Witch. Betrayal. Hunted.
Jayin Ijaad is in hiding. A witch with powerful abilities, she carves out a life for herself in the slums of Pavaal, a city rotting from the inside out. When an old acquaintance tracks her down, Jayin is dragged back into a world she tried to escape — and is determined to escape again.
Maddix Kell is on the run. After two years in prison for crimes he did not commit, Maddix escapes and seeks out a legendary order of witchhunters who are his only chance to find justice.
But all is not as it seems and Maddix soon finds himself on the run from the people he sought as allies. When their paths collide, Jayin and Maddix must put aside their prejudices and forge an uneasy alliance that could crumble at any moment. But if they want to survive in Aestos — a brutal kingdom where magic and corruption lie hand in hand and enemies lurk around every corner — they must first survive each other.
This book was one of those “great blurbs not so great execution” books. The blurb is a good blurb. It grabs you and has enough that inspires you to read it. However, the bulk of the story was . . . repetitive.
Catching Stars starts strong. It pulls you in right off the bat with a flashback and scene on how Maddix gets to prison. But, I feel that’s pretty much where the book ends in awesome.
The one thing I noticed about this book is that whenever there was a big event, one of the main characters ended up with being knocked out. It was like . . . run, run, big fight, bad guy, more fight, run, pass out. This happens roughly four times in this book. The first time was great. It pulled at my heartstrings and made me turn the page. The second time was so/so. The third . . . I was just getting annoyed.
The climax was decent. However, I didn’t quite understand the dialogue between the female lead and what I suppose is the main baddie (who we only learn is the main baddie in that moment).
Overall, I feel that this book could have been better executed. The story itself, the bare bones of it, is interesting. I was pulled in and I did like the character dynamics. But, what made it a larger piece of work felt either lacking or slightly lazy in the storytelling.
I’m sure other readers would see this book as good. For me, I wasn’t impressed.
Final Rating: 2/5
Casia's Corner 