I’m always in the mood for a grief-turned-revenge story - and when it’s set in space? That’s just another bonus.

In Death Among the Stars, we’re following Kyra. Her husband, the alien captain of a galactic crew and an impressive spaceship, was murdered.

Kyra feels broken and empty, but her husband left the entire ship to her. Feeling numb, she shrugs and leaves Earth for good with her new crew. Slowly they start to help her heal … and get revenge on the killers so that she can head towards the future.

This really feels like the pilot episode of a TV series. It’s a little over 100 pages long and perfectly sets up the story, but there’s a large and vulnerable focus on Kyra’s grief and how she feels unable to move on and live without a partner. We do get a first (very fun) chunk of action towards the end, and I’m definitely excited to consume more of this story and these characters, but I just want to prepare anyone who picks this one up to anticipate slower pacing.

Kyra’s journey through grief is heart-wrenchingly relatable, and she’s sitting in a place of detachment from reality. She can’t process this sudden shift in her world and imagine a future without her husband in it. She’s sometimes a bit cold to those surrounding her, but bit by bit she opens back up.

I’m confident that there’s so much going on behind the scenes that we as readers don’t yet know, and I’m excited to find out.

CW: murder, death, grief, violence, drug abuse, vomit

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(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)