Asa is the youngest daughter of the house of Fane, which has been fighting a devastating food and energy crisis for far too long. She thinks she can save her family’s livelihood by posing as her oldest sister in an arranged marriage with Eagle, the heir to the throne of the house of Westlet. The appearance of her mother, a traitor who defected to the house of Galton, adds fuel to the fire, while Asa also tries to save her sister Wren's life . . . possibly from the hands of their own father.
But as Asa and Eagle forge a genuine bond, will secrets from the past and the urgent needs of their people in the present keep them divided?
Author Tessa Elwood's debut series is an epic romance at heart, set against a mine field of political machinations, space adventure, and deep-seeded family loyalties.
My rating: 4/5
The premise
of Inherit the Stars sounded a lot like Jupiter Ascending to me, a movie that I
absolutely loved in concept but that I felt fell a bit flat in the story and
characters (Especially, I’m pained to say this but Jupiter, why did she always
needed rescuing?). I had secretly hoped someone would make a sort of book
adaptation to dwell a bit more into this wonderful world of interplanetary
houses and their industries. Perhaps this was not the author’s intentions and a
completely different idea all together, but whether it was inspired in Jupiter
Ascending or not, the plot seemed amazing nonetheless!
Asa is
struggling to keep her sister Wren alive after an attack caused by their own,
starving people left her with a severe head injury from which she hasn’t
recovered. Every day since then Asa has been at her side reading stories hoping
one day she’ll wake up. It seems nothing has changed until, during one of her
visits, the brain activity in her sister spikes.
She is not
awake or conscious, but it’s a start. However, as she arrives home to share the
good news she over hears a conversation between her father and her elder
sister, Emmie, who were planning on disconnecting her sister from life support
so that Emmie can become the heir and enter an arranged marriage with another
house so that they can save their planets from the energy and food crisis they
have been suffering for years.
Horrified
and desperate, she tries to reason with them but her father won’t listen, and
he’ll carry on with the wedding and the plans for his daughter either way.
On the
wedding day Asa makes a fast decision and drugs Emmie so that she can take her
place in the wedding. The ceremony is more than just any wedding, it’s a blood
bond, an unbreakable oath and, despite the disappointment when her sham is
discovered, the pact cannot be undone.
But there
are darker forces at stake that could threaten not only her sister’s life but
that of her people as well.
The story
did not disappoint, I was honestly surprised to discover that this was a debut
novel, Tessa Elwood’s style is wonderful, it flows with ease and demonstrates
the ability of a writer long into the career. I found the main characters
incredibly relatable, Asa with her desire to save her sister while fighting
against the family that has never really let her have a say in anything, and
Eagle with his past and his scars, unwilling to let anybody in.
If I had to
say any demerits that would be the world building, I really wished we could
have known more about it. How did these three houses came to be? What about the
planets and the people? We know that there are several planets, some produced
food before the contamination, others had been used to drill for the fuel, but
the story could have been expanded to explore this wonderful universe a bit
more.
In the end,
this was a wonderful debut novel from Tessa Elwood and I will be looking
forward to see what new works she has planned.
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