3.5 stars...not quite good enough for me to round up to 4 stars, but still entertaining.

3.5 stars for me. This gets rounded up to four because of the background of the writing of the novel. I found it very interesting that this was based on the author's ancestors. It was obvious that she did a good amount of research crafting this story.

This is a historical fiction with some romantic elements. It follows Virginia Loftin as she attempts to create a successful writing career in New York at the turn of the 20th century.

There were several things I liked about this book. The first was that the book takes place in America in the late 1800s. I just feel like it isn't necessarily an oft-explored time/place and I enjoyed that.

I thought the characters were fairly well-written, especially Virginia (which she should be, considering it's written in first person). I also really enjoyed the world-building. The descriptions were very clear and interesting, and I liked the idea of a place where creative men and women met to share their love of art and literature.


My major issue with this novel is that it seemed to drag near the end. There was a big revelation about 120 pages from the end of the book. This revelation changes the landscape of the novel completely. After that point, there really isn't a lot of action, and it does seem to drag.

Also, I never felt convinced by the romance between Virginia and John. For the first part of their relationship, she mostly seems to just feel awkward because of her feelings for someone else. Then I turn the page and she is saying that she is deeply in love. I just didn't feel it. I would've liked a little more development of their romance.

4.5 stars
I love Jane Austen, and I am a total sucker for books inspired by Jane Austen's work. Unfortunately, there are far too many sub-par books that come out every year that are just poor imitations of Jane Austen. Fortunately, For Darkness Shows the Stars is not one of those. It took the basic premise of Persuasion (my second favorite Austen novel, right behind P&P) and adapted it in a really wonderful way.

The story is about Elliot North, a young woman who lives with her father and sister on a plantation. She had a longtime friendship and eventually a romance with a worker on the plantation named Kai. The people working on the plantation are descended from people who had been genetically altered in the past. It was supposed to make people highly intelligent and aware, but it ended up backfiring and creating what they call 'Reduced' people. The Reduced are thought to be very simple-minded, only able to perform menial tasks that don't require any higher-level thinking. As new generations are born, more and more Reduced people are having children that have no mental deficiencies. These people are called Posts (for Post-Reductionists) and they have started running away from their masters to seek a better life. Kai decides to leave and wants Elliot to go with him, but she feels that the other people still on the farm need her and she refuses to go. Four years later, he comes back into her life a wealthy and successful ship-builder and that's where the story begins. I don't want to give too much away so that's all I'm going to say about the plot.

The characters are complex, flawed, and believable; that includes the many side characters. Perhaps the only character I really had trouble with was Elliot's father. He was just evil because...reasons. I felt as though he was slightly one-dimensional. But in comparing him to his Persuasion counterpart I felt like the author actually did a very good job taking the selfish, ignorant, pompous, pretentious, snobby father and raising the stakes by making him dangerous rather than indifferent.

I love the relationship between Elliot and Kai. Their early relationship is told through letters they send each other, which I love considering the importance of letters in Austen's writing. I love that they are always candid with each other in those letters, and his last letter to her...it's everything you want from a Persuasion re-imagining. I also liked that there was a good deal of interaction between them. Persuasion is such a good book if you like a slow burn romance. But there is a part of me that always wished we'd had a few more conversations between Anne and Wentworth. This book delivered those interactions without taking away the slow burn aspect of this story.

As for the world-building, I thought it was decent, but not spectacular. It takes place on an island...somewhere. They mention names like Einstein, Curie, and Tesla, so it's obviously supposed to be on Earth at some point in the future, but other than that, we are left with few clues as to when/where this story is set.

All in all, I thought this was a wonderfully rich and entertaining book. I heartily recommend it for anyone who loves Jane Austen.

2.5 stars. I really wanted to like this book. I had seen so many wonderful reviews and the concept was very intriguing. Unfortunately, I feel like the potential this book had wasn't realized.

The 'plot' (what there is of it) isn't very easy to explain without getting spoilery. There is a school filled with children who had returned to our world after discovering and living in alternate universes and they are trying to find their way back.

What I liked about this book:
1. I feel like this book had a lot of potential. The concept was original and interesting.
2. The diversity of the characters. There are several minorities represented in this book and for the most part I didn't feel like it was forced.
3. The cover. So simple, but beautiful and peaceful as well.

What I didn't like about this book:
1. The characters. I just couldn't connect to any character at all. While there was diversity, which was wonderful, the character development was sorely lacking. There was no depth to them at all, and several threads that were set up in the book were never paid off.

2. The world-building was just okay. This book is supposed to take place in our world, but the book takes place solely on the school grounds. I would've loved the author to delve into more detail about the different worlds that people were from. The little glimpses we got through different group sessions was definitely the most intriguing part of the book. Unfortunately they were few and far between.

3. I didn't enjoy this style of writing. There was too much telling, not showing. The end of the book wraps up a big mystery in the course of a couple pages in a way that was not at all satisfying, in my opinion. A few pages after that, the book abruptly ends. I assume this is to leave the door open (no pun intended) for further books with these characters, but I don't think I will be seeking them out.

I absolutely loved this book. I went into it pretty much blind. I'd read the synopsis awhile back and put it on hold at the library. When it was finally available I just dove into the book and I'm so glad I did. From the very first page I was sucked in.

The story is told through the eyes of Melia. She is the oldest of three siblings, and has to figure out how they are going to provide for themselves after their mother passes away in the middle of Depression-era Virginia.

Melia is a wonderful narrator. She is blunt, funny, and honest. As interesting as it can be to read a book with an unreliable narrator, her candid and frank nature is very compelling. Melia's voice is so strong in this book, at times it feels like you're reading a memoir rather than a book.

The world-building was excellent as well. Descriptive without being completely bogged down in flowery language or dense exposition. I could easily picture everything as I was reading.

Many people seemed to be bothered by some of the coarse language used in this book (especially by Melia) but it felt authentic to me, not only because of the time period but also who she was as a character. She wasn't this meek, damsel-in-distress, perfect girl. She was tough, resourceful, and flawed. I honestly feel like if it was a male character talking that way it wouldn't be as big of an issue.

I'm trying to think of something to be critical about, and at this moment I just can't. Maybe I'll edit this later after I think a little more on the book. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I whole-heartedly recommend this book.

I enjoyed this book. It was a fun, quick read. It's wasn't anything particularly original or well-written, but it was a nice, fluffy summer read.

I have to mention one thing that really bothered me while reading this book. Harper, the lead character, is always having these huge klutzy moments. This is a book/movie trope that I aggressively dislike. I could name more than a dozen movies off the top of my head (mostly 90s romantic comedies) where the female lead is just a total klutz, knocking things over, tripping over nothing, literally bumping heads with the cute male lead, etc. It's annoying and honestly pretty lazy writing. Was there really no other personal flaw that could've been highlighted? It is such a tired trope. And what was even more annoying to me was that the author acknowledged that it was an overused cliché at two different points in the book.

The first was a scene between Harper and her friend, Kristina...

Harper: And to top it all off, I was at peak klutzy mode

Kristina: Like, lovable lady in the first quarter of a romantic comedy clumsy?

And sure enough, about a quarter of the way through the book we don't have any more clumsy moments (at least, not physically clumsy. Harper isn't exactly the most intuitive of characters, which leads to some very awkward interactions) as she starts running around in stilettos while intoxicated...because those two things lend themselves well to people with clumsy tendencies, right?

One other thing that kind of bugged me was the dynamic between Harper and her parents. At the beginning, we are told that they are a little on the restrictive side. They won't let her watch certain tv shows (namely Gossip Girl) because of the adult content...but then they send her 3,000 miles away to stay with a family friend who is an enabler (and in most cases, instigator) of bad behavior. It just didn't ring authentic for me.

All in all, I did have a fun experience reading this book, and I think if I'd read it at age 16-20ish, I probably would've LOVED it.