I actually didn't read these books back-to-back on purpose. The similarity in the titles just kind of happened.
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| Another gorgeous cover! |
Despite the painful monotony of living on a poor planet, Vika's life has always held a spice of mystery: an unknown benefactor periodically popping up, offering gifts from ice cream in first-grade to a first-class education. But lately those gifts have stopped coming, and Vika has almost resigned herself to a dreamless life.
Until the benefactor suddenly returns--dead. But his will holds a proposition that could change her life forever: if she agrees to marry his son, she will receive a fortune and could finally live the life of her dreams. The catch: others in the billionaire's will are being targeted, and if Vika can't discover the culprit, she may not escape her old life alive.
What I Loved:
My favorite parts of this book were the mystery and the romance. I’ve read one other one by this author and the suspenseful parts of her mysteries are always so strong. Even though I had a pretty good guess of the whodunit and why early on in the story, I was still invested and intrigued enough to keep reading – speed reading sometimes 😉 – to reach the end and know for sure. And I did turn out to be right. So. Proud of that 😉
The other part I loved was the ROMANCE! The bulk of the story is less about the mystery and more about getting to understand Vika and her love interest. It’s not that most of the story is a romance, perse, but that it delves deeply into each character individually, which allows the reader to understand more clearly how and why they can come together as a couple. The more I got to know them, the more I could see that their strengths really did compliment the other’s weaknesses. And when they were on the same page? (literally and figuratively) It was just… chef’s kiss. As one character put it, they were “inevitable as gravity,” and watching them grow individually and then gravitate toward each other was a thing of beauty.
What I Learned:
One of the really interesting things about Vika is that she’s actually not a loveable character. She’s self-centered and angry, manipulative and quick to judge. Especially when compared with her love interest’s unique charm, she doesn’t seem like that great of a person or an at all loveable character. And yet… I still loved her.
As I mentioned above, the book spends a lot of time exploring who the characters are and how they became that way. I know exactly what repeated struggles and stressful events caused Vika to become as ambitious as she is and hardened as she acts. As said in one of my favorite book quotes, “When I truly understand my enemy,... then I also love them,”* and this definitely holds true for Vika and characters like her. Because I know her, because I understand what past struggles, pains, and unrequited desires have caused her to act and react as she does, I also love her even though she isn’t very loveable.
So in this book I learned: that it is fully possible to write a character who is neither a loveable main nor an antihero/villain, and yet is still an incredible protagonist.
What I Thought Was Lacking:
I mentioned above that I loved the mystery – and that’s true. But there was a certain reveal that I felt happened too early in the story. For me, it was the most shocking reveal of the whole thing, but because it happened some 20-30% in, and I had already guessed most of the remaining mystery, there was a brief period in the book that felt a tad tedious. I was still enjoying the characters, but with that portion solved, it began to feel like… “Okay, shouldn’t we be wrapping up now?” The pacing did eventually pick back up, such that being in on the secret made the scenes with those characters that much richer. But since it’s a longer book, there were moments of, “Are we there yet?” and I think that wouldn’t have happened if that reveal had been pushed to the 40% or 50% mark instead.
Still gonna say a solid 5 stars out of 5 though. The Stars Between Us was a remarkable read, with gorgeous descriptions and brilliant explorations of character. Favorite of the summer so far, and will probably stay in my top 5 for the year. I really can’t see anything being that much better.
Thanks NetGalley for the review copy!
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