A solid four star read.

”For again she was alone, trapped in the cradle of the ocean’s dark and all the stars gone cold.”

Scavenge The Stars follows Amaya who has recently discovered that her parents are both dead and has made a deal with a rich man to bring down another rich man in hopes of securing a future for her and her friends.

The story is a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo and if you’re like myself and only have a vague idea on that particular classic, then I think you’ll enjoy this. There’s a lot of gambling and high stakes. There’s a little bit of Robin Hood and our main character, Amaya, is constantly battling with her own inner turmoil and how far is too far, along with what she will do in order to gain the freedom she wants.

There’s a bit of a romance but it’s more of an afterthought, and I felt as if it was halfway relevant to the progression of the storyline. So, even though it wasn’t my favorite, it didn’t bother me.

The story has a few spots where the plot gets bogged down a bit, but later on it’s revealed that those slower sections were needed. On the flip side, there were a couple of gruesome scenes that the author (I think in good taste) didn’t over accentuate. They were there, but blessedly brief.

My favorite part of the book would probably be a lot of the side characters. I really enjoyed the children the main character hangs out with that she met on the ship she had to serve time on. I found a lot of their personalities and interests to be fairly fleshed our considering they weren’t the main focus. I also really enjoyed Romara who kept surprising me over and over, and even after the end of the book I still haven’t quite figured her out.

Another thing I think was done very well, were the “quotes” from different pieces of literature at the beginning of each chapter. I felt like each of these quotes helped set an idea of the motivations for the characters as well as helping to flesh out the world a little more.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be continuing. However, I can definitely see this one being a polarizing book due to the slower nature of the book and also some may be able to detect the plot twists early on.

** I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.