Starflight

by Melissa Landers

Life in the outer realm is a lawless, dirty, hard existence, and Solara Brooks is hungry for it. Just out of the orphanage, she needs a fresh start in a place where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. She's so desperate to reach the realm that she's willing to indenture herself to Doran Spaulding, the rich and popular quarterback who made her life miserable all through high school, in exchange for passage aboard the spaceliner Zenith.

• ASIN: B08521KFD7
• Publish Date: 4 February 2016 (first published 2 February 2016)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Imprint: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

I never really got into this story. Both main characters were pretty unlikable out o the gate. He has a gross nickname for her that effectively made her even more unlikable. Well done Landers. Ugh. Then the ugly things she thinks in her pov don’t make her any more likable. 

This book has one chapter to turn around and be interesting.

My tolerance for books is ridiculously low at the moment. I don’t like either of these characters and I’m bored.

[liz089]

Very enjoyable, liked the characters and the side characters were interesting as well. Fun adventure and I'm curious what will happen in the second book. Biggest downside for me was the plot, it was way too predictable.

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews

[Berls]

I really enjoyed Starflight - it wasn't as good as Alienated IMO, but it was fun. The characters were well developed and I just love that the main character took on a more male skill - mechanic. A darn good one too. I liked the world too - the pirates, outer realm, the way indentured servitude and slavery work. The message about family and home being who you make it was good too. I didn't love the twist, it was good in that I didn't see it coming, but as twists go, I didn't like that it basically vilified parents. I think teens will like this in general because there's not a single good parent in the story. And yeah, as a parent, I didn't like that. :( great narration too.

[Sam@WLABB]

I had read Alienated and enjoyed Landers writing, but I have to say, this was even better.

This was a fun outer space romp filled with lots of action, adventure, and characters you can only love. I loved the "family" that was assembled onboard the Banshee. They were quite a diverse crew of imperfect people, who were perfect for each other. I found the world and the politics of this world quite interesting. There was some commentary in there regarding fuel and the outer terraforms, which I found quite intriguing. This was an enemies to lovers romance, and it was a nice slow burn. Landers created a lot of evidence for why they should like each other and when it finally happened, it was perfect.

Overall: great enemies to lovers romance with lots of action, adventure, great banter, space pirates and bounty hunters.

Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.

I love most books that are set in space, or on a spaceship, so I knew I would really enjoy Starflight by Melissa Landers. To be honest I wasn't that big of a fan of Landers' Alienated series, I've only read book one though and I do plan on picking book two up at some point just because I want to see where the story goes - but this book was really fun to read.

For some reason I'm having a hard time writing a book review for Starflight. I enjoyed the book, I enjoyed the storylines, there were some really surprising moments but I can't seem to put my words on paper. Here goes my attempt at organizing my thoughts.

The Book

Starflight was an enjoyable and entertaining read with a few twists and turns, we learnt about the characters the more we read which I liked, we didn't get an info dump at the beginning. Solara was a strong character only because she was forced to be, she was brought up an orphan never having been loved, she did something stupid which earned her having a run in with the law and tarnished her hardworking reputation. With no money and no where to go, she resorts to begging the rich as they boarded the last flight for months to the outer realms. Luckily (Or unluckily) for her, Doran Spaulding - her high school nemesis and handsome arsehole, decides to pay for her ticket on the basis that she is his maid for the whole duration of the journey. Solara jumps at the chance, and so begins our story.

My initial thoughts

At the beginning I wasn't a fan of Solara because she lied a lot and did things underhandedly but as the story went on I started to like her more and more. Doran on the other hand was portrayed as an arsehole for most of the book, except that we started to understand why he acted the way he did and grew accustomed to his charm and humour. I liked the Captain of the ship Solara and Doran accidentally ended up on, and the crew mates who were all really different.

I kind of want more of a story with two of them so I have a feeling the next book may be based around these two characters. UPDATE: The next book is on these two characters. Yay! I'm pretty excited about this because I felt like their story was a tad more interesting.

The story

As far as the story goes, there was a lot going on. It felt like every time something big happened, it was resolved and everything was fine, right up until the next big thing happened. I felt like it was clear to see a pattern of obstacles and answers to overcome those obstacles. With each new obstacle it felt like nothing could go right for Solara because nothing went right first time round - every single obstacle. In the end it ended up okay, so each time a new problem arose I knew she wouldn't get out of it easily but I also knew she would get out of it in the end. Because of this there weren't many surprises going on.

That is until the last quarter of the book. There were twists revealed that I didn't exactly see coming, I may have had an idea about a few but I was still a little surprised. The story really picks up at the end and I really enjoyed it.

Starflight ended up being a fun read with a few twists and turns that took the story in an interesting direction. I really enjoyed it and definitely want to see what's going to happen next.

Have you read Starflight? What did you think? Did you enjoy it or not?

Always,
Jordon

This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

3.75 ★ Audiobook⎮This was a fairly quick and easy listen. I was easily able to listen to it while completing tasks around the house, which allowed me to finish it in about 24 hours. This story was good and did a fine job of pulling me out of my recent listening slump, but it was nothing I'd write home about. Overall, it was pretty unremarkable for me. I don't have strong feelings about it either way. I have thoroughly enjoyed the previous "space dramas" I've heard (Illuminae, Starbound series), but this one did not quite live up to those standards. Starflight lacked that certain je ne sais quoi. It was enjoyable enough and there's nothing that I can specifically point to as a major detraction, but my level of enthusiasm definitely could have been higher. If I had to blame one particular thing, I guess it would have to be the writing, which felt a little bland to me. It did nothing to engage me emotionally. The world-building and character development were so-so, not terrible but not extraordinary. To be completely honest, I just realized I can't even remember the characters' names. Wait... Solara was the main character, but that's all I've got. I never really felt anything for any of them. There's no doubt in my mind that I would have enjoyed this much more if I had not previously heard Illuminae & the Starbound series. I know that "comparison kills" and all that, but I just couldn't help myself and now I'm left wondering if experiencing the seemingly unattainable awesomeness of anything Amie Kaufman (she's the common denominator there) touches has ruined the space sub-genre for me altogether...

I won't rule out listening to the next installment (which comes out sometime in 2017), but I can't see myself pre-ordering it, you know what I mean? I would recommend this for anyone that is unsure about space-fiction or YA scifi (I'm still not sure what to call this genre/sub-genre) and wants to get their toes wet before diving in. This is a simple, straightforward, and effective way to do just that.

Narration review: In retrospect, I think I actually enjoyed the narration a little more than the story in itself. Amanda Dolan brought additional depth to the characters and her narration is a large part of the reason this audiobook was so easy to listen to. Her voice was strong, clear, and articulate. She diversified the character voices just enough to provide adequate distinction, without it being intrusive to the story. Very well done! ♣︎

[ayla_abbott]

A bit predictable but good. The Chekhov Gun was all over this story which had one eye roll moment at the end. But still. Enjoyable as a light read.

[nightingalereads]

2.75-3 stars.

Meh. A cute read, but kind of a filler book for me. It wasn't bad, I just didn't care a lot about what happened.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Note: Superficially, I will say this book has a lot in common with Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis (which makes it odd that Disney Hyperion would publish both of them). The protagonists are both girls with mechanic skills. Both end up in an accidental kidnapping situation. Both are fugitives fleeing either to or from the fringes of space, which lawless in ways the "main" parts of space or not. However, while I decided to DNF Stitching Snow due to flat characters and poor handling of what was essentially parental abuse, I did enjoy Starflight--which suggests there are also noticeable differences between the two novels.