Scan barcode
A review by bethanym99
Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne
3.0
“‘Now, who is this bold creature?’
‘This is Stella Ainsley, our new governess, ’ Hugo said, his voice like an electric current running through me.”
-Alexa Donne, Brightly Burning
I think that this is the first book I’ve reviewed that I wasn’t completely in love with, so let’s see how this goes! Also, this may be a little bit spoilery? But if you know the plot of Jane Eyre, this won’t really spoil anything. Also, the romance is pretty obvious. So anyway, just a warning: if you don’t want ANY spoilers at all, only read up to the line that says “DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DON’T WANT ANY SPOILERS”.
⭐⭐⭐☆☆ read for me!
In a time when the earth was believed to be a frozen ball in space because of an ice age predicted to last more than 200 years, the inhabitants of Earth have fled into space. Stella Ainsley is an engineer on a junky, failing spaceship, and, like the rest of the population, has never seen the surface of the planet they are orbiting. Unlike everyone else around her, who are either farmers or engineers, she wishes more than anything to be a teacher. She submits many rounds of applications, and right as she is about to lose hope, she gets a reply that, little does she know, will change her life forever.
Aboard the ship the Rochester, things are a bit...strange. From the staff aboard the ship, to the eerie noises at night, to the surprisingly young and slightly (or more than slightly) attractive Captain Fairfax, Stella must decide whether or not the reasons to stay (one of which is a certain captain…) outweigh the oddities.
-------
Let’s start with the good things I have to say about this book. This book is a modern retelling of Jane Eyre with a sci-fi twist, which is a great idea. I love both sci-fi and retellings, so it was a good mashup of both genres, with recognizable elements from the original story. As with the other retellings I like, the book was close enough to the original to tell what the story source was, but was modern and creative enough to satisfy a sci-fi lover. The technology in the book was pretty cool, and while I would have like a *bit* more backstory, I thought the world-building was overall pretty good. I liked Stella’s character in the first half of the book, because she was a bit more sassy and strong (which, if you’ve read any of my other reviews, you know I LOVE strong female lead characters), but not so much in the second half of the book; I’ll get to explaining that in more detail later though. I also like Hugo’s character better in the first half of the book, when he was witty and a bit sarcastic, before he got all self-deprecating. Also Jessa was a great character. By far, my favorite character is a tie between Jessa and Jon.
-------
Ok, so let’s talk about things I didn’t like as much with this book. Remember, I don’t really like sappy romance, so if that’s your thing, you may very well disagree with me. And that’s ok too; I am totally open to hearing other people's’ opinions of the book.
Like I mentioned a bit before, I liked a lot of the characters in the first half of the book, before the big “plot twist”. I also thought the book was not long enough to fully develop a lot of characters and motivations of said characters. Because of this, I didn’t really feel a connection to the characters, and I ended up being a bit annoyed by Stella at times, because I wasn’t really invested in her story, so it was easy to become frustrated with her choices. Also, the ending chapters of the book could have been a bit longer, or even made into novellas; it seemed like the chapters were so short, that it felt like the author was wrapping things up too quickly.
All in all, I thought it was a good idea, and I thought the beginning was well executed, but I kind of lost interest in the middle, thus the 3 out of 5 stars.
------------DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DON’T WANT ANY SPOILERS------------
Now that I’ve talked about the book without spoilers, let’s dive right in to the details of the story.
Sorry if I’m being repetitive, but as I said before, I thought the climax was good, before Hugo’s mother was revealed and he was implicated with the virus. Honestly, I feel like the book went downhill from there. The personalities of the characters went from complicated and mysterious to more or less flat because we seem to know all of their secrets now. In respect to Hugo and Stella’s relationship, I felt like they went from attraction to full-out love in like 3 paragraphs. I’m a sucker for slow-burning romances, because then when they finally do “fall in love”, it means a lot more, and is not just a flimsy relationship. However, in this book, I felt the romance was a bit manufactured and rushed. At the beginning, it started as a slow burn, which was nice, but then it went from flirtation to “I love you” way too quickly for me. Stella seemed to be too invested in a man she met only months before, and she turns from a strong, independent woman to a girl who faints all too quickly for my taste. Also, Hugo was a great love interest at first, but then after the middle of the book, he became very pessimistic and self-deprecating, which was not a good character change for him.
Now for the plot: I didn’t really like it all that much. I read Jane Eyre when I was 10, so it has been like nine years since I read the book, and to be quite honest, I don’t remember all that much about it. So I’ll be taking the perspective of a reader unfamiliar with the story in regards to the plot. I understand that the book *is* a retelling, so the author was a bit constrained as to what she could create as far as plot goes. However, I didn’t think the whole story point with Hugo’s mom was interesting and memorable enough for me to really be interested and invested in it. She just kind of showed up one chapter, and when she died, I didn’t really feel any sadness about her. The whole second half of the book was a bit slow for me, and once Stella left the Rochester, I became more and more disinterested. Overall, I think this book was a good idea, but I would have loved for it to have been executed in a different way.
-------
Whew! That was a long one! 😅 Thanks for reading till the end, if you did! And if you didn’t, that’s ok too; I won’t judge.
‘This is Stella Ainsley, our new governess, ’ Hugo said, his voice like an electric current running through me.”
-Alexa Donne, Brightly Burning
I think that this is the first book I’ve reviewed that I wasn’t completely in love with, so let’s see how this goes! Also, this may be a little bit spoilery? But if you know the plot of Jane Eyre, this won’t really spoil anything. Also, the romance is pretty obvious. So anyway, just a warning: if you don’t want ANY spoilers at all, only read up to the line that says “DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DON’T WANT ANY SPOILERS”.
⭐⭐⭐☆☆ read for me!
In a time when the earth was believed to be a frozen ball in space because of an ice age predicted to last more than 200 years, the inhabitants of Earth have fled into space. Stella Ainsley is an engineer on a junky, failing spaceship, and, like the rest of the population, has never seen the surface of the planet they are orbiting. Unlike everyone else around her, who are either farmers or engineers, she wishes more than anything to be a teacher. She submits many rounds of applications, and right as she is about to lose hope, she gets a reply that, little does she know, will change her life forever.
Aboard the ship the Rochester, things are a bit...strange. From the staff aboard the ship, to the eerie noises at night, to the surprisingly young and slightly (or more than slightly) attractive Captain Fairfax, Stella must decide whether or not the reasons to stay (one of which is a certain captain…) outweigh the oddities.
-------
Let’s start with the good things I have to say about this book. This book is a modern retelling of Jane Eyre with a sci-fi twist, which is a great idea. I love both sci-fi and retellings, so it was a good mashup of both genres, with recognizable elements from the original story. As with the other retellings I like, the book was close enough to the original to tell what the story source was, but was modern and creative enough to satisfy a sci-fi lover. The technology in the book was pretty cool, and while I would have like a *bit* more backstory, I thought the world-building was overall pretty good. I liked Stella’s character in the first half of the book, because she was a bit more sassy and strong (which, if you’ve read any of my other reviews, you know I LOVE strong female lead characters), but not so much in the second half of the book; I’ll get to explaining that in more detail later though. I also like Hugo’s character better in the first half of the book, when he was witty and a bit sarcastic, before he got all self-deprecating. Also Jessa was a great character. By far, my favorite character is a tie between Jessa and Jon.
-------
Ok, so let’s talk about things I didn’t like as much with this book. Remember, I don’t really like sappy romance, so if that’s your thing, you may very well disagree with me. And that’s ok too; I am totally open to hearing other people's’ opinions of the book.
Like I mentioned a bit before, I liked a lot of the characters in the first half of the book, before the big “plot twist”. I also thought the book was not long enough to fully develop a lot of characters and motivations of said characters. Because of this, I didn’t really feel a connection to the characters, and I ended up being a bit annoyed by Stella at times, because I wasn’t really invested in her story, so it was easy to become frustrated with her choices. Also, the ending chapters of the book could have been a bit longer, or even made into novellas; it seemed like the chapters were so short, that it felt like the author was wrapping things up too quickly.
All in all, I thought it was a good idea, and I thought the beginning was well executed, but I kind of lost interest in the middle, thus the 3 out of 5 stars.
------------DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DON’T WANT ANY SPOILERS------------
Now that I’ve talked about the book without spoilers, let’s dive right in to the details of the story.
Sorry if I’m being repetitive, but as I said before, I thought the climax was good, before Hugo’s mother was revealed and he was implicated with the virus. Honestly, I feel like the book went downhill from there. The personalities of the characters went from complicated and mysterious to more or less flat because we seem to know all of their secrets now. In respect to Hugo and Stella’s relationship, I felt like they went from attraction to full-out love in like 3 paragraphs. I’m a sucker for slow-burning romances, because then when they finally do “fall in love”, it means a lot more, and is not just a flimsy relationship. However, in this book, I felt the romance was a bit manufactured and rushed. At the beginning, it started as a slow burn, which was nice, but then it went from flirtation to “I love you” way too quickly for me. Stella seemed to be too invested in a man she met only months before, and she turns from a strong, independent woman to a girl who faints all too quickly for my taste. Also, Hugo was a great love interest at first, but then after the middle of the book, he became very pessimistic and self-deprecating, which was not a good character change for him.
Now for the plot: I didn’t really like it all that much. I read Jane Eyre when I was 10, so it has been like nine years since I read the book, and to be quite honest, I don’t remember all that much about it. So I’ll be taking the perspective of a reader unfamiliar with the story in regards to the plot. I understand that the book *is* a retelling, so the author was a bit constrained as to what she could create as far as plot goes. However, I didn’t think the whole story point with Hugo’s mom was interesting and memorable enough for me to really be interested and invested in it. She just kind of showed up one chapter, and when she died, I didn’t really feel any sadness about her. The whole second half of the book was a bit slow for me, and once Stella left the Rochester, I became more and more disinterested. Overall, I think this book was a good idea, but I would have loved for it to have been executed in a different way.
-------
Whew! That was a long one! 😅 Thanks for reading till the end, if you did! And if you didn’t, that’s ok too; I won’t judge.