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A review by rwxtd
Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor
5.0
Steampunk aesthetic?? In space?? With an ace/aro main character?? And a wonderful f/f romance?? And lots of wonderful platonic relationships?? It’s everything I’ve ever wanted!!!!!
I actually *loved* this book. Eliza is a total badass and I love her so much, Anna is so smart and defiant and also kind and I love her too, and Nathaniel is so sweet and so naive even though he means well. I just love them all so much. The story was really compelling, and I didn’t really feel like there were any dull moments or loose ends. If anything, I wished it was a bit longer, because there were a few moments that didn’t pack the emotional punch that I feel like they could have if there had been more buildup or if we had seen more interactions between the characters.
It was a bit darker than I was expecting- I read reviews that mentioned that people do, in fact, die in this book, but I guess I just kind of forgot about them? Because I was surprised by that, even though I probably shouldn’t have been.
This book also had some really wonderful platonic relationships that I absolutely adored. Nathaniel making friends? Learning that he’s not alone? 10/10 would recommend. Some of the other inter-character relationships could have used more screen time, though, like I wish we’d gotten to see more of Anna’s relationship with her grandfather. The relationships between the three main characters, though, are all great.
I’d say the one main fault of this book was that there were too many characters with complicated relationships, and it couldn’t fully communicate the depth of *all* of those complicated relationships between so many different characters in the time it had. It does an excellent job with about half of them, and the rest could probably be better if the book was longer. This is probably why I felt like some of the emotional moments didn’t pack the punch I felt like they should’ve.
Ultimately I gave this book five stars because I loved it. Is it very good? Definitely!! Is it the greatest book ever written? Probably not. But it is *exactly* what I wanted when I picked it up. I had so much fun reading it, it went by really quickly, I was never bored with the story or frustrated with the characters, and generally I just had such a good time. I read the whole thing in like a day and it was a really great day because I just loved reading this book. It definitely felt a lot shorter than it probably actually was. Anyway, this book made me really happy, so if you’re also a fan of steampunk, ace/aro characters, and wonderful platonic relationships, then I would highly recommend!!!
I actually *loved* this book. Eliza is a total badass and I love her so much, Anna is so smart and defiant and also kind and I love her too, and Nathaniel is so sweet and so naive even though he means well. I just love them all so much. The story was really compelling, and I didn’t really feel like there were any dull moments or loose ends. If anything, I wished it was a bit longer, because there were a few moments that didn’t pack the emotional punch that I feel like they could have if there had been more buildup or if we had seen more interactions between the characters.
It was a bit darker than I was expecting- I read reviews that mentioned that people do, in fact, die in this book, but I guess I just kind of forgot about them? Because I was surprised by that, even though I probably shouldn’t have been.
This book also had some really wonderful platonic relationships that I absolutely adored. Nathaniel making friends? Learning that he’s not alone? 10/10 would recommend. Some of the other inter-character relationships could have used more screen time, though, like I wish we’d gotten to see more of Anna’s relationship with her grandfather. The relationships between the three main characters, though, are all great.
I’d say the one main fault of this book was that there were too many characters with complicated relationships, and it couldn’t fully communicate the depth of *all* of those complicated relationships between so many different characters in the time it had. It does an excellent job with about half of them, and the rest could probably be better if the book was longer. This is probably why I felt like some of the emotional moments didn’t pack the punch I felt like they should’ve.
Ultimately I gave this book five stars because I loved it. Is it very good? Definitely!! Is it the greatest book ever written? Probably not. But it is *exactly* what I wanted when I picked it up. I had so much fun reading it, it went by really quickly, I was never bored with the story or frustrated with the characters, and generally I just had such a good time. I read the whole thing in like a day and it was a really great day because I just loved reading this book. It definitely felt a lot shorter than it probably actually was. Anyway, this book made me really happy, so if you’re also a fan of steampunk, ace/aro characters, and wonderful platonic relationships, then I would highly recommend!!!