Cayla Keenan

There were a lot of bits and pieces to Catching Stars that didn't work for me. The cover and summary present it as an amazing fantasy world with witchcraft and fugitives and I suppose at its barest bones, it contains a witch and a fugitive. Unfortunately, the author didn't take the time to make her world immersive. She also taunted a lot of possible, fascinating plot opportunities - a plague, attempted genocide, an underground rebellion! - but settled on a star-crossed love story. It was the show more epitome of disappointment.

Overall, I found the writing weak, the characters flat, and the plot unimpressive. I wanted to like this book, because on the outside it flaunts all sorts of things that draw me in as a reader, but it was lazily and predictably written. After the fifth time a chapter ended with the characters losing consciousness, I knew this book and I were never going to hit it off. I pushed through to the end, but it wasn't worth the effort. Not for me.

If you like dialogue-heavy fantasy love stories, you may enjoy Catching Stars, but the rest of us will be left wanting. show less

I got this through Owlcrate and struggled with it. I read the first 50 pages or so and then stopped. There wasn’t anything blatantly wrong with this book. However, the writing style wasn’t the easiest to read and I didn’t engage with the characters or the story.

The story alternates between Maddix Kell and Jayin Ijaad. Jayin is a witch who is in hiding. Maddix is a soldier who was taken over by a demon and then wrongfully imprisoned because of the demon’s actions while in his body.

I show more just had no interest in the story or characters. There wasn’t anything in this story that really hooked me and caught my interest.

I think some of my issue with this book may have to do with how dense and small the type was on each page, it was just physically hard to read. This is another one of those books that I would get through maybe a page or two before finding something else that needed doing...this book just did not grab me.

Overall this book wasn’t for me and I won’t be continuing the series. show less