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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Possible triggers: Abusive relationship, Addiction, Assault, Attempted murder, Attempted rape, Death, Emotional Abuse, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Physical Abuse, Self-harm, Torture, Violence
Overall star rating (out of 5⭐️): 3.75 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level (out of 5🌶️): 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (open door)
Content review: It started out a bit rough for me, as I have trouble with female characters that are so submissive. And our girl in this romantasy is very much gullible, annoying and submissive. I hope she has some more character development going into the next book, as I liked her getting stronger and more assertive but just not enough for my expectations. The trails are okay but not super high stakes or main objective of the overall story. So it feels a bit out of place. But all in all a great romantasy adventure that I enjoyed!
Narrator review: fantastic narrators! Love that they have a male narrator reading the male voices. Done very well! 4 out of 5 stars
Tags: bargain,dark vibes, dragons, fae, fantasy, good banter, secret/hidden identity, high fantasy, magic, parallel world/universe, paranormal, reincarnation, romantasy, slow burn, competition/trails, vampires
Tropes: he falls first and harder, lost memory, only one horse, who did this to you
❤️ Love interest: Nyte x Astraea
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-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
I found this book to be incredibly romantic, and emotionally complex. That being said, the emotions of Astraea, especially those regarding romance, felt very fragmented and at times contradictory. I feel like it highlights how isolating and confusing memory loss can be. It also delves into themes of abuse and grief very tastefully. I like the writing style, but I think some clarity was sacrificed for the sake of aesthetics. The sensory descriptions in this novel really captivated me, and helped immerse me. This novel was largely driven by her personal character development, and the plot drug on a bit in the middle. Overall I enjoyed this story very much, any idea probably one of my favorites of the year. I can't wait to see where fate takes Astraea and Nyte!
adventurous
medium-paced
had a promising the start but somewhere along the way it got boring and disorganized.
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
𝓡𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 3.5/5 ⭐️
𝓢𝓹𝓲𝓬𝓮 3/5🌶️
The Stars Are Dying by Chloe C/ Penaranda is the first book in the Nytefall Trilogy. Astraea only knows safety in seclusion. She remembers nothing from before five years ago and she is determined to find her past even if it means leaving her safety.
I am so conflicted. I thought we would have a pretty good idea of the plot here. She goes off to find who she is and what happened. However, that really doesn’t happen. It kind of starts too than tapers off and it totally changes direction. I also felt like it got confusing at times and that the author was just throwing popular tropes at you.
With all that being said I did like it overall. Did I think it was fantastic writing not really but it was interesting enough and the ending had enough of a cliffhanger to keep me wanting to read the next book. I hope the second book has better flow and direction though.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2/5⭐️
“Love was a drug laced with its own cure”
“Do not beg. Certainly not for me.”
What the hell was this. I was promised an epic love story wrapped in a thrilling fantasy world with crazy plot twists. I was given the fantasy version of a Hallmark movie with none of the Christmas charm but all of the predictability and cringe.
This is a perfect example of the amnesia trope gone wrong. You can’t have this trope and have the dumbest fucking FMC that’s ever lived. Astrea has no memory prior to the last 5 years and questions NOTHING. EVER. She has the survival instincts of a piece of gum on the sidewalk. Like- girly just survives on vibes and 0 thoughts in her noggin. You stumble across this man whose voice has been in your head since you saw an apparition of him, in CHAINS and you panic for maybe .5 seconds before your coochie takes over and he’s so hot you don’t care? For a man?? No man (especially one with long hair) is worth risking any of that.
Moreover, this hoe someone didn’t piece together the man named Nyte is Nights death?? Wow big crazy shocker I for sure didn’t see that coming from what- page 2?
Nyte is the standard romantasy man with shadow powers and a sassy mouth. The only thing that saved him from being overly cringe is the duet narration, aka the only reason this has 2 stars vs 1. That and the fact there was nothing truly horrific or offensive, mostly just bad writing, bad plot, no world building (and what there was, was confusing and convoluted unnecessarily), flat characters, and being about 400 pages too long.
I once again am fighting for my life trying to defend booktok and that it’s not the downfall of literature, but when books like this make it to publishing it gets harder and harder to defend.
Don’t waste your money.
“Love was a drug laced with its own cure”
“Do not beg. Certainly not for me.”
What the hell was this. I was promised an epic love story wrapped in a thrilling fantasy world with crazy plot twists. I was given the fantasy version of a Hallmark movie with none of the Christmas charm but all of the predictability and cringe.
This is a perfect example of the amnesia trope gone wrong. You can’t have this trope and have the dumbest fucking FMC that’s ever lived. Astrea has no memory prior to the last 5 years and questions NOTHING. EVER. She has the survival instincts of a piece of gum on the sidewalk. Like- girly just survives on vibes and 0 thoughts in her noggin. You stumble across this man whose voice has been in your head since you saw an apparition of him, in CHAINS and you panic for maybe .5 seconds before your coochie takes over and he’s so hot you don’t care? For a man?? No man (especially one with long hair) is worth risking any of that.
Moreover, this hoe someone didn’t piece together the man named Nyte is Nights death?? Wow big crazy shocker I for sure didn’t see that coming from what- page 2?
Nyte is the standard romantasy man with shadow powers and a sassy mouth. The only thing that saved him from being overly cringe is the duet narration, aka the only reason this has 2 stars vs 1. That and the fact there was nothing truly horrific or offensive, mostly just bad writing, bad plot, no world building (and what there was, was confusing and convoluted unnecessarily), flat characters, and being about 400 pages too long.
I once again am fighting for my life trying to defend booktok and that it’s not the downfall of literature, but when books like this make it to publishing it gets harder and harder to defend.
Don’t waste your money.
The story is confusing, there's no structure
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes