This is the story of Vega, the last Astronomer. She’s been raised to fulfill a mission. An omen in the sky propels her on a journey, where rampant illness and suspicious people threaten her at every turn.

The “world” in this book kind of reminded me of the Dark Tower (but for young adults). I enjoyed the western feel. Although a little slow moving, the first part of the book was what I enjoyed most - the travelling, the characters we met, the old-timey vibe.

Then things went downhill for me. The action in the book relied on chase scenes that get stale. And because the secondary characters, (like Cricket), weren’t well-developed, their emotional impact wasn’t there.

The book is described as a “magical romance”. There’s no real magic, and the romance aspect was very forced and took away from the story.

I think this had potential, but ultimately fell flat. I’m assuming it will continue on in series form, but for me, the story is done.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing the ARC of this book. This review is my honest and voluntary opinion.

The Wicked Deep is one of my favourite books. I recommend it every fall, because Ernshaw writes such dreamy, beautiful prose woven in with interesting character driven plots. And a little love on top.

I was excited to have an ARC of this, because it was the perfect October read. A dreamy story about the Last Astronomer and the Last Architect, searching for each other and then journeying across a land, following the stars, on a quest to save their people from a creeping sickness.

But in a surprising turn of events, the ending felt very un-Ernshaw to me, but in a really great way. It still had the dreamy feel, but I was taken totally by surprise with what we were given and I have to say, I loved it. A very fun twist of direction that worked really well.

Definitely recommend this book if you want a warm, sweet story about two people falling in love on the road, and then a surprise ending that seems sort of out of this fictional world, but also fits perfectly.

The story starts out with Vega who is stargazing and sees a rare constellation in the night sky. She goes in to tell her mother, who is in her last stages of illness, about the rare sighting. The sighting indicates that it is time for the Astronomer to go to the sea to save humankind.

Vega’s mother is the “Astronomer”; however, with her death, Vega becomes the last Astronomer. Vega has been taught for her entire life of what this means when she becomes the last one. With her mom‘s passing, Vega must leave her home and travel to the sea, but in order to do this she needs the assistance of the Architect. Vega understands that there’s danger in her leaving home, as the Astronomer is hunted by many, including a violent group known as the Theorists.

Will Vega find the Architect? She must be very careful and looking for him!
Will she fulfill her destiny? You’ll have to read the book to find out!

I honestly didn’t know what I would think of this YA book; however, was absolutely pleasantly surprised how much I got into the story and really enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

The MC of this novel is Vega, the last astronomer. There are many unknowns at the start of this book. What time period is it set in? What is the real purpose of the last astronomer?

What we know is that Vega has star tattoos on her body, and extensive knowledge of the stars in the night sky. This knowlege has been passed down from mother to daughter over many generations. The legend says that when the stars align in a certain way the astronomer must go on a journey to meet up with the architect. The architect knows the way to the sea, and together they will head there and save the population from the illness that is slowly killing them. No one really knows what the illness is, or how going to the sea will cure it.

I thought the concept was interesting with a promising start. However, the middle 200 pages of this 400 page book really dragged and wasn’t that interesting in my opinion. I found myself flipping ahead, waiting for something interesting to happen. I feel that the middle section of the book could be condensed, and have a bit more adventure or romance to help to keep the momentum going until the shocking twist at the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with this eARC to read and review!

3.25 stars
This book was SLOW to start. It took me a bit to get into and the second half picked up but I still couldn’t tell you if I actually enjoyed it.
The plot twist was nothing like what I was expecting but I think it was more confusing than anything and I could not connect to Vega at all. I could see some people really enjoying this one but it really just wasn’t for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC eBook in exchange for my honest review.

SO happy I read this ARC - my second Shea Ernshaw book and MAN am I excited to read more. I love astrology and constellations, so the premise of this book was really interesting to me, but it exceeded my expectations.

First of all, the writing was stunning - I was IN the book and couldn't stop flipping pages. I also loved the romance, it was very YA fantasy but it's good for a reason.

The twists and turns this book took literally left me agog - the ending was SO cool and I know Shea Ernshaw normally writes standalones but I am desperate for a sequel.

The only downside - if I thought too hard about the plot, it felt kind of ridiculous at points, but I was so absorbed that I didn't really care.

3.5 stars

Started off slow for me but once I got into the plot moved a bit faster. Well written and I liked the originality of the plot. However, I found the MC decision making annoying at times.

This author has a certain style and I can’t quite decide if I like it or not. The middle of this book seemed to drag on and little of the main plot was known. The ending/last quarter almost redeemed the middle. It was much better. I think where it left off is interesting and I am eager to see how it continues to unfold. Noah and Vega were decent characters, I favour Noah as I often favour male characters. The lyricalness draws me in.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for an eARC version of this novel! Opinions are my own.

Vega spent her life studying the stars. Now, she's the only one that holds the key to saving everyone from a spreading illness. A Wilderness Of Stars is a journey of desperation, toward a destiny of darkness. The ending crashed into me like a tsunami, yet filled me with the hope of a thousand shimmering stars.

Thank you again to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review and to Shea Ernshaw for once again immersing me in a world that leaves me breathless.

A huge thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the e-arc.

I’ll start by saying this was definitely an enjoyable book, I just didn’t necessarily love it. It was nice as a different little read but didn’t quite end up being what I expected in the end in a way that wasn’t for the better as far as my tastes run. Not to discourage anyone from reading, it just wasn’t quite to my taste, but it was still well written and had a very interesting concept.

The story sees Vega setting off on a journey to find the Architect, who her mother has raised her in preparation of finding as each generation has done previously. However, Vega is the one who finally needs to go in search of this mysterious figure for reasons that aren’t entirely clear in the beginning, beyond finding an answer to the sickness slowly destroying the population. This was the part that initially intrigued me, a mysterious illness killing off mankind and the need to find a cure. This was also the part that ended up being much different than it sounded.

The part that threw me off the most was probably that it read hugely like a Western. I’m not much of a fan of Westerns generally speaking so this was where a bit of my interest was lost. The world is basically a dystopian western world with gunslingers and a deadly disease which results in those outlaw like groups who make there own rules and take whatever they please from those who can’t protect themselves. I’m sure some people would love this, just not something that would typically grab my interest.

I did like the bits and pieces steadily getting revealed that started to explain what was making everyone get sick and how it didn’t end up being some foreign source like I was kind of expecting. I don’t want to give away and spoilers, but the actual reasoning was a very “ahhh I see where this is coming from” moment for me and I enjoyed that.

On to the characters. Cricket was probably one of my favourite characters. She’s tough and hides behind this rough and careless exterior while loving so deeply and giving her all to those she cares about. She’s also a badass which is my favourite kind of female. Vega was interesting in the sense of her role as the Astronomer, but generally speaking was overwhelmed by her sheer naivety (though understandable given the circumstances) and lack of much that made her stand out. While I did like Noah, he was also kind of a predictable character (this could just be me, his background didn’t surprise me at any point) and perhaps the growing bond between Noah and Vega was a bit cliché and sudden for my tastes. But this isn’t to say they weren’t interesting characters, just there wasn’t anything that really called to me deeply either.

I will say they last bit if the book really picked up and the intensity of it made it very hard for me to stop reading because I needed to know what was going to happen next and I was so worried about the characters and their fates. At the same time I don’t know how I felt about the actually ending because it was very bittersweet and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Part of me really likes the route the author went with it, but I also can’t help but be sad about the final events too because there were some tough moments.

The ending does also have me expecting a sequel, and to be frank I hope there is with everything that was left open. Honestly I’d like to see where it might go

I love Shea Ernshaw's writing. She has such a magical way of weaving a story that is beautiful and mysterious and heartbreaking. A Wilderness of Stars was an absolute joy to read. You're definitely drawn in early on this one. You know there is a secret, and the breadcrumbs trail your left to follow gives you just enough to keep you coming back for more. I enjoyed the main character and watching her struggle and triumph. She also made mistakes, a lot of them. She was relatable in that sense. We all do things we regret later on, or in thinking back, know we could have handled differently. As a whole this book felt like it was a smolder, rather than a flame running wild. It did have its upbeat moments, but it just had that slow settled feeling about it. Anyone who is a fan of Dystopian and Sci-fi should pic this one up.

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster Canada for the e-arc copy and the opportunity to read this beautiful book. All thoughts are my own.

This stories greatest strength is in the writing. The smooth progression feels like an old tale that has been written down. Having a nice rhythm really helped since the plot moves slowly. Vega has to leave her home after her mother dies to find "the Architect", but the motivation for doing so is not explained to the audience. Throughout the entire story we are missing the background information that start this entire thing off.

***I received an arc in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book. Such typical Shea Earnshaw vibes. Melancholy but also hope, mystery, love all rolled into one. Definitely recommend

This book was a 3.5 star read for me

I know people loved her book “the wicked deep” but this is my first experience with this author.

The main character has a good sense of determination about her. However, I found Vega a very frustrating main character to follow. She makes super illogical decisions that make things worse for herself and everyone around her, even when she knows she’s making the wrong decisions. These decisions also don’t feel like something she would do when she’s being described as careful and clever and it just feels like they are there to push the plot forward.

She keeps secrets, even from her Pa when it makes no sense to keep them and might even help her more. Her Pa knows the world, so to tell him, he might actually have been able assist her. It was just a big plot hole for me that was covered by “having to keep her mission secret”. Her Pa already knew half of her secret. Why couldn’t he know the rest?

I found the beginning very slow. It finally started to pick up around the 45% mark but most of the novel is just been her travelling and complaining about travelling.

Once the big secret of the sickness was revealed, in a very offhand thought by the main character, even though it was an interesting idea, I found myself struggling to care about the rest of the book.

I do enjoy the open endedness of the finale but at the same time it is very unsatisfactory. Especially because if the author had reduced the amount of time the characters were repetitively travelling, there would have been more room to add to the ending, which is the more interesting part of the story.

It feels like there may be a sequel coming but I don’t think a sequel would be necessary if the end was more of the focus of the novel

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the eARC!

I wanted to like this, especially since a lot of people highly enjoyed Shea Ernshaw's other book, The Wicked Deep. But this book just wasn't the one for me, and I'm really disappointed to have DNFed this.

The plot felt extremely slow, and for the 21% that I read, pretty much nothing happened. It introduced a little bit of the plot in the beginning, but most of the time, I had no idea what was going on. Ernshaw failed to introduce the actual conflict and stakes, instead just telling us that Vega had to leave. It was hard to stay invested when there wasn't anything explained. I didn't know why Vega had to leave and I didn't know why she did the things she had to, only that she had some sort of mark that made her special. I felt like the plot was messy as well, considering that I had no idea where it was going or where it would go, and it felt like the book wasn't going anywhere.

I feel like Vega had the potential to be a complex and deep character, and in the beginning, I sort of had a reason to root for her. But as the book dragged on, Ernshaw failed to allow me to connect with Vega. It was especially hard considering that I hardly knew anything about her.

As for the writing style, this is something that made it especially hard to enjoy. It dragged on and on, giving paragraphs of info-dump that weren't relative to the story. I could skip paragraphs and not miss a thing about the book. It felt like so much was repeated as well, so it really made the story drag on.

There's not really anything else I can say about this book since I only got through a fifth of the book, but I'm just going to give this a 2/5 stars since I feel like this book had potential but the execution fell flat.

I adore Shea Ernshaw's writing, but this wasn't my favourite of her books. I didn't connect to Vega at all, which means I didn't connect to her story and to her developing romance.

But I think my biggest issue was that the reason for Vega leaving the valley is never revealed to the reader until the 90% mark, and because we didn't know why she left (aside from seeing the twin stars in the sky), it made it feel like the stakes were nonexistent. So when obstacles kept appearing in her path, I never felt any urgency for Vega to get past them and keep going.

Fantastic writing as always, just not my favourite from this author.

As soon as Shea announced this book I knew it would be one that I had to get in my hands ASAP. I’m a huge fan of her previous books and the atmospheric writing that she always provides. Despite how keen I was to read it, I really wasn’t sure exactly what this book was about, and so I went into it quite blind.

Reading this story felt special. That’s really the best way I can describe it. The world that Shea built felt like a mystery to me until the last 5%. Was this a post apocalypic earth? The result of a pandemic? Why does the astronomer and architect exist? I was constantly asking questions, and when I finally discovered the truth it was such a satisfying AHA moment for me.

The book starts off quite slow, and I feel like there was a lot of importance placed on the father figure, and then he was just forgotten for the rest of the book. At the end when Vega believes that the world has been destroyed all she can think of is Noah (which is valid) but there isn’t even a single thought towards her “father” which I think would have added just a tiny something to tie up that thread.

I liked Vega and Noah as characters, and enjoyed that there was an element of an unreliable narrator (or at least a narrator that keeps many big things a secret until the end). In a way we’re finding out information at the same time as Noah which felt impactful. Of course I was also a fan of that innocent, yearning love that grows between them.
I loved how the main villian was connected to Noah, and thought that to be a great part of the story.

This book bridges genres in a way I’ve never seen before. In the first 85% of this book I had no idea that it would almost cross over into sci-fi territory, and when it did it felt like it added a lot to the story and made everything make sense. The ending set up such a perfect bridgeway for a second novel, and while I think this is a stand alone I would not complain if we got more of this story in the future. I need to know that Vega and Noah find each other again— but for now I’ll just have to pretend they do.

4.5/5
Instagram review to follow

A Wilderness of Stars is a timeless blend of dystopian sci-fi that lends an almost western-like feel to this novel which I found refreshing and it pulled me right in. Like a cool breeze before a storm, Shea Ernshaw eases readers into the world of this young astronomer with her hauntingly beautiful prose that I have loved since The Wicked Deep.

Ernshaw weaves her tapestry of words with the stars that guide the way for Vega's quest to save a dying society that believes her to be nothing more than a myth. Leaving everything she knows behind to carry out an inherited secret task, Vega discovers a braveness within as she journeys toward an unknown destination and fights to not lose her heart to the boy leading the way. But is Vega determined enough to choose fulfilling her destined duty over her own desires?

A Wilderness of Stars tore me apart and put me back together again only to leave me eagerly anticipating Shea Ernshaw's next book!

Vega descends from a line of astronomers, she and her mother live together in a hidden valley where the knowledge of the heavens is passed down through the generations. When two twin stars appear in the sky, Vega knows that she must leave the safety of the valley to save the world. Vega’s quest is simple, find the Architect and travel to the sea, but it’s not as simple as it seems when the locals are superstitious and chaos erupts when they catch sight of the tattoo on her neck, the threats her mother warned her of become all too real. Luckily, she is rescued by a girl named Cricket who leads her to a boy with many tattoos of his own. Together they set out on a journey in search of the cure the stars show. As friendships form, Vega must question whether to protect her knowledge as the last astronomer or risk everything to save them all.

I honestly really enjoyed A Wilderness Of Stars. The premise of the book was very interesting to me, I’ll always be a sucker for a YA dystopian romance. This was a really easy read, perfect for a quick read. I read the entire second half in the span of a few hours. Although the chapters were very long and the book didn’t start to pick up pace wise until a third of the way into the book, the plot was always very interesting and unpredictable. The worldbuilding was amazing, the author took a very different approach to creating the setting than is usually seen. The narrator Vega had never before left her valley and was constantly discovering new things about the world she lived in, at the same time the readers learned alongside her. It was very fun for me to guess where and when the book took place because with every detail I learned my guess would shift. The characters were great, I loved how Vega was very realistic for her age, she was very curious and questioned everything she learned and at times she was also a little bit reckless but overall she was still very level-headed. I found myself getting attached to many of the characters in this book. This was my first time reading a Shea Ernshaw book but I can firmly say it won’t be my last.

I would like to thank Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of A Wilderness Of Stars, all opinions expressed in my review are my own honest opinions.

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→ 3.5 / 5

I requested this novel as soon as I got about a sentence through the description. It sounded both magical and heartbreaking, and it lived up to both of these expectations. Though, I wasn't quite prepared for the emotional journey this story took me on.

I was pleasantly surprised since I haven't read something by Shea Ernshaw before, though I've been interested. I found the writing to be beautiful, and the pacing perfect for my personal taste. It kept me intrigued and flipping through the pages so quickly that I successfully beat the reading slump I was in!

I enjoyed being in this world for a time, and my heart ached for our main character, Vega. I have a soft spot for astronomy or anything with strong grandmother-mother-daughter relationships. As the story unfolded like a blossom one petal at a time, from beginning to end, I found myself enraptured. What a storyline!

There was indeed a trope I did not personally enjoy, but it only took away a little from my overall experience. I would have preferred a friendship over a romance, but that's okay! Perhaps this will be to someone else's taste.

The ending wrapped things up but left us with an opportunity for more. If that is indeed the case, I will happily read whatever comes next!

I highly recommend this to anyone looking to be swept away on a journey.