I try not to leave negative reviews. I listened to an advanced copy of the audiobook. Two stars for the male narrator. The only redeeming part of this book for me was the MMC. If you take a bunch of elements from other more popular fantasy romances, mix them together, make them worse, and add an FMC that has little in the way of critical thinking skills. The twist in this book was so clunky and obvious that I wanted to dnf multiple times. I was really hyped for this and have the indie hardback, very disappointed.

This book has so much potential but was such a let down. There’s no world building, the plot seems to be lost, the story line jumps so much it gave me whiplash and the book didn’t end in a manner that makes me feel like I have to read the second book.

I struggled through the first 70% of the book wondering who people were, where they came from, what was happening and when it would get good. The last 30% was the most the storyline didn’t seem to jump around, the writing felt more cohesive and I was finally enjoying the book.

Overall, I will revisit this book at a later date and hope my review changes.

The audiobook itself was great. The female narrator really does great at portraying the emotions went through by Astrea. I think Nyte is complex and probably became overbearing from this male narrator. I found the allure taxing after 68% of the book. I truly wanted to love this story but I couldn’t. I was confused for the majority of the time and as things picked up it just felt all really rushed. However, I gave 4 stars because Astrea is such a unique character and she deserves the hype. Nyte is heart breaking and this star cross lovers with enemies to lovers is so specific it almost hurt to think of all the odds stacked against these characters. I’m hoping book 2 provides more answers and we see what redemption Nyte hopefully receives!

3 Stars
I wish the romance was developed a bit better as it felt like it moved too quickly for me. I feel like because Astraea didn't have any memories, she was very one dimensional and it was hard for me to connect to her character - I hope we get some growth from her in the future. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would (based on some of these reviews lol) but I also can see how this can feel generic and underwhelming to some readers (it kind of is). Nothing new is done here, a lot of the plot points and characters are forgettable, and the plot twists were all very predictable. That being said, I still thought this was a lot of fun though I did hate the ending (but I will definitely pick up the next book to continue this series).

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC!

Book Title: The Stars Are Dying
Author: Chloe C. Peñaranda
Narrated by: Corvin King & Jacci Prior
Format Read: Audiobook

Intro: The Stars Are Dying is a beautifully poetic, slow-burn fantasy that pairs lush narration with an enchanting, dark world.

The narration in The Stars Are Dying is nothing short of mesmerizing. I listen to quite a few audiobooks, and these two narrators definitely stood out to me as exceptional. Jacci Prior’s performance as Astraea is a perfect blend of femininity and strength, which really worked for the main female character. Corvin King, who narrates the male characters, has the kind of deep, breathy voice that makes even mundane things sound.... sexy. I found myself wishing he could read my grocery list! However, it was sometimes difficult to distinguish between the male characters. Still, the narration was a major highlight of this audiobook and elevated the entire experience.

The rest of the book was beautifully and poetically written. The story progressed slowly, but was easy to follow, opening up to a greater story with a rich world that can be built up even more in future books. I'm glad they didn't overbuild the world, because that usually loses me, and this book did world building in a way that made it mysterious where I kept wanting more. This was a really interesting read!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced reader copy audiobook.

I've had this on my TBR for so long, so I was so excited when I relieved the ALC from Macmillan... however I just didn't like it. I I felt like it was too information heavy at the very beginning and I found myself not wanting to pay attention.

**𝑨𝑹𝑪 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘** 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝑫𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒚 𝑪.𝑪. 𝑷𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂 (𝑵𝒚𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔: 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 1)

Release Date: August 8, 2023

5⭐️4🌶

This book is deliciously complex, and I loved every second of it! If you mash ACOTAR, Crescent City, and Hunger Games together then you get something like this book.

Astraea has been living under the protection of the "mafia" leader Hector for the last 5 years. She has no memory of her life before then. She just knows that everything beyond Hector's protection is dangerous to her. She spends her evenings sneaking out of Hector's establishment to see her friend Cassia, who is the daughter of the local lord. Cassia teachers her knife fighting and archery. Since, Cassia plans on becoming the Selected for their portion of the Kingdom.

Each Selected must travel to the Central and participate in the High King's "games." Whichever Selected wins the games for their Kingdom, that Kingdom becomes protected from the Vampire's proclivities for the next couple of decades.

Astraea has tired of Hector's "protection", and decides to travel with Cassia to the Central, but not all goes as planned.

Astraea is also trying to find the secrets of her past and learn why she has mysterious celestial markings all of her arms. Plus, a dark brooding male named Nyte keeps popping up when she least expects, but she's the only person who can see him.

4.5 Stars*
I LOVED this! The plot had me on the edge of my seat for the entire book. I need the sequel now please.

I loved that the audiobook included dual narration.

This book includes:
Vampires, Fae, Gods, and Humans
Star-crossed Lovers
Morally Grey MMC
Hidden Identity
Fun Side Characters

The only reason this wasn’t a 5 star for me was the world building for me and the trials didn’t capture my attention as much as I’d expect them to. (Like Feyre under the mountain.)

I’m looking forward to learning more about the characters and seeing their arcs progress. If you are a fan of the romantasy genre, I would recommend giving The Stars are Dying a shot. You may love it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

A big thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC, it is greatly appreciated as always. I'm a huge romantasy lover and have been wanting to read/listen to this forever, so when I got the opportunity for an ALC I was ecstatic. Unfortunately, this was just wasn't what I thought it would be. The world building was fantastic though, but I struggled to like the characters, and not even my love for Corvin King's narration could save this.

Adult | Romance Fantasy

This book is interesting in the fact that it reminded me of so many other books I've read before. This in itself is not a problem. I do however have an issue with how those plot points from other books just appeared with little to no explanation. The book has at times, really good editing and is snappy but others had me needing to rewind the audiobook to understand the mechanics of how characters got from point A to B, plot, and the characters motivations.

I do love the fact that it was dually narrated. I thought both did a fabulous job making their characters come to life and I enjoyed the little interjections as I thought it created the atmosphere that was very relevant to the plot of the book and how the main characters interact for most of the book.

I appreciate an early audio copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I thuroughly enjoyed this audiobook!

Fast paced, great world building and a unique magic system

I'm really looking forward to the next instalment of this series!

The world-building of this book was so incredible and holds so much potential for the rest of the series. I can't wait to see how much the world expands and deepens in book 2!

Astraea is suchhhh a fun FMC to read from. The character development, the deconstruction, the angst.... AHH!

I, too, wished I was dying while slogging through this book.

Oof, don't be influenced by pretty covers. This book was simply not good. The writing was all over the place, making the storyline confusing to follow. It felt like the author wanted to throw in every trope and cliche line possible (I think I read "who did this to you" at least 10 times). Unfortunately, these things only work when there is structure to support it. There were so many things happening at once and not in a "I can't keep up" kind of way, but more of a "wtf is the point of this". It was like an AI spit out all the things that could possibly be in a romantasy book and the author felt she had to find a way to include them all. It was also incredibly predictable. I knew what was going to happen from the beginning and really didn't have any surprises. And for the cherry on top, why did the female main character have to be so dumb?? It was painful to watch her journey.

I unfortunately did not like this book at all and will not be continuing the series.

2/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this! Vampires and deadly trials? Yes please! This book has a lot of detail so I can see for some it might be better reading physically rather than as an audiobook. I had to rewind a few times myself. Otherwise I really enjoyed the narrators and I was captivated by the story!

Somewhere between 3.5-3.75 stars

I picked this book up on a whim on Netgalley when I saw it available as an audio. I had seen it here and there posted about as an indie book, and now that it’s going trad I figured I’d give it a go. Overall, I enjoyed the book and think it can become a solid romantasy series. It wasn’t my favorite, but I think part of that comes from me doing it solely on audio and usually I like to have a physical/ebook copy of a fantasy available to me when I’m doing it on audio so I can follow along or refer back to parts I need refreshing on. Due to doing it fully on audio, there were times I missed things, or got confused, and wanted to skim back in the book but couldn’t easily do that. I think that is more of a problem with format than with the book on it’s own, which is why this one isn’t quite a 3.5. I think had I read it as a mix of audio and eyes, it would be more 3.75-4 range for me!

Now to get into more specifics! The world building, magic system, and political nature of this book I think will definitely be something impressive <i> down the line </i>. It seems to have a mix of everything with vampires, fae, celestials, potentially even dragons?!? This first book has the reader in a bit of a state of confusion for a lot of it when it comes to these things. The FMC has no memories of her life before she was rescued a few years ago, so the reader is learning more about the history of the world and her past through her experiences. This means we get snippets here and there and it is more flushed out as we go. I think in the next books coming up, we will get a lot more detail and explanation and this can really expand and become excellent. For right now it has potential, but I will admit, this was part where doing it solely on audio was frustrating. I would have liked to have marked these moments to refer back to them as she learns more so I could understand it better. But I do think this will get really good really soon!

With that, I think some of the pacing of this book was a little off for me. There is a lot that happens, so there are moments when it feels slow and then when it feels like everything is happening at once. There is also a LOT that happens in the book. Reflecting back on the plot I was like, wow there were like 3 books worth of things that happened here. Again, being on audio I sometimes lost where there characters were or what they were doing, so I might recommend this as a dual audio/eyeball read or just as a physical read unless you can REALLY pay attention while doing audio.

I found the characters to be intriguing and I’m excited for more of them in the next books! The FMC is a woman who begins in an abusive relationship and this is something we deal with throughout the book for her. I actually really appreciated this storyline of learned helplessness and her overall feelings towards the man who did this to her. She dealt a lot with trying to figure out if he loved her and if she loved him and what it meant in the context of what happened. I think it was really well done and gave the FMC more depth. There is a lot of mystery with her past, but it was a bit predictable (although given the genre and tropes used, it wasn’t an upsetting predictability. Just typical “chosen one” type vibes.) I have a feeling we will get a lot more answers about her in book two, as much of who she is and her story was a mystery until the very end. We also have a shadow daddy MMC who is full of secrets. They had a lot of chemistry throughout the book and I found his story to be intriguing but also highly predictable. It’ll be fun to see where the story goes for these two in the next book!

Overall, I found this to be a pretty solid first installment of a series that I think will have a lot of potential. It has me intrigued and I think if I did a reread of the book physically before book 2, a lot of my initial issues with pacing and world building might be a little better. I’d recommend if you’re looking for a new romantasy series that has potential for greatness!

i DNFd at 29% i tried so hard to get into it but the plot was all over the place which i usually love but not right off the bat…the characters o did enjoy tho and the narrators as well
dual pov…yaaaay
how eve i kept getting lost and felt like i had to drop everything to try and follow along. 4 stars because the narrators really brought life to it

i truly wish I could find the words to describe this story, because it is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES. if there is one thing i love its a book that keeps you on your toes, and while this book can be a bit confusing at times; I had to reread a few pages and sections, but i like to affectionately call this book 'puzzley'! it all slowly begins to fall into place in the end and i was having SO MANY little ‘omg’ moments. Additionally, I have already read the physical book and so this audio was SO GOOD. I already love this story, chloe’s writing, and the characters; but this audiobook was a solid 11/10. there’s dual narration and they do a FANTASTIC job of portraying both Astrea and Nyte EXACTLY how i envisioned them while i read the book. a lot of times i’m scared to listen to an audiobook if ive already read the text version in fear of the narrators just not doing the characters justice, but that was not the case, they totally hit the nail on the head.

“When falls Night, the world will drown in Starlight.”
3.5⭐️ book
4⭐️ audiobook because the narrators were 👩‍🍳 💋

✔️Rich World Building
✔️Vampires, Fae, Gods, and Humans
✔️Mysterious, in the shadows MMC
✔️Strong FMC
✔️Forbidden Romance
✔️Dual POV
✔️Lost Memories
✔️Deadly Trials

The audiobook has multiple narrators!! The narrators really nail their characters, bringing the story to life. I love that each character has their own male and female voice actors—it makes everything feel way more immersive. The book gives off vibes of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue mixed with Trial of the Sun Queen.

I’ll admit, it took me a bit to get into the story. It has a great hook, but the pace is a bit too slow in first third of the book. After that, though, it picks up, and I found myself constantly needing to recharge my headphones to finish the audiobook!

Astraea is such an inspiring main character. She’s strong and determined, not letting the grief of her past or her tough present hold her back. Like a “caged bird,” she fights for her freedom and her found family, even when everything goes wrong. I felt for her as tragedy after tragedy struck. But she’s resilient and brave, diving into deadly trials to protect her kingdom.

Then there’s Nyte, the morally gray love interest. He’s mysterious and definitely alluring. I loved the scenes with him the most—they kept me hooked!

Overall looking forward to book 2!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for this advanced audiobook via NetGalley.

I wanted to like this book. The synopsis had so much promise. It had a lot of potential for world-building, different creatures and gods, and a cool magic system, but I felt like we got a minimal explanation for any of those things.

I did not find the FMC or MMC likeable. They had no chemistry to me. Basically I just felt like the FMC became obsessed over this mystery man she had a 2 minute encounter with. I swear for 60% of the book I thought she was hallucinating.

The saving grace in this book to me were the side characters. I found the other contestants, Astrea's best friend, and even the servants far more interesting than the two leading characters. I think that was the driving force for me finishing this book.

Definitely a different plot than typical fantasy that I’m used to but I really enjoyed it. It was a little hard to follow at times but over all it was very entertaining and enjoyable and I’m looking by forward to the next book.