Title: Hunt the Stars
Author: Jessie Mihalik
Series: Starlight’s Shadow #1
Pages: 428
Octavia Zarola has left the Federated Human Planet (FHP) military and is focused on getting enough credits to survive with her bounty hunting job. Which means she has to accept a job from Torran Fletcher, a former general of the Valoff army and her sworn enemy. Now Olivia’s crew are heading into Valoff space to hunt for a stolen item, with Torran and his crew joining the hunt.
What a fantastic start to a series! I love a good enemies to lovers story and this one kept me hooked because I never knew what was going to happen next. Octavia was a fantastic heroine. I loved how strong, capable, smart, and caring she was. She takes care of her crew, which is also her family, and does everything she can to keep them safe. Her sense of honor is strong and I just really liked her. The whole story is told from her perspective, and I felt like we really get a great sense of who this woman is.
Torran is a former general in the Volovian army and was a high profile target of the FHP. While he may be the enemy, we quickly realize that he has honor and courage in spades. He is willing to go against his own people to protect Octavia, and for that I really liked him. Also, while there is a sense of betrayal in this, I loved how hard Torran worked to show Octavia that he was sorry and he was willing to do anything to fix it. I love when a man actually groves to prove his worth.
Torran and Octavia’s relationship is slowly building. They are enemies so it takes Octavia a while to see past those prejudices and realize Torran is also a man who just wants to protect his people and family. I really enjoyed their slow building relationship and the things they had to work through to be together. For me, if there is no strife between a couple in an enemies to lovers story, then they were never actually enemies. So I really enjoyed these two.
The case they are on to retrieve the stolen item ended up being really interesting. There is more going on than what was originally disclosed but it leads to a very interesting and action packed case to discover what is going on. I liked how it slowly revealed the corruption in both Volvian and FHP governments and I am very curious to see what will be uncovered in the future books.
Overall, this was a fantastic start to a sci-fi series. I really love this crew and the sense of found family with the teams. I can’t wait to jump into the next book to see how Octavia and Torran’s relationship progresses and to see what happens next in this world after everything they discovered.
TW: PTSD; medical experiments mentioned; child abduction; violence; war themes
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Previous books and reviews for the series:
#0.5 Honor and Shadows
Red-Haired Ash Reads 