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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
Engagement season is in the air. Eighteen-year-old Princess Leonie “Leo” Kolburg, heir to a faded European spaceship, has only one thing on her mind: which lucky bachelor can save her family from financial ruin?
But when Leo’s childhood friend and first love, Elliot, returns as the captain of a successful whiskey ship, everything changes. Elliot was the one who got away, the boy Leo’s family deemed to be unsuitable for marriage. Now he’s the biggest catch of the season and he seems determined to make Leo’s life miserable. But old habits die hard, and as Leo navigates the glittering balls of the Valg Season, she finds herself falling for her first love in a game of love, lies, and past regrets.
The Stars We Steal by @Alexadonne is her second YA book and I was thoroughly impressed. The Stars We Steal will take you on a beautiful fantasy- space journey, full of loveable characters you can't help but to root for. If you liked The Selection or The Bachelor this has those vibes but in space! Every 4 years they hold a Valg Season. All eligible men and women can participate, basically an extended time for all single peeps to meet other single peeps over the course of a few weeks. Who doesn't love a princess who is anything but for name, a scorned ex lover to heighten the tension, and a plot so dense it'll keep you gripped from page 1. I finished this book in 5 hours, yep 5 hours it's that good, bonus of being sick lots of time to read lol It doesn't release till February I'm afraid but I definitely plan on getting all the pretty editions that are bound to come out
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But when Leo’s childhood friend and first love, Elliot, returns as the captain of a successful whiskey ship, everything changes. Elliot was the one who got away, the boy Leo’s family deemed to be unsuitable for marriage. Now he’s the biggest catch of the season and he seems determined to make Leo’s life miserable. But old habits die hard, and as Leo navigates the glittering balls of the Valg Season, she finds herself falling for her first love in a game of love, lies, and past regrets.
The Stars We Steal by @Alexadonne is her second YA book and I was thoroughly impressed. The Stars We Steal will take you on a beautiful fantasy- space journey, full of loveable characters you can't help but to root for. If you liked The Selection or The Bachelor this has those vibes but in space! Every 4 years they hold a Valg Season. All eligible men and women can participate, basically an extended time for all single peeps to meet other single peeps over the course of a few weeks. Who doesn't love a princess who is anything but for name, a scorned ex lover to heighten the tension, and a plot so dense it'll keep you gripped from page 1. I finished this book in 5 hours, yep 5 hours it's that good, bonus of being sick lots of time to read lol It doesn't release till February I'm afraid but I definitely plan on getting all the pretty editions that are bound to come out
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lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I found this novel to be somewhat engaging and something that you can just flick through to get away from reality. It had some decent plot twists and I love the sci-fi and royalty element to the book. However, there was some sub-plots that seemed thrown in and then was never really answered? I have a lot of questions after reading this book.
I received this as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group for giving me access.
I love me a story set in space! The Stars We Steal was a fun story about a princess - that really isn't a princess anymore - having to be married off for money and finding love.
The story was entertaining enough, but I wasn't 'wowed' by it. The characters were a bit dramatic about things and the story could have been more developed. Overall, I did enjoy it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read it a second time.
I love me a story set in space! The Stars We Steal was a fun story about a princess - that really isn't a princess anymore - having to be married off for money and finding love.
The story was entertaining enough, but I wasn't 'wowed' by it. The characters were a bit dramatic about things and the story could have been more developed. Overall, I did enjoy it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read it a second time.
I didn't love this one as much as I loved her other retelling. I had a hard time getting into it, but it was still pretty cute. I think she did a better job with making the main character likable, which was a problem for me in the original (Persuasion by Jane Austen). I loved Daniel and that made it so hard for me to root for Elliot. Having an asexual side character was appreciated. A more diverse cast would've been nice though. Overall, a fun retelling.
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This book was a complete mess. It had no idea what what it was, so it ended up doing a whole bunch of stuff poorly. Was it dystopian? Maybe. Earth was supposedly uninhabitable. That's all you get about that. Was it science fiction? No fucking way. They might as well have been on a cruise liner. It was technically set in space, but that meant absolutely nothing. Even the part of the book that had the main characters go on a space walk - that's right, an actual walk in space, in spacesuits - included not a single description of what they were actually seeing. Bizarre. The technology somehow felt outdated compared to what currently exists, despite being set 200 years in the future. Was it court intrigue? Again - maybe??? Technically there was royalty.
Tonally it was all over the place. We had hyper casual language like 'guys' and 'snobby little shits' and 'nope'. And then there was alternative futuristic cursing - 'frexing' and 'frex you', are you fucking serious? All of it was mixed in with quasi-victorian language that was the book equivalent of when non-British people pretend to have British accents.
And the ending! Is that how Persuasion actually ended? With the two unlikable main characters getting together and zero closure for anyone else? Is there a sequel or something?? I frankly don't care to read anything more but I'm still astonished that the ending was literally the exclusion of almost everything else besides Leo and Elliott. NOTHING WAS RESOLVED. All those poor starving people on other ships! The thing about her patent! The poor boy she agreed to marry and then immediately abandoned! The two people who were kidnapped and 'tortured'???
I'm so mad I actually finished this book. It was terrible. 1.5 stars.
Tonally it was all over the place. We had hyper casual language like 'guys' and 'snobby little shits' and 'nope'. And then there was alternative futuristic cursing - 'frexing' and 'frex you', are you fucking serious? All of it was mixed in with quasi-victorian language that was the book equivalent of when non-British people pretend to have British accents.
And the ending! Is that how Persuasion actually ended? With the two unlikable main characters getting together and zero closure for anyone else? Is there a sequel or something?? I frankly don't care to read anything more but I'm still astonished that the ending was literally the exclusion of almost everything else besides Leo and Elliott. NOTHING WAS RESOLVED. All those poor starving people on other ships! The thing about her patent! The poor boy she agreed to marry and then immediately abandoned! The two people who were kidnapped and 'tortured'???
I'm so mad I actually finished this book. It was terrible. 1.5 stars.
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I never read Persuasion so maybe I'm not the target demographic but I think they could have pushed 100% into just being fun socialite flings instead of this convoluted class struggle that wasn't really built up much.
All the rich ships are white colonizers? Who would have thought. Not the tall, smart, white girl??
I did end up skimming a bunch in the middle and I felt like I missed nothing.
Valgs seem fun and interesting but now we have this viperous branch family wrecking havoc.
I didn't like the wishy washy main character. One moment she likes Evgenia, the other moment she doesn't, oh wait Evgenia is cool again.
Poor Nora, think of Nora, one moment. No! No consideration for Nora! (Mainly because Elliot seems to care her)
Did not like the vision of taffeta dresses trying to dance to electro funk
Patent and how people reacted to not supporting the patent was a bit stupid?? They cannot be touching down on planets to refill water, their planets are frozen over. Its just basic to reuse as much water as possible?? Who is growing fruit for these ships as well? Did I skip it? I just know rich ships get the same amount as poor ships, but they have less people so it lasts longer.
All the rich ships are white colonizers? Who would have thought. Not the tall, smart, white girl??
I did end up skimming a bunch in the middle and I felt like I missed nothing.
Valgs seem fun and interesting but now we have this viperous branch family wrecking havoc.
Poor Nora, think of Nora, one moment. No! No consideration for Nora! (Mainly because Elliot seems to care her)
Did not like the vision of taffeta dresses trying to dance to electro funk
Patent and how people reacted to not supporting the patent was a bit stupid?? They cannot be touching down on planets to refill water, their planets are frozen over. Its just basic to reuse as much water as possible?? Who is growing fruit for these ships as well? Did I skip it? I just know rich ships get the same amount as poor ships, but they have less people so it lasts longer.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes