The Stars in Their Eyes

SCI-FI: Calay and Tess are enjoying an intimate moment in their apartment when all hell breaks loose. The apartment is destroyed, and people are being annihilated by alien crafts. On the run, Calay wakes up disoriented in the middle of a warehouse, covered in blood, and Tess is nowhere in sight. With grit and determination she escapes, and now her sole mission is to find the love of her life. Cast out by her parents five years before for coming out, Tess is all she has left, and the only one she can count on. Scrounging around the apocalyptic city for sustenance and supplies, will she have the resources and strength to find Tess? And in doing so, can she avoid being captured by the ‘Others’?

This Sci-Fi apocalyptic mashup keeps one on their toes! Though there are several gaps in the storyline, with less science - more fiction, it is an intriguing read. Calay runs headlong into obvious danger with questionable and implausible choices. She mistrusts and attacks Jacob, a solo survivor like herself, who is kind to her but then runs willingly toward a group of armed men who attack her. Calay is then rescued by Jacob and repays this kindness with cruelty, and abandons him again. He follows, and she sleeps with him —a few times— which ironically are the only times she even remembers Tess! The characters are hard to find likable, and a plot that is implausible yet predictable. It could benefit from more science along with backstories to give the characters better depth. Still, the author maintains an action filled pace to keep the reader entertained.

Rika Chandra