ladygrey
Until the Stars Fall starts out well with a bit of an intriguing opening and then jumps into character development straight away. I wasn't expecting the language or the spicier content so I was a bit offput by that. I hadn't read Rasanen before (or the synopsis of this book or anything) so I didn't know what to expect. After I figured out it was New Adult I kept reading because it was mildly interesting. I wouldn't have kept going if the characters weren’t so solid out of the gate or the story didn’t promise interesting things, even though I suspected it wouldn't live up to that promise.
And it didn't. The plot is meh. The worldbuilding is flat. There are several interesting concepts and political complications that are introduced but really don't go anywhere. There's a whole mystical poison that is never explored or explained. The fae abilities are never really solidified so any of them can kind of do anything as long as it's convenient for the story. And there's no explanation why some of them can't do anything. There's rules about where humans can and can't go but without any reason why, expect it's against some random rule. Also I found the stringent use of “male” and “female” annoying. Those are the most boring terms among dozens of other options. The fae are barely any different form humans except they have pointy ears and sometimes random magical powers. By the time the story circled around to the moment that was intriguing in the beginning everything exciting or mysterious about it had fallen flat.
But I kept reading, now knowing I was venturing into a straight up New Adult romance, so really the only thing that would be happening the rest of the book was the characters interacting and swaying between getting closer and falling apart. Though the third act turn seemed that it would be super annoying, it wasn't as blatant or disruptive as I suspected. So, overall, if you're into pseudo-fantasy romance with a handful of spicy scenes, this does it well. You just have to be looking for that…which I wasn't really.