“Eclipse the Skies” by Maura Milan absolutely KILLED me, and I completely loved it. 100%, absolutely recommend!

The plot thickens! Writing style was better here and I liked the plot as well of course! The gorg cover doesn’t hurt

Rating: 3.5 stars rounded down to 3 stars

I found myself getting bored at more points in this book than the first book. Also, what was that ending?! I know that Maura Milan did to make us have hope, but it's only a duology and I need to know what happened to Ia. She was actually one of my favorite characters.

The only real issue I had with the book was pacing. Maura Milan's writing was stupendous. I just felt there were many times when not much was going on. Overall, I really enjoyed reading the duology though.

I don’t know how this happened but this is not working for me and I generally love sci fi series more than anything! I am truly disappointed.

Thanks so much to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with this E-Arc. All new releases as of February 2021 will be featured on my blog.

This was a good book. Albert Whitman please pay your authors. Maura Milan deserves so much better than your terrible business practices.

Wow wow wow, what an awesome sequel to Ignite the Stars! The story is simultaneously heartbreaking and endearing, and I think a lot of people will be torn by the ending. I applaud the author's risk taking and use of character development to entice and capture the hearts of readers.

A slow-burn romance stemming from a witty banter can easily win hearts and mine isn't made of steel so of course, I'm living for the love in this. It's always a moment of pride to see a POC woman in book taking strong decisions and facing consequences confidently. A perfect conclusion to a great genre-mix of science fiction & fantasy duology.

I liked the all the character arcs.

I was about half-way through before I got that "I can't put the book down" phase.

There were some fascinating moral and philosophical questions.

If I were to ever use this in a class, it would certainly prompt some interesting discussions.

The end was not the kind of ending I was hoping for.

I really enjoyed this book. It was equally as enjoyable as Ignite the Stars.
I found Brinn a little more tolerable in this book. Although she was still quite obnoxious sometimes. Near the end, however, I could really see her growth as a person and am happy with how her story ended.
As for Ia and Knives, I really want a third book.
I'm definitely hoping for that third book.

I did not realize this was a sequel when I requested this, and the title was archived before I was able to get the first book and download this copy.

This was even better than the first one! It was heartbreaking and amazing. There was definitely less dark humor in this and I missed it but SO MANY PLOT TWISTS. I loved Brinn's character development and am so glad the romance was kept to a minimum.

Such an amazing sequel!!! I loved the character arcs so much, and I’m so happy with how the relationships were developed. This book sent me on a wild trip and made me cry. I love how developed and in detail the lore is and how many twists are involved. And oh my god, that cliffhanger??? I NEED the next book right now! And might I just add, while I do love Ia and Knives together, you know what would be just as good? Ia, Knives, AND Vetty all together. Just saying.

I will say though, I don’t really appreciate having one of only two, out, gay people killed off :/

I'll excuse a lot for a fun story and characters I enjoy reading about. And maybe I let Ignite the Stars off the hook because I loved Io and Brinn so much. But there's some problems here.

Before I dive into what wasn't working, let's address what did work: the action and story pacing! Milan is very, very good at writing action scenes. It's not easy to capture the setting, movements, and energy. One of the best is Brandon Sanderson, and I would say Milan is better than Sanderson at crafting an action scene. I could see every scene in my head, and they were glorious.

The pacing of the story is rapid fire quick. There's never a lull or a halt to wax poetically on the political or ethical dilemma rooting the story to the human condition. The ethics, plot, and character development all happen at once. Nothing is compartmentalized.

Now for what didn't work. Everything I loved about Io and Brinn in the first book is tossed out in the second. Io becomes a moody and jealous person. Brinn's allegiances change so quickly, if you blink you'll miss it. Without the kickass heroine and the strong female friendship to keep this book afloat (or the reader distracted), now all I can see is what's not working. The world building doesn't make sense to me: <spoiler> the enemy base is only a couple days travel away, but is said to be "on the edge of the territory". In what universe is traveling for two days really far away? This base should be super easy to find for any galactic military fleet. </spoiler> There are dramatic twists and turns that have soap opera believability. And finally, sadly, the writing is clunky. Odd details, like the table being plastic, are shared while the mood or sense of a place isn't described.

It was enjoyable, but not rave worthy.

I have read from this author before and really like her books, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 4.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

Seriously after that ending after Ignite the Stars where Ia will now fight with the Commonwealth. I was scared of what was going to happen in this book, but honestly, I was hooked from the very first page. It was nice getting back into this world after being away months. It kinda felt like I was being reunited with an old friend.

I was really glad this book did not disappoint, because this was a SATISFYING CONCLUSION TO THIS WONDERFUL DUOLOGY. Okay, seriously, can Milan please make more in this series. I need more especially after that ending where I almost teared up. This duology is wonderful, it has a POC on the cover, it’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and seriously needs to be more hyped. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

CHARACTERS:
I love how unique the characters are. I really had a feel for them in this book, unlike the last one. I could see each of their personalities shining brightly on the page. I’m pretty sure Ia was my favorite, but seriously, all three of them are so amazing. They are quite unique, and they don’t deserve what happened to them.

All three of them grew so much in this book. Their character development is phenomenal.

Ia grew so much from the last book. I love how confident she is, fighting for what is right even if their enemy is now her brother. She is seriously a strong character, and I really loved her in this book.

Brinn is seriously so amazing. I really loved her in this book, and how much she was struggling. She wasn’t confident as Ia, but she was questioning herself. It made her seem human and I so love her with that.

Knives is seriously amazing. I loved him. He has his morals, keeps Ia in check especially with her criminal’s antics, and dealing with the death of his mentor. He was an interesting character, and I really liked him.

PLOT:
The plot was interesting, but I seriously liked how it played out. Ia is now teamed up with the Royal Star Force, in order to kill her brother. It was cool to see it playing out, and the the background stuff was really good as well.

It was quite good. I think the most memorable part in this book was the ending, and I almost teared up after reading that. There was a few action scenes happening as well, and it was cool, but a little unmemorable.

WRITING:
I liked the writing in this book. It was really well done, and i loved how Milan described this world. It was an Us Vs Them situation in this book, but I liked the way it was well done. I also liked how she handled all these themes in this book, because it was really well done.

Though, one of my complaints is that it kinda of lacked humor between the group. I understand that this is a darker world, but at least with when they were together, that would have been cool to see, but overall, it really did not disappoint.

I loved this book so so much! I love this kind of books, in which you lost yourself into. Maura Milan, you have done it again. Whatever she write I will gladly read. Loved it!

I loved Ignite the Stars, but it’s sequel I didn’t love quite as much. Which was disappointing after that twist ending in the first book. This sequel just didn’t feel high stakes to me. It wasn’t bad it just didn’t shine as brightly as it’s predecessor. I did enjoy the humor that was much more present in this book, however. Ignite the Stars is a 4 star read for me, but it’s sequel gets 3 stars.

I really loved the first book in this duology, but starting out with "we kissed and now I don't know if he loves me" is really weird and extremely irritating. I mostly skimmed through this one, and while I respect the author's choice of ending, I'm not particularly happy with it. I'm just pretending everything ended after Ignite the Stars.

Huge thank you to Albert Whitman & Company and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book!

*deep breath*

Where do I begin with this one?

After liking Ignite the Stars, I was really looking forward to reading Eclipse the Skies... Unfortunately it fell even flatter than Ignite the Stars did for me, except this time it was a little harder to ignore the glaring issues with this one. I still didn’t absolutely hate it, but... well, it took me twice as long to finish this one as the first one. Almost a month. That should really tell you all you need to know; if I struggle for a full month to read something, it’s not holding my interest.

Full (spoiler-y) review here: https://wmsreads.tumblr.com/post/187947166452/