Review : Spinning Starlight by R.C Lewis

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Spinning Starlight
Author : R.C Lewis
Publication Date : October 6th 2015
Publisher : Disney Hyperion
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Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen hates the spotlight. But as the only daughter in the most powerful tech family in the galaxy, it's hard to escape it. So when a group of men show up at her house uninvited, she assumes it's just the usual media-grubs. That is, until shots are fired.

Liddi escapes, only to be pulled into an interplanetary conspiracy more complex than she ever could have imagined. Her older brothers have been caught as well, trapped in the conduits between the planets. And when their captor implants a device in Liddi's vocal cords to monitor her speech, their lives are in her hands: One word and her brothers are dead.

Desperate to save her family from a desolate future, Liddi travels to another world, where she meets the one person who might have the skills to help her bring her eight brothers home-a handsome dignitary named Tiav. But without her voice, Liddi must use every bit of her strength and wit to convince Tiav that her mission is true. With the tenuous balance of the planets deeply intertwined with her brothers' survival, just how much is Liddi willing to sacrifice to bring them back?

Haunting and mesmerizing, this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Wild Swans strings the heart of the classic with a stunning, imaginative world as a star-crossed family fights for survival in this companion to Stitching Snow.

Personal Thoughts

Ever since the release of the Lunar Chronicles series, I've been interested in reading more YA fairy tale retellings told in a science fiction setting. Spinning Starlight grabbed my attention primarily because of that, but the fact that it also was a The Wild Swans retelling, a less often explored fairy tale, made me want to give this book a chance. For the most part, Spinning Starlight was a great read - the storytelling for one was fantastic, but I also felt like in certain areas, the book lagged.

Liddi, the protagonist of Spinning Starlight, was a character whose character development was at the front and center of the book. And I enjoyed that very much. The heir to a powerful tech company and the only girl in a family of 9 kids, she has always been protected and shielded by her brothers who would do anything for her. When they go missing, it's up to Liddi to go on an adventure to save her brothers, without her voice. Liddi was a brave protagonist, and I really enjoyed being inside her head. Watching as she went through her situation on an entirely different planet where people were wary of her without ever letting it dissuade her from her goal was admirable. Throughout the book, she showed how strong she was on the inside despite having been babied all of her life. Her growth into this fierce character who you could look up to was very well-written and definitely one of the best parts of Spinning Starlight.

Sadly though, I felt like Liddi was the only well-fleshed out character in Spinning Starlight. I wanted to know more about her brothers and their different personalities, but since they only appearances through flashbacks, the reader doesn't get the opportunity to become well-acquainted with them. Liddi's love interest, Tiav, a boy who rescues her as she entered a different planet, was also rather underdeveloped, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I thought he was a sweetheart at times, but his personality was rather bland. For that reason, I never really got their romance. There were some moments when I enjoyed it, but it wasn't the sort of epic romance that I was hoping for from Spinning Starlight.

I felt similarly about the world building in Spinning Starlight. It was interesting, and well-thought out, but at the same time it was shaky in certain spots and needed to be fleshed out more. Science fiction in general can be very confusing to me at times, so that might be one reason, but I did feel like certain aspects of the world in which Spinning Starlight was set in lacked foundation. The whole concept of people living on different planets, for instance, wasn't very clear cut and ultimately ended up baffling me. Despite all my niggles about Spinning Starlight, I really enjoyed the plot. I thought R.C Lewis' writing was great and she really knew how to tell a story in a way that captured my attention and held it throughout.

Ultimately, my biggest issue with Spinning Starlight were the secondary characters and the world building. That being said, this was still a fun book to read and I thought the main character's growth throughout the book made the book worth my time.

Rating 

Cover : 3/5
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 3/5
Writing : 4/5

**Overall rating : 3.5/5**

 Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for the e-ARC of Spinning Starlight.