Starflight by Melissa Landers | Fast and the Furious : Space Edition

This maybe the first spoiler-free review I wrote

 Starflight by Melissa Landers            Pages: 369                                     Publisher: Disney-Hyperion                      Add on Goodreads

Life in the outer realm is a lawless, dirty, hard existence, and Solara Brooks is hungry for it. Just out of the orphanage, she needs a fresh start in a place where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. She’s so desperate to reach the realm that she’s willing to indenture herself to Doran Spaulding, the rich and popular quarterback who made her life miserable all through high school, in exchange for passage aboard the spaceliner Zenith.
When a twist of fate lands them instead on the Banshee, a vessel of dubious repute, Doran learns he’s been framed on Earth for conspiracy. As he pursues a set of mysterious coordinates rumored to hold the key to clearing his name, he and Solara must get past their enmity to work together and evade those out for their arrest. Life on the Banshee may be tumultuous, but as Solara and Doran are forced to question everything they once believed about their world—and each other—the ship becomes home, and the eccentric crew family. But what Solara and Doran discover on the mysterious Planet X has the power to not only alter their lives, but the existence of everyone in the universe…

This is definitely a fun book to read! Bonus: it is set in space. It was pitch as a soap-opera in space – but i think it was more like Fast and Furious.

• The plot 

I always like my books (fantasy, sci-fi, thriller) to keep me on the edge of my bed or seat or even in the balcony (daredeviling) and this did it for me.

It wasn’t too overly complicated but the plot was kind-of generic- people on the run, being chase by killers then stumbling upon yet another group with questionable morals-angering them and you try to runaway from them and you know that shit’s gonna go down soon.

BUT IT WAS SO MUCH FUN THAT I DIDN’T MIND IT.

• Characters

Although, the plot was quite generic, however the protagonist (Solara) has an edge compare to other female leads so far with the book I have read. She’s just on-point with her dry humour. She’s independent and self-sufficient but not too much to make you think that she’s just another bad-ass female heroine that is currently on trend.

Doran (which I read as Dorian for almost half the book), I would love him to be my male bestfriend. He started of as some asshole, that you have this urge to punch him every time he opens his spoiled little mouth.

But him as a character progresses through out the book, he actually want to pat him in his head. He’s loyal, head strong and there’s more to him I want to read in the sequel. (Melissa Landers please make it happen)

A minute ago she wanted to break his jaw, and now she had to fight the urge to pat him on the head and give him a cookie. That had to be some kind of superpower. She finally understood how he got everything he wanted in life.

Zenith Crew I was hoping for an appearance of a Chewbacca character, but Renny will do. How perfect was it that Solara and Doran boarded a clackering old ship manned by a man with a large percentage of machinery in his body, and crewed by people with questionable backgrounds?

Bonus: THEY HAVE SPACE PIRATES! (How awesome is that!)

• Relationship building

This is the main reason why I love this book. 

I read Melissa Landers’ other book, which was Alienated didn’t love it. It was drowning me with insta-love and romance (it was too much for me) but this is different. 

The relationship started as mutual distaste for either other. Doran was pitched as a privileged frat-boy in trust fund and Solara as your bright young mind with a record (hence her tattoos in her knuckles). But as the story progresses, their distaste became companionship-for-survival to actual becoming friends then leading to their (inevitable) romance. There’s progress! How many YA books have you read with this kind of relationship development? (Let me know which books, I would glad to read those!)

So if you guys want to read and enjoy a sci-fi book where you won’t twist your tongue in reading big corporation names or memorize too many names  go read Starflight!

 

Are you all for  insta-love or do you also want to read books with great relationship development?