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princessleopard's review against another edition
2.0
Preface: I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
This book was pretty underwhelming. It was an odd story in that it didn't know what it really wanted to be. It sets up a bunch of different hooks, but just runs from one to another without any real idea of where the next beat will be. Female Main Character is raised on an island and is learning magic. She wants to get good enough to move onto the next island, so she can date--Oh, no, she's leaving the community entirely because a woman she just met says she can reveal her magical destiny. They're on their way to someone who--Oh, nope, that didn't work out. Now she's at a a military academy for aspiring cadets. Maybe it's going to be an academy novel where she makes friends and learns skills--Oh, nope, she's moved on and is living on an island with some other cadets. She's bonding--Oh, she's kidnapped. I guess they'll take her back to--Oh, no, they're shipwrecked now and struggling to survive. That's gotta be the rest of the no--Nope, rescued, she's back on the island, and now she's wrapped up in some weird governmental intrigue--
You see what I mean? The story just takes rights and lefts without any real development of any of the ideas it touches on. Oh, and the main main character gets some chapters sprinkled in, too, though they're mostly just him being sulky or kidnapping people.
That's the other big issue of the novel - the characters aren't particularly developed or likeable. Our female hero is bright as a box of rocks, constantly getting herself into trouble because she's too dumb to remember basic instructions or make good choices (and not in a naive, needs-to-become-more-streetwise kinda way, in a forgetting-specific-instructions-to-keep-her-alive way). The male main character is broody and kinda mean. He's also pretty stupid at some points - there's a gross little scene where FMC thinks he's going to sexually assault her after he's kidnapped her, and he literally thinks "I would never do anything against her will!" /mid kidnapping./ C'mon, now. Then, they fall in love after just a few days, and from then on it's like die-hard pure-noble-extreme love, despite them being basically strangers.
The B- and C-tier characters are all underdeveloped and interchangeable as well. The only notable thing about any of them is that two are lesbians, which is nice, even if it's meaningless.
Overall, I would not recommend this story. It needed a lot more focus and a lot more development to be worth reading. Unless you're into a confusing, meandering plot and bland characters, give this a pass.
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
This book was pretty underwhelming. It was an odd story in that it didn't know what it really wanted to be. It sets up a bunch of different hooks, but just runs from one to another without any real idea of where the next beat will be. Female Main Character is raised on an island and is learning magic. She wants to get good enough to move onto the next island, so she can date--Oh, no, she's leaving the community entirely because a woman she just met says she can reveal her magical destiny. They're on their way to someone who--Oh, nope, that didn't work out. Now she's at a a military academy for aspiring cadets. Maybe it's going to be an academy novel where she makes friends and learns skills--Oh, nope, she's moved on and is living on an island with some other cadets. She's bonding--Oh, she's kidnapped. I guess they'll take her back to--Oh, no, they're shipwrecked now and struggling to survive. That's gotta be the rest of the no--Nope, rescued, she's back on the island, and now she's wrapped up in some weird governmental intrigue--
You see what I mean? The story just takes rights and lefts without any real development of any of the ideas it touches on. Oh, and the main main character gets some chapters sprinkled in, too, though they're mostly just him being sulky or kidnapping people.
That's the other big issue of the novel - the characters aren't particularly developed or likeable. Our female hero is bright as a box of rocks, constantly getting herself into trouble because she's too dumb to remember basic instructions or make good choices (and not in a naive, needs-to-become-more-streetwise kinda way, in a forgetting-specific-instructions-to-keep-her-alive way). The male main character is broody and kinda mean. He's also pretty stupid at some points - there's a gross little scene where FMC thinks he's going to sexually assault her after he's kidnapped her, and he literally thinks "I would never do anything against her will!" /mid kidnapping./ C'mon, now. Then, they fall in love after just a few days, and from then on it's like die-hard pure-noble-extreme love, despite them being basically strangers.
The B- and C-tier characters are all underdeveloped and interchangeable as well. The only notable thing about any of them is that two are lesbians, which is nice, even if it's meaningless.
Overall, I would not recommend this story. It needed a lot more focus and a lot more development to be worth reading. Unless you're into a confusing, meandering plot and bland characters, give this a pass.
brinley's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know how I feel about this book, I liked the plot, it was interesting and fun, but some elements of it were a mess.
Worldbuilding
This was really the deal breaker for me. This book was set in space, so sure, there are a lot of planets and explaining that needs to be done. However, only one planet and two moons are mentioned. We have no idea how settlers got to the moon, and the enmity between the moon and planet is a mess. The reason for this enmity (the moon though it had a right to every moon in the galaxy) made no sense, as I don't see any government ever thinking that. Also, who are the Terens?? We're told that there are multiple groups, but I'm just guessing that they are people with magic. It also makes no sense that the planet had very few spaceships, and that the moon had more. I was confused as to why the planet couldn't just manufacture more. In general, the setting of this book was confusing.
Plot
I really liked the plot of this book. The expeditions to the planet to get water were a super unique concept, and they were fun to read. At times, the plot got slow, especially when the romance got involved. The ending felt super rushed, and a bit too much like Star Wars for my tastes. I mean come on, you had all the little fighter ships swarming the destroyer. It just conjured one of the scenes from the movies to me.
Characters
This book had a large cast of characters, and they were hard for me to keep straight, simply because only a few of them were developed. I liked Dess and Marcus, their friendly banter was super funny to read. Saytera irritated me. This was mainly because of her obliviousness. When every single gun she touched died, she just denied the fact that she had something to do with it. I also didn't like how we were drawn into the book by a promise of her discovering her destiny, but it was barely mentioned. The rest of the characters felt like paper cut-outs, and could have easily been replaced by each other.
Romance
The romance was super hard for me to read. I didn't like one of the characters in it, so that drove the whole thing down. I also felt like it was a bit insta-lovey, and wasn't necessary.
Representation
There was one queer character in this book, and that was good to see. However, it could have been done better, considering she dates one of the other characters, hoping he could make her straight.
Overall
This book was an enjoyable read, I just found some of the problems a bit too hard to ignore. I might have enjoyed it more if I liked sci-fi as a genre more, but I just struggled with bits of the book.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Worldbuilding
This was really the deal breaker for me. This book was set in space, so sure, there are a lot of planets and explaining that needs to be done. However, only one planet and two moons are mentioned. We have no idea how settlers got to the moon, and the enmity between the moon and planet is a mess. The reason for this enmity (the moon though it had a right to every moon in the galaxy) made no sense, as I don't see any government ever thinking that. Also, who are the Terens?? We're told that there are multiple groups, but I'm just guessing that they are people with magic. It also makes no sense that the planet had very few spaceships, and that the moon had more. I was confused as to why the planet couldn't just manufacture more. In general, the setting of this book was confusing.
Plot
I really liked the plot of this book. The expeditions to the planet to get water were a super unique concept, and they were fun to read. At times, the plot got slow, especially when the romance got involved. The ending felt super rushed, and a bit too much like Star Wars for my tastes.
Characters
This book had a large cast of characters, and they were hard for me to keep straight, simply because only a few of them were developed. I liked Dess and Marcus, their friendly banter was super funny to read. Saytera irritated me.
Romance
The romance was super hard for me to read. I didn't like one of the characters in it, so that drove the whole thing down. I also felt like it was a bit insta-lovey, and wasn't necessary.
Representation
There was one queer character in this book, and that was good to see. However, it could have been done better, considering she dates one of the other characters, hoping he could make her straight.
Overall
This book was an enjoyable read, I just found some of the problems a bit too hard to ignore. I might have enjoyed it more if I liked sci-fi as a genre more, but I just struggled with bits of the book.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
sam_dupree_reads's review against another edition
1.0
The writing in this book felt so juvenile that I was shocked to see it wasn't the author's first book.
Reads like a middle grade but I think its supposed to be YA/new adult.
Pros:
???
Anything I have a pro for has a backhanded addition. The world is intriguing...but massively underdeveloped. The characters are diverse...but engaging. The world building doesn't exist. The chemistry between the leads is not there. The tone is all over the place. The plot is too quick and makes almost no sense except to be perfectly convenient when it needs to be. Our main female lead as zero personality and only exists to have the plot move her around. Seriously, most of her motivations are "Wish someone would tell me about what my destiny is but I guess it doesn't matter" and "I think this boy likes me but probably not because he was sitting beside another girl" (that last one is almost line for line something that happens, seriously, the shifts in these sentences were crazy)
I honestly wouldn't waste a lot of time on this. The editing was awful on my kindle. People and places would be spelled differently in different parts of the book. If you like space narratives and sci-fi then maybe you'll find something interesting here. I just didn't find anything well-developed enough to be interesting and only finished it out of obligation.
I received a copy from NetGalley.
Reads like a middle grade but I think its supposed to be YA/new adult.
Pros:
???
Anything I have a pro for has a backhanded addition. The world is intriguing...but massively underdeveloped. The characters are diverse...but engaging. The world building doesn't exist. The chemistry between the leads is not there. The tone is all over the place. The plot is too quick and makes almost no sense except to be perfectly convenient when it needs to be. Our main female lead as zero personality and only exists to have the plot move her around. Seriously, most of her motivations are "Wish someone would tell me about what my destiny is but I guess it doesn't matter" and "I think this boy likes me but probably not because he was sitting beside another girl" (that last one is almost line for line something that happens, seriously, the shifts in these sentences were crazy)
I honestly wouldn't waste a lot of time on this. The editing was awful on my kindle. People and places would be spelled differently in different parts of the book. If you like space narratives and sci-fi then maybe you'll find something interesting here. I just didn't find anything well-developed enough to be interesting and only finished it out of obligation.
I received a copy from NetGalley.
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