Thank you Netgalley for this ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was like the hunger games, from blood and ash and acotar had a baby.

The quotes in this book were so beautiful, I highlighted sooo many.

Every line felt kind of like a riddle and I spent most of the book a little confused and just theorizing what could possibly happen next. I just wish Astraea had more of a focus, it felt like at times she didn’t question things as much as she should’ve. It felt like even if she did search for answers she did it half heartedly and I struggled to really figured out her true motivations and the pacing for the story was a little off at times. All in all I’m still excited to see what happens next.


This book has plot twists, star crossed lovers, amnesia, an evil kind with a messed up trial ( very throne of glass honestly ), light vs dark dynamic, a little bit of spice, a very intriguing magic system, as well as fae, vampires, and humans with magic.

The Stars are Dying by Chloe C. Penaranda

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶🌶️

Deadly Trials
Forbidden
Celestial/ gods
Magic
Brothers rival

The Stars are Dying is the first book in the Nytefall series.

Theresa were so many unique characters with a great plot and lots of action. I enjoyed the verity of supernatural beings mentioned and the world building.

I enjoyed the chemistry these two characters had immediately. Astraea had so many barriers to overcome and at times I was confused. But Nyte and his mysterious presence I found that I couldn’t get enough of his dark brooding character and wanted more and more.

It was an overall really enjoyed this book and with the cliffhanger ending I cannot wait for book 2.

I received an ARC of this book and am leaving an honest review.

I honestly was a little disappointed in this book. The plot sounded really good, but the writing just fell off for me. It took me a loooong time to get through the book.

This was such a great high fantasy world that I have been craving since finishing another very popular series over a year ago! I really loved these characters and the flow of the story! This is a perfect recommendation for lovers of ACOTAR and The Serpent and the Wings of Night.

This book was provided to me through NetGalley and TOR Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to both for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

This book is a story of celestials, vampires and fae. The world is slowly deteriorating and the people are trying to protect themselves. They do this through trials to ensure their protection and safety from the vampires.

Overall this book was fun and I did have a good time with it. This book literally has everything one could ever want in a fantasy book. I found at times it added to the story and sometimes it took away from it. I do wish there were a few less reveals and the ending of this book was actually a reveal prior to the end.

The special edition is STUNNING. I will read the second book once it is out. If you love a jam packed story I would recommend you pick it up.

I really wanted to like this. The premise seemed promising! But unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

I tried so hard and made it to the 70% mark before I had to put it down. You’d think that after reading that much, I’d know what the book was about, right? But no. I still have no idea. The writing was choppy and hard to follow, and the plot jumped around a lot without any clear direction. I also found it difficult to connect with any of the characters. They all sounded very similar to me, which made it hard to invest in their journeys.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was really hoping to love this book. I think it has so much potential. However, the writing style was hard to follow. Parts didn't make sense and I had to try and figure out what the author meant.

Thank you so much to Bramble for an eARC of The Stars Are Dying in exchange for an honest review. I’ve enjoyed other republications of initially indie books from Bramble and was excited to read The Stars Are Dying because it sounded right up my alley!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get into or stay into this book. I think that the pacing and writing style were slow and distracting. I found myself re-reading pages and starting over a few times. I really wanted to finish this book and gave it several tries, but it ultimately wasn’t for me. I think that the magic system is unique, the book has a lot of tropes that readers will like, including a morally grey and mysterious MMC, and I liked the concept of the book a lot. My review is based on the portion of the book I read (I finished at 25%). I do think that other readers will enjoy The Stars Are Dying, and that maybe the audiobook would help me with some of my confusion. Again, thank you Bramble, for the chance to read this one!

I wanted to love this book so much but unfortunately it fell a little flat. I found it hard to understand just what was at stake and what FMC wanted. I didn't really feel any chemistry between the main characters and the pacing for the whole book was off. It made it really hard to keep picking it up. I also felt like it could have ended way before it actually did. I think the biggest problem is that the author tried to shove way to much into one book and even though it had all the tropes we know and love, it felt like they were there just because they are popular right now. Overall, it just left me wanting and I don't think I will be reading the next book in the series.

3.5
I'd like to thank Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group | Bramble for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So this was a lot of book! I liked it but I just felt like I wasn't getting through it and it just kept going. I feel like the pacing is off and slow. When Astraea was finding out her power and the secrets about who she is I was confused as much as she was.

I did like the world building. I loved the romance between Astraea and Nyte. So much tension! They had some pretty steamy love scenes. The cover is gorgeous and I love the sprayed edges on the book.

I think the name pronunciation at the end was helpful.... especially Hektor!

I will read book 2 when it comes out because I am curious where this story is going.

I am so sorry about this book because it had SUCH potential. The story was such a cool idea. The writing, though. I taught high school English for a spell, and this reminded me of when a high schooler discovered the thesaurus for the first time. There were so many instances of words not making any sense at all, but if you thought tangentially about how that word may play out in a thesaurus, you could KIND of make sense of it. I just don't know when I have read a book with such terrible writing - I am talking cannot understand what's going on because the writing is so bad. I hope that it went through some serious rounds of editing before publication because the story itself could be really cool if it was written in such a way that the reader could make sense of it.

Coco Chanel famously advised women to look in the mirror and remove one accessory before leaving the house. If there is an editorial equivalent piece of advice for plot elements, this book needs to hear it.

At the outset, the novel is about a young woman named Astraea who has no memory of her past, but has been under the protection of a not-so-nice man named Hektor for the past five or so years. Astraea has secretly befriended Cassia, the daughter of the local lord, and plans to accompany Cassia to the Central for a once-in-a-century competition. Cassia hopes that she will win be able to win the competition and the accompanying protection from vampires that it will win their realm. Meanwhile, Astraea has been gaining some clues to her true identity and has started to have visitations from a mysterious man (possibly vampire) named Nyte, who can also communicate with her telepathically.

All of this feels cohesive, but it takes a good long time for the plot to get moving since there is so much world-building to establish. I think that the competition doesn't get underway until at least the halfway point of the book. At that point, I felt that things began to unravel quickly. Characters were introduced quickly, but not very well established before they were dispensed with. The intrigue kept getting more and more complex until I felt that I honestly had little to no understanding of what was happening in the story.

I skimmed the final few chapters of the book because I found that I was completely disengaged at the point. It was truly a shame. For the first half of the book, this was a solid four star read for me. But it overstayed its welcome until I just lost all interest because I could not track the happenings of the story.

Readers who enjoy this genre may feel differently about this book than I did. I enjoyed the initial fantasy adventure parts that reminded me of The Hunger Games and Immortal Longings. But the concluding chapters that were mainly dialogue about who did what and felt what about whose powers just is not compelling reading for me.

The writing style is not for me. I tried to push through it, but just couldn't connect to the story.
I will try it again at a later date, to see if I am able to connect with it then.

DNF😮‍💨
** If you have read some of the other reviews, you may have mixed feelings. I just want to encourage you dear reader that when you leave a review, it is your honest opinion of the BOOK not the author. There are many authors I love that ever once and awhile I come across a book that I just don't connect with, but that is my opinion and I try to state why.

That being stated I want to thank NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to review this advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest opinion **

I had a really hard time getting into this book and it really bummed me out. For an avid reader who reads up to 6 to 8 books a week, I was stuck on page 79 for over a month. For a book that had such an exquisite cover and a blurb that drew you in like the scent of Thanksgiving dinner - it was all just a beautiful lie.

I found the writing style hard to follow, to immerse myself into the story. The characters, which at first I thought I would find compelling, were more one-dimensional and I was never really able to connect with them. I don't know if it was because I was more annoyed with the writing, strange phrases, and how things weren't making sense. (How does a character getting into a locked room?). They had that potential to be - be more, be explosive, be amazing. Sadly, it just felt like most of the time situations were forced (not in a good way, either) .

I think for this book, there was potential. The plot is interesting, characters that can be fleshed out

Audience: Adult
Plot: 4 out of 5
Characters: 4 out of 5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ out of 5
Keywords: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Star-crossed lovers, Fated mates, Vampires, Fae
Tea Pairing: Apple Cinnamon Chai from Plum Deluxe – perfect for chilled nights looking at the stars.

I received a copy of this book and audiobook through NetGalley from Tor Publishing Group / Bramble & Macmillan Audio. Thank you! All opinions are my own.

~~“It was only when I stood around more books than I could consume in a lifetime that immortality became desirable.”
~~“Because you are the brightest star…And the brightest star needs the darkest night.”

This novel is the first in the Nytefall series by Peñaranda, and is my first introduction to this particular author. This is a slow-burn romantasy that centers around Astraea, a woman with white hair and silvery tattoos, but who cannot remember her past. She is held captive by the ruthless Hektor, under the guise of “protecting” her. Having had enough, Astraea escapes to visit her best friend Cassia, who has been selected to participate in trials called the Libertatem. Later, tragedy strikes, and Astraea decides to disguise herself and take Cassia’s place.

At the beginning of this book, I was captivated by the whole idea of Nyte – who he is, what he is, and I kept second-guessing myself on whether or not he was real, or a figment of Astraea’s imagination. And when he was finally revealed, he gave me Rhysand-vibes from ACOMAF. And it just made me think – well how powerful is this guy that he can do X, Y, Z? Answer: Pretty powerful. But what about Astraea? She is alluded to having immense powers, which we only get a glimpse of in this book. I’m hoping that more will be revealed in book two.

Another aspect of the novel that I found particularly interesting were the trials of the Libertatem themselves. I really enjoyed how they weren’t the usual “trials” that I have read in previous books – so less fighting, and more solving puzzles and riddles, and overcoming certain virtues and vices. It was such a fresh take – that trials don’t always have to be physical.

Overall, I thought this book was definitely worth the read (even more so with the audiobook – Corvin King and Jacci Prior were absolutely amazing!). Corvin King – Wow! He has one of the most seductive voices that I’ve ever heard. For the audiobook, Corvin and Jacci both had really good chemistry, they read with expression and a lot of emotion. The audiobook narration followed the text really well, and both the ebook and audiobook, which also included two bonus scenes from the author. I really hope King and Prior will narrate the second book.

I would recommend this book to anyone who may have enjoyed The Serpent and the Wings of Night, as well as books with trials and games, and fated mates. I cannot wait to read book two which is scheduled to be released in January.

Stoppp the tension, spice and amazing chemistry in this book kept it going! Yes the book was slow at times it still was a great book. I would recommend for people who love fated mates, star crossed lovers, and fantasy.

I have had such a hard time getting into this book. Unfortunately I had to DNF at around 22% Just wasn't holding my interest.

I don’t know how to rate this because I went back and forth on hating it and liking it way too many times. The bones of the story were amazing, but I felt like the execution wasn’t good. The plot was choppy and SO confusing. There was way too many plot holes, it was repetitive and predictable. I was really trying to like it, but every time I started to something would be added on to the confusion and it was pissing me off. In the end, I wasn’t impressed. I gave 3 stars to be nice because it had some good parts.

I hate writing low rating reviews, but I’m still confused about what I just read. I read some of the other reviews, and it seems to me that I’m not alone in that feeling. This story was super confusing, overly written and overly flowery with words and sentences which did not help the story in any way at all! I would love to write a recap of what I just read, but honestly I just do not know. I hate that I didn’t like this book because it’s absolutely stunning but the story was not worth the read at all. This is also my first book I’ve read by this author, and I’m not impressed. I will not be reading the second book or probably reading any of the authors other books sadly.

I’d say give this one a shot, but don’t get your hopes up.

DNF at about 30%. It was alright, and maybe another time I will read it and enjoy it, but for right now it was a little too much. I wasn’t gripped and the characters were a little annoying to me. I think fans of the Plated Prisoner series might like this though!