Scavenge the Stars takes on The Count of Monte Cristo and turns it on its head. Despite being a retelling, there are numerous twists and turns that are completely Tara Sim's own and that will leave you breathless and on the edge of your seat. Scavenge the Stars is a nail biter if I've ever read one.

The tale follows Amaya Chandra, also known as Silverfish, who is on a hunt for revenge after everything is taken from her and her parents and she's sold to a debtor ship. She bides her time and waits for the perfect opportunity, and stumbles upon it in the form of a man named Boon. Boon offers her exactly what she's been waiting for for seven years: the chance to take down the man responsible for her family's demise. Amaya returns to her home, the city of Moray, with a new identity and a newly formed purpose - destroy Kamon Mercado.

Cayo Mercado has lived a life of completely succumbing to the glitz and glamor of Moray, and promptly plunges his family into debt because of his indulgent gambling habits. But when his sister Soria falls ill with the mysterious ash fever that's plaguing the city, Cayo knows he has to do whatever it takes to get her the medicine their family can no longer afford, even if that means returning to the same districts he lost his fortune to.

Amaya's and Cayo's stories get more and more intertwined as they unravel the secrets of Moray, and the twisted legacies of their parents before them. But as they also become more drawn to each other with each passing encounter, they'll have to figure out what's more important - doing the right thing, or chasing their own desires.

This book sucked me in totally unexpectedly. Amaya and Cayo are different forms of chaos incarnate, and while Cayo is just. plain dumb...Amaya falls prey to the manipulations of people she doesn't even want to trust. There's a hard lesson throughout this book that our parents aren't always what we want to believe them to be, and that sometimes, searching for the truth reveals more secrets than you could have ever bargained for.