Satan Reviews- Books: Of Fire and Stars

Of Fire and Stars

Audrey Coulthurst

Balzer + Bray

Minor Spoilers

The main thing this book has going for it is the lesbian romance the book centres around. If I did a full, in-depth review of this book, then most of the positive points would be about the relationship. And the relationship isn't even ground-breaking. Two presumably white teenage girls falling in love is probably the type of relationship that saturate wlw books. However, the fact that the book isn't specifically a love story and the relationship itself isn't hella problematic or weird means Coulthurst earns herself some brownie points- like two, but that's a lot for me.

Denna and Mare (more on the ridiculous names later) falling in love was pretty believable and wasn't weirdly sappy or weirdly aggressive *looks at a lot of YA books where the male love interest is way too intense*. I know some people thought there was unnecessary drama with them getting together as there wasn't really anything stopping them from getting together- which is a far point to be honest. Other than the brother, there wasn't really anything in the way.

The names in this book were too much. Or just plain no. My brain can't even remember people's actual names because they were too long. But the nicknames were lowkey cringy. She likes horses, let's call her Mare! Why not call her Amarin? It's a shorter version of her name like everyone else's nickname. Nothing screams rebellion like being called horse.

Which reminds me, the characters felt a little flat. A fact more noticeable in the narrator characters. The different POVs didn't read as different people and almost brings into question why the book wasn't written in 3rd person. Although I'm probably a little bias as I prefer 3rd person narratives. I don't feel as these characters have been fully explored (and I know there's going to be a second book) and it means the open ended conclusion to this book just makes it feel more unfinished than open ended.

The plot was pretty predictable. As soon as Mare and Thandi's uncle whatever his name was was assassinated I could predict the plot. The real villain would be someone who appeared to be nice and would frame someone from the kingdoms inner circle. For some reason they never frame Denna for anything? Even though they know she has fire magic and everyone hates magic users sooo?? I didn't expect that character's death but then again, I didn't care about that character and it just means fewer things to think about in the next book.

The magic is never fully explained. Although that could be seen as an asset to the book because it reduces the chance of info dumping, and neither of the narrators know how magic works so we're not learning anything they're not. Would have helped me understand the finale battle where Denna somehow uses her magic to create utter carnage without knowing how. Unless it's similar to when you do well on a test you didn't revise for then sure, flukes happen. Flukes where you pull the stars from the sky? But I think that was Coulthurst using an artists license as the story reads as medieval fantasy so the stars were probably meteors but Denna thought they were stars?? Maybe.

Controversial opinion- I did actually enjoy this book. You wouldn't think so from my review, but I didn't hate this book at all. It's almost like you can enjoy something and also acknowledge its flaws... It's one of those books you'll enjoy more if you don't think about it- i.e. a good time killer.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars. Extra points for the gay.