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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Title: The Stars are Dying by Chloe C. Peñaranda
Genre: Romantasy
1st Pub Date: July 10, 2023
Repub Date: October 8, 2024
📖 432 pages
❤️🔥 Vampires, Shapeshifters + Fae
✨️ Deadly Trials
❤️🔥 FBAA x Serpent & the Wings of Night
✨️ World Inspired by Greek Mythology
❤️🔥 Tyrannical King
✨️ Found Family
❤️🔥 Touch Her and ☠️
✨️ Star Crossed Lovers
❤️🔥 Devastating Betrayals
My Review:
This one literally ripped my heart out... a couple of times. If you're a fan of FBAA x The Serpent and the Wings of Night, I highly recommend you add this to your TBR.
Astrea is refreshing— adventurous, headstrong, and not too naive (even with her memory loss). I really appreciate how part of her journey is escaping and abu$ive relationship and learning to cope, as I believe so many readers will resonate with her. I absolutely adore Cassia and how much she loves and supports her friend, and Rath being so loyal despite his position working for her captor.
The trials were so well done. I was worried it would be too much like Hunger Games, but the competitors having to traverse the unknown city, the item they're trying to retrieve and how it correlates to the twists, and the fact that they're fighting for their towns' protection from the vamps was so interesting.
Overall, this was a great read and if you love vampires, morally grey men, great side characters and a FMC who fights for those she loves, this will be a great pick!
Thank you so much, NetGalley and Bramble Romance, for the digital review copy ❣️
Genre: Romantasy
1st Pub Date: July 10, 2023
Repub Date: October 8, 2024
📖 432 pages
❤️🔥 Vampires, Shapeshifters + Fae
✨️ Deadly Trials
❤️🔥 FBAA x Serpent & the Wings of Night
✨️ World Inspired by Greek Mythology
❤️🔥 Tyrannical King
✨️ Found Family
❤️🔥 Touch Her and ☠️
✨️ Star Crossed Lovers
❤️🔥 Devastating Betrayals
My Review:
This one literally ripped my heart out... a couple of times. If you're a fan of FBAA x The Serpent and the Wings of Night, I highly recommend you add this to your TBR.
Astrea is refreshing— adventurous, headstrong, and not too naive (even with her memory loss). I really appreciate how part of her journey is escaping and abu$ive relationship and learning to cope, as I believe so many readers will resonate with her. I absolutely adore Cassia and how much she loves and supports her friend, and Rath being so loyal despite his position working for her captor.
The trials were so well done. I was worried it would be too much like Hunger Games, but the competitors having to traverse the unknown city, the item they're trying to retrieve and how it correlates to the twists, and the fact that they're fighting for their towns' protection from the vamps was so interesting.
Overall, this was a great read and if you love vampires, morally grey men, great side characters and a FMC who fights for those she loves, this will be a great pick!
Thank you so much, NetGalley and Bramble Romance, for the digital review copy ❣️
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The potential is there between the world-building, doomed lovers, complex characters, and different races of vampires in this multi-layered story. However, as is often the downside to multi-layered stories, the various parts didn't cohesively flow together. Instead, there was almost too much plot.
I also ran into this issue with [book:Immortal Dark|204593711]. There's an amazing story here, but the twists and supposed "Big Bads" are introduced too late in the story. I'm assuming Peñaranda intended to confuse the reader on whom to trust, but it left me annoyed and caused the story to drag.
It would have been better to cut some of the plot points. The Hector plot felt unnecessary, considering how little the FMC grows in fighting back. While I enjoyed their conversations in the cell, those scenes dragged on too long, IMO.
While I got used to the writing, the confusing scene transitions forced me to refer back to previous pages only to confirm the character had moved on with no explanation or warning that the story was heading in that direction. It's a trend I'm noticing in Romantacy, and I'm not a fan.
Despite this, I'm still thinking about this book a month later and looking forward to its sequel.
I also ran into this issue with [book:Immortal Dark|204593711]. There's an amazing story here, but the twists and supposed "Big Bads" are introduced too late in the story. I'm assuming Peñaranda intended to confuse the reader on whom to trust, but it left me annoyed and caused the story to drag.
It would have been better to cut some of the plot points. The Hector plot felt unnecessary, considering how little the FMC grows in fighting back. While I enjoyed their conversations in the cell, those scenes dragged on too long, IMO.
While I got used to the writing, the confusing scene transitions forced me to refer back to previous pages only to confirm the character had moved on with no explanation or warning that the story was heading in that direction. It's a trend I'm noticing in Romantacy, and I'm not a fan.
Despite this, I'm still thinking about this book a month later and looking forward to its sequel.
Hm, this is a difficult one to write. I enjoyed the story, but the writing didn't sit well with me. I often found myself going back trying to understand what the author wanted to say.
Still, the story did pull me in and I do look forward to the second book
Still, the story did pull me in and I do look forward to the second book
Was this edited by AI? The sentence structure is absolutely terrible. The most annoying writing style I’ve ever read in my life. Just goes to show you should never judge a book by its cover. it’s beautiful and the synopsis great however I’m 8 chapters in and cannot get past the terrible writing. How the hell was this traditionally published? I’m sorry but this is a hell no.
This book was just so mediocre. And also fuck this book for putting me in a massive reading slump. The ending was alright but I just can’t justify giving anything more than two stars to something it took me two and a half months to read, and 400 pages of nothing to get to anything interesting.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I struggled to get through this one after the first 10% or so… it had an interesting premise that hooked me on the world but it quickly lost me. The premise of the world was interesting, but I needed WAY more world building to happen in this story because I felt so lost most of the time when reading it. It was a classic case of the main character lacking memories about her past and I felt just as confused as she did through the end.
I found myself caring more about the side characters Rose and Zathe than either of our main characters. I immediately disliked Nyte, and for some reason I never did start to like his character. He was giving “I’m so mysterious” the first 50% and saying a lot of questionable things just to get further in the story and pretty much flip a switch. He was a huge hypocrite and I got whiplash from the amount of times the main character changed her mind about his intentions.
This one sadly just wasn’t for me, but I think the next has a potential to pick up the pieces and hopefully build the world out more.
I found myself caring more about the side characters Rose and Zathe than either of our main characters. I immediately disliked Nyte, and for some reason I never did start to like his character. He was giving “I’m so mysterious” the first 50% and saying a lot of questionable things just to get further in the story and pretty much flip a switch. He was a huge hypocrite and I got whiplash from the amount of times the main character changed her mind about his intentions.
This one sadly just wasn’t for me, but I think the next has a potential to pick up the pieces and hopefully build the world out more.