I did not enjoy this story and the mix of romance and science fiction. I also didn’t enjoy the writing style as it felt disjointed.

This wasn’t for me. I tried and failed to give it a chance. Sorry but thank you for the opportunity .

I'm catching up on reviews ... I loved the premise of the book, and though it started strong, I feel it lost its way near the end. Nevertheless the book has stuck with me through the years because it has one of the most startling and true descriptions of love and loss I've ever read.

Ok, Ok, I know this book has been published for just over 2 years, and I’ve asked myself why have I stupidly waited so long to read this… This amazing, incredible, perfect yet heartbreaking, tragic, touching, moving story? This book has broken me. That ending is just…. Christ, it’s just a flood of over emotional tears that have been held back for weeks. It’s spectacular and it’s worth my emotional eating and heartbroken tears.

The whole book was just a cloud of perfection. From the cover (all the covers actually), to the characters, the idea, the format of the story, the worldbuilding and the thought that went into the worlds history. The ninety minutes in space were emotional yet perfectly placed. This love story is my love story of the year I think.

Characters. Carys and Max were both instantly likeable. I liked the banter between them, the easy going feel that Max has and the seriousness that Carys has makes them work off each other in such a great way. They’re connection with each other is instant, and I immediately started rooting for them from page one. I loved that we got the important moments from them in the form of memories, and that we got to see the important conversations during their ninety minutes. I loved the memories we got. Some were funny, some were heartbreaking, some were moving, some were inspirational.

The writing was quick paced, easy to follow, and as detailed as it could possibly be. The backstory of how the world ends up, and how the people survive and the idea of the rotations were all so well thought out, and planned brilliantly. The idea of moving from one Voivode to another every 3 years may seem inconvenient, but image the places you would see, the different people you would meet. The languages you would learn. The descriptive side of it all suited me perfectly. It’s scary to think that the way the author has described America and the Middle East can become an all to real reality in our lifetime.

I have to touch on the ninety minutes. Some of the moments that Carys and Max have are emotionally charged, loving, and touching. They cover their whole relationship in this ninety minutes while trying to find a way to survive. From that first page, from the first moment they discover they have ninety minutes, I was rooting for them. I wanted them to figure it out. I’m ok with the ending though, and I liked that we get a glimpse of the possibilities either way. But that ending was the right one. I would not have wanted either way that was shown for Carys and Max. So, although I’m ok with this perfect ending, I’m also that emotional wreck I mentioned at the beginning of my review.

Overall thoughts. This book, as I said, is the love story of the year for me. I firmly believe that I’m stupid for waiting so long to read this book. This book needs to be read by everyone. Everyone and anyone. It’s perfection.

Interesting but ... the beginning pulls you right into the action, that is the two main characters being stranded outside their spaceship with a limited air supply. Their back stories are then told through flashbacks, and while I liked the whole 'new world' of Europia and the technical space parts, the romance left me cold. I didn't find the characters particularly well fleshed out, and I couldn't understand why Max was out on the space walk at all, given his story to date. The ending was somewhat unexpected and strange, which made me feel a bit cheated of a 'proper' ending.
Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

This book wasn’t for me. I decided not to review it on my site or any of the major retailers/Goodreads.

This is one of my absolute favourite books. The ending is perfect. I literally 33 minutes ago recommended a large print version of it to a teen who took it home to read, and I'm jealous she gets to experience it for the first time.

I was about 100 pages into this before my computer restarted and the copy I'd had open for ages was expired. I'd really really been enjoying it to the point I'd managed to get up to. Super sad I didn't get to finish.

Katie Khan creates a master piece with Hold Back the Stars Iam so excited to see what she will write next !!

A tale of love, tragedy and space is told in this little gem of a book. Told through alternative POVs, the book is full of diversity, many different cultures and people. Not to mention that at some point the book reminded me in a terrifying way of the movie "Gravity".

It's a good read with a really good ending.

90 minutes is both a short and long amount of time. For Carys and Max, it's the only time they have.

At it's core, Hold Back the Stars is a classic love story. Boy meets girl. Boy loves girl. Things happen that test the love. And so on.

This was a strange, wonderful journey and 90 minutes is just the amount of time I needed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

While I was very intrigued by the description of this book, it ended up not being a good fit for me. I found the portions taking place in space too slow, whereas I really wanted to to spend more time in the dystopian universe. The dialogue felt a but unnatural to me, making the discussions between the main characters things I skimmed over. While the premise certainly caught my eye, I think I would have preferred less sci-fi/space and more of a dystopian story. Thank you for the opportunity to read!

I wanted to like this book, because the premise was so interesting. But ultimately, it never quite picked up speed for me and we didn't get to fully engage with the premise of the world as much as I would have liked. It's such an interesting concept for an alternate world/dystopic future, but it doesn't feel as full as it could. That and the ending was.... strange. I didn't dislike it but it didn't quite come together or work in a way that felt natural. Instead it was a bit jarring.

I am no stranger to being emotionally manipulated by books. From crying in bed at 2 am with the latest tearjerker, to being terrified in the middle of the day by a best-selling thriller, I’ve spent many an hour riding literature’s emotional rollercoasters and very rarely do I complain about the ride. But in Katie Khan’s debut novel, Hold Back the Stars, I’m going to complain. A little.

I will admit, the premise of the book drew me in right away: a couple, trapped in space with ninety minutes of air left, flashback to the story of their relationship on an Earth where the United States and the Middle East have obliterated themselves, Europe is now a utopia where there are no states or countries, and where a required move every three years into a new community (called Rotation) means that people create no permanent ties to any place – or person. In these volatile political times, the thought of a society without national or racial divisions is an appealing one, but Khan does a good job of showing that the flip side of our current coin can be filled with just as many pitfalls, just as many good intentions gone bad.

The relationship between the two lead protagonists, Max and Carys, also is satisfyingly realistic. Max comes from a family that founded the current utopian society and firmly abides by its dictates; Carys from a family that didn’t opt into Rotation until she was eighteen years old. The story flips between the establishment and development of their relationship in a culture that prohibits any serious ties before thirty-five, and their perilous countdown in space; a flow that both propels and grounds the story. Each minute of air that goes by invests you more. It is disappointing, then, that Khan takes all of that excellent storytelling and basically blows it in the end.

I am not going to go into great detail regarding the ending; I’m not one for spoilers. But the ending is where my complaints come into play, my feelings of emotional manipulation. It feels as though Khan didn’t write an ending to her book, but instead wrote explanations for the ending of her book, as if she was trying somehow to soften the impact. Unfortunately, in softening the impact, she removes it almost completely, giving the novel more of a choose-your-own-adventure ending rather than anything satisfying. I have no doubt that we will hear more of Katie Khan in the future. Hopefully, with her next book, she’ll pick an ending and stick to it.

Thanks to NetGalley, Gallery and Doubleday for the ARCs of this book.

I really enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting in one day. It’s an incredibly easy read. The concept is basically ‘Gravity’ but with a beautiful love story at its heart. Carys and Max are two astronauts stranded in space with 90 minutes to live and very little chance of survival. Their love story is told in flashback over the course of the remaining minutes while they try to find a way to save themselves.

It’s heartwarming and romantic and exciting. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the last third of the book which imagines what life would be like for Max and Carys if one were to survive without the other. This felt a little bit like it was filling out what is quite a simple story. However, I really enjoyed the concept of the book, liked the characters and found the slightly futuristic setting of Europia very interesting.

This was a clever and emotionally involving novel, possibly one of the most unusual sci-fi books I have ever read. Carys and Max have only 90mins of air left. In Utopian furure where it is illegal to settle down with someone until you're in your thirties, what happens when you meet the one a bit early? With their lives running out, locked in the void of space, the pair look back on how they met and what could have been. This book is poignant and strange with moment of real humour. It manages to be a beautiful love story, a sci-fi and an examination of relationships and maturity at the same time. Highly recommend.

Straight into this book, and I have to say that I was expecting more sci-fi than romance from this book. I'm not sorry at all that I kept reading though as I need to be open to more books. If you enjoy your sci-fi with minimum romance, than this book might not be the best bet for you. I would encourage you to give it at least a try though as I was pleasantly surprised at the sheer world building work put into this romance. If you are willing to read outside your comfort genres though, I would send this your way. Author Katie Khan has definitely done her homework on this world building. She has created an Utopian world that has a not so great restriction on love amongst its younger members. This is the real problem for our young protagonists. Well, that and the fact that they are running out of air.
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I really enjoyed the way that even with this Utopian society, not everything was perfect. Let’s be honest human beings are a mess and even in literature things don’t always go the way we want them to. I was with Khan right up until the last part of the story. I understand why she went the path she chose but as a reader I feel like I’ve been cheated of something though it’s difficult to say just what. The sci-fi parts were well thought out and her world building deserves at least a prequel to let her fully describe her world and how it all came to be. The romance works in ways I didn’t think it would and I’m happy that I took the time to finish it before posting a review.


*This eBook was provided by NetGalley and Doubleday in exchange for honest feedback*

Hold Back the Stars starts with Max and Carys, floating in space, with only 90 minutes left to live, as their oxygen supply is about to run out. What a suspenseful way to start a story: how did they get here?

Everything I read about this book mentioned love: “… a man and a woman revisit memories of their love affair on a utopian Earth…”/”An original and daring exploration of the impact of first love…”. Yes, there is a story of how Max and Carys met and fell in love, and how this love eventually results in them being in space, but the book wasn’t just about love. What had happened on Earth? Why was rotation necessary? The love story was an interesting method of introducing characters that lived in this new reality, but I wanted to know more about it, instead of it just serving as the background to their love story.

I also have to admit that I was confused by the ending(s), especially the question of how many actual endings there were. Did it clear up what actually happened at the beginning? I think I was surprised at how much story there still was after the events in space.

All in all I enjoyed this book but personally was more interested in the middle bit, with the details of their life in rotation, than the space experience, which seemed to drag on and was split between the beginning and the end.

If I had to describe this story, it would unfortunately be with a “meh.” This book wasn’t terrible but neither was it good. I didn’t like how as a reader I was immediately thrust into Max and Carys’ relationship while they realise they are stuck in space and start arguing with each other (like really, that’s what you’re going to do?). Carys immediately got on my nerves with her repeated, “Oh my god, we’re going to die,” in the first few pages. The problem here was i was faced with characters in a deathly situation and I was suppose to care but I didn’t know them at all, so…I didn’t.

The story eventually picked up for me as it reached its mid-way point.I found the world of Europia and the devastated US and Middle East really interesting and I liked the idea of rotations and the Couples Rule (even though I felt like this ‘rule’ had very little to back it up). I was way more interested in the world in this book than I was with the characters, who remained for the entirety of the book annoying, self-centred and just whatever for me.

This book is mainly a romance set in a sc-fi world. The problem is I was a lot more invested in the sci-fi aspect than the romance and I just didn’t get enough of the world to satisfy.

The ending was…well, it was a bit eye-roll inducing to be honest. I wouldn’t say this was an unenjoyable read and once I got into the book, it was a quick read which I appreciated but I don’t think this is a book I would be recommending to people.

old Back the Stars has such a unique plot and is full of strong and interesting characters.


Our main characters are Carys and Max and after a series of unfortunate events find themselves floating alone in space together with only 90 minutes of oxygen left.

It is the far future, the USA and Middle East are decimated, Europe is a Utopian society and Carys and Max are part of this Utopian society until their love for one another makes them question the rules set forth. As the minutes tick down on their oxygen tanks, they seek solutions and relive their lives through a series of flashbacks.

Max and Carys are young in their mid twenties but their society does not allow for coupling, relationships, marriage until mid thirties but they find themselves falling in love and like every good love story ever told love must prevail.

The ending left me surprised - then confused then adequately satisfied.