📕 Title: Star Wars: Eyes Like Stars
✏️ Author: Ashley Poston
📖 Genre: YA Sci-Fi / Romance
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When eighteen-year-old Ardent Quay saves the life of a fast-talking Wild Spacer on Coruscant, she doesn’t expect a thank you—and she certainly doesn’t expect him to stowaway on her father’s star tour ship. Yet here he is, taking up residence in the ship’s pantry and eating all her favorite snacks. He’s mysterious and coy and strange, with silver hair and eyes speckled with stars, and no matter how much she tries to pull away, she can’t. She should report him to her father, but the stowaway soon convinces her that there’s a nefarious plot at play on this ship, one that has the lives of everyone onboard at stake. With the galaxy on the brink of war and the First Order breathing down their necks, Ardent and her stowaway must ferry a precious artifact to its homeworld without getting caught—or worse, killed.

This is, actually, a terrible time to take a tour of the galaxy. And an even worse time to fall in love.

REVIEW

Thank you to Random House/Star Wars for the digital copy of Star Wars: Eyes Like Stars! This is a young adult romance novel set in the Star Wars universe during the Rise of the First Order. The novel has a single point of view and written in first person perspective.

The two main characters, Ardent Quay and the Wild Spacer she meets in Coruscant, are new to Star Wars lore but they fit right in! Ardent’s witty narrative was so fun to read, especially in her interactions with the Wild Spacer. You can expect plenty of banter, forced proximity, angst, and romance as they team up for a quest across the galaxy. Since this is YA there is nothing more than kissing.

The story is full of action and adventure and the setting was well established, integrating all the aliens, droids, tech, and First Order shenanigans that you’d expect from a book set in the Star Wars universe. Whether they were running through the streets of Coruscant, on board the Starfarer, or on other planets, the descriptions made the scenes easy to imagine. I especially loved the references to events and characters from the films and shows, and the cameos are top tier! I also appreciated the theme of anti-fascism woven throughout the story.

Ashley Poston is one of my favorite romance writers and she did not miss with this book! You can tell that she is a huge fan herself and put all of her love into this novel. I highly recommend this novel for fans of Claudia Gray’s Lost Stars and Star Wars readers who want to give YA Romance novels a try (or even YA Romance readers who want to give Star Wars a try).

(To my Starcruiser friends: you will love the Chandrila Star Line references.)