A review by redhairedashreads
Eat My Moon Dust by Etta Pierce

5.0

 

5 stars - I loved it!

Tinsley Adams is a pastry chef stuck on an alien planet where food is cooked piping hot and perfect every time. There is no fun in it and no sense of community so Tinsley is determined to create a different kind of community-building activity - Christmas. But she will need the help of Scrooge McAsshat, aka Hunar Fareshi, to get it done.  

I love a story with the fake relationship trope and I was very interested in seeing how it would work with a shilpakaari. Peirce blew me away with this one and I couldn’t put Hunar and Tinsley’s story down. Tinsley is an outgoing and vibrant woman who is determined to figure out how to bake on this alien planet. I really loved her. She was so sweet and goes out of her way to help others, including not always thinking things through before jumping in. I loved how she put herself out there to help Hunar and always made sure his children were first. Also I loved watching her stand up to Ambassador Zufi. 

Hunar is a grumpy and hardworking man. He has spent his life working himself to the bone to provide for his children and his ex doesn’t care. She tosses her children aside at the first opportunity and it pushes him into being a single father for the first time. While we see him struggling with it, he does still show how much he loves his spats (children) and we see them grow under his care. While I don’t always love romances with children, Hunar’s children were surprisingly great characters and I never felt annoyed by them. 

“You’re my sunrise, Tin.”

Tinsley and Hunar’s relationship starts as a fake relationship that is supposed to end once his contract is secure. Of course, as these two spend more time together they realize how much they actually like each other and don’t want the relationship to end. This relationship had some of my favorite tropes so it was no wonder that I ended up loving their relationship so much, especially since they took their time. 

Overall, this was another wonderful installment of this series. Peirce does a wonderful job creating wonderful characters and expanding this fantastic world. While I didn’t expect to fall so hard for these two I really did and I really can’t wait to read more from this series. 

CW: on page child abandonment; threat of homelessness and job loss; abduction recounted; grief over missing family; mention of boarding school genocide of Indigenous Peoples;