A review by thebookandwineclub
The Stars are Dying by Chloe C. Peñaranda

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

3.5

This is a hard book to review because I loved so much about the concept and the characters but I think it just got a bit lost in itself.

The world build is rather dense and whilst it focuses around creatures we often see in fantasy, the societal structure felt rather different, so there was a lot to learn. 

And the main PoV is from a character with fragmented memories so I feel you spend a lot of the book as confused as her. I suspect it is a book that would completely click into place on a 2nd read. 

✨🌙✨🌙

Premise: 

Astraea can only remember the last 5 years of her life. And is trapped by a man who claims to be her protector, in a world riddled with vampires.

Every century, each land is allowed the chance to send a selected victor to the Libertatem, to complete a series of trials for safety from the vampires for 100 years.

And after a strange encounter with a mysterious man, Nyte, Astraea enters into a bargain with him, to help her escape her captivity, and leave with their land’s selected. But when things go wrong whilst travelling to the competition, Astraea finds herself having to enter the trails herself. 

✨🌙✨🌙

Even summarising the book above was a challenge, because there’s so many different parts to it. But it’s definitely a fantastic concept and now so much more of the world is developed, I’m excited to see what happens in book 2.

And the dynamic between Astraea and Nyte was great. Nyte is kind of feral in his nature at times and has the filthiest mouth. And whilst Astraea finds his constant presence annoying at first, I love how he keeps prodding and aggravating her. Their dialogue and push/pull dynamic made the book for me. And there is a bit of spice in the last quarter of the book!

And I love a trail focused book and I liked how the trails really played into the competitors own mind, using their own thoughts against them.

And the general plot and bargain was great. Whilst I spent the first half of the book thinking I knew where this was all going, there’s a particular point (the first cave scene), that completely shocked me, and had me questioning so much more. 

And also, the wider characters were fab! I loved the bonus chapter for Zath and Rose and wish we could have seen more of them in this book but suspect we will in the second. And I’m intrigued what happens next with Drystan. 

Definitely keen to see what happens next, although there’s a lot of questions I have going into book 2. Plus I really hope we get to see more of their previous life but let’s see! 
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