If I wanted to sum this up in a paragraph or less it would be this. A reverse sort of beauty and the beast where our Beauty is shallow and vain on the outside but has a real heart if she can ever get our of her own way and find it, and where our Beast is kind and good and willing to give up everything for those he loves.

Vika Hale is in a no win situation, trying to just survive, keep herself and her family fed, keep everything from falling apart more than it already has when her life is turned upside down and not only is she now engaged but she's going to be one of the richest women in the world.

Leo has no idea what his father was thinking when he chose a bride for him without talking to him about it and made it a condition in his will that he marry this woman he's never met and take over a company he knows little to nothing about,

One rebellion blamed incident and everything is blown to bits (pun sort of intended) and Vika has no idea who she can trust, who is rea, who is just using her for her new found wealth and who will be there for her in the end.

Will Vika ever grow up? Will Leo ever be the man he was meant to be? Will the money be the thing that destroys them all? There are so many questions this book poses and it gives you all of the answers, some of them you just have to get to the last chapters for.

The world building in this one is beautifully written, with details that allowed your mind to wander, to see what's being described and be able to imagine you're there, that alone makes me want to read more by Cristin Terrill, some of the descriptions were almost mesmerizing, I could almost feel the fabrics, see the colors, it really is fabulously written.

I'm normally not a fan of books set in space, or with a space theme, or with different worlds, but this one kind of hooked me, opened my eyes and made me want to read more of this genre.

If I could give this one 3.5 stars I would, I just can't get past the first 20ish chapters of Vika being vapid, I know that's how she was supposed to be seen so that her transformation could be "amazing" I just didn't see enough good in her until the very end to get totally invested in her as character.

How do I even begin? I absolutely loved this book. So many twists and turns. The sci-fi world built by Terrill is amazing. The romance was such a slow burn and amazing. Vijay is a strong and incredibly stubborn person who is willing to give up her own happiness to make sure there’s money to help her family in the long run. Sky seems like he’s hiding something from the start, but it’s not what you might think. These two will learn they need each other in more ways than one. I’m honored to have been able to read this book early and can’t wait to have a physical copy!

An interesting topic and enjoyable plot, but the pace was too slow for my liking.
This is a sad story about greed,

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

#NetGalley
#TheStarsBetweenUs

I liked this one, but the main problem I had was with the writing style. The grammar was odd but I still managed to get through the book. I could never understand the plot while reading but the characters I liked. I also enjoyed the love triangle, even though it's something I usually don't like.

I really liked the concept of this book. A lot of cool storylines could take place with ‘twin’ planets of very different inhabitants. This story is really good, but some of the characters were so off putting it took away from the reading experience. It’s addressed in the book how vain and selfish Vika is and I definitely agree. As a main character it was hard to connect to the plot because it was so hard to root for her. Sky’s character is interesting, but I do not understand or believe his love interest at all. The romance doesn’t work. That being said, there were some really great secondary characters and amazing world building. I saw the ending coming very early on but it was interesting to see played out. I was entertained yet frustrated. I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy.

This book was such a fun quick read and I absolutely loved it. I really enjoyed the plot and all the characters so much it was one of my favorite reads of the month.

A great blend of sci-fi and romantic vibes meets murder! The main character starts off quite unlikable but quickly that opinion and judgement of her changes as you get more in depth to the story! The romance aspect struck me as very quickly paced-which isn't a problem just something to keep in mind for readers who don't fancy that sort of thing.

well, I hated Vika. I gotta stop reading books that describe themselves as "Bridgerton" because when I read that I think "full of gossip!" but when publishers write that, they mean "Latitude specifically will hate all of the characters". there's some fantastic imagery here but it doesn't make up for the fact that I hated Vika, even as she grew and changed over the course of the story. Also, I found the ending, Vague and Disappointing. I like the cover though! Three stars.

Summary:

Despite the painful monotony of living on a poor planet, Vika's life has always held a spice of mystery: an unknown benefactor periodically popping up, offering gifts from ice cream in first-grade to a first-class education. But lately those gifts have stopped coming, and Vika has almost resigned herself to a dreamless life.

Until the benefactor suddenly returns--dead. But his will holds a proposition that could change her life forever: if she agrees to marry his son, she will receive a fortune and could finally live the life of her dreams. The catch: others in the billionaire's will are being targeted, and if Vika can't discover the culprit, she may not escape her old life alive.


What I Loved:

My favorite parts of this book were the mystery and the romance. I’ve read one other one by this author and the suspenseful parts of her mysteries are always so strong. Even though I had a pretty good guess of the whodunit and why early on in the story, I was still invested and intrigued enough to keep reading – speed reading sometimes 😉 – to reach the end and know for sure. And I did turn out to be right. So. Proud of that 😉

The other part I loved was the ROMANCE! The bulk of the story is less about the mystery and more about getting to understand Vika and her love interest. It’s not that most of the story is a romance, perse, but that it delves deeply into each character individually, which allows the reader to understand more clearly how and why they can come together as a couple. The more I got to know them, the more I could see that their strengths really did compliment the other’s weaknesses. And when they were on the same page? (literally and figuratively) It was just… chef’s kiss. As one character put it, they were “inevitable as gravity,” and watching them grow individually and then gravitate toward each other was a thing of beauty.


What I Learned:

One of the really interesting things about Vika is that she’s actually not a loveable character. She’s self-centered and angry, manipulative and quick to judge. Especially when compared with her love interest’s unique charm, she doesn’t seem like that great of a person or an at all loveable character. And yet… I still loved her.

As I mentioned above, the book spends a lot of time exploring who the characters are and how they became that way. I know exactly what repeated struggles and stressful events caused Vika to become as ambitious as she is and hardened as she acts. As said in one of my favorite book quotes, “When I truly understand my enemy,... then I also love them,”* and this definitely holds true for Vika and characters like her. Because I know her, because I understand what past struggles, pains, and unrequited desires have caused her to act and react as she does, I also love her even though she isn’t very loveable.

So in this book I learned: that it is fully possible to write a character who is neither a loveable main nor an antihero/villain, and yet is still an incredible protagonist.


What I Thought Was Lacking:

I mentioned above that I loved the mystery – and that’s true. But there was a certain reveal that I felt happened too early in the story. For me, it was the most shocking reveal of the whole thing, but because it happened some 20-30% in, and I had already guessed most of the remaining mystery, there was a brief period in the book that felt a tad tedious. I was still enjoying the characters, but with that portion solved, it began to feel like… “Okay, shouldn’t we be wrapping up now?” The pacing did eventually pick back up, such that being in on the secret made the scenes with those characters that much richer. But since it’s a longer book, there were moments of, “Are we there yet?” and I think that wouldn’t have happened if that reveal had been pushed to the 40% or 50% mark instead.


Still gonna say a solid 5 stars out of 5 though. The Stars Between Us was a remarkable read, with gorgeous descriptions and brilliant explorations of character. Favorite of the summer so far, and will probably stay in my top 5 for the year. I really can’t see anything being that much better.

I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, I just didn't. I liked all the elements in theory: Bridgerton in space, a rags to riches story, a 'murder' mystery, and a romance full of secrets but... none of these elements were executed in a way I enjoyed. I found the romance often sacrificed the actual personalities of the characters to make romantic tension happen and the romance went so quickly from I hate you to I love you. I also found the mystery aspect to be not very thrilling and was able to guess who did it because there are so few relevant characters introduced that could be suspects. I also could not stand Vika for the first half of the book- she is deeply unlikeable and not in a fun way. She grew on me by the end, but the plot needed me to start rooting for her long before I actually did.

My biggest complaint was that the story took too long to hit its stride and, even once it did, there were a lot of lulls where the pacing just did not work for me. HOWEVER, even though I was disappointed in this book, I will say I read through it quickly and found the writing style really enjoyable.

The Stars Between Us is the story of Vika, a barmaid who has always had a difficult life. A mysterious benefactor names her in a will and her life has the potential to change forever. On one condition…she must marry. However, a tragic accident occurs before she can meet her groom-to-be. Vika finds herself swept up in with the elites as the Gardeners, the next in line to inherit, take her into their circle. Vika must navigate high society while attempting to find out whether the accident was truly an accident…

The Stars Between Us had so much potential! In execution though, things felt a little uneven. Vika is a difficult character to like, particularly because of how she initially changes for the worse after being elevated to the elite. At the same time, she is a very stubborn and aggressive character because that is how the world has taught her to be. The romance felt flat and I didn’t have a good sense of his personality, due to Vika being very snobby around him and always reminding him of his “place.” I think most readers will begin to put together the clues surrounding the mystery before the characters, which can feel a little frustrating. I think this could be a great entry point into YA sci-fi for readers who do not have much experience with it.

Thank you to Cristin Terrill, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I so wanted to love this one, but unfortunately, it wasn’t my favorite read. It has a great premise, and I love the cover. However, the story fell a bit flat for me. I wanted more world-building, and I didn’t love the protagonist Vika or the romance.

The setting of the story is fascinating, and I liked how the two contrasting worlds were presented, but I wanted more. I feel like there was so much more to explore. That being said, there were some major disparities between social classes and planets, which I found interesting, and I like how the author created such a unique dystopian society. There are some strong social messages throughout the story specifically connected to the setting that I appreciated.

Vika wasn’t my favorite character, which is disappointing since she’s the protagonist. She comes across as very selfish, vain, and judgmental, though she does change as the story progresses. I think making her unlikable was purposeful, so that you could see how much she learned and grew, but I never really got past her poor behavior and words.

The love story was just ok for me too, which surprised me because it’s usually my favorite part of the story. I feel like Vika could do no wrong in Sky’s eyes, and she walked all over him. Personally, I think he’s too good for her. I think some readers who enjoy sci-fi or dystopias with mystery and an enemies-to-lovers romance will enjoy the book. It just wasn’t the book for me. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

DNF - It's just not what I wanted... I made it about 30% or so in, and it's definitely serving Thousandth Floor energy, but I wanted more space and adventure! Nothing is really gripping me, though I do love some rich people behaving badly.

I love a good dystopian YA story, and the fact that this one is in another galaxy is icing on the cake.

As an adult reading YA, I always have to think back to how my (in this case) 18-year-old self would think of things to be able to put myself in the characters’ shoes, and though I understand the naivety of both Vika and Sky, I had a hard time connecting to Vika because she had this great relationship with her dad—which was some of my favourite parts of the whole book—but I found it really hard to believe that she would be so selfish and not help her family out more than she did. She was smart enough and had suffered enough in her life to know that they needed her, making me dislike her more than I think was intended. That said, I really enjoyed Vika and Sky’s story and how they interacted with each other—it was fun and believable. And though I would have liked to understand Vika’s mom and sister a little better, the rest of the secondary characters were very nicely written. I had a good sense of them and where they belonged in the world that was created.

Speaking of the world-building, which I thought was very good, I wish I knew a little bit more about planets outside of the two main ones that Vika was part of because I would have liked to understand the dynamics of the universe a little bit better. I also wish Terrill delved a little deeper into the rebellion and what they were doing (and how) because it was mentioned a lot, and we got a lot of surface information into what they were doing, but for how heavily the plot leaned on it (or tried to), I felt like I didn’t have all the pieces. I also felt the ending was rushed—but I’m not going to go into detail because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone.

There were two things I absolutely loved. One of them is a spoiler I’m not going to talk about beyond just saying I like that Terrill let the reader in on Sky’s POV from the beginning. The other is that there were many twists about who the bad guy ultimately was—and I was guessing most of the way through the book.

I think lovers of YA and sci-fi/fantasy will devour this book. I wish it were in a series so we could see how things play out for the characters after the conclusion of this arc.

4.5 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Not going to lie, I had high hopes for this story but unfortunately, it did not deliver. While the cover is stunning and the description enticing, the story gets slow really fast and it failed to make me feel anything but frustration.

We follow our MC, Vika, as she gets thrown into the world of luxury and forgets her hometown in a second. She is bold and not in a good way. We get it, you are beautiful, it doesn't mean you deserve special treatment.

I did enjoy the Sci-Fi setting which was quite easy to understand - it's grounded in the stuff we already know. The chapters also alternate and we get glimpses of POV's of other characters which was refreshing after being in Vika's head for too long.

Sky deserves better and there was no chemistry between him and Vika.

I don't really have anything else to say but I am sad this did not live up to the expectations I've set and maybe it's my fault.

2.5/3

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

I had been so hopeful for The Stars Between Us. Not only did it have a gorgeous cover, but I adore sci-fi and space settings, and the idea of Bridgerton meets space reminded me of one of my favorite books, These Broken Stars. Despite the comparison I feel like I hadn't set my expectations too high, but maybe I did? I don't know. Either way, I became too frustrated with this book, DNFing at the 50% mark and then reading the last two chapters. Where it still felt like almost nothing had happened from where I had skipped from. But let's back things up for a sec.

The Stars Between Us follows Vika, a poor girl living on a poor planet, who is tired of working a job she hates and dealing with her female family members. She used to dream of becoming wealthy and moving to a better, more beautiful world, but knows that will never happen now. Except it does. Because some weird insanely-rich guy who used to pay for her education and get DNA tests done on her... to test her fertility? (No, this doesn't really make sense. No, her parents shouldn't have agreed to this.) All because he decided that she was a potential candidate for who he wanted his son to marry. So upon his death people show up and tell her that she's now wealthy - if she marries the guy's son. And it just goes on from there, with the husband-to-be immediately dying and her moving to a new planet because of the will, etc., etc. If you're going, wow, that doesn't seem so bad, maybe you'll like this book. But, if you're like me and are wondering where the plot is and thinking back to how the blurb was kind of vague, you are 100% correct in your ponderings. Because there is no plot. There's a flimsy romance and an attempt to make a statement on wealth gaps and supposedly nefarious things going down but the bad guy is painfully obvious. There were literally no surprises at the end of the novel when I skipped to it. There was one plot twist I didn't see coming, but despite the fact it was interesting, it didn't actually affect the story all that much which was very... odd.

Then there's Vika herself. I love prickly and unlikable characters, so I thought things might work out with Vika, but I was wrong. She was so selfish and rude that it was unbearable, she had no redeeming traits despite the fact that everyone adored her for no reason. I could understand her wanting better for herself and being willing to leave her family to see what living a wealthy lifestyle was like, but the fact that she was getting a MASSIVE allowance each month and had never considered sending any home was insane. Maybe because she seemed to actively hate her mom and sister? Either way, she was actively selfish and rude and just outright unpleasant. She kept talking about her beauty, which I liked, it was fun to have a confident main character. But that was brought up over and over, and the phrasing was very frustrating because she was essentially saying that she was more beautiful than all of the other working class girls on her planet, so she deserved to be treated better than them. Like, girl. You have no electricity, no money and no friends? Look at your own life. Then there was her and Sky. Sky was spineless and madly in love with Vika, heavy emphasis on madly, because she treated him terribly. She was condescending and rude, and told him to avoid her at all costs and not to talk to her unless necessary. Only to get mad at him for not being friendlier and talking to her when they were forced to work together. They also had no chemistry, there was no reason for Sky to even want to talk to her, let alone fall in love.

Just to add in some positive traits. The writing was super readable, and while this was far from some intricate sci-fi world, the lack of world building worked because of her use of familiar traits. I liked Ariel, she seemed bun and like she might have actually gotten past some of Vika's misogyny to actually being her friend.

TL;DRI could have kept reading this book, but honestly, I just don't have it in me to finish things I dislike anymore. Maybe someone else will like this, but rather than coming across as an epic sci-fi romance, it was just the story of a selfish brat. (also Hal the old man was creepy as hell to keep kissing her, he didn't even know her??).

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

The Stars Between Us follows Vika, a girl who lives a poor life on a struggling planet, but whose betrothal to a rich young man promises a future life of luxury. But when her betrothed is killed in an explosion, and a similar incident threatens Vika's life, a mystery unfolds around who is targeting the heirs to a massive fortune.

The Stars Between Us poises itself as half mystery, half romance, though it ends up being primarily romance. The mystery remains on the periphery until about 60% of the way through the book, which was kind of shocking to me. Even so, Terrill approaches the story with a relatively slow pace, so the last 40% does still feel like a solid mystery story. Perhaps it isn't the best read for readers who are looking for a true mystery, but if you like romance with intrigue, this is definitely a book worth picking up.

Overall, despite things playing out far differently from my expectations, I did enjoy this book. I found the main character incredibly annoying in the first half, though she did kind of redeem herself and certainly showed a lot of growth by the end. I lowkey adored Sky, though. While this wasn't an incredibly twisty story, the romance definitely had me in my feels, and I found the world to be interesting and well-developed. The story was solid and well-written and the characters were complex and given room for a measure of nuance. I will definitely be picking up Cristin Terrill's backlist, and anything else they publish in the future.

A promising start…good but simple world building and an interesting premise. However, the pace was so slow and the main character was painfully unlikeable. It’s hard to read a book when you actively dislike the character you’re supposed to be rooting for. I stopped reading at around the 40% mark when I realized I had no interest in the ending.
I think there is definitely an audience who will enjoy this book but it wasn’t me.

Great and entertaining futuristic mystery. Love the space setting - it reminded me a little bit of Gossip Girl set in space

3.75 ⭐️ This was a great story that I thought was really good. The character ARC of Vika and Leo were well done and I loved their transformation. There were some things that I felt didn’t get done well though, but overall this was a great story and I did enjoy it.