DNF @ 64%

The writing itself is fine in this, Emily Skrutskie is clearly a talented writer. I just have concerns about pretty much this entire book. I actually won this copy in a giveaway, not through requests, but am reviewing on Netgalley as that was how the copy was sent to me.

Initially I was worried to start with, as the book is written from the perspective of a gay/bisexual Black man with a gay/bisexual Latinx love interest, but written by a white woman. I was worried about how well the POV would be portrayed, and unfortunately in my opinion I was proved correct. From here on out, there be spoilers. Be warned.

So our main character Ettian was born and raised on Rana. The Umber empire colonised Rana and built a military academy on the planet in the rubble of the destroyed world that they /invaded and colonised/ seven years ago. Ettian watched the public execution of the leaders of his planet and lived in the rubble of his destroyed city for five years, then spent two years at the military academy before the story started. I have no issues with any of this, and if the story that followed was Ettian fighting off the Umber empire with the Rana rebels, it would have been a fun space romp. But it wasn't. Instead, Ettian finds out that his best friend of two years is the heir to the Umber empire and proceeds to turn against the Rana rebels and do everything he can to help Gal get on the throne. He says this is because Gal will be a better leader than his parents, because Gal is such a nice guy. I couldn't show you ONE scene where Gal is a nice guy. Ettian turns him down and he keeps telling everyone he's Ettian's boyfriend anyway, he wants to destroy the rebels even though he apparently doesn't agree with war, and in a spectacular moment of assholery he sends a girl back to the planet where an abuser put a bounty on her head - literally sentencing her to death without a qualm. He's NOT a nice guy.

The point where I noped the fuck out of this book was when Ettian literally thought about the fact that he could have escaped as a refugee and joined the rebellion and, in his own words, not been worn down by Umber propaganda, but decides that he wouldn't choose that because he wouldn't have met Gal. Not for nothing, but 'I wuv him' isn't a good enough reason to excuse and enable genocide. I haven't read the last forty percent of the book, but I have talked to someone who did who explained it to me, so I admit that this is secondhand information but apparently he continues to go against the rebellion until outside forces make his plan fail, and THEN he decides to join them. So he's fine with the genocide of his people up until that point.

Ettian just lacks ALL character agency, and every time he makes a choice it's the worst possible one? I love characters that are awful, I love bad characters doing bad things, but the constant implication that Ettian is right to protect Gal no matter what is so irritating. Their relationship is pre-established before the book starts, so we just get told that they're friends - we don't learn to care about them - and I just think they lack all personality. I don't think a white woman should ever have been writing this book, and I think that white POV is shining through in this gross as hell coloniser-oppressed romance story. This book was marketed with so much fluffy language and cheerful ao3 tags that I was expecting something fun and fluffy and all about the space battles. I wasn't expecting a book that half-assedly criticises genocide while acting like the power of love can fix the murder of Ettian's people (and if I've been informed right, of his FAMILY).