Book Nerds Across America

We shared the book summary for Starlight when it was released on Tuesday. So let's jump right into my review! 

First of all: Cover love! I really like how the stars are shimmering in an arc and the contrast it provides on the purple and black cover. High five cover designers!

This book is about Solara's and Doran's journey around the universe, and as a reader I really did feel like I was on a journey. This was a bad and a good thing. I almost felt like I was reading not one cohesive story, but a mash up of different events that took place at different times on different planets. I don't know why, but it kinda felt like, "Okay, there's at a new planet and here's a heist/scene where everything goes wrong. They escape. A few weeks goes by on the Banshee, but we are told about it, we don't read about it. Then here we are a new planet and a here's the new heist that they need to pull off..." And repeat. Not that I didn't enjoy reading about the different happenings, because I did. 

For some reason, I wasn't really into Solara either. I think there was potential to make the reader emphasize with her more by telling more of her backstory or showing us more how she came to be the handy mechanic that she is. But there was kind of a disconnect there, and it left me feeling indifferent towards her. I did really enjoy watching Doran's story unfold and seeing his character arc from beginning to end. Doran and Solara also had hot, amazing romantic tension! Whew! Those two really had some great scenes.

It's a testament to how well Melissa Landers did in getting me to know her characters that I got teary eyed at he end. Someone at the end -- Solara, I think? -- says that the Banshee crew is a family, and they really are. They all have skeletons in the cloest and they are far from perfect, but they have each others' backs. It looks like this is the start of a trilogy or a series or something, so I'm interested to see what's in store for them next.