The Starlight Heir is the story of Suraya, the local weapons maker who receives an invitation to visit the palace and potentially be chosen as the next queen consort for the prince. But once she arrives, she catches the eye of his brother, Prince Roshan. While the palace is far more dangerous than she knows, Suraya also realizes she is more powerful than she thinks.

I loved that this book drew from Indian and Persian mythology, which kept it as an incredibly fresh read. The book was also very fast moving - constantly introducing new settings and characters. I really enjoyed the desert locations, which can be more unusual in romantasy. I am excited to read the next book in the series and see what is next for Suraya.

This was a great read. I initially was drawn by the cover as it’s gorgeous, but I’m happy to say I really enjoyed this book and was not expecting the ending. I cannot wait to read the next one.

The Starlight Heir could have been a compelling fantasy but unfortunately fell flat for me. The novel opens up with very long descriptions of how the world / kingdom is divided into different Houses. These houses are reminiscent of the districts in the Hunger games with one house being very militant and focused on physical strength, with the house our FMC is from being very weak and poor. The descriptions of these houses ended up not needed since the division of the houses had absolutely nothing to do with the novel.

Our FMC is the holder of this world ending or renewing power. Shes an expert blacksmith in the beginning of the book but by the middle she needs help hammering out a sword? She's fierce and determined and does not think through a single one of her actions. In fact, most of this novel's conflict could have been solved by a direct conversation between her the MMC. The modern language in a fantasy world with constant f-bombs being dropped took me completely out of the story.

The MMC has a secret double life and probably commands the shadows and lies to our FMC for the entire book but it's okay because he loves her. Frankly, he feels like a caricature of some popular "shadow daddies" all cut together.

Could this be a good novel? Maybe! I think parts of it need to be cut and other parts need to be expanded upon.

Thank you so much to Avon & Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

first things first, THE COVER IS GORGEOUS.

however i am SO torn on how i feel about this book. it had such promise and i wanted to love it, but up until around 60% through it felt like a chore to be reading it. the flow of the story left me feeling confused at times. from scene to scene felt erratic and rushed. the pace was very fast, which normally would be okay, but in this case left me wanting MUCH more. it felt like the details given would start to paint a picture and then abruptly move onto something else, making it hard for me to feel immersed in the setting. i honestly think this book could’ve been at least another hundred pages long and it would’ve only helped to add to the story and not have dragged it out in the slightest. once i hit that 60%-ish area the pace remained fast but the flow of the story was suddenly seamless and i immediately engaged with what was going on and quickly finished the rest of the book.

the love interest was a bit insta-lovey for me and other than him protecting her throughout the story there doesn’t seem to be any chemistry other than sex. our FMC has crazy powers but went back and forth from “i’m a badass” to “i’m a damsel in distress”, leaving me again confused, wondering if she actually had any growth occur from the beginning to the end.

overall the second half of the book won me over, i’m interested enough that i will read the next book in the series. the pacing was my biggest qualm and could very well have just been a “me” thing.

i’d suggest giving this book a try because for me the end had a lot of promise for the next installment!!

⭐️: 3.75

I enjoyed how it was based on the mythologies of regions I am unfamiliar with. Much of fantasy is Western Europe centric and it’s refreshing to see the fantasy elements I love in new settings.

Had you asked me my rating after only reading the first half, I probably would have said a 4 or a 4.25, both higher than my final rating. I cannot quite place where, but there almost seemed to be a shift in the editing in the last half. Dialogue seemed forced and I couldn’t buy into their insta-love. I wanted to, but it didn’t feel genuine to me. These issues presented themselves chapter after chapter,

📚✨Book Review✨📚
The Starlight Heir
Author: Amalie Howard

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.💫

Notes: I received a copy of this book as an advanced reader, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

What I Liked:
🐦‍🔥The world is fresh and new with lots of magic, mystery, and prophecies. It’s always fun discovering a new fantasy realm to delve into.

🐦‍🔥There is a bit of a tournament/battle moment in this that I loved. It felt a lot like the Hunger Games!

🐦‍🔥So many awesome and deep side characters. I look forward to reading more about them in the future!


What I Didn’t Like:
🐦‍🔥There was a LOT going on at one time and it could be a bit overwhelming. There was so much information to keep track of that even me, who’s a seasoned fantasy reader, struggled to keep things straight. It didn’t detract from me enjoying the story, but it is worth noting.


Final Thoughts:
🐦‍🔥 The ending was obviously setting future plot lines up, but now I have to wait and I hate waiting! 😭

#bookreview #reviewsneedlovetoo #readforeverpub #unpopularopinion #booktok #bookstagram #bookfriend #books #bookish #booklover #instablog #romancereader #romcom #fantasybooks

Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I’d hoped it would be.

Suraya, the main character, left me feeling a bit lost. Her personality seemed inconsistent; she’d act one way in one chapter and switch to something entirely different in the next. Rather than feeling complex or multi-dimensional, her sudden shifts made it hard to stay invested in her journey. And some of her choices felt so puzzling that they seemed to drive the plot more out of convenience than genuine character development.

The worldbuilding showed promise with a desert kingdom setting and an initial focus on different “houses,” which hinted at a richly layered environment. However, this backdrop faded fast, and those details ended up having little relevance to the story. It was disappointing to feel that this intriguing setup didn’t get the chance to shine.

The pacing was quick, but it came with a lot of repetition. The story seemed to circle through the same cycle of running, talking, distancing, and returning to the same unresolved dynamics. Despite the fast pace, I found myself wanting more depth and substance to balance it out. There was a glimmer of excitement in the trials, but it was too brief to sustain any lasting momentum.

The dialogue and inner monologues, however, were one of the bigger obstacles for me. They were filled with romantasy cliches, many repeated often. .Most of it made me cringe. It constantly pulled me out of the story, making it hard to stay immersed.

While I appreciated the premise of The Starlight Heir and the potential for a rich world, the execution didn’t quite come together for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the opportunity to review this novel.

The Starlight Heir was a phenomenal read!! I was drawn in from the start by the mythology and world building, and I remained captivated by the action-packed plot and the romance.

The world building in this book is very well done. The gods & the mythology aspect is a bit confusing at first, but I quickly had it figured out. The kingdom is comprised of four houses (each of which are grouped by common characteristics/passions) and the imperial, ruling house. There's a fifth kingdom of magic wielders, all of whom were executed a thousand years ago by the King... or were they?

The book follows Suraya, a girl from the poorest house who gets the shock of her life when she's invited to participate in the selection for the Crown prince bride. She meets his brother, Roshan, who she initially thought was a gardener. Their chemistry is instant with great banter. It quickly becomes clear that Javed is a complete psychopath via the cruel trials the girls in the selection are put through, and Suraya finds out she has the very power Javed is seeking to exploit as a weapon.

Suraya and Roshan go on the run, which is where their chemistry really blossoms. This man would literally lay down his life for her.
(Meanwhile, for years she has been having these *romantic* dreams of a mysterious shadowy figure...) Anyways, I thought Roshan's character was sweet but perhaps underdeveloped. Suraya's character is very strong - she's driven by both love and hate and has so much inner turmoil - so maybe that's why he fell flat for me. I wouldn't say it was a fast-burn romance, but it didn't necessarily have a lot of tension to it. I still enjoyed it though, but can't help wondering...

I was pretty floored by the last few pages of the book, which hint that a new mysterious and important character will be coming into play in the second book. He had a few brief, vague chapters in the book where it was unclear who it was, but at the end his role fell into place. I'm so, so excited to see what happens there and how it will impact Suraya and Roshan! I can't wait for book two and highly recommend this to fantasy romance lovers.

Thank you so much to Avon & Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this ARC! 📚

Amazing romantasy debut! I can’t wait to read the next book and meet more shadow daddies!

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager for granting me an ARC!

3.5/5! ⭐⭐⭐

⋆˙⟡ I went into this book blind, only knowing that the cover was absolutely stunning , and drew me in immediately. There were a few things that weren't my cup of tea, but overall it was a really fun read.

⋆˙⟡ The Starlight Heir follows Suraya, a 25 year old blacksmith who is invited to the castle to participate in a contest for the Prince's hand in marriage. However, she learns that the competition is really a chance for them to find and claim a new weapon – her – and use her powers for their evil agenda. Just discovering her powers and abilities, we watch Suraya try to dodge the grasp of an evil Queen and her son, all while figuring out who she really is.

⋆˙⟡ The synopsis sounded so good, but unfortunately the execution fell a little flat for me. In the beginning, we're introduced to Suraya as she is forging a blade, and a female blacksmith just sounds bad ass to me. I didn't quite feel like she lived up to the hype. She was really gullible throughout the book, and I feel like she couldn't make any decisions for herself. She was constantly looking to a guy she barley knew and just met for reassurance. Like hello, you have insane powers and are potentially one of the most powerful beings on the face of the earth, and you can't think for yourself? Girl.

⋆˙⟡ The romance aspect of it was okay, but not my favorite. It was a little insta-lovey for me, and she trusted him wayyyyy too easily. At one point I felt like the book just became about a girl who was literally having her life and family's life threatened, but could only think about sleeping with the illegitimate Prince. If there wasn't those few spicy scenes, it would almost seem very YA in the romance aspect.

⋆˙⟡ The world-building was really fun and I thought that was one of the best parts of the book. However, we didn't get enough. I couldn't picture some of the places she was in, because once we started to learn about a new place, they were leaving and heading onto somewhere else. It was very fast paced, but also really slow at the wrong times. I wish we had more of a chance to digest things and take it all in. The authors ability to include tons of detail was really lovely though.

⋆˙⟡ Overall, I think more attention to the things like the romance, magic system, pacing and characters could've really made this book truly incredible. It just felt rushed, and confusing at times. The potential was definitely there. You can tell the author is incredibly creative, and has stunning ideas. I'm still very inspired to read more of her work.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Appreciation to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for access to this digital ARC in return for an honest review.

As much as the world has so much potential, it falls flat. It read as a case of an author with ADHD and a team that wasn't willing to push her to cut events that didn't add anything special to the book or identify where to linger in the settings, magic building, and events that DID.

My complaints are mainly that you don't get to experience Coban at all, you barely get to experience the Kaldari castle, she's in Nyriell for a half of a second... there are so many portals and running around that you leave the book with no true vision of any of them. She does the same thing with characters. You meet them and they're gone. If (or when) they die there's no loss to the storyline because they were barely part of it anyway. It felt like she took elements from 6 different romantasy novels and squished them together making it feel rushed and recycled. The magic introduced also has so much potential to be a unique hard magic system, but she uses it as a soft magic system and it loses so much of it's potential novelness.

Howard is clearly creative, a fun writer, and has so much potential. She just needed to feel less pressure to include elements from every fantasy novel out there and dive a little deeper into the magical world/character development/selecting plot events.

The cover & description had me so excited to start this. Unfortunately, I didn't love this. Amalie Howard is a brand new author for me and the premise sounded so promising. I loved the world and mythology the most. Both MC's were likable enough, but I wasn't a big fan of the romance. I needed more tension and banter between them though, I felt that was lacking. The world was a little confusing and could have benefited from more details or explanation with it's history. Overall, this one didn't hit for me the way I had hoped.

I have to say I had a bit of a hard time with the last 50% of this book. As per the authors note she took inspiration from her Indian, Middle Eastern and Caribbean roots, also her fascination with astrology and mythology. And that is definitely an integral part of the story and is one of the things I liked the most as you can see it in the world building. We have Suraya who has been summoned to the palace as one of the contestants to be chosen by the prince as his bride. There she is put through a number of tests in order to prove herself worthy. Then we discover the real reasons behind that, the royal family is on search of the power held by her (unknowingly) in order to bring back the god of death.

After she is discovered everything feels very fast pace and like a lot happens but nothing at the same time. What put me off was that after the palace gets attacked Suraya blindly follows Roshan, the king's illegitimate second son who she becomes very infatuated with very fast, to the rebels hideout. He seems to know exactly what to do and how to get the rebel group to help them and she barely questioned anything. Second thing is (bit of SPOILER here) that throughout the story we have short chapters hinting that there is another love interest that we don't really get to meet in this book and that made me not care for the "romance" between Suraya and Roshan as I was thinking the whole time they were not going to be end game. With that said I think this has some good fantasy elements and potential but the execution was a bit frustrating.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC, all opinions are my own.

Suraya is just a bladesmith, but when she is summoned to the capital city to compete for the Crown Prince’s hand, she is suddenly thrust into a world of danger and magic that she could never have dreamed of. Not to mention that she’s continually drawn to the prince’s half-brother throughout the process.

The Starlight Heir has a lot of potential and I am curious to see what Howard does with this as a series. It’s pretty fast-paced and had a lot of fun elements that I really enjoyed such as trials, banter, and interesting magical elements. There isn’t a lot of “filler” like you see in a lot of fantasy, so the plot kept moving well. The world and magic system is where I struggled, because I don’t think it was fleshed out enough for me to get a good grasp on it. We didn’t get a ton of character development either, but maybe that’ll be evident in more future books. It was nice that this ended in a satisfying way, but leaves the door open for a series to continue. It definitely felt like the end was “too easy” so it makes sense that the threat isn’t fully gone.

Overall I would recommend this if you have enjoyed Howard’s other work and/or enjoy fantasy romance.

A royal courting competition may not be what it seems in “The Starlight Heir.” Suraya does not believe it when she receives the Imperial invitation to the palace. She’s spent her whole life in the lowliest town, working as a bladesmith and helping at her family’s inn. With ancient magical forces at play, a second Prince, thrilling action and romantic intrigue - this story adds up to be an enticing tale. I was immediately pulled into the storyline. The writing style is engaging, immersive, and spicy at times. Romantasy lovers need to pick this one up! I am interested to see how this story continues in the sequel.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was such an interesting romantasy full of Persian mythology! I was sucked in right away by the writing style/voice and the world building. As with any completely new world, the dynamics were a little confusing at first, but quickly made sense as the story continued. I really loved the tension between the FMC and the MMC. Their love was sweet.

The ending was a freaking whirlwind. The set up for the next book was SNEAKY!! The random pov doesn’t make any sense until the epilogue.

My only “complaint” about this book is the pacing. Some parts were rushed. The transitions between chapters (or even breaks in chapters) were a little shaky, especially between the fort and the Dustlands. I would have enjoyed more depth between Suraya and Laleh in the beginning. I feel like overall, the book could stand to be longer so that things weren’t rushed. BUT- this story was still really unique, fun, and kept me entertained the entire time.

Solid 4/5. I will be reading the final version when it comes out. Amazing debut romantasy!

Thank you Avon for the eARC!! I really enjoyed it.

I was really torn on this book. There were elements I really liked. The romance was powerful and also respectful. I liked that the ending didn’t cliffhanger the romance. However the fantasy elements and plot felt like elements combined from a bunch of other books I’ve read. There were a lot of elements that just plain didn’t make sense to me also.

This book was such a fun adventure! It jumps into things pretty quickly and has plenty of twists and turns. I love this FMC! She’s a woman who knows what she wants (and how she wants it)! When’s the next one coming out?! I want to read it too!

The cover and description pulled me in and I had my fingers crossed to be approved. I love books that are inspired by cultures other than Greek (so tired of Hades x Persephone retellings...), and this one was really interesting in regards to the world this author build. The characters were interesting as well. I feel like the writing could have been better, but otherwise this book was quite enjoyable!

I had a wonderful time reading "The Starlight Heir"! Thank you so much to the team at HarperCollins for offering to send me an e-ARC!

High stakes, tension, Indian and Persian mythology, Vedic astrology, and - of course - a love to challenge the fates. STARLIGHT follows Suraya Saab, a bladesmith and the daughter of an innkeeper/tavern owner. After being invited by the King and Queen to join a series of festivities to find the Crown Prince his wife, things start going wayward. She starts getting visions, a crone speaking in riddles that Sura can't seem to understand. Shortly after she gets to the castle, though, these riddles begin to make sense.

Suraya is the Starlight Heir - AKA the Starkeeper - and the Crown Prince and his mother will stop at nothing to use her for their evil plans. When chaos arises in the castle, Sura will have to rely on the bastard prince - Roshan - to make it out alive.

I had so much fun doing research as I read this book. It was fascinating to learn about Indian and Persian mythology as I kept reading, and each mythical animal or reference mentioned in the book was detailed enough for me to have a vibrant image in my mind.

I also loved Sura's personality, and the bond that she shared with Roshan was such a nice element that added a nice depth to the story. I also think that the first book was well developed from start to finish to have the reader anticipate the next novel in the duology. From the beginning, you have elements of intrigue that you *hope* will be answered by the end of the book, but when they aren't answered, that just gets you running to see when Book 2 releases.

There were a few moments where I felt like the writing felt a bit more YA than adult (I think perhaps the use of exclamation points in certain places could have been replaced with other means to emphasizes the point), but otherwise this was a delectable read and I canNOT wait for book two to come out. I'm very intrigued to see how Darius will come into play here.