sophiedeo 's review for:

Lost Stars by Claudia Gray

4.0

---

I picked up about 5 books and subsequently put them down prior to trying Lost Stars, and before I knew it I was 150 pages through. It really sucked me in and I got through it so quickly. The setting was obviously great, it's a galaxy far, far away. It was great seeing the battles depicted in the movies from the view of Empire officers and Rebel soldiers, as well as seeing new planets. I liked the characters of Ciena and Thane, I think they could have been developed a bit more, but I liked how they dealt with loyalty and their thought processes regarding the Empire felt real and understandable. I really liked how war was portrayed, it was quite mature for a YA book, and it was nice seeing reactions to Alderaan's destruction. My one biggest nitpick about the original movie is that Leia barely seemed to care that her home planet was destroyed, so the emphasis it had on the characters in this book made me feel a lot better. I don't really have many negatives, I wish we got a more concrete wrap up for Ciena, and sometimes it felt a bit juvenile when the author was spelling things out for us.

I really strongly considered giving this 5 stars, but I think it will have to be 4.5.