The Stars Between Us by. Cristin Terrill | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Stars Between Us

Author: Cristin Terrill

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 400

Publication Date: 8/2/22

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Categories: Sci-Fi, Young Adult, Romance, Mystery, Rags to Riches

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

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Thank you to Wednesday Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

There’s always been a mystery to Vika Hale’s life. Ever since she was a child, she’s had an unknown benefactor providing for her and her family, making sure that Vika and her sister received the best education they could. Now, Vika longs for a bigger life than one as a poor barmaid on a struggling planet, but those dreams feel out of reach. Until one day Vika learns that her benefactor was a billionaire magnate who recently died under suspicious circumstances, and Vika has shockingly been included in his will. Invited to live on a glittering neighboring planet, Vika steps into a world she can hardly believe is real. 

The only blight on Vika’s lavish new life is the constant presence of Sky Foster, a mysterious young man from Vika’s past who works for her benefactors. She doesn’t like or trust Sky, but when she narrowly escapes an explosion and realizes someone is targeting the will’s heirs, Vika knows Sky is the only one who can help her discover the identity of the bomber before she becomes their next victim. As Vika and Sky delve into the truth of the attacks, they uncover a web of secrets, murder, and an underground rebellion who may hold the answers they’ve been looking for. But Sky isn’t who he seems to be, and Vika may not escape this new life unscathed.

In The Stars Between Us, Cristin Terrill sweeps readers away to a Dickensian-inspired world where secrets are currency and love is the most dangerous risk of all. 

Content Warning:

This was an interesting read. It’s a young adult sci-fi story with an assassination plot mystery, rags to riches trope and romance sprinkled in there too. Here is what did and didn’t work for me:

+ I liked the creativity – the whole sci-fi world building was interesting to me. Vika lives on poor planet Philomenus and life is hard, she wants more and coincidentally she gets more and gets an upgraded life by moving to Ploutus which is the rich planet basically.

+ I was intrigued enough to read this in one sitting. I figured out a few things about the plot in the beginning but it still made me want to read through to the end to see if I was right. I was mostly right! There are assassination attempts, changing wills, suspect characters and Sky’s secret.

+ I thought the characters were pretty fleshed out – even if some of them were unlikable. At least they were true to themselves.

~ Vika is unlikable. ambitious – she wants out of the poor life and she has a way out and takes it, barely looking back at her family back home on Philomenus. She’s a snob, selfish, shallow and beautiful of course – but she does have a little growth by the end of the book.

~ Sky Foster is Vika’s opposite – I just really wished he had some kind of backbone around her. Vika could eat him up, spit him out, stomp on him and he’d be fine with it. He’s a dutiful boy, sweet to his friends, a good guy really…I just wish he didn’t let Vika push him around at times.

~ The insta-love on Sky’s part. Like, come on man, what do you see in Vika?! lol…him falling in love with her was weak. There was hardly any build-up between them, she hated him for the most part. But by the end of this book they are in love.

~ Would have been nice to have more sci-fi in the story, it’s a pretty lite sci-fi story. I felt like the most sci-fi thing about the story was the setting, economy and the transportation.

Why you should read it:

• you aren’t used to reading sci-fi – this one is a lite sci-fi story with romance and intrigue

Why you might not want to read it:

• Vika is unlikable – and usually I can deal with unlikable characters but I did not see why Sky fell for her so fast

My Thoughts:

Overall I think the story did a good job with the rags to riches trope. Vika went from rags to riches in the blink of an eye and does that change her? She was pretty unlikable when she was poor – but I found her hunger for more commendable. When she finally gets more she finds it easy to forget her parents and sister back on Philomenus. She’s cold and yet Sky, the sweetest, nicest guy can see past all her selfishness and fall in love with her. You know he’s fallen hard! There is some growth in her character but I still felt like she was the thing that didn’t make me enjoy this story as much as I wanted to. I did like the mystery of the assassination attempts though, and the world building is creative.

📚 ~ Yolanda