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A review by teaandfrogs
The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
DNF, 93%
2.5 Stars
Lots of spoilers!!! This is basically the book summarized.
As I continued reading, it became increasingly disappointing. You see, I previously started reading The Stars We Steal but dropped it after a few pages. Today, I picked it up once more and found myself more content with the beginning; it kept me engaged and presented the point of view of Princess Leoni, the heir to the ship Princess Sofi, who is going to Valg—a season that occurs every five years for suitors to court other nobles (or privileged individuals). Leoni had one goal: to marry a wealthy man.
That is reasonable considering they are in space and her family's ship is starting to fail. During the Valg season, they dock the Prinzessin Sofi onto the Scandanavian (a huge ship whose captain is her aunt, Captian Lind [The Scandanavian is capable of docking smaller ships]) and rent out ships. But lo and behold, one of the renters of the Prinzessin is her ex-fiancé! What a shock! To keep this brief, she encounters him and essentially has a love-hate relationship with him for the rest of the story.
As he dates other girls, even her sister at one point who asked her if it was okay (and she said yes), she needed to get her feelings in check and know what she wanted! Honestly, this story doesn’t need romance. You see, Leoni had created a recyclable water system and wanted to get it patented and sell it to other ships in the Scandanavian, so she didn’t have to marry. Her aunt continually rejected it, and she was discouraged but tried to get another powerful figure, Miranda (I forgot her last name), from the ship ‘Empire’ to accept it and sent emails and even tried to meet her on the Empire, but the email seemed to have been intercepted and unfortunately never got to Miranda and the person who was connected to Miranda, Ben, one of Elliot's friends, had broken his connection with Leo.
But here’s the thing: Leoni found out Elliot (ex-fiancé) was in the black market. Ben was a part of this business so Leo's ties with him ended up being broken and her sister was sad because she liked him after they left abruptly. You see, Elliot's father had been a vassal (or something) for Leoni's father before he passed away. Elliot learned skills from his father, and when he got engaged to Leoni, and her father made her break it off, he left. He returned during this Valg season and was wealthier than ever, set to inherit a ship. So yeah, he’s very well-off now. Later in the story, we find out that he is in the black market and gets on people's ships, stealing all the prized stuff and trading it off, then donating to the poor. Steals from the rich, give to the poor—what a Robin Hood.
But that’s not the point right now. Leoni gets mad because one of the things they stole is her dead mother's dresses she wanted Leo and her sister to wear to the Valg when they grow up. So she leaves Elliot and meets Daniel. They have a 93% match with each other on this dating app they used for the Valg and hit it off. They like each other and see that in the future they could be best friends since Daniel is ace and can’t love. But then, the Valg ball starts, and they announce proposals, and she finds out Elliot is engaged to her cousin (her cousin Klara had been eyeing him for a while…). And then they announce engagements and Leo finds out Elliot is engaged to her cousin (Her cousin Klara had been eying him for a while so... Oh and her sister got engaged to Ben, Elliot's friend in the Black market business, explaining why the sister had been so distant after they left the Empire because they were secretly dating,). And then, they announced that they had a new water recycling plan and it turns out that it’s Leo’s idea but she wasn’t credited!
Leo runs out crying (mostly because of Elliot though,) and he comforts her and is like “Hey I sent you this sappy love letter explaining how I’m sorry for keeping my criminal status hidden from you and how I got the patent for you, just sign it, a couple weeks ago because I felt bad.” and then Leo kisses him!
This made me stop reading and begin to rethink all the choices that brought me here. I was so excited and I got this. Not very cool. And I’m even more angry that she kissed Elliot when they were both engaged! Even though it’s just a marriage of convenience, Daniel would not do that to you, Leoni, even if your marriage was solely political, so why did you cheat? And she was the one who wanted to stay away from Elliot because of his illegal activities.
So yeah, that’s it, very disappointed. The whole twist where the water system was stolen makes me know that this book could have been amazing with little to no romance at all. This got longer than I wanted it to be but thank you for reading.
2.5 Stars
Lots of spoilers!!! This is basically the book summarized.
As I continued reading, it became increasingly disappointing. You see, I previously started reading The Stars We Steal but dropped it after a few pages. Today, I picked it up once more and found myself more content with the beginning; it kept me engaged and presented the point of view of Princess Leoni, the heir to the ship Princess Sofi, who is going to Valg—a season that occurs every five years for suitors to court other nobles (or privileged individuals). Leoni had one goal: to marry a wealthy man.
That is reasonable considering they are in space and her family's ship is starting to fail. During the Valg season, they dock the Prinzessin Sofi onto the Scandanavian (a huge ship whose captain is her aunt, Captian Lind [The Scandanavian is capable of docking smaller ships]) and rent out ships. But lo and behold, one of the renters of the Prinzessin is her ex-fiancé! What a shock! To keep this brief, she encounters him and essentially has a love-hate relationship with him for the rest of the story.
As he dates other girls, even her sister at one point who asked her if it was okay (and she said yes), she needed to get her feelings in check and know what she wanted! Honestly, this story doesn’t need romance. You see, Leoni had created a recyclable water system and wanted to get it patented and sell it to other ships in the Scandanavian, so she didn’t have to marry. Her aunt continually rejected it, and she was discouraged but tried to get another powerful figure, Miranda (I forgot her last name), from the ship ‘Empire’ to accept it and sent emails and even tried to meet her on the Empire, but the email seemed to have been intercepted and unfortunately never got to Miranda and the person who was connected to Miranda, Ben, one of Elliot's friends, had broken his connection with Leo.
But here’s the thing: Leoni found out Elliot (ex-fiancé) was in the black market. Ben was a part of this business so Leo's ties with him ended up being broken and her sister was sad because she liked him after they left abruptly. You see, Elliot's father had been a vassal (or something) for Leoni's father before he passed away. Elliot learned skills from his father, and when he got engaged to Leoni, and her father made her break it off, he left. He returned during this Valg season and was wealthier than ever, set to inherit a ship. So yeah, he’s very well-off now. Later in the story, we find out that he is in the black market and gets on people's ships, stealing all the prized stuff and trading it off, then donating to the poor. Steals from the rich, give to the poor—what a Robin Hood.
But that’s not the point right now. Leoni gets mad because one of the things they stole is her dead mother's dresses she wanted Leo and her sister to wear to the Valg when they grow up. So she leaves Elliot and meets Daniel. They have a 93% match with each other on this dating app they used for the Valg and hit it off. They like each other and see that in the future they could be best friends since Daniel is ace and can’t love. But then, the Valg ball starts, and they announce proposals, and she finds out Elliot is engaged to her cousin (her cousin Klara had been eyeing him for a while…). And then they announce engagements and Leo finds out Elliot is engaged to her cousin (Her cousin Klara had been eying him for a while so... Oh and her sister got engaged to Ben, Elliot's friend in the Black market business, explaining why the sister had been so distant after they left the Empire because they were secretly dating,). And then, they announced that they had a new water recycling plan and it turns out that it’s Leo’s idea but she wasn’t credited!
Leo runs out crying (mostly because of Elliot though,) and he comforts her and is like “Hey I sent you this sappy love letter explaining how I’m sorry for keeping my criminal status hidden from you and how I got the patent for you, just sign it, a couple weeks ago because I felt bad.” and then Leo kisses him!
This made me stop reading and begin to rethink all the choices that brought me here. I was so excited and I got this. Not very cool. And I’m even more angry that she kissed Elliot when they were both engaged! Even though it’s just a marriage of convenience, Daniel would not do that to you, Leoni, even if your marriage was solely political, so why did you cheat? And she was the one who wanted to stay away from Elliot because of his illegal activities.
So yeah, that’s it, very disappointed. The whole twist where the water system was stolen makes me know that this book could have been amazing with little to no romance at all. This got longer than I wanted it to be but thank you for reading.