Alexa Donne

Princess Leonie Kolburg, aged nineteen and heir to a faded European spaceship, enters the engagement season hoping only to save her family from financial ruin, but is soon falling for her first, rejected love.

The Stars We Steal

Tanishi Sharda

Elliot let out a bitter laugh. “That wasn’t her leverage. Not really. It was you, Leo. She threatened to turn you out. Charge you exorbitant docking fees and ruin your reputation among the other ships, ensure that you were left destitute. She knew I would agree to anything to protect you.”

“Draped over the boxes of contraband, the side of the room clearly denoted for Elliot’s black-market finds, were my mother’s dresses. Her heirloom ball gowns that I had been saving. Her wedding dress.

Elliot followed my gaze, and I saw him blanch. Then he sputtered, but my rage was fast as a bullet, cutting off his excuses.”

“What’s the use of being wealthy if the money is dirty, El?” ”

“Do you have to tell me now?” I wanted him to wait. Break my heart any other time. Let today be perfect.”

I would never love anyone but Elliot, I’d realized. Any iteration of him was one I would love to the edges of the universe.

And it was like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

Yep, I was totally fine. With the way Elliot allowed himself to be led away, with how he’d utterly failed to read the disappointment on my face. He used to be so good at reading me, and now . . .

Here I was, forced to watch Elliot flirt with yet another girl, right in front of me. Dance with someone else, hold her the way he used to hold me, in this very place. Every second was torture.

My lips tingled from phantom kisses, burned with memories and regrets. I needed to stop thinking about it, about him.

Looking good was the best revenge. Hope he enjoyed courting my sister right in front of me.

“What are we doing, Elliot? A few days ago you wanted me to suffer, and now that I am, you’re concerned.”

What had hurt more than my sister’s carelessness was Elliot’s reaction. He’d had none. We’d gone from open aggression to just . . . nothing. I might as well be a stranger.

“Why did you even come up here? You don’t care about me. You were just spoiling for a fight.”

“Maybe I want to see you suffer a bit.”

We would spar, and I would learn to hate him, too.

I wasn’t prepared for the sheer force of Elliot’s hatred toward me. It knocked me off-center, hollowed me out. And now I’d have to see him nearly every day for a month, while he flirted with other girls, no less.

It was the boy whose heart I'd broken and for whom my heart still fluttered.

Nessa Luna

+1 for the mention of the word asexual. (view spoiler)[Shame it was a character that wasn't really there for the majority of the book. (hide spoiler)]

Hope Gamble

There were quiet a few instances of second-hand embarrassment. 😳 The ending felt a little rushed.

Julie Janis

This story was okay. I couldn't really get into it or care for any of the characters. It was disappointing because I really enjoyed Brightly Burning. The Jane Austen similarities were nice to find, but I couldn't find any Bachelor/Bachelorette similarities which was really disappointing. The mention of people drinking and getting drunk a ton got annoying too. But despite all that, the idea of an event to date several people, find eligible matches, and get engaged at the end all in space was pretty cool.

Joan 

Between this and For Darkness Shows the Stars I'm kind of convinced that Persuasion just can't be adapted into a YA scifi and be great. Persuasion is such a thoughtful mature novel that trying to add in scifi stakes with teenage protagonists just doesn't work well for me. It was a generally enjoyable story that hit the major beats from Persuasion, but I can't really call it a good Persuasion retelling. Not to mention this is yet another book that robbed me of the aspec marriage of convenience that I desperately want. I knew it waa gonna happen but I was still disappointed.

Alice

Lucy

4.5

Beautiful characters. Not much world building but a great romance set in space

Celia Adams

3.5 Stars

Another awesome retelling. Donne has come up with one of the most interesting settings in which to come up with new ways of using classic novels and I am Here. For. It.

Aubrey Erskine

For the full review visit my blog:
 https://shelflifechronicles.com/2020/...

The Stars We Steal was the cute, fluffy and futuristic romance I needed in my life. A retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion in space with some nods to The Bachelor. It was a decent mix mix of politics and romance with a dash of sci-fi to make it that much better.

Manon van Heumen

This book was such a good surprise, I absolutely loved it!

The Bachelorette goes to space in this gripping story about a young girl caught in a world of royal intrigue and lost love in her quest to save her family from ruin. Perfect for fans of Katharine McGee, Melissa de la Cruz, and Kiera Cass. Engagement season is in the air. Eighteen-year-old Princess Leonie “Leo” Kolburg, heir to a faded European spaceship, has only one thing on her mind: which lucky bachelor can save her family from financial ruin? But when Leo’s childhood friend and first love, Elliot, returns as the captain of a successful whiskey ship, everything changes. Elliot was the one who got away, the boy Leo’s family deemed to be unsuitable for marriage. Now he’s the biggest catch of the season and he seems determined to make Leo’s life miserable. But old habits die hard, and as Leo navigates the glittering balls of the Valg Season, she finds herself falling for her first love in a game of love, lies, and past regrets. Fans of Katharine McGee and Kiera Cass will be dazzled by this world of lost love and royal intrigue.

The Stars We Steal

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