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shouldireadthis 's review for:
A Dark and Hollow Star
by Ashley Shuttleworth
4 stars. This has the potential to be a truly fantastic series. And it doesn’t fall into the little tropes and cliches that I dislike with some other books. The villain arc is multi-layered and complex, and you see things from their perspective, which helps you to understand their motivation. The characters seem to pair up romantically - but they’re all LGBT+! It’s so refreshing! There’s a chosen one narrative but she isn’t suddenly good at everything! And the banter is top tier.
From the get go, this is a story that FEELS like it’s epic. It feels like the foundations are being made for a truly great saga. You know everything isn’t going to be wrapped in a neat bow. Whereas some series can feel like they are plotted for book one and then books two or three are add ons, this feels like the series is plotted out to last over a few books. And that doesn’t mean that it feels like there’s a lot of filler - there isn’t. There’s just a lot of time given to really fleshing out the characters and making you feel how high stakes everything is. And the characters really do feel multi dimensional.
Nausicaä is an absolute legend, top tier gal and you can’t help but like her even tho she is an objectively terrible person. I am shipping her and Arlo SO HARD.
Arlo is a very likeable character and as a reader I related to her the most. She’s very down to earth due to being of half fae, half human descent. She really grounds the narrative at times where it could feel a bit too otherworldly and get away with itself.
Aurelian and Vehan are two absolute cuties and I wish they would just kiss already. They have such a great friendship to start off with and it’s sad that the political machinations of Vehan’s mother have got in the way of their relationship truly blossoming. I am hyped for where their story will go in the next book as I feel like there’s lots more that could be done here.
There’s plenty of side characters throughout and it can be a bit tricky to keep track of them. I think book two will be an *easier* read just because time won’t be spent having to introduce everything for the first time and if you’re like me, you won’t have to spend ages trying to remind yourself of who everyone is.
The pacing is overall good, there’s enough going on to keep you interested and if you’ve read a lot of books about the fae you’ll be familiar with a lot of the concepts here. There’s also random other lore thrown in including vampires, mermaids which makes this a wild ride of mythical beings. The last 100 pages rocket along at the speed of light and it’s a complete whirlwind and emotionally, I am not okay.
Overall, I haven’t been this hyped about a series for a while and I really hope the next book will build upon this one and deliver something that’s completely fresh and fabulous.
From the get go, this is a story that FEELS like it’s epic. It feels like the foundations are being made for a truly great saga. You know everything isn’t going to be wrapped in a neat bow. Whereas some series can feel like they are plotted for book one and then books two or three are add ons, this feels like the series is plotted out to last over a few books. And that doesn’t mean that it feels like there’s a lot of filler - there isn’t. There’s just a lot of time given to really fleshing out the characters and making you feel how high stakes everything is. And the characters really do feel multi dimensional.
Nausicaä is an absolute legend, top tier gal and you can’t help but like her even tho she is an objectively terrible person. I am shipping her and Arlo SO HARD.
Arlo is a very likeable character and as a reader I related to her the most. She’s very down to earth due to being of half fae, half human descent. She really grounds the narrative at times where it could feel a bit too otherworldly and get away with itself.
Aurelian and Vehan are two absolute cuties and I wish they would just kiss already. They have such a great friendship to start off with and it’s sad that the political machinations of Vehan’s mother have got in the way of their relationship truly blossoming. I am hyped for where their story will go in the next book as I feel like there’s lots more that could be done here.
There’s plenty of side characters throughout and it can be a bit tricky to keep track of them. I think book two will be an *easier* read just because time won’t be spent having to introduce everything for the first time and if you’re like me, you won’t have to spend ages trying to remind yourself of who everyone is.
The pacing is overall good, there’s enough going on to keep you interested and if you’ve read a lot of books about the fae you’ll be familiar with a lot of the concepts here. There’s also random other lore thrown in including vampires, mermaids which makes this a wild ride of mythical beings. The last 100 pages rocket along at the speed of light and it’s a complete whirlwind and emotionally, I am not okay.
Overall, I haven’t been this hyped about a series for a while and I really hope the next book will build upon this one and deliver something that’s completely fresh and fabulous.