in his bedroom.

Then it lost me again. It did feel a bit redundant once we meet Rosamund. The chase could have been faster and more urgent. Miriam never seemed in a rush or a dire situation. Which I suppose adds to the fire of their attraction; Miriam wants her soul but also her. It's an incredibly sensual lust that happens between the two women and I think this book appeals to anyone on the romantasy train. However, the back and forth grew tiresome.

While the latter half of the book and ending fell flat for me, the writing is gorgeous and the story is classic. I loved the lore of the Harding family and the mystery of Miriam. This will certainly not be my last Natasha Siegel book.

Thank you to the author, William Morrow Publishing, and Net Galley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review.

I would actually give this book 4.5 stars. It was well written and gripping from the very beginning. Read this book if you like:

⭐️Magic
⭐️Sapphic Themes and LGBTQ representation
⭐️Historical Themes
⭐️Interesting and complex characters
⭐️Toxic Romance (but so so well done)
⭐️Beautiful writing

I would recommend this book and it is one of my favorites so far in 2025.

I love the plot of you become what destroys you and how you can see our main character slowly turn into something the reader doesn’t recognize anymore. Very poetic writing that helped immerse me and made every moment more impactful and painful. Will be reading more by this author.

As Many Souls as Stars is a dark historical fantasy that explores the sapphic romance between a girl with magical powers, and an immortal demon. Cybil is the cursed heir to a line of magicians and witches. It is prophesied in her family that any surviving eldest girl child will inherit a curse which dooms all around them. For Cybil, the curse seems to hold true. Although she has great magical power, and is able to make pacts with the shadowy forces that surround her, all the people that Cybil loves seem to meet grim ends. When Cybil catches the eye of the demon Miriam, the two are drawn to each other with a force both compelling and destructive. Miriam wants nothing more than to consume Cybil’s beautiful soul, but Cybil is a wily creature and the two enter a compact which forces Miriam to chase Cybil through multiple lifetimes.

Full of sapphic yearning and feminine rage, As Many Souls as Stars is a compelling story about what it means to love, and the depths of hatred. This book has strong themes of self discovery, love, hate, obsession, and the obstacles women face throughout history. As Many Souls as Stars is an exploration of feminine power, dark desires, and the cost of facing our most haunting shadows.

I recommend this book to fans of Weyward and Our Infinite Fates.

Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Collins for the ARC of this book.

Romantic and unhinged, which is high praise as far as I'm concerned.

Cybil is born to a family of magic users who (by the time the story starts) are in complete denial that they're using magic. Her father is convinced he's communing with angels and doing god's will yada yada when he's actually practicing witchcraft and consorting with demons. (Easy mistake to make.) Eventually, Cybil's father strikes a deal with the wrong demon, setting off a chain of events that leads to Cybil's fraught reincarnation romance with the aforementioned demon, Miriam.

Cybil and Miriam. Miriam and Cybil. They love each other. They hate each other. They're each other's salvation and doom. I'm not usually a big fan of hate-romance (I don't know what else to call it - enemies to lovers is too tame a phrase), but these two work. I think the key is that Miriam is a demon (of sorts) so when she does terrible things you're not surprised in the same way you wouldn't be surprised if a cat brought you a dead mouse. It's in her nature to steal souls and trick people. Of course you shouldn't trust her. Even if she likes you, you shouldn't trust her. It's common sense! When she meets with Cybil in different lives, you know shit is about to go terribly wrong, but it's also when the story is the most compelling. Miriam brings out the worst in Cybil, and I am here for it.

This is a bit of an aside to the romance, but I wanted to note it in my review: Miriam isn't exactly a woman, but she's also definitely not a man. She's not human and doesn't abide by the rules of gender for the form she takes, which is very significant for the historical settings of the story. She crossdresses in time periods where that isn't allowed, and she wasn't raised as a woman with all the baggage that would entail. This is a huge contrast to Cybil whose lives are time and time again heavily impacted by her gender and the misogyny of society. I think that makes for a very interesting dynamic between the two of them and a space to really dig in and analyze these concepts — especially when you hit the ending. I won't spoil it, but I will be looking for places to discuss it with others because it's just so exciting to me, especially around this concept of what does gender mean to Miriam and Cybil.

My main complaint about this story, and the reason I can't bring myself to give it five stars, is that I was expecting Cybil to be reincarnated a lot more times than she was. I won't say the number of lives we see for her, but it wasn't enough for me. I just feel like we could have played around with the concept so much more than we did.