The Stars Between Us by Cristin Terrill was an interesting read. I liked the premise and the unique aspects of the plot, and there was a twist near the end that I didn't see coming. I thought Vika and Leo were good together and for each other, however we didn't really get to see much of them happy together. The majority of the book they were apart (because of plot related secrets and means), but Vika came off as unlikeable in many parts of the book as she was overly judgmental. I love a strong female lead, but Vika (way too many times) was downright rude and mean to Leo and it just made me not like her. Leo had his own flaws, a bit too meak and reserved, but that was how his character was meant to be I think (for character growth to happen). I would have liked the characters to get together a little sooner, or at least Vika to have been a bit less combative to Leo.

A girl who has been poor all her life finds herself as the candidate to be a bride for a billionaire’s son. Vika Hale is a barmaid, her family is poor and she dreams about so much more for herself. One day she discovers that she was named in the will of an elusive billionaire who has just died. She is named as the bride candidate to his son, Leo... except Leo Chapin has also just been killed in a bombing. Vika is then whisked away by the new heirs of the will to live with them, where she will experience luxury and opulence. In her new life she will get everything she’v ever wanted... except there is her employer’s new assistant Sky Foster who keeps watching her. She doesn’t trust him and despite the fact that the new heirs are also under attack and Sky is the only person who can help her find the identity of the bomber before the next victim. The closer she grows to Sky the more she realizes that there’s more to him and that he is hiding something. Sky Foster is hiding his real identity and he’s falling in love with the one girl he never expected. Together they’ll have to navigate this new playing field as well as solve a mystery that could place them both in danger. While the premise has potential the execution of the story was lacking for me, I think my biggest issue was Vika. She is extremely shallow and it’s hard to read from her or sympathize with her, while Leo on the other hand was a much more compelling and interesting character and even though we get to read from both their perspectives, I wish the story was more focused on his journey. Yes I can understand how Vika, a character who has grown up poor, would be selfish and cave under the luxury and wealth that’s landed in her lap, but she was just a bit much for me. The romance was eh, I would have rather them end up as friends instead but that’s just me feeling the lack of chemistry between them. Overall, this story didn’t work out for me but definitely give it a try if you’re looking for a romance with a splash of mystery.

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Poor barmaid Vika, living from hand to mouth each day, is suddenly offered an opportunity that could change her life. To earn her richest dreams, she only needs to marry a total stranger. Thrust suddenly into a world of wealth and parties, Vika has to choose between her integrity and the life she's always dreamed of.

Money changes people. I like how this book presented that with various characters as they either gained heaps of it or had to start working for it. It's a question of morals over greed, and I enjoyed how the story brought out the best and the worst of each character as they each grasped at the large fortune suddenly available.

The book began with an emotional roller coaster for Vika, and continued with an interesting chain of events. The story was a combo of Regency novel types of parties - fancy dresses, dancing, gossip..., but also included a mystery with some good plot twists. There wasn't much fast paced action. Instead, there It focused on character development and solving a mystery. The character development was really good. The author did a great job of showing how superficial items like money and beauty can change people's lives and lead them into stupid decisions.

Vika leaped from poverty to riches, but to avoid returning to the slums of her past, she needs to marry a stranger. With the help of some friends, Vika must discover who keeps trying to murder the heirs to the Chapin fortune, while at the same time, figure out how far she's willing to go to keep her riches.

Vika has grown up in poverty on a planet full of the lower class. She always dreamed of getting away and moving to live with the rich and beautiful on her neighboring planet, but is stuck working as a barmaid. Vika always had a little bit of a leg up when a benefactor would pay her family in exchange for Vika completing physical and mental screenings, although this benefactor hasn't been heard from in years. That is until she finally learns the reason for all of the tests - and she is chosen to become the wife of the richest bachelor alive.

The Stars Between Us is a space opera for the science fiction romance lover. Aside from the futuristic tech and space travel this is a story of two people who grew up in very different economical environments that fall in love. While I did enjoy this story I thought the conflict between the two main characters has been overdone. If you take out the science fiction elements you are left with a romance story that has been told many times over. I also wasn't a huge fan of Vika, she frustrated me as a character a lot, always trying to find the easiest solution. Thankfully she does have a character arc and a little bit of redemption at the end. I think this is a quick, easy read if you are wanting a mindless romance with some fun space themes thrown in, but I'm not sure I would want to read it again.

What a fun twist on a traditional romance! Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read.

When Rigel Chapin dies he leaves his entire fortune to his son Leo Chapin with one catch, he must marry a poor barmaid from another planet named Vika Hale. Vika, desperate to return her family's meager fortune to them is distraught at being "bought" but is also very aware of the opportunity she's been presented. When Leo dies in a fiery crash will all of Vika's dreams come crashing down around her or will she discover that sometimes, money is not the answer?

I was so surprised at how much I loved this story. A beautiful dystopian world filled with drama, gratuitous wealth and a revolution trying to change everything. It was so fun to see Vika grow and mature throughout the story. Just overall a wonderful read

*thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The cover is so pretty. The main character Vika was just so unlikable to me. I had a really hard time connecting with the main character. I really wanted to love the plot and the world. I just couldn’t get into it and ultimately DNFed it.

The stars between us is a standalone sci-fi/mystery novel that follows Vika Hale, a poor girl living on an impoverished planet. For almost her whole life, she’s had an unknown benefactor providing for her and her sister. She soon learns that her benefactor was a billionaire who recently died (under more than a little suspicious circumstances) and included her in the will. She then moves to a lush and shiny new neighboring planet where she teams up with a mysterious man named Sky after learning someone’s targeting the heirs to the will.

Although I found Vika to be quite annoying for most of the book I really enjoyed the pacing and plot of the book, even if some of the twists were a little predictable. Overall this is a great book for anyone that’s a fan of sci-fi and mysteries.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with a copy of this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to like this. I just could not get over Vika, I didn't like her as a character whatsoever. I couldn't connect with her at all, she was so spoiled and selfish. But not in the fun bitchy way that people can be spoiled and selfish, in the way that causes people to commit homicide. I'm people.

The only thing that kept me from giving it 1 star is the setting. I adore books set and space and I thought the concept of twin planets was super interesting. That's it.

Actually, I'll just give the feedback. The prose wasn't for me and I think the whole thing just skews a bit young for my taste. Nothing personal.

Saying this book is unreadable sounds harsh to my ears - but I have tried multiple times to get through this 400 page book and my frustration has increased each time I picked it up.

I’ll keep it brief. Veka is highly unlikeable as our MC. Which is my main reason for disliking this book - I found it difficult to connect with this world or it’s characters. The second is it’s too long and the plot is moving to slowly. Much of the dialogue doesn’t do anything to move the story along and caused me to skim quite a bit.

I’m very disappointed because I was very excited for this one.

DNF @ 60% - I really tried to like this one. it felt like divergent meets the inheritance games, but wayyyyy less interesting. the characters were bland, and I found myself caring less and less about the mystery at hand. it just didn’t even matter to me who the mystery benefactor was by the end.

I liked this book! The writing was pretty good and the story was amazing! I can't wait to read more from this author.
(netgalley e-arc)

The cover did it for me. The premise too had me eager to read this book. After a few chapters I was hooked and couldn’t wait to see where things went. We learn about Vika and her life and watch as it threatens to change only to remain the same. Then we learn about Sky and at first he came across weird but then allowed us to see who he truly is and I found myself rooting for him the entire time. I kept waiting for things to get going but it feels like the story stalled for quite some time. We see their daily life which is nice but it didn’t leave enough time for when things actually went left. It felt like all the action was squished in at the end and felt rushed. That sucked because otherwise I definitely would have said it was a 5 star read. Instead, it felt like everything was squeezed in to the end and left the ending feeling meh. I’d still recommend others read this as it was a fun read. I just wish some of the slower parts weren’t there. 3.5 stars.

There are so few Sci-Fi books out right now, so to find one that is also fabulous is just a bonus! Knives Out was one of my favorite movies, and this had all the same vibes!! Plus, anytime you can show the disparity between classes and the dysfunction of governments, I'm sold on that story. There were the perfect amount of plot twists that kept me guessing.

I like this book. The characters are interesting, so you might not relate to all of them. But the plot is solid. My only issue is that it moved a bit slower than I was expecting. The author wiring style is very descriptive which I particularly like.


Thank you NetGalley ,St. Martin Press and Wednesday Books for my ARC.

I had a really great time reading this book! I really enjoyed her first book, and this one sounded really great! I really enjoyed reading Vika's story, and watching her go from rags to riches. Well, not her own riches, because this story wasn't what I expected!

I thought that by being her benefactor, that the money would be going straight to her, so I wasn't expecting that it would be a condition that his son would get the money-if he married her. That the guy was evaluating her to see if she fit his standards of what he wanted from his son's wife. Yeah. That was strange, but I enjoyed watching it play out!

Sometimes, I wasn't sure if I liked Vika all that much. She got caught up in this world of glamour and glitz, and was kinda appalled at the thought of sending money back home. I'm like, do you really need to spend all that money on clothes? Really?

That ending though? I didn't expect that, that was pretty explosive, and I loved how everything worked out when the dust settled. It was great to see that they'd learned from their experiences-and how they grew from them. And I love what I can picture for their future!

This was a pretty great book from Cristin Terril, and I can't wait to read more!

This was a VERY different book than I’ve ever read. I had trouble connecting with the main character. I guess I thought she would be more, compassionate and sweet considering things she had been through. I just found her sort of boring to be honest. I liked the author’s writing style despite my lack of character connection.

The story itself was very interesting and that is what kept me reading.

There are a lot of things about Vika that don't quite make sense, but when Mr. Archer Sheratan stops by her family's small flat on Philomenus with news of her mysterious Ploutos benefactor's death, some questions are finally answered. Soon her world has been rocked and turned upside down, and she has to figure out what her self respect is worth and what she is willing to compromise to get the life that she wants.

I liked this book a lot. Vika , Sky, and Archer are interesting characters, and the fact that they aren't perfect, there are stumbling blocks and character growth for everyone (the growth may not be a positive thing for some). The only thing that I wished was included was a pronunciation guide since the book takes place on 2 different planets and that there are some word variances that made my brain stutter in trying to work out how something was pronounced.

I received this free Advance Reader copy from NetGalley and MacMillan. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.

Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to my expectations. I hoped I was getting into an epic sci-fi romance, but instead it struck me more as a soap opera about selfish and shallow people.

Characters are important to me, and I'll stick around for them even if the plot doesn't dazzle me, but the characters were actually the biggest frustration for me.

I didn't like Vika at all and found myself getting increasingly annoyed with her. She flounced about without any care for the disasters she left in her wake for others to clean up. She literally considered throwing a fit like a toddler twice because things weren't going just her way (who cares about the actual grieving people in the room with her the second time). She forgets about her family very easily, and every time she's reminded of them and the difficult life they live, she gets snippy or brushes them off. It got to the point where I wanted misfortune to befall her just so I wouldn't have to watch her be a brat to everyone anymore. Oh! And the way she treated or thought about the staff was appalling. You'd think she'd be more compassionate and just plain decent since she came from the same situation as them, but, no. How dare they not look thrilled to serve her?

It baffled me every time a character would say they loved Vika because she was kind or sweet or generous. I wondered what alternate version of Vika they'd met.

Another character bugged me because they chose to let people suffer and get arrested just so they could pretend to be poor. It really rubbed me the wrong way.

The plot itself was pretty flimsy, especially when you start to realize how easily this could all be solved if one character would just speak up. It also didn't really make sense to me why Vika got to go pretend to be rich anyway (without giving away spoilers). Pull at the plot even a little and it all starts to fall apart.

I wish I could have enjoyed this book, but even the sweeter moments were spoiled for me because they felt out of character for Vika. Unfortunately, this book was not it for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

the stars between us promises a sweeping sci-fi mystery starring a main character with a rags to riches arc. ultimately, the reason that the book falls flat is because you never care enough about the main character to cheer for her.

vika is a working class girl who’s informed that she will get a huge part of a dead billionaire’s inheritance if and only if she marries his grandson. however, when the grandson is killed in a spaceship crash, vika inherits the fortune anyway and goes to live with the former caretakers (who have also inherited part of the fortune) on the billionaire’s grounds. here, she meets a young man, sky, who works for the caretakers. despite initially distrusting sky, after vika is targeted in another spaceship explosion the two end up working together to unravel the mystery of who’s targeting the heirs of the billionaire’s will.

keep in mind that this is a paraphrased summary from the back of the book, and it’s already confusing. though you do get to know characters and their motivations over time (especially through the dual pov) it’s hard to keep track of who the characters are, what they want, and why.

this is perhaps most true for the main character, vika. at the beginning of the book, vika is a working class barmaid who understandably resents the rich for their wealth and their reluctance to help the impoverished. but when she does luck into a fortune, she seems to have forgotten her past. because her money is new, vika isn’t taken seriously in high society, and to solidify her position among the upper circle, she devotes herself to finding an old-money husband, completely forgetting about her past in the process—she literally forgets to send money back to her family (who are still poor) because of this. this is the perfect example of the ultimately lacking characterization in the book. it becomes impossible to sympathize with vika when we see how weakly principled she is. throughout the book, we are left questioning how much vika really cares about solving the mystery and why she’s trying to solve it— is it because she cares for her caretakers’ safety, as they are potential targets? or is it just because she wants this inconvenience in her new, shiny life to be pushed aside as soon as possible, so that she can solidify her place as a woman who belongs in high society?

what’s more, the book fails to deliver on key components of its pitch: the dickensian space opera worldbuilding and the romance.

to be considered dickensian, a book must be characterized by honest representations of poverty, exaggerated characters, and/or plot contrivances; all of which the stars between us fails to deliver on. the majority of the book occurs when vika has lucked into a fortune and revolves around high society, the characters are not interesting enough to be considered over-the-top, and the plot is not unbelievable more than it is simply unengaging. the space setting has almost no bearing on the actual plot— aside from the fact that characters have to travel in spaceships in between planets every once in a while, this book could have been taking place on earth. a setting should be more than just the backdrop of a story; it should mold the plot in a way that makes the two inseparable.

the romance was pitched on the author’s twitter as an enemies-to-lovers, but the two leads aren’t actually enemies. sky never hates vika, and falls for her almost as soon as he meets her. vika doesn’t hate sky either, she just doesn’t trust him because she suspects that he’s hiding something. if anything, the romance should be considered boy falls first. aside from the tropes, the romance subplot feels like it was thrown in last minute, as though the author couldn’t think of how else to change the dynamic between sky and vika. there was very little romantic buildup from vika’s side, and i genuinely thought it would make more sense for them to stay friends rather than actually get together.

however, i feel that it’s important to point out that i didn’t find this book actively bad, it was just underwhelming. in fact, i was shocked to find out that this wasn’t terrill’s debut, because the book has potential and ultimately lacks in execution that i would chalk up to inexperience. the book does have aspects that i enjoyed. sky was an interesting character that i would have loved to learn more about, and the descriptions throughout the book were vivid and detailed.