When Stars Come Out by Scarlett St. Clair Book Review!

 

Title: When Stars Come Out (When Stars Come Out #1)
Author: Scarlett St. Clair
Publish Date: July 26th, 2022
Publisher: Bloom Books
Source: Huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy!

Anora Silby can see the dead and turn spirits into gold coins, two things she would prefer to keep secret as she tries to lead a normal life at her new school. After all, she didn't change her identity for nothing.

Hiding her weirdness is just one of many challenges. By the end of her first day, she's claimed the soul of a dead girl on campus and lost the coin. Turns out, the coin gives others the ability to steal souls, and when a classmate ends up dead, there's no mistaking the murder weapon.

Navigating the loss of her Poppa, the mistrust of her mother, and Roundtable, an anonymous student gossip app threatening to expose her, are hard enough. Now she must find the person who stole her coin before more lives are lost, but that means making herself a target for the Order, an organization that governs the dead on Earth - and they want Anora and her powers for themselves.

Penelope's Review

This is actually the first book I am reading by Scarlett St. Clair so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when it came to content, writing style, etc. but I found that I quite enjoyed this! 

The book follows Anora Silby, a teenage girl who's just moved to a new school and happens to be able to see the dead. I liked Anora's character - she's just a girl trying to get through life with a power she doesn't fully understand, a mom who can be difficult to deal with at times, and a cute guy she can't quite get out of her head. She's not sure who to trust, and doesn't know where to turn for help. The book has quite a bit of mystery to it, and it was fun trying to solve everything before the end. I wasn't sure how I felt about Shy as the romantic interest but he definitely grew on me by the end - I'm excited to see where things go in the next book!

The writing style itself was good - good flow, just enough to keep me interested without seeming too fast at all. Lots of little mythology elements pop up like hellhounds, Charon, etc. that I really liked. Overall, a good start to the series! Looking forward to continuing Anora's story and seeing where all of my favorite characters end up!

Rating: 4/5 Devils!