I feel terrible saying this, but I just listened to a very long audiobook, and I couldn't tell you a thing that happened. The vibes were good at times, and I mostly liked the characters, but was there a plot? I fell for the hype and didn't love this one...

I will say that there are a TON of quotes that I really enjoyed, though. And the narrator(s) were great!

The Stars are Dying. Dramatic, entertaining. Ultimately it’s a book about a competition. The king of the vampires allowing five champions, one from each of the surrounding kingdoms, to participate for a chance to join his fabled golden knights but also to win new freedoms for their homeland. But not everyone is what they seem, and the competition may be more dangerous.

All in all, The Stars are Dying was a fun romantasy, with a main character you’ll love to root for. The almost-typical fantasy competition plot line is a good familiar base, and Chloe Peñaranda keeps it fresh with unusual magics and some less typical involvement from all of the other competitors (by making sure we don’t know every single move they’re making. Adds a tough more intrigue and keeps you guessing).

My only complaint, and the only thing keeping this from being another five star read for me, is near to the end where we start seeing the setup for whatever is going to happen in the next book, we also start to see a lot of loos threads being tied up a little too quickly. And a few things happen that felt like they didn’t have the founding or the build up to be effective.

As for the narrators, near perfect execution. The narration was full of heart and feeling, the only complaint here was our guy reading the voice lines for all of the men had a habit of making almost every voice line as sultry as possible and it was uncomfortable in a few places when a father figure or brother figure were the ones talking.

I was very excited when I received an audio book ARC for this book. The plot was very intriguing and something I thought I would enjoy.
But, I was unable to finish this audio book and DNF it at approximately 60 percent. I don't DNF a book easily. I really try to give a book a try and at least make it halfway through.

What I did like were the narrators. I thought they were compelling and added something to keeping me as interested as possible in the story. However, what I didn't like is I found the writing was choppy for me and the plot jumped around a lot. I was confused and found it hard to follow along. Maybe if I was reading the physical book, I could have jumped back to re-read some parts, but at the same time, I don't think a book should be that confusing that you have to go back and reread it, especially a book about fiction.

DNF at 33%.

Unfortunately the writing style is not for me and I struggled a lot with the pacing of the book. I was also lost a lot of the time if what was happening in the book and with the characters. I understand that Astrea is supposed to be an unreliable narrator and doesn’t know what’s going on as well. But I did not enjoy the way the world was built.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook, I did enjoy the multiple narrators aspect.

I tried REALLY hard to get into this book I truly thought this was going to be an amazing book the premise was set up so well. However the story didn’t go anywhere and the entire time I felt the FMC was so confused and whined and I just could not tolerate her.

The story was messy and confusing and it felt the author tried so hard to keep things a mystery that the actual plot was a mystery. The details were over explained and descriptive but the actual plot and progression was a confusing muddled mess.

It also reminded me so much of other books it truly felt I was reading serpent and the wings of night and from blood and ash. The scene of the FMC starting out not where she’s supposed to be and walking into the wrong room and finding the MMC in that room felt like an exact knockoff of Poppy and Casteel in Blood in Ash. However this book seemed to take exact copies of those other books and make them more confusing.

I also don’t particularly mind or dislike books that are very similar to other books my main issue with this book is it was done in such a way that this amazing world, premise and potential wasn’t very fully flushed out.

I truly truly hope the editors are a bit harsher in future books to ensure the reader isn’t left feeling confused and like something is missing the entire time.

In regarding the audiobook the narration was good I just felt it also added to the FMC feeling meek, concerned and confused always. I would have preferred the female narrator to try to make out FMC a bit less confused when she was just speaking the inner dialogue about the world and story. However that may be a writing issue.

I love books that have a duel narration for male and female characters I think both narrators did a good job I just wish there was more confidence in the reading as I felt everyone was lacking confidence and it lead me to not want to continue.

I do think if it was cleaned up a a bit and the story flowed better this would be a top tier book as Chloe has a very interesting and gripping premise she just needs to flush out how to get the story there more.

Depending on reader requests will be the deciding factor as to whether or not we order this book for our library, as of now I’m leaning towards no.

A romantasy that hits all the right spots. It has tension, banter, the description of lust wonderfully done. The main character, Astraea, is kind of stereotypical "Savior" type lead for a these types of books. Yes she has depth but she has the damsel yet I want to be independent vibes. Nyte very morally gray "shadow daddy" vibes. The world is easy to follow with the information given since they only live in a small section that was easy enough to follow and I feel the story will build on as it goes. The side characters add some depth to Astraea and the story line and are a joy to read.
I did listen to this book and the narrators were at times hard to follow. This was my first duet narration and both seem to have a very limited character voice range especially the male narrator I felt like all the males characters were the same voice and it sometimes made it hard to follow the story plus the switch between the female narrator to him was interesting. 
The story overall is very well balanced lots of twists and turns of not knowing how it really is going to plan out which I absolutely loved. I really cannot wait to finish this series! 

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the change to listen to the book early. This is my honest opinion.

I really seemed to struggle with this book. I finally stopped at 60% because I went on vacation and wasn't able to listen and haven't been able to pick it back up. In the audio I was confused that the voices are the exact same for characters and it was a bit jarring to have the man voices appear so quickly. I was also confused with what was happening in the story and couldn't seem to stay focused.

I do not plan to share this book on my instagram page because I dont feel like I can give a genuine review on it. I know that I may not be the perfect reader for this story and I can picture many others loving this story.

Well that was a long one.
Things in liked: the dual narration. Corvin King is amazing in everything he does!!

Annnnd that was about all I liked about this audio book.

Stopped listening at about 85% because I just genuinely didn't care how it ended anymore.
The last 4hrs has been just a massive information dump to try and reveal all the secrets and I got completely lost and had zero interest in trying to rewind and figure it out.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen to this book.

I want to start this review with the understanding that I am reviewing the audiobook version. I was not able to finish this book… I hate to DNF a book but I got to 80% and was just not invested in the story. I really do feel like the audio ruined this book for me. I had to speed up the narration to be able to handle the male’s part, and because it was a dual POV that meant the female part had to be sped up as well and it made her parts too fast… the male voice actor was so whiny and breathy… it was so cringy. I want to pick this book back up later and read it for myself because I do think that I may enjoy the story more that way. As for now this was a no for me….

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

"The brightest star needs the darkest night."
Nyte and Starlight (Astraea)

First off, with the audiobook, I enjoyed that there was a female and male narrator. The male narrator was very sexy and perfect for Nyte.

Nyte and Astraea's banter was so fun in the beginning. I loved how he was always there for her even when he wasn't there physically.

Astraea had been traumatized from her lover, Hector, who would abuse her. Not to mention that she had no recollection of her past 5 years before Hector even found her. I hurt for her throughout the many traumatic things that happened to her. Many times in the book she says how she doesn't want to be weak. She doesn't want to need saving but, almost every time, she needed it. She has a very powerful, suppressed past, which made it so easy for her to wield a dagger or a bow and arrow. It was too convenient, but it makes sense once you learn her background

There was too much unnecessary swearing for my liking which ended up lowering my rating (but by little).

Unfortunately, I kind of forgot some of the stuff that happened in the trials by the time I was at the end of the book. There was just many different things happening and A LOT of explaining. I don't like when the characters need to explain everything for the audience to understand the history of the world/magic system.
Especially when she was in the dungeon. I felt that scene dragged on.

Astraea had been hurt and betrayed so many times, I could understand her conflicted feelings for Nyte by the end of the audiobook.

Speaking of ends, the book ended very suddenly. Almost as if there should be one more chapter.

I loved the bonus scene between Rose and Zeth (if that's how you spell it since I listened to it). Especially throughout the book how he calls her Thorns. I could tell there was some hidden romance between those two. You don't give someone a nickname in a fantasy book and not have there be some romance between the characters.

Overall it was interesting book, but fell flat for me. Too much explaining instead of showing. And it took forever for Astraea to learn any little thing about her past when the audience was almost positive they knew. That bothered me for some reason.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC!

Dual narration? Say less! I love dual narration (if we can’t have a full cast) and it truly improved the story so much. Both narrators did an excellent job with providing a wide range of voices. They were also clear and concise, portraying emotions clearly. The pacing was a little bit slow, but I listed at 1.25 speed and it helped a bunch!

Storyline, I really enjoyed it. There’s definitely some overused cliches, more so if you read a lot of Romantasy, but it was done tastefully. Astraea did take an absolute eon to start figuring things out which was frustrating. But a shadow daddy tends to help us overlook things, and this was no exception. Overall, I’ll definitely be ready for book two!

DNF’d at 30%. I tried, but this story and narrator weren’t for me. The story was extremely disjointed and thrown together. It felt like the author made no outline and just said, “here’s another plot point that would be cool.” The narrator is way too dramatic, always sounds like an actress too well versed in histrionics.

I feel like I’ve read this book a thousand times. It pulls too much from other bits of fantasy stories which is fine because nothing is truly original but I feel like there needs to be SOMETHING that sets it apart and that just wasn’t here. The writing was ok but the story is just not there.


The narrators were great.

Format: Audiobook ALC thanks to NetGalley and the publisher-all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This story has a lot of potential…unfortunately for me, I felt lost through quite a bit of the book. I believe the author is doing this with intent for character growth of our FMC and plot twists but it was hard to listen to at times. I hate rewinding an audiobook and found myself needing to do this multiple times and still feeling like I was missing things. After a week, I don’t really remember much about this book.

I have listened to both of these narrators before and enjoyed their performances but for some reason, I had a hard time with this audiobook. Maybe a mix of their narration and also the story flow.

FLEW through this excellent, incredible book. Tightly written, earnest, laugh-out-loud funny at several parts—one of the best gothic and eerie fun books I've read in ages

I picked up this book after seeing a ton of hype for it on Tiktok. I enjoyed the story overall. I listened to the book's audio and enjoyed the performance. The story was intriguing and kept my attention. I love audiobooks to hold my focus when I am running so I don't think about how hard running is so this book was great. The audio sucked me into the world and held me there.

There are some aspects that may come across as a bit predictable but there are also good twists I didn't see coming. I would note though that if you are not an avid fantasy romance reader you probably won't find it too predictable I just read an obnoxious amount of these books per year and honestly like that to a certain degree they are predictable.

Astraea goes though a journey of self discovery during her time in the Central. I enjoyed this self growth. I'm still not sure if Nyte is good or bad to be honest. I also have some thoughts on that bomb that gets dropped at the end. I will probably continue the series when book 2 audio is published.

I am hoping though that in book two the male parts of the story are read in a more normal tone. At times I struggled to fit the tone with the story as he seemed to be almost whispering quite a bit. Not that he was quiet just that he was hushed maybe? Idk how to explain it but it didn't sound very natural.

Unfortunately I really had to push through this book to finish it and I wish I DNFd it as I didn’t really enjoy it. I was somewhat sticking around to see if what I was predicting came through, and unfortunately it did. That being said, I found the book’s story lines to be predictable and boring as they’ve been done so much within the romantasy genre. I was intrigued at the beginning with the world building but that quickly changed as I got to know the fmc. I found her to be extremely basic, and boring as there wasn’t anything special about her distinguishing her from other fmc’s in other romantasy books. And this might just be me, but I noticed the fmc and her main love interest doing the infamous “who did this to you” trope excessively, to the point where I was thinking didn’t they already do this trope like twice? It was very strange, and sadly I feel like this book’s plot was primarily tropes instead of an actual story.

2.5⭐ rounded up to 3. For many reasons, I did not enjoy this book, and I won’t be continuing the series.

❤️ Zath and Rose
❤️ Intriguing worldbuilding
❤️ Duet-style audiobook
❌ Forced squishing of all the popular tropes in one book
❌ Clueless FMC carried by the plot for the whole book
❌ Predictable plot twists
❌ Choppy writing and inconsistent pace
❌ *Just plain confusing* despite tedious info dumps

Trigger warnings: violence, blood and gore, death and grief, murder, confinement, domestic abuse (physical and emotional), injury and injury detail, sexual assault, drugging and substance addiction, etc.

Plot:
Astraea is a prisoner in every sense of the word: her memories are clouded by amnesia, and she is held captive by a tyrannical leader. When she escapes confinement with the help of Nyte, a mysterious vampire who seems to stalk her dreams, her mind, and her waking hours, she takes her friend’s place and enters the Libertatem, a succession of deadly trials. Nyte promises to keep her safe, but she can’t help but think he has his own agenda and keeps many, many secrets.

The worldbuilding was very interesting, and it got me intrigued early on, but… but… How to say this without sounding too harsh? This book had lots of potential, but it simply did not live up to it, in my opinion. The predictability, the forced squishing of popular tropes, the pacing, the structure… I was bored or confused, or both, most of the time. There are common tropes that I’ll never be fed up with, regardless of the number of books I read that use them. But I just *can’t* enjoy a book where everything sounds borrowed and forced for the sake of squishing in as many popular tropes as possible. We get a “who did this to you” in the MCs’ first meeting, as well as a deadly competition that is as underwhelming as a salad without dressing.

Characters:
I never grew to like the two MCs. Astraea was simply too. darn. clueless. Being sheltered and captive for most of her life can explain some of it, but at some point… just use your brain, girl. (If you have one, that is.) Nyte was just another generic shadow daddy. Secondary characters were way more interesting! I loved Cassia and was intrigued by the prince-whose-name-I-already-forgot, and I felt more invested in the epilogue, which is centred around Zath and Rose, than I did for the whole book.

Writing:
I’ve read much worse, but this book would have benefited from more thorough editing. The prose was choppy more often than not, and the pace was very inconsistent, with a severe lack of structure and direction.

Audiobook:
Impeccable. I love love love the duet-style narration, where the female narrator does the female parts, and the male does the male voices. It’s not common, and I feel like it really adds to the experience. Both voice actors were great.

I tried so hard to get through this book but honestly couldn’t. The FMC irritated the crap out of me and I just couldn’t get past it. She was pathetic and winy. I did not finished this book. I had trouble getting into it and I just did not like the main character. I thought the storyline overall was fine. I just couldn’t get past the FMC. She was just not for me. I appreciate the opportunity to receive this ARC. I do not post books that I DNF on my account.

4.7 ⭐️

The stars are dying by Chloe C. Peñaranda

First off Thank you to NetGalley, the author Chloe Peñaranda, and Macmillan Audio for this ALC! I added This to my TBR not that long ago when I saw it on Libby I got so excited when I saw it was available for the ALC I got even more excited! Thank you guys for the opportunity to listen to this audio I really enjoyed it

Wings ☑️

Shadows ☑️

Realms ☑️

Vampires ☑️

Fae ☑️

If you know me then you know I’m a huge ebook and audiobook girlie so when I saw the chance to listen to the ALC I jumped right for it 😂 There’s parts of this book that felt like a few scenes from Vampire Diaries which I loved I’m a huge vampire diaries fan so when I heard this I was screaming yes!

The other part of me felt like I was stuck in someone’s head who didn’t know much of anything which will make sense much later on in the story however it’s part of the journey with this book. Does this give vibes of other fantasy books yes but that’s what I loved about this it’s very hard for me to read or listen to a fantasy book and say I loved it but this one had all the feels and emotions I was looking for I’m happy with my experience for this audiobook it made me laugh some parts made me shout why are you doing that along with a few more words 🤭

Astraea’s mind feels like a lot of things while you’re listening to this once I realized what was going on it was a full circle moment for me with the FMC and the MMC there’s mystery to this story for most of it you feel like you're experiencing this whole thing with Astraea kind of like you're reading her journal. There's romance with tension and of course, flirting another thing I really liked about this audio is the duel narration I felt it was perfect for this particular story and made the characters come more to life it’s not an easy thing to do when it comes to fantasy audiobooks

Some of my fave moments/quotes

( How high do you wanna go starlight? Endlessly )

( Do you still trust me? Yes I answered )

( You have to let her go I’m not ready )

( You’re going to see the world now )

( Destiny is cruel to bring us together because you are the most precious gift I can never have )

I would recommend this audio to anyone that’s into fantasy