So I'm going to start off saying that this took me longer to finish than usual. I truly wanted to love this book. It really does have a lot of potential to become a great series. Being a heavy fantasy/romantasy reader, it had tropes that I really enjoy but also so many similarities to other fantasy books, like way too many that it became predictable. There were some plot holes that I'm hoping will be addressed in the next book, and maybe perhaps the MFC will want to figure out who she is and not play victim throughout the book.

I will be reading the next book just to see where things lead to, but my expectation after reading this first book will be very low.

• very, very slow burn
• cryptic mmc
• fmc plays victim for the majority of the book
• fmc goes through a trial to save her land from vampires even though she doesn't want to

This beautiful book is so intricate in the world building and history of the story. I love the way the story unveiled itself throughout the book.

I listened to the audiobook and it was a duet narration!!! That is my absolute favorite type of audiobook!! The narrators were perfectly casted together and brought the book to life beautifully😍

I love how action packed this book is!! The writing is beautiful and painted a wonderful picture of the story and the depth of the characters.

I definitely recommend reading/listening to this book!!

Heard a lot about this book and wanted to check it out. Sadly I was not impressed. The sentence structure of so many passages is just, off? Idk it just sounds strange. The plot was also weird and not fully developed. I think the idea is super unique and could be really good, but it doesn’t come together very well.


The narrators are good, better than most audiobooks. My only complaint is that the male voice sounds the same for each character and gets confusing.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen to this book thanks to the author and NetGalley. Filled with dark romance of what I want to believe is enemies to lovers? Wasn’t quite sure. I did find it a bit confusing at times through the book. I did enjoy the overall book the idea she has for it. I just feel it needs some work.

**ARC review of the upcoming audible release**

I struggled a bit with the male voice. I think he was PERFECT for Nyte. However, the other characters he voiced also had the breathlessness. That took away from the main character for me. Also, sometimes hard to understand at times.
The female voice was okay. It was easy to differentiate between characters.

**posted to Goodreads**

I’d really like to start off by saying that I highly enjoyed the premise and the idea of this book. The world is interesting and the characters have potential, but it all is out shadowed by the editing and execution. The wording and story telling was very confusing and I kept finding myself having to go back to read along again and re listen to sections to understand what was happening. The ending picked up, it’s honestly what saved the book for me. I’m interested enough to read the second one, but I really hope that the editing for the story improves so it’s not as confusing.

From the first page, I was hooked. This book had me in a chokehold from the moment I started listening. If you are looking for action, swoon-worthy spice and banter, mysteries, twists, and more, this book is for you.
Chloe C. Peñaranda wrote a masterpiece with this one. Her world-building was awesome and gave me a lot of background while also leaving pieces to reveal throughout the series. I thought I had guessed everything in this book and had it all figured out. The joke was on me, everything was bigger and more complicated than I had imagined. Her prose was beautiful and she did an excellent job of "showing" not telling me the emotions and actions of the characters. Nyte is *chef's kiss* perfection, although he infuriated me at times and made me want to shake him. But part of that was that he was more real. He made choices that real people would make, not just what we expect from book boyfriends. I feel that character growth was evident and well done and enriched the story.
All in all I give this a solid 4.5 stars and 2 for spice. The spice is well done, but very sparse.

I listened to the audiobook version, so here are my thoughts solely related to that media:
I was torn when I started listening. I tend to describe myself as hard to please with female-narrated audiobooks. They just have tendencies to irritate me. That was indeed the case when I started listening. Luckily for this book, the male narrator starts the story and I was already hooked. So what bothered me you ask? The female narrator sounds like she is reading a fairytale to kindergarteners. However, I was hooked and male narrator has the voice of a *GOD* and could bring a book club to their knees with a single word. So alas, I continue listening, and WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT. The female narrator's voice starts to change as we see character growth in Astraea. When I realized? I was AGHAST, I am so sorry I prematurely judged her narration. I was wrong, and it ended up adding so much authenticity to Astraea and all of the changes she goes through. Audio narration is 5/5. I also THOROUGHLY enjoyed the male narrator speaking Nyte's words even when it was Astraea's POV. It is something I've wished for with several other audiobooks I've listened to, and this was perfection.

The Stars are Dying by: Chloe Penaranda
Thanks to NetGalley, McMillan Audio, and Chloe Penaranda for the audio ARC!!

I’ll start by saying, if you are into “The Plated Prisoner” series, "From Blood and Ash", "Hunger Games" and "ACOTAR", this book has those vibes.
If you are particular about pieces feeling like they come from other stories- you maybe put off a little.
Overall- I really enjoyed the world building she did here. I felt like the plot was different enough it didn’t bother me at all. I enjoyed it for what it was!
I LOVED the tension we had between Astraea and Nyte. It was fun and unexpected!!
One of the only things that bothered me was Astraea had no real desire to really learn about her past. That, or it was overshadowed by the need to do right by Cassia.
You are gonna get:
* A Shadow Daddy
* Tension for days
* Villain gets the girl
* A world of Fae, Vampires, and Mortals
* Deadly trials

Overall I am rating it a 3.75-

Nyte, Shadow Daddy:
“I never got the chance to ask what you saw. How you saw past it all for a fleeting moment made me believe there was something good in me. I’m sorry you were wrong. At least I won’t have the chance to hurt you anymore.”

“ Destiny is cruel to bring us together, in that you are the most precious thing I can never have”

“Your soul is magnetic. There won’t exist a time or place where I won’t be drawn to it. And love, you might look the same, you might remember everything we almost had one day, but here and now… I’m falling for YOU. I found you with a steel heart in my chest, and for the first time in 3 centuries, it doesn’t feel so cold. Not because of what you were, but for what you are.

I had a hard time with this but it was entirely my fault I think. Audiobooks can be hit or miss for me when it comes to fantasy. I found the worldbuilding hard to follow on audio and this meant that i had a hard time keeping track of who everyone was and what the stakes actually are.. I also feel like it took so long to get to the actual momentum of the story moving because we were world building so much, which made it harder to follow. While I appreciated that there were 2 narrators I felt like the male narrator had a harder time differentiating between characters and that made it hard for me to follow also. Really looking forward to re-reading as a physical book so that I maybe understand all the things that were happening.

In this book, the action begins right away with an abused girl trying to get out of a bad situation. (Check your trigger warnings!) She has an amazing friend who helps her escape, only to then have to take on her persona to participate in the King’s trials. Then, she meets her very own shadow man (very Rhysand-like!) - problem is, they cannot be together. The stars are dying, and how will they overcome this? 5 stars - one of the best books of the year!

This was not the audiobook for me. While the premise is promising, Peñaranda takes on too many fantasy aspects and combines them into one massive book (in my opinion). I wanted to like “the stars are dying” so much - it’s right up my alley! - but I found my mind wandering while I was listening to it. Unsure if it is the narrators or my desire for more character and world building. All that being said, there’s so much potential & I will be keeping Peñaranda’s writings on my radar to give another try in the future!

Unfortunately, this book just didn't do it for me. I gave up at 34%. I couldn't get a solid read on the MC and the prologue was very confusing. I just couldn't get into it and I couldn't see myself sticking around to finish.

On the plus side, the audiobook version was really well done. It was in a true dual narration style, with the male reading the male characters and the female reading the female characters. Both did a good job, but the male narrator didn't distinguish between the characters as well.

The cover is pretty, is the only positive thing I can say.

I think the narrators are talented. Jacci Prior did a lovely job of indicating multiple characters. While Corvin King has a lovely voice, I think there were too many characters here for him to manage and i had a difficult time understanding which male character was speaking quite often. I think duet style was a poor choice for this book. I think there are simply too many characters for this to be an appropriate format. I think a solo narrator (much like SJM series) would have been more successful.

As for the book, I very much did not enjoy it. The plot is convoluted and at several points simply did not make sense. I read the first half twice, because I thought surely I must have missed something, but no, the fault was not with my reading comprehension. The characters were also difficult to enjoy. And the pacing felt tedious. And the general world building felt derivative. This felt like AI read a bunch of popular fantasy series and then produced this.

so to recap, I take issues with: the narration style, the characters, the pacing, the world building and the plot in general.
This is not the quality of story I have come to expect from Macmillan. I'm honestly shocked.

“I’ve always been right here. Waiting for you.”
Its giving "There you are, I've been looking for you"
& I LOVE ITTTT!

Publisher's summary
"The brightest star needs the darkest night."
Astraea is a prisoner of her own mind, the past sliding from her grasp like water. But she knows she must escape the tyrannical king who holds her captive and find her clouded memories once again. This quest leads her to the Libertatem, a succession of trials hosted by the king in which five human lands compete for a cycle of safety from the vampires seeking blood, claiming souls, and savaging after dark.
But even winning the Libertatum will not keep Astraea safe from vampires. She’s made a bargain with Nyte, the beautiful, deadly vampire who stalks her dreams and haunts her waking hours. He promises to keep her safe, but she knows she cannot trust him, cannot trust his lies, even as she finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into his seductive embrace.
Caught between Nyte and her own mysteries, Astraea must decide if winning the Libertatem for her kingdom is worth her life, or if protection—and the answers to her past—really are her strongest desires.

Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the ALC of this book!

The Stars Are Dying
By: Chloe C. Peñaranda
Narrated by: Corvin King, Jacci Prior
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Series: Nytefall, Book 1
Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
Release date: 10-08-24

Unfortunately this one fell so flat for me. I was excited to read it, and from the synopsis it sounds so intriguing. But all I’m left with after spending five grueling days trying to get through this book, was nothing.

I hate to complain about a book, but I couldn’t explain the plot of this book to you if you held me at gunpoint. Genuinely I cannot re-iterate a single thing that occurred, what it added to the story, and where we ended up. I didn’t care about the characters, they lacked chemistry and seemed incredibly forced.

Plot holes upon plot holes, and even with those, nothing comes together to make any sense. Sadly this was a miss for me, and I will not be continuing the series when the sequel comes out.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio, NetGalley and Chloe C. Peñaranda for the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The first book in a new series and I was sucked in right away! The prologue?!

I’ll start by saying the audio book was simply amazing 5⭐️ duet perfection.

This world is so interesting. There are elements that I love from other series but it still felt new and unique.

I wish there was a little more clarity in the mystery surrounding our FMC. I would have loved more of an explanation on Nyte. I don’t understand why he’s there or who he really is for a while.

Overall this is an incredible start to a new series and I can not wait to see what happens next.

I was excited to listen to *The Stars Are Dying* by Chloe C. Peñaranda, narrated by Corvin King and Jacci Prior, especially since I enjoyed the story when I first read it. However, the narration didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

The FMC's voice felt too upbeat for the dark tone of the story, which made it hard to fully immerse myself in the world that Peñaranda created. On the other hand, the MMC's narration was flat, with little variation in tone or inflection throughout the entire book. This lack of emotion made it difficult to connect with the characters and really feel the weight of the story.

While the narration didn’t work for me, I still plan to continue with the series—just probably without the audio version. It’s disappointing, but the story itself is strong enough to keep me interested.
#TheStarsAreDying #NetGalley

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Firstly, I want to say that I absolutely love the duet style narration that was chosen. I love when the FN voices all the Female characters and the MN voices all the male characters, despite who's POV chapter it belongs to. In this case, it was always our FMC's POV but having a MN come in and lend his voice was such a great decision. It felt super immersive and like I was right there with the characters in the middle of the story!

However, I don't think that the Corvin was the right narrator to be chosen for this book. I am a bit neurodivergent so listening on 1x speed is like torture for me. I generally hover around 1.8x speed or 2x speed and Corvin did not hold up at all to that fast. His growly bass tone comes across as muffled and when sped up, he became downright impossible to understand as it just blurred together. This forced me to slow the book down to be able to hear his dialogue which made me not enjoy the story as much because it felt like it was dragging on. He used the exact same voice, which is his voice, for every male character. It was impossible to know who was speaking when there was more than one Male in the scene. It was just an overall disappointment for me personally from a narration standpoint. I understand that his voice is pleasing to listen to, but please make sure that it's the same when sped up for those of us who die at the thought of 1x speed.

As far as the book itself goes, I love the story and the plot. I love the trials and fighting for a better life, even if it did take up to almost 40% of the book to get there. I feel like the author could have spent less time on getting us to the capital and more time on developing the world lore and history that is established in this book, and getting to the point. I don't feel like the plot should kick into gear that late in the game.

I love the relationship between our FMC, Astraea and MMC, Nyte. Astraea gave me vibes of Auren from the Plated Prisoner series in the way that she was kept prisoner by the one she "loved" and even a bit of Aelin vibes from Throne of Glass. High praise in that case! Nyte was my obsession, his energy gave off very Cheshire Cat vibes and I was here for it. He was sneaky, alluring and wanted what was best for Astraea. I loved every moment they were on the page together!

A good read and I an excited to keep the series going!

Thanks so much to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

I really enjoyed listening to this one. It gave me major The Serpent and the Wings of Night vibes while completely having its own story to tell. I love a good secret identity trope and absolutely adore a book with trials. It felt like it got a little bit chaotic at the end, and I also feel like maybe it could have been a little shorter, but overall I really enjoyed this audiobook. I am very much looking forward to reading book 2 to see where things go from here!

This is my first duet audiobook and it was an adjustment but I ultimately really liked it.

Now for the book. This was an ok start to a trilogy.
The things I wish it had:
More side character development/relationship to the MC development
More streamlined plot: I understand a certain amount had to be a mystery since the MC didn't know but the way it was presented made the plot confusing at times.
Better awareness for where the character are, sometimes it felt like they went from one place to the next with no explanation and it wouldn't make sense how.
I think better world building and character development would really make this story shine.
I'm curious where the story will go so I do plan continue the trilogy as they come out.