Review by meganlilyflower - Tarnished Are the Stars

3.5

I wanted to like this book more than I did but I did like the book.

The Good:

Ace/aro rep: especially in moments of that characters POV when we are observing the romantic couple in the story.
The queer couple are not the focus of the story but it doesn’t feel like instalove either. They aren’t just suddenly a couple, instead we get them becoming friends who trust each other while we the reader know that they have an observable connection and are attracted to each other. I love that one is clearly gay and one seems to be bi!
The sci-fi elements: the clock tech especially was super cool to me. Some steampunk aesthetic without some of the steampunk tropes and without going all in on the style.

The Meh & the Missed:

I felt there was a lot of missed opportunity for those clock hearts to be the heart of the story. It felt like we forgot about the clock heart component and Nathaniel’s “never having maintenance” when that could’ve been used
The climax felt rushed to me. Maybe it was because my last read was adult and almost 500 pages but I felt this could’ve been longer and given me more mundane interactions within the manor that added world building and gave us more tender moments with our queer couple
The queer couple isn’t the center of the story and I wish they’d come into focus more often. It just was happening in the background (literally as we got the thought in the back of characters minds) The set up had some enemies to lovers potential and I would’ve liked the see that pushed harder and followed through.

Content Warnings