Okay this story gives futuristic Great Expectations vibes. The plot was interesting, the mystery they were solving was too. This might have been a really good book for me but and I hate saying this. I did not enjoy Vika. At first I really liked her and her fiery attitude but as the plot carried on I liked her less and less. 😅 So that put a little damper on things, still I liked Sky and the other characters so I still finished the book.

I had to fight a little bit to keep going through a few parts of this one. I think if some of the secondary characters had been a little more fleshed out it would have helped. Once I figured out which Victorian novel the core of the story is based on I was mostly waiting for things to progress as expected and comparing the characters to the ones from the inspiration. Glad for the names that were changed, which helped me separate this as its own book in my mind.

The main characters were interesting enough. Connecting with them, one in particular, was sometimes challenging. Not sure why.

All in all, a pleasant read.

Quick Summary: A dystopian fantasy

My Review: The Stars Between by Cristin Terrill is a 2022 hit, as far as I am concerned. This incredible work of fiction was simply outstanding!

About the Book: Although dire circumstances exist in Vika Hale's life, things are never what they seem. One day, she lives her life like a pauper, and in the next moment, her life is dramatically changed forever.

My Final Say: Why isn't this a movie? It was twisted. It was thrilling. It was lovely. It was heartbreaking. It was plain, old fantastic. I would love to hear this story as an audiobook. It would be insanely good; I already know.

Other: Readers who enjoy YAs with grit and drama will love this story.

Rating: 4.5/5
Recommend: Yes
Audience: YA/T
Status/Level: ⭐

Sincere appreciation is extended to the author, to the publisher (St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books), and to NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was brilliant. I look forward to reading more from this writer.

So I do think Vika's reactions to sudden wealth after living in poverty was very realistic--she ignored her family, she got caught up in everything, she was selfish. Unfortunately, that doesn't make for a very likeable character, and we don't really see her before she goes to live with the Gardeners to really appreciate the change.

This book has some really fun tropes I normally love, Enemies to Lovers, with Forced Proximity. This was a good book with great world building, but I don't think this was the right time for me to read it. I found the main voice to be such selfish, self absorbed protagonist, so much so that it could be off putting at times. Do like the twits in the story and the execution of the plot was fantastic. A solid 3.5 star read and intend to read it again when I feeling like a sci-fi read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced reader copy of this book.

This was an unexpected delight! I will say the setting confused me a lot. It seemed as though the events were occurring on two different planets, but it seems implausible that one of the characters actually lived on one planet and worked on the other. What I read is that he was so poor he had to live on the polluted planet, but he had a job on the clean-air, rich-people planet. It didn't make sense to me. You'd think it would cost a lot more to travel between planets than to live on the clean planet? I didn't really get it.

Other than that, I was riveted. It read like a soap opera and I love that kind of thing. It wasn't entirely unpredictable, but I didn't care. I couldn't wait to see the villain's plots unravel, the bad people get punished, and the heroes be reunited. I loved how the characters evolved as people, and how their relationships developed. It felt a bit like Pride and Prejudice between the main characters, so if you're a fan of that, you might like this. I'm just, again, confused about the setting. There was no need for this to be science fiction at all, but it was an interesting angle. I just wish it had been heavier on the sci fi because the only futuristic thing about it was that the characters hopped from one planet to another. All the other technology was no more advanced than what we have today. It might as well just be set in modern times and on one planet, to make it less confusing. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the story a lot and this cast of characters was really entertaining.

Overall:
This was a quick, fun read, but it could have been more. There was potential in the world building and some of the plot points, but the characters and their interactions were not my favorite.

Characters:
Vika, to me personally was full of attitude, which often times made her point of view hard to get through. I also felt that she quickly shifted from not trusting him to love, when it should have been more gradual.
in terms of Sky, I felt like he could have developed more. He was fearful and timid throughout, but it feels as though he should have grown as a character. He could have become more courageous.

I wanted to love this book. I adored the concept and the world. However, I found the MC, Vika, so insufferable. Ariel and Mira were the best things about this book. The MMC wasn’t all that great either. Even Archer, the villain in the story had a more interesting character arc. The plot was easy to predict but fun regardless. I quite enjoyed the ride that Terrill took us on. This might be an unpopular opinion but Ariel had more chemistry with Leo. But maybe it was all for the best that she didn’t end up with him being that Ariel is leagues better than he is. If there was a spin-off staring Ariel, I'd read it in a heartbeat.

This Young Adult Space Romantasy was a great break from my usual fare. Our main character, Vika, lives on a tiny backwater planet with her unexceptional family, but has always had a mysterious benefactor paying for her education. The unknown benefactor dies, and is revealed to be a billionaire who is only leaving his fortune to his son if the son marries Vika. The book then follows Vika's entry in to the fancy neighboring planet where the wealthy people live, and teases out layers of class politics and unwinds a couple of mild mysteries. Overall a very fun read, that I flew through quickly but thought about for days.

I am so happy I read The Stars Between Us. It is well written and was entertaining and full of action.

Would recommend this book? Yes I do.

I love a good “who done it” especially when it’s paired with an mysterious person from the MCs past.

This book was so intriguing, I loved the mystery, world building, slow burn / enemies to lovers & plot twists.

both of CTs previous books were 5 stars reads for me so, even though this third novel sounded different from her previous ones, i still had high hopes. but this is unfortunately missing everything i loved about CTs other stories. its lacking the twists, the turns, the engaging plot, the fast pacing, and just the overall wild adventure that her books tend to be.

You should read this book. Christin knows what she is doing between the characters and plot, and world building.

I'm sad, this was just a meh for me. I was expecting it to be a bit heisty and fun but it was a really slow and rather boring space rom-com. I didn't really get any vibes between Vika and Leo. There was no real reason for Leo to keep his identity from Vika as long as he did.

Thanks to Wednesday Books for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

*Due to the low rating, I will not be posting this review on social media.

I enjoyed witnessing Vika and Sky's relationship grow. I did find this book a bit predictable and I was able to figure out pretty quickly who the antagonist was, but overall the story was enjoyable.

This story, following Vika, had me intrigued. The cover drew me in, the plot had me stay, and the ending let me wanting more. I feel like the book was so good, up until the lackluster ending. With the amount of world and character building, I feel like there was more that could have been done to end the book on a less, vague, ending. All in all, this was a good read, and I'm raking it 4 stars hoping there will be a follow up.

Ok so the blurb for this book pulled me in from the very beginning. I knew I wanted to read about Vika and her oh so mysterious benefactor where she suddenly become rich. It was totally giving me sci-fi meets inheritance games meets romantic comedy vibes. The writing is really well done, although I found Vika overall unlikeable, but she grows as a character throughout the book. There’s a lot of cool freedoms taken with vocabulary and dialogue that made it more interesting! The book had some great ups and downs and I highly recommend as a YA Sci-fi, insta love, quirky space read!

great pacing, intriguing characters who i wanted to follow - will definitely read more from this author!

When I read the description of this book, And it said Illuminae meets Bridgerton, that was the perfect way to gain my interest. I loved the world building and the sci-fi setting, I actually liked that aspect of it more than the romance and the mystery. I feel like the mystery was very obvious, there could have been a little bit more twists and turns to it to make it more interesting in my opinion. The number one thing I look for books though is the setting and the world building, and for me that was an a plus.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for a copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

This book was really enjoyable – once I got into it; it took a little time for me to find the groove of reading it but once I did, I had a hard time putting it down. To the point that for a few weeks after finishing it I kept thinking about it, thinking I needed to finish it, or that there was more to the story. The blurb on NetGalley is “Bridgerton meets Illuminae in this explosive, romantic space opera where danger and deception lurk behind glamour and wealth.” While I have never read or watched either of these things, it was intriguing enough for me to want to read, and I’m so glad I did. The main character drove me nuts at times – but it was completely worth it. There was love and espionage, death and mystery, and a mysterious benefactor. Vika is a strong character, and I loved Sky & his development. I would love to read another book in this world, or just another book that Cristin has written. This was definitely worth the slow build that it was to get into this book.