Inherit the Stars - Book Review

Inherit the Stars (Inherit the Stars #1)
by Tessa Elwood

What is it about:
LOVE AND LOYALTY.

As the youngest daughter of the House of Fane, Asa lives every day of her life in honor of both, for herself and her people. But as her kingdom's food and energy crisis peaks, Asa must find more to fuel Fane's survival.

Taking the place of her older sister in an arranged marriage with Eagle, the heir to the prosperous House of Westlet, seems like a straightforward solution. Forging an unforeseen bond, however, leads to an unavoidable division of loyalties. One simple truth lies at the heart of the matter, and only Asa can decide which one to tell.

What did I think of it:
This is a cool read.

Asa is impulsive and naive. In the first chapter she trying to get her sister to a medic on the moon of a planet where riots broke out, telling the commander of the army to not retaliate while the rioting civilians are bombing the army.

This naive, idealistic view of the world keeps influencing Asa throughout the story: Food shortage? Can't be, she just bought a pastry at a shop!

Instead of being annoyed by this (like many other reviewers apparently are) I actually liked this. Asa was steadfast in her naive view of the world, making it an actual character flaw instead of an easy tool to get the story going. I will tell you that her naive bumbling made me suspect all kinds of other characters of all kinds of nasty plots, just because she was so trusting and not because they did anything to deserve my mistrust.

Out of love for her oldest sister she takes the place of the middle sister in an arranged marriage and that's when she really gets herself in over her head. I loved seeing her blunder about trying to make the allegiance work and to prove she is an asset instead of a liability.

If there's two things I could say against this story it's that I'd have loved to see a bit more of Asa and both her sister and her husband together. Most of what Asa does is out of love for her sister, but we never get to see the two of them interact. Same goes for Asa and her husband: I wanted more scenes where I could really feel them connect.

Even without those things I did very much enjoy this book and I'll definitely get my trotters on the other book in this duology.

Why should you read it:
It's a very enjoyable SF YA read.


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