Review: Our Dark Stars by Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade

Title: Our Dark Stars 

Author:  Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade
Publisher: Blaze Publishing LLC

Publishing Date: March 6th, 2018

Pages: 316
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Fantasy

Series:  Stand Alone
Source: ARC

 

While she sleeps, the whole universe changes.

Princess Talia Starchaser has it all. Wealth. Status. Adoring citizens. But on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she’s forced to publicly betray her best friend, a companion mock she’s had since birth, setting events into motion that lead to the destruction of the humans, and the princess floating through space, a remnant of a time when humans ruled over droids.

One hundred years later, half-mock captain Will Perrault and his ragtag crew discover a device floating in space. When a very human Talia emerges from its depths, Will suspects she’s the key to buying his way back into the regiment he once commanded against the last remaining rebel humans—and the ruling mock queen’s good graces.

Both Talia and Will would rather get space-tossed than trust one another, but with the queen’s forces chasing them across the galaxy and the fate of both worlds hanging in the balance, they’ll forge the unlikeliest of alliances to survive

Our Dark Stars sounded like the perfect space opera read. I was very excited to get the ARC copy. I really liked this read. It took me a while to get through but at no fault of the book just fault of my life. I enjoyed the main characters and the story. I feel this is not a stand alone but a series. At least I hope so. I really want to read more of this world and I feel like the story was just beginning. 

Talia is a princess. She is doomed I mean betrothed to marry a prince that is just crap.Talia's best friend is her junior mock Ailat. Recent behavior of mocks due to a virus has caused some uprising and now people are scared of mocks. The prince, being a douche bag that he is orders Talia to kill Ailat. I know so wrong... Well Talia finds a way to get out of destroying her best friend and things happen a series of hailstorms and oh craps that lead to Talia being sent away from the ship in a pod.. A hundred years fast forward and things have totally changed in the world. This is where Will comes in. He is half human half mock. The mocks run the world and own the humans like slaves. How the humans allowed this to happen no clue but apparently the mocks are smart and fast and strong and are able to dominate the world and space. Will has a hard time fitting in because he is half human and that is just disgusting. He is the captain of a crazy crew of your basic scavengers and they happen upon a pod one day. The pod that sleeping beauty Princess Talia is in. She wakes up to a whole new  world and of course the crew and Will has no idea who she is but it all plays out and there are battles and lies and secrets and rebellions and an evil queen and all that good stuff that makes an awesome space opera. 

Well I very much liked this book. There were so many good things that were intertwined with this story. What is right what is wrong, abuse and racism among them. I really really enjoyed the story. I had a little bit of a hard time with the half human half mock thing. I had a bit of hard time believing mocks could take over but it all fit well into the story and made for some good times. So I enjoyed it very much. 

I really liked the two main characters,  Talia and Will. I also very much liked Will's crew. I felt all the characters were developed quite nicely and I just felt like I knew each and every one of them on a personal level. Talia was strong, independent, headstrong and a little naive. But she was growing into herself before everything went to hell in a hand basket. I mean she was about to marry the prince of cruel and conceited to save the world basically and when it came down to doing something she didn't want to do, she refused. Not in a way that I liked but in a way to stop something awful from happening. Of course in the end something awful still happened but that is what makes this a story. 
Will was funny but he was also a bit emotional. Not to much. I did want to slap him at time because he thought being part human made him week and didn't see that it gave him humanity. When his humanity finally shown through I was totally team Will. 

The romance was slow and really hardly there. There were just moments here and there where you could see things changing just a bit. At first the two had nothing in common. Will confused Talia and Talia was hated by Will. But slowly things change and it was sweet at the end. There was never any passion or heat or swoon moments. Just sweetness. 

The book was action packed and I liked that. There was a lot going in and I wasn't surprised when the big was revealed but that was okay. I liked I figured it out and I was correct and it didn't take away from the story at all. 

So the ending well wasn't much of an ending. It was good and definitely went somewhere but I need more. I need to see how it plays out and I need to see how the romance flourishes. There is no mention of a sequel but I am crossing my fingers for one. 

Really really enjoyed it and I am begging for more. Really I need more. 

Audrey Gray:  Hi! I’m an award winning and USA Today bestselling author of several books, including the Moonbeam Children’s Award bronze finalist, SHADOW FALL. I live in the charming state of Oklahoma with my crew: one husband, two little people, four mischievous dogs, and one poor cat. You can usually find me hiding out in my office from said crew, surrounded by books and sipping kombucha while dreaming up wondrous worlds for my characters to live in.
In between the chaos—What’s for dinner? Stop pinching your sister! Homework! Dishes!— and my writing, I make time for various projects. An admitted paintaholic, I’ve painted, sprayed or transformed nearly every piece of my house at least once. I even painted my husband’s beloved fabric chair. Oops!
I thrive on creation: starting from an idea, a blank canvas, or perhaps an outdated room, and using my imagination to create something new and emotionally engaging that’s all my own. But stories have always been my first love. Weaving together complex worlds full of flawed, conflicted characters allows me to express myself in a way I could never do otherwise.
I started creating stories during the sweltering Oklahoma summers spent laboring in my father’s wheat fields. Alone and bored, I dreamed up wild fables of vampires (the Anne Rice kind), cave men, and love-torn ghosts. By college my tales had grown more persistent, and I started to actually write them down.
Now, fiction is my life, and I look forward to sharing my characters and their stories with all of you.

Krystal Wade: I’m happily married to the love of my life (don’t gag) and raising three beautiful children in the gorgeous state of Virginia. We live just outside Washington, D.C., and every day I wake up to find myself stuck in traffic trying to get there.

The horrid commute gives me plenty of time to zone out and think about my characters in full, brilliant details (I’m a safe driver; don’t worry). Stories give me a way to forget about the sometimes smelly strangers sitting next to me on the fifty mile trek into town (I pick up hitchhikers every day. True story. Check out www.slug-lines.com if you don’t believe me).

I’ve been a part of organized hitchhiking for nearly fifteen years, but that’s just one small aspect of my oh-so-large life. When I’m not working, commuting, or chasing after my three children (four if you count the man), you can usually find me outside talking to my chickens like they’re the cutest things in the world (they are), or training my amazing dogs how to herd said chickens (which they love), or curled up on the sofa with a good book (why can’t that be 100% of the time?).

I hope you love my stories (or just like them a little; that would be okay, too). And I hope that one day you find your passion, because there’s nothing in life better than doing what you love while surrounded by people you love.