Spinning Starlight, by R.C. Lewis | ARC Book Review #286

NOTE: I’ve copied and pasted this review from my GoodReads account. 

I was given a copy of this book from Disney Book Group via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen hates the spotlight. But as the only daughter in the most powerful tech family in the galaxy, it’s hard to escape it. So when a group of men shows up at her house uninvited, she assumes it’s just the usual media-grubs. That is, until shots are fired.

Liddi escapes, only to be pulled into an interplanetary conspiracy more complex than she ever could have imagined. Her older brothers have been caught as well, trapped in the conduits between the planets. And when their captor implants a device in Liddi’s vocal cords to monitor her speech, their lives are in her hands: One word and her brothers are dead.

Desperate to save her family from a desolate future, Liddi travels to another world, where she meets the one person who might have the skills to help her bring her eight brothers home—a handsome dignitary named Tiav. But without her voice, Liddi must use every bit of her strength and wit to convince Tiav that her mission is true. With the tenuous balance of the planets deeply intertwined with her brothers’ survival, just how much is Liddi willing to sacrifice to bring them back?

Haunting and mesmerizing, this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans strings the heart of the classic with a stunning, imaginative world as a star-crossed family fights for its very survival.

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Down to the brunt of it: I love this book. The characters are great. All of them have their own faults, which is expected. What really brings everyone together in this book though, is trust. And I think thats amazing considering all the circumstances. Spinning Starlight had me feeling so many things at once. I want to buy this book so badly, haha. Thats how much I love this book. I could read Spinning Starlight over and over again and still not get tired of it!

Written in an spellbinding way, Spinning Starlight drew me in immediately. I did not want to stop reading this book! The story is just so addicting. Spinning Starlight had me laughing, almost had me crying, and made me feel so much grief. I literally cannot stop thinking about this book. The pace of this book is fantastic. Everything fits together so well. The ideas in this book are crazy good and what R.C. Lewis is doing with these books is so freaking creative. I love her writing.

The characters in Spinning Starlight are incredible. We first meet Liddi, and then from then on we see how incredibly resilient she is. We meet other characters along the way, like Tiav’elo and he’s just a whole other kind of character. He is captivated by Liddi, to say the least. There are other characters as well, like Liddi’s brothers and they’re all just so freaking cute and amazing. I know, Im fangirling, but how can I not? All her brothers are protective and they love Liddi something fierce. When it comes down to the nitty gritty though, we see and know, that the brothers dote on Liddi.

Liddi loves her family so much, but she doesn’t feel like she fits in with them, mentally. Everyone in her family is so smart, its actually crazy how smart they all are. In comparison to her family though, Liddi feels dumb. It was kind of a tradition that her siblings create something to better their world and when she didn’t come up with anything, the media tuned in on that. The thing is though, Liddi is so smart. She doesn’t know just how smart she is.

Another thing, the media, holy crap. It’s just like our world, except worse? Like, Liddi could leave her house and then Liddi would -literally- get swarmed by the media. Its so insane.

Spinning Starlight is excellently paced. The world building is amazing, and another thing I like about Spinning Starlight is that Liddi’s memories are placed incredibly well. So not only do we see the world around Liddi practically in real time, we also see Liddi’s life before EVERYTHING happened. We get bits and pieces of Liddi’s before while seeing her now and expecting her future.

I love Spinning Starlight. Like I said, I had so many feelings while reading this book, but when I finished the book I was left with a feeling of both hope and grief. Something happens in the book that I just cannot get over. I really hope that there’s a follow up story with these characters because, ugh, I cant NOT have a follow up happen. Spinning Starlight is amazing, okay? I really suggest you read it. And I cant not end this review without saying “Clever girl.” Okay. Im good. I can go cry in the fetal position now.

Side Note: Another reason to love these books is that these books aren’t in a series or anything. They’re stand alone’s, based in the same kind of world. That is really the only thing they have in common with each other.

I was given a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Im so glad I got the chance to read this book. Spinning Starlight is amazing!!!!

I gave Spinning Starlight 5 of 5 stars on GoodReads.

Have you read Spinning Starlight, or anything else by R.C. Lewis?

Happy Reading!
Adele