Thank you so much to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of The Stars Between Us! This was another one of those books where I loved the cover, so I was the most excited to read it.
The Stars Between Us 3/5 Stars
Summary from Goodreads: There’s always been a mystery to Vika Hale’s life. Ever since she was a child, she’s had an unknown benefactor providing for her and her family, making sure that Vika and her sister received the best education they could. Now, Vika longs for a bigger life than one as a poor barmaid on a struggling planet, but those dreams feel out of reach. Until one day Vika learns that her benefactor was a billionaire magnate who recently died under suspicious circumstances, and Vika has shockingly been included in his will. Invited to live on a glittering neighboring planet, Vika steps into a world she can hardly believe is real.
The only blight on Vika's lavish new life is the constant presence of Sky Foster, a mysterious young man from Vika's past who works for her benefactors. She doesn't like or trust Sky, but when she narrowly escapes an explosion and realizes someone is targeting the will's heirs, Vika knows Sky is the only one who can help her discover the identity of the bomber before she becomes their next victim. As Vika and Sky delve into the truth of the attacks, they uncover a web of secrets, murder, and an underground rebellion who may hold the answers they've been looking for. But Sky isn't who he seems to be, and Vika may not escape this new life unscathed.
In The Stars Between Us, Cristin Terrill sweeps readers away to a Dickensian-inspired world where secrets are currency and love is the most dangerous risk of all.
The Stars Between Us had some really great glimmers of promise, but at times I had a lot of trouble with the execution- sometimes I was really bored, other times I didn’t like any of the characters enough to really care what was happening with them. One thing that the author did really well was set the scene- I really felt as though I could picture both planets and what it was like to live on one vs the other and the struggles of the people of the less well off planet and how they were always trying to get by and there were factions just trying to make life better for them. The rich planet also made a lot of sense to me and I could 100% picture that too, with all of its waste and the parties and everything around that. So, like I said, that part was really well done. Besides that, I wasn’t a huge fan of most of the plot or most of the characters until we got to maybe the last quarter. Overall, I think that The Stars Between Us was a fine read- nothing too special, but also nothing not to read.

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The Stars Between Us

| young adult sci-fi | romance |

Vika is just a lowly bartender living on a poor and polluted planet. Unexpectedly, she learns that she was selected by a dead millionaire to marry his son in order for him to receive his inheritance. Just as Vika starts to prepare for her new life, she learns that her fiancé was killed in a spaces shuttle explosion. Her world is once again flipped upside down as she gets invited to live on the affluent planet with the couple that inherited the fortune. As Vika’s new life begins, she realizes that the rich life can be just as dangerous as the poor one she left behind.

4/5⭐️

This is a great sci-fi mystery filled with plot twists and amazing characters. I went into this book not really knowing what to expect, but I loved the combo of sci-fi and mystery! It reminded me very much of the Cinder series which I LOVED. The romance was top tier and the plot twists were totally unexpected. Highly recommend!

vika is a poor girl on a dead-end planet, barely making ends meet as a barmaid when she learns the mysterious benefactor who paid for her education has passed—and his son will only inherit the family fortune if he marries her. before she can seize this opportunity to escape to a luxurious new life on the neighboring planet, her would-be fiancé is murdered. the new beneficiaries of his father’s will take pity on her and invite her to live with them, only to find their own lives—and vika’s—in danger.

this murder mystery did not have enough murder or mystery for my tastes, but it was a quick, fun read nonetheless. i guess it’s intended to be bridgerton-but-make-it-sci-fi, and while it’s a light on world-building, it was entertaining anyway. vika was a delightfully frustrating main character despite her lackluster love interest, but the very predictable twists brought my overall rating down.

Synopsis:
Since childhood, Vika Hale has lived under the shadow of a mysterious benefactor. Apart from requiring annual health checks as she matured, her benefactor kept to themselves…that is until a solicitor shows up on her doorstep with the startling news that her benefactor is 1) dead, 2) one of the wealthiest men in the planetary system, and 3) all his wealth could be hers if she agrees to marry his son. Overnight, Vika is catapulted into an echelon of wealth she could only dream of, but everything is not as it seems. Money - and all its power - cannot save Vika from her strongest adversary - herself.

Thoughts:
I had a hard time connecting to this book. The theme of wrestling with who you think you are, who you actually are, and who you want to be is a powerful thread to be explored. Money’s power to heighten who we are for better or worse is also a strong theme throughout the book that would make for fascinating conversation. However, I was distracted from those larger themes because I couldn’t connect with the characters. Part of the reason may be due to Vika’s unlikeability and the (necessarily) vapid nature of most of the people she interacts with for much of the book. Writing a main character who self-describes as shallow and selfish is a bold move. We don’t get a favorable outside perspective on Vika until Sky’s chapters on Ploutos - quite a way into the book. Even then, we don’t get to experience Vika growing and changing through Sky’s eyes. Except for a few instances, we’re told character development occurs rather than shown it. Vika’s new friends on Ploutos don’t figure into her character growth but rather feel like props to illustrate the self-centered nature of the society Vika is dropped into.
Overall, the book was an easy read and a fun way to pass the time. I think it fits well in the YA dystopian genre. In some ways, I wish it were longer so the author could have fleshed out the themes and characters a bit more.

The Stars Between Us is a space opera that involves Vika Hale, who lives on the poverty-stricken planet of Philomenus. A mysterious benefactor, Rigel Chapin, provides her with money for an education, and when Chapin dies, a young solicitor, Archie Sheratan, appears and tells her she is heir to Chapin's fortune, provided she marry his grandson Leo. She is flown to the neighboring wealthy planet Ploutos to meet Leo, where she learns that his rocket blew up on the way to meet her. A married couple, who were Chapin's servants, are revealed as the next in line to inherit, and they take her in and treat her as a daughter. Meanwhile threats on Chapin's heirs continue. Her guardians hire an assistant, Sky Foster, who lives in her family's building on Philomenus and commutes each day. Although Vika finds herself suspicious of him, he is helping her uncover the bomber's identity before she becomes his next victim. But Sky is hiding secrets, which if discovered, will change everything. The futuristic space setting impacts very little of the story and the mystery's resolution.

Vika is probably the most dislikeable MC I've had the misfortune of reading in recent history. Her entitled bullshit attitude made it an absolutely miserable reading experience and she made zero growth throughout the book. She remains the same spoiled brat from page 1, so prepare yourself for that. What was the plot? Murder mystery but I can't tell ypu much more than that because I was distracted by how awful Vika was.
Terrill has a writing style that agrees with my tastes however

Life as Vika Hale knows it is about to be turned upside down. As a barmaid on a poor planet, the lives of the rich have always just been a distant dream. When a famous billionaire dies and states that Vika must marry his son in order to inherit a fortune, Vika is caught between the lure of living a glamorous life and being seen as just an object to be bought and sold. However, bigger concerns arise when a bomber starts targeting those who are benefiting from the will. Vika must figure out who is targeting her before she becomes the next victim.

I really enjoyed this sci-fi mystery adventure. There are multiple twists and turns that will keep you on your toes the entire novel and the identity of the heir assassin will surprise you. I found myself getting annoyed with Vika about half way through the novel, but the character development over the course of the novel had me liking her again towards the end. If you enjoy sci-fi, romance, and mystery, you will enjoy this story of how money can corrupt the mind and the possibility of love being more powerful than the lure of millions.

The Stars Between Us follows Vika, a girl who’s suddenly given an opportunity to climb out of the slums of her planet and become an heiress as long as she marries the heir of a fortune only for said heir to end up being killed. She’s taken in by the people who inherit the riches and she sees what wealth really looks like.

I wanted to like this book a lot because I’m a sucker for a rags to riches story especially when it comes to characters moving their way through high society. That part I really did like. The author does a good job at painting a picture with words and giving great images of the rich lifestyle. Except that was really the only thing I enjoyed.

The character development felt stunted and bland most of the time and the relationship between Vika and Leo was far fetched and seemed like suddenly he was head over heels in love with her. There was no growth there. I also felt a little bit like the dialogue wasn’t quite there. More like early 2010 tumblr vibes if I’m being honest.

I thought the political intrigue was boring and the mystery wasn’t that mysterious though the twist at the end did get me with the whodunnit.

Overall I skimmed through most of it, only stopping for the extravagant scenes and ultimately this book just wasn’t for me which is fine.

I was really looking forward to this book as Cristin Terrill has written two of my favorite books of all time, All Our Yesterdays and Here Lies Daniel Tate. Unfortunately, The Stars Between Us fell flat for me. I can't exactly place what was missing for me, but I didn't connect with the story or the characters, even though I thought the premise was interesting. I'm looking forward to anything she writes in the future.

DNF at 20%. I gave this book a chance, genuinely. I thought I would like it, considering I’ve liked plots like this before. Maybe it was the writing or the plot or something, but I just didn’t like it. I’m sorry to the author, but it wasn’t it for me

A super fun YA romance set in space!

I absolutely adored this sci fi romance. Victoria is such a relatable character. She is selfish and ambitious but she has a good heart and I loved watching her grow. Her character arc is intense and while I absolutely got annoyed by some of her decisions early on, I can see why she made them and how she ended up growing from the experience.

The male romantic interest (I don't want to give spoilers) is a little bland but I love the way he loves her. I like that the reader gets to know secrets the characters don't and then we get to anticipate their eventual collision and I loved every tense wonderful moment of it.

The pacing was fast with tons of intrigue and court politics and mixed motivation characters. I didn't feel like anything was a surprise at the end but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the novel. A solid, feel good, YA romance set in space and full of flawed characters doing their best within their circumstances.

I’m trying to be kind to this book, because YA Sci-Fi is a genre that has been mostly relegated to dystopian Hunger Games clones for the last decade. In theory, a Dickensian planet featuring a girl suddenly thrust into high society due to a sudden arranged marriage is at least a step in the direction of the completely unexplored concept of "Jane Austen in space." But to quote the greatest Pride and Prejudice review of all time, when you boil the story down to the barest of bare bones it really is just “a bunch of people going to each other’s houses.” The Stars Between Us is not even that.

I think I could have suffered the heroine Vika a little more if it felt like she had done anything to earn her sudden enormous wealth. But by the end of book I still wasn’t clear as to why Sky’s father picked her as his son’s future bride. I also was immediately put off by how quickly she embraced a life of frivolity and lavish expense. Her dynamics with her family back on her home planet was also bizarre, a kind of ambivalence that has no basis even any kind of bad blood between them. It was so unlike a family dynamic I’d ever seen written on page - either toxic or wholesome - that I was wondering why her sister even existed if not to occasionally pop up and make a mostly harmlessly barbed comment. Vika basically ignored them as soon as she entered the upper echelon of high society and spent almost the entirety of the novel proving her complete and utter disregard of them.

Sky was the blandest of cardboard cutout YA male leads I’ve encountered in a while, and his hilarious Clark Kent disguise of glasses and a dye job that even the woman who raised him can’t see past only makes him more of a joke. I think the whole dynamic of “rich boy humbled as he watches poor girl inherit his fortune” could have been a fun dynamic to explore. But he could have solved every single plot inconvenience and roadblock in the story in an instant by revealing his true identity and quite frankly that just makes him a very intently destructive character to the story’s integrity. It’s hard to feel like there’s stakes when one character has the power to solve everything… and then you just end up resenting that character when he refuses to solve everything out of fear of losing the respect of his "crush.”

All in all, what reads as a fun, flighty premise that could have really leaned into a Jane Austen romance in space direction falls flat when matched with two dislikeable main leads and a forgettable mystery plotline. While the actual writing here was solid, I somehow come away from this feeling disappointed despite having gone in with zero expectations and a hazy recollection of the synopsis.

Thank you to the publisher Wednesday Books for providing an e-ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

Based on the plot summary of this book, I was expecting a romance-based story with elements of science fiction and maybe a few high-tension scenes, but I was completely taken by surprise! While there is definitely romance in this story, it’s much more action-heavy than I expected. And the unexpected twists, even those just in the first few chapters are sure to take even the most perceptive reader by surprise.
The point of view of the story alternates between Vika, a young girl who is unexpectedly promised to the son of the richest man she knows, and Sky, a charismatic stranger who enters Vika’s life unexpectedly. I enjoyed Vika and found her relatable, especially given the extraordinary circumstances she’s put in. But I do feel like the author could have added even more tension by keeping Sky’s perspective secret.
One of my favorite things about reading a good science fiction novel is getting immersed in a world of high-tech and completely unique environments. And this book definitely had an enjoyable world with some cool technology to explore. However, it all felt very familiar to other SciFi books, movies, and shows I’d watched. I kept waiting for some sort of flashy element of this world to make it stand out, but unfortunately, that didn’t come.
The Stars Between Us is author Cristin Terrill’s third young adult novel. The story is a great blend of science fiction and romance and balances moments with action with tender character development. The protagonist, Vika, is a relatable touchstone through an exciting plot. While the setting was well-made, I had hoped to see something unique to the genre. I’d recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of both romance and science fiction.

I really enjoyed reading this YA sci-fi novel! Overall, I would definitely recommend reading this book!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

the boring, too long, predictable nature and not fleshed out characters makes this book mediocre at best??
it’s just convoluted and the author never makes us truly root for the main character
and romance is boring too. sorry sky.

received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. (via Netgalley)

I enjoyed this. It moved at a good enough pace that I read it all in one sitting.

This was so awesome. It was basically like Jennifer Lynn Barnes's THE INHERITANCE GAMES in space, so if you liked that, I think you'll really enjoy this one!

At first, I thought I had this book all figured out. I thought it would be one of those "I was forced to marry the billionaire and now we'll slowly fall in love," type of stories, but that trope was quickly turned on its head almost the moment it started, which was surprising and slightly disconcerting because it made the story unpredictable in a great way.

I also liked Vika's character arc. She actually had a personality, and while at times she could be vain, and selfish, and bitchy, I feel like her character possessed the complexities of an actual person. It was also refreshing to read from the perspective of a female character who was beautiful and knew it, actually liked wearing pretty things and dressing up, while being really smart and ambitious at the same time. I especially love how aware she was of her shortcomings, and how she learned from them eventually.

Lastly, no spoilers, but I appreciated Sky's character a lot, and how Vika interacted with him. Sometimes, sure I felt that her rudeness was over the top, but so many love-interests in YA are just given a pass for their creepy behavior simply because they're the love interest. I love that Vika always held him accountable when she outright caught him in the wrong, and how she always felt uncomfortable and told him to stay away from her when he did sketchy things like stare at her and follow her wherever she went. In other stories, it's passed off as romantic. In this, her reactions felt not only more relatable, but more realistic as well.

Overall, like I said before, this was awesome. I certainly wasn't ever bored, and though the mystery itself is perhaps slightly predictable, I was entertained so thoroughly throughout the rest of the book, that it hardly even mattered. Definitely glad I decided to read this one!

I really enjoyed this one. I'm getting into space-y books a lot more over the last couple years.
I like the planet hopping, the poor planet and the rich planet. I like the secrets. So many secrets.

Although I am kinda upset that Hal's secret with his secretary is never addressed.
But over all I had a lot of fun and I like the characters.

My only real criticism is I wish the chapters told you whose POV you were reading.

I have never quite read anything like this. I did no have any really expectations or predictions when I first started, but this was not bad at all.

Vika is a poor barmaid on a poor planet who finds that she’s been included in a will of a mysterious billionaire. But when his heirs are targets of a series of explosions, Vika teams up with Sky Foster to find the bomber’s identity before she is next.

The first part of this book dragged a bit for me. The second half picked up in action and I liked Vika more than in the beginning of the book. I liked all the action and the world building was decent. I also am glad the story was wrapped up in one book and not as a start of a series.

This book is out now. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for this eARC.