Reviews

Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik

geekwayne's review against another edition

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3.0

'Hunt the Stars' by Jessie Mihalik is a novel about former enemies who may end up something completely different.

Octavia 'Tavi' Zarola and her tight-knit crew have survived a war in spite of their leaders. When Torran Fletcher, a leader from the opposition, shows up with a job, Tavi is understandably suspicious, but the money is too good. Understandably things are tense and there are things hidden, but Tavi will find herself attracted to Torran.

Romance is not a usual genre for me, and this falls squarely in that genre. While the underlying story was pretty good, I found the romance tropes repetitive and tedious. I suspect if you like romance novels, you might really like this one.

awishman's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

stardust_heidi's review

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adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A reread but with audiobook this time. Dropped half a star for the narration, because it didn’t quite do it for me. 

thebrashbookshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

queenfireheart's review against another edition

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4.0

I feel like not a lot happened but also a lot happened if that makes sense? Either way when nothing was really happening the writing still kept me enthralled. I really enjoyed this one, looking forward to seeing what book two will bring!

aleaharmstrong's review

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

tifftastic87's review

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emotional 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? No

3.0

Tavi has been a bounty hunter since resigning from her life as a soldier. Despite her better instincts, she's taken on a contract to assist Torran, a former opposing general to find a stolen family heirloom. What Torran lacks in trustworthiness he makes up for with ample credits, and ample muscle. 

That's it, that's the plot. The synopsis makes this seem much more mystery and detective forward but nothing happened with the missing heirloom story until 70% into the book. The rest was Tavi falling for Torran cuz of his big muscles and fascinating eyes. At least he's not unkind, but he's a bit like wet cardboard. For characters in their 30s there was a hell of a lot of blushing and being "rude because I find you attractive" going on. It wasn't horrible writing, but was very heavy on "tell" rather than "show" which is a pet peeve of mine.

atrailofpages's review against another edition

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5.0

Wow! I LOVE this book! Such an unexpected surprise! I have been wanting to read more sci-fi/space opera books, so I am so glad I had the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. Thank you to Harper Voyager for sending me a free ARC!

This lovely space opera follows Octavia Zarola a human who became a bounty hunter after the war ended between the humans and the Valoffs. She and her crew hunt their bounties and one day are met by a Valoff by the name of Torran Fletcher. He hires her crew to find a missing family heirloom. To do this, they have to travel to Valovia where it is still a bit rocky when it comes to humans visiting their planet. While there, Octavia and her crew slowly find out there is a lot more to this missing family heirloom than Torran let on and begins this mystery and conspiracy that Octavia has to solve and rescue this family heirloom before another war starts.

I could not put this book down! I was enthralled from the beginning! Octavia is an amazing captain who cares A LOT about people no matter who or what they are. I loved the found family in this book. It involves quite a few people, but they are all so unique and you can really see how different they each are as you read this book. It is a very slow going book, but it was relaxing and exciting at the same time. You really get to know Octavia and how she runs her ship and crew, how they work together, how much of a family they are, and how she includes Torran and his crew of Valoffs. One thing I will say is they love food and love to eat together! There was such a big family focus and aspect about this book that I just loved because they all were suffering from basically a form of PTSD after the war, especially Octavia. And yet, they knew what each other would need or what they had to do to help the other. It was just beautiful.

The Valoffs are similar to humans by look, but their eyes are primarily give them away since they have veins of color that splay out from their pupils, at least that is what I understood. Most of them are telepathic, and some others have other unique abilities. It was fun to learn what each of them could do because they were not forthright about it and so when they did do something you're like "oh okay, that makes sense now".

The other thing I enjoyed was the romance(potentially more than just one but maybe see in the next book? lol). It is truly an enemies to lovers romance that is a slow burn with me yelling at them "just kiss already!". I love it when a book does that to me lol. It is much more steamier than I expected, which I loved of course! Torran is like the ultimate cinnamon roll. He's grumpy and a bit moody, but by gosh was he a cinnamon roll! I am such a fan of him, and after that one thing he does in this book for Octavia, my heart melted and it prompted me to give this five stars just because of one thing that he did. He's the perfect man, and I need to find someone just like him!

If you love sci-fi and space opera, with found families, steamy enemies to lovers romance, with a bit of mystery and suspense and action, then I highly recommend this book! I can hardly wait for the sequel!

lidija_f's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

cloverminereads95's review against another edition

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4.0

This book got a little slow in the second quarter but did pick at the half way. I loved Tavi and Torran, The tension, the slowburn, the mild angst just worked for me. I have been hunting for a Sci-Fi romance that isn't smut. The world was a simple one so we didn't need to much world building and the aliens are human adjacent which means we don't spend a ton of time building the alien race either Even if personally I wish they were a bit less human looking, I think it works.

I am excited for the next book.