[ARC Review] Star Bringer by Tracy Wolff and Nina Croft
With the clock ticking, the Nine Planets’ only hope of survival rests on a fancy space station and the alien artifact it’s carrying. Which is why it really sucks when some jackass doesn’t want the universe saved and blows that station up—while you’re still on it.
So if your only choices are flaming death or stealing a flying hunk of space junk—you pick that busted-ass spaceship. Even if it leaves seven strangers with deadly secrets trapped together: a princess, a prisoner, a con artist, a warrior, a priestess, a mercenary, and an asshole in charge of us all.
Now every faction in the galaxy is hunting this ship—from the Sisterhood to the Corporation, and the rebellion’s joining in on the fun, too. We just need to stop drinking, fighting, and screwing long enough to evade them all and save the freaking universe...somehow.
Because apparently the only thing standing between a dying sun and ultimate salvation is seven unlikely misfits…ahem, heroes.
My thoughts: It's hard to explain, but Star Bringer gave me the same feelings that I had the first time I watched (and immediately felt captivated by) Star Wars and Firefly: a rag-tag group of people, none of whom would find themselves together in any normal situation, find themselves in an action-packed adventure of a lifetime as they race to save the planetary system. Even at 600+ pages, I had a hard time putting Star Bringer down. There was action, there was romance, and there were more revelations than I could count, each willingly pulling me deeper into this adventure featuring a princess, a prisoner, a con artist, a goofball, a priestess, her bodyguard, and their sarcastic, self-appointed leader. This is the space epic that has been missing from my shelf.
It's clear that two elements truly kept me hooked on this story: the characters, and the revelations. Both gave so much to this book, and both made me love the direction the plot was heading in more and more with each page turn. I loved these characters from the very first page. There was just something about them that drew me into their backstories, even when it seemed like I shouldn't care that much for them. It's hard to pick a favorite character; the ones I enjoyed the most were intrinsically tied together. Star Bringer is not the last we'll see of these characters, and I honestly cannot wait to see where every single characters' story go from here.
There were so many big reveals/plot revelations that I honestly lost count of how many times I was left gasping over what I'd just read. Tracy Wolff and Nina Croft left my head spinning and simultaneously wanting more. We uncovered so much about what characters have done (and what had been done to characters) that it was impossible to foresee any of the big reveals and plot twists.
Overall, Star Bringer was a space epic that left me on the edge of my seat, impatient to know what comes next. This is prime sci fi combined with just the perfect amount of romance, and I need more from this group of misfits (the characters, not the authors).
[A huge thank you to Entangled Publishing/Red Tower Books for providing an advanced copy of Star Bringer. All opinions are my own.]
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Release date: 7/11/23
Format: eARC
eARC provided via: NetGalley widget
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