A review by rachel_abby_reads
A Song for the Stars by Ilima Todd
3.0
I struggled with this one a bit. Maile, the main protagonist, didn't seem consistent for the time. She was able to spend a LOT of time alone with John Hardbottle, the white man, without her family getting particularly wound up about it. This was peculiar to me, particularly since they talked about people not making eye contact with the royal family, the separation of the class/caste systems, etc.
There were occasional words used or ideas expressed that felt wrong for the time and would yank me out of the narrative flow to wonder "would they have said it that way," or "that seems a fairly modern idea."
The book was saved from two stars and bumped to three when I found out that this is speculative fiction on the author's fourth great grandparents: a white English sailor and a Hawaiian chief's daughter in the late 18th century. So I was able to forgive language modernization and anachronisms for the sake of history.
Still probably not a reread for me, though.
There were occasional words used or ideas expressed that felt wrong for the time and would yank me out of the narrative flow to wonder "would they have said it that way," or "that seems a fairly modern idea."
The book was saved from two stars and bumped to three when I found out that this is speculative fiction on the author's fourth great grandparents: a white English sailor and a Hawaiian chief's daughter in the late 18th century. So I was able to forgive language modernization and anachronisms for the sake of history.
Still probably not a reread for me, though.