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lvail1030 's review for:
The Stars We Steal
by Alexa Donne
I am now convinced that Alexa Donne should probably not be writing romance. She is not a terrible writer, and her plots are generally pretty inoffensive, perhaps even compelling, but between this book and Brightly Burning, it's clear that she doesn't (can't?) write compelling romances.
The good: Great conflict. Scenes were very engaging, and I flew through the book because of this! The main character was actually super likeable, which was surprising to me, because most YA romance FMC's are...not. At all. I also appreciate that the romance wasn't toxic, even if it was a bit frustrating.
The negative: I didn't feel that the romance was strong. For most of the book, I felt absolutely nothing for it. I was actually disgusted by Elliot's behavior so much, especially the "revelation" that Leo had about him and his "business", that I knew if she ended up with him in the end, I would be frustrated. And, of course she would. The book was so predictable, I had no doubt, my personal feelings aside. I didn't feel much for any of the characters, really. None of them had any depth, so how could I feel one way or another towards them? I also feel that the pacing was not the best. There were many concepts, storylines, themes, backstories that were setup that went nowhere and weren't explored. It seemed that there were a lot of scenes that did generally the same thing, just a bunch of dramatic scenes that did nothing to further the plot. But then the plot was super rushed together all at once at the end and it felt very abrupt and ruined any emotional involvement that I could have had. Speaking of the ending, there barely WAS one. It seemed that the main conflict got resolved super easily, with hardly any opposition. There were even a few storylines that didn't really get resolved.
The good: Great conflict. Scenes were very engaging, and I flew through the book because of this! The main character was actually super likeable, which was surprising to me, because most YA romance FMC's are...not. At all. I also appreciate that the romance wasn't toxic, even if it was a bit frustrating.
The negative: I didn't feel that the romance was strong. For most of the book, I felt absolutely nothing for it. I was actually disgusted by Elliot's behavior so much, especially the "revelation" that Leo had about him and his "business", that I knew if she ended up with him in the end, I would be frustrated. And, of course she would. The book was so predictable, I had no doubt, my personal feelings aside. I didn't feel much for any of the characters, really. None of them had any depth, so how could I feel one way or another towards them? I also feel that the pacing was not the best. There were many concepts, storylines, themes, backstories that were setup that went nowhere and weren't explored. It seemed that there were a lot of scenes that did generally the same thing, just a bunch of dramatic scenes that did nothing to further the plot. But then the plot was super rushed together all at once at the end and it felt very abrupt and ruined any emotional involvement that I could have had. Speaking of the ending, there barely WAS one. It seemed that the main conflict got resolved super easily, with hardly any opposition. There were even a few storylines that didn't really get resolved.