Some melodies reach across the stars.

In 2157, the Adryil—an advanced race of telepathic humanoids—contacted Earth. A century later, 15-year-old violist Iris Lei considers herself lucky to attend Papilio, a prestigious performing arts school powered by their technology. Born penniless, Iris’s one shot at a better life is to attract an Adryil patron. But only the best get hired, and competition is fierce.

A sudden encounter with an Adryil boy upends her world. Iris longs to learn about him and his faraway realm, but after the authorities arrest him for trespassing, the only evidence she has of his existence is the mysterious alien device he slipped to her.

When she starts hearing his voice in her head, she wonders if her world of backstabbing artists and pressure for perfection is driving her insane. Then, she discovers that her visions of him are real—by way of telepathy—and soon finds herself lost in the kind of impossible love she depicts in her music.

But even as their bond deepens, Iris realizes that he’s hiding something from her—and it’s dangerous. Her quest for answers leads her past her sheltered world to a strange planet lightyears away, where she uncovers secrets about Earth’s alien allies that shatter everything she knows.

I was blown away by this book. It started very slowly and I did wonder whether I was going to like it or not. But that soon changed. I loved Iris. She was able to look innocent and get away with things others couldn’t. I also loved Damiul. In fact I thought all the characters were very good – even the bad and not so good ones. Very well written and I was taken to new places (planets). I will recommend this book to everyone. 5*

I did not finish this book. The world building was pretty terrible, I was bored with the characters, and every time the MC talked about how hot her LI was (and it was a lot), I rolled my eyes. Not for me.

ARC Copy for review...Along for me it felt slow and dragging to start but when the actual truth is revealed "oh this is going to tense-interesting" Liken the arts motif and the premise of exploitation of the arts, and the artists themselves. The alien species themselves and their culture are intriguing. Including a language guide helps with the alien culture depth too.

Maybe I'm feeling extra contemplative today, but Starswept is an incredibly deep book. I'm still kind of in post-exceptional-read shock, so I'm going to just give a summary of sorts of all that went on in these 400 pages of absolute genius.

Iris, our beloved MC earthling, lives for playing music. Without it, her life would be a heck of a lot harder, since the alien-but-human-like Adriyl value the arts so much that the music and dancing of Earth pave the way to success in life for humans, and success being an actual life. But only if you're insanely talented. If you can't claw your way to the best of the best, you're more or less screwed and in debt forever. She meets her first Adriyl, Dámiul, a charming but secretive teenage guy, who, via hologram, teaches her more than a couple of things, all while she fights her peers musically. Part II of the book, things spiral and Iris's world takes a bit of an 180. Classic "my life is a lie" stuff.

But back to the absolute genius part, because I'm not quite over it.

If I'm being honest, science fiction, although incredibly fascinating, isn't exactly my go-to genre, just because sometimes new worlds can give me a toned-down version of sensory overload. Starswept was absolutely worth it. I didn't get too caught up in trying to absorb all the politics of this fictional world, and the plot was irresistible.

PLOT. There was so much going on, particularly in the latter half of the book, and although I was marginally satisfied for select portions while reading, I kept on my toes. Insert other words that I can't seem to form because wow.

Character-wise, looking back, a lot of them had personality, but weren't all that complex. Even Iris. I do love my complicated characters, so it's a tad disappointing. The actual things happening did detract from them, and I guess it doesn't bother me too much because I got really involved in the plot.

Another abnormal thing is, I normally don't think too much about the deeper meanings of books I read for leisure for reasons I'd rather not dive into, but wow this book resonates with a deeper part of me, and I really didn't expect that it would.

The horrible things that the societies or subgroups accepted are absolutely terrifying and I feel like I'm more open-minded toward all that is going on in our world as well. Not to say that I'm more cynical, of course, because that's already a thing, but it's a little scary how much we don't know. How much people could be hiding. How much we could be missing. Hmmm.

Anywho, Starswept was the best read I've had in a while, so lots of thanks to Snowy Wings Publishing and Netgalley of course!

So, in the future, super hot aliens who look and are exactly like humans except for having telepathy and being super hot have made contact. They don't have Art (capital A) so they swap technology for human artists. This means that any potential Artists are inducted into schools to train and compete and hopefully with the patronage of a super hot alien. Failure to do so before your 21st birthday, means that you get sent away to live in poverty, washed up by the age at which some people are finally legally allowed to drink. Hmmm.

Protagonist, the requisite super shy, super talented, super doesn't know she's super pretty 15 (ugh) year old, meets super hot alien teen with a big secret and super hijinks ensue.

I have to admit that this one gave me a little trouble. There was so much potential in it, but it just lacked gracefulness. I was quite convinced that I was reading someone's first novel, until I noticed the sheer amount that Mary Fan has published.

For a while I wondered if I had finally outgrown YA. The fact that I spent half the book grumbling about the idiocy of 15 year olds making life changing, and (supposedly) society changing decisions. The fact that the Artists (capital A) in the book are expected to marry and have children BEFORE they turn 21 just makes me shake my head. Really? Like, really, really? Especially when the circumstances of their lives force them to leave behind children and spouses.

Then I remembered that while I am a grown ass woman, I am a grown ass woman who pre-orders and gets super excited about YA fiction.

There are interesting things to say about art, sorry Art, freedom, choice, etc, but clumsy writing, dropped subplots, and quite a bit of cheesiness let's Starswept down.

Reaching the end of the book and wondering where the rest of the story disappeared to was a bad sign.

It's okay, decent for what it is, which is a cheesy, romantic brain lolly. I'd read a sequel, but I wouldn't write the release date into my diary, and I'd wait for a library copy.