The Stars and Their Light by Olivia Hawker had a super interesting premise, but honestly, it didn’t quite work for me. The story is set in 1947, right after the Roswell UFO incident, and focuses on Sister Mary Agnes, who moves to Roswell to set up a monastery. There, she meets Betty, a girl affected by the crash, and Harvey, a handyman who saw it all go down. It’s a mix of history, mystery, and a bit of religion, which sounds cool, but I found it hard to stay invested.

One of the things I liked about the book was the setting. Hawker does a great job capturing the post-WWII atmosphere and the buzz around the Roswell crash. The whole town feels on edge, and you can sense the tension between faith and the unknown, which is probably the book’s biggest strength. The backdrop of the 1940s gives the story a unique vibe, and I thought the historical context was well done.

That said, the characters didn’t really click for me. Sister Mary Agnes has this internal struggle between sticking to her religious beliefs and questioning what she’s been taught, but her journey felt slow and repetitive. I wanted to connect more with Betty and Harvey, but they didn’t seem fully developed either. Their relationships with Sister Mary Agnes felt a little shallow, and I didn’t find myself caring much about where their stories were going.

The pacing was another issue. It started off interesting with all the mystery around the crash, but then it just slowed down too much. The middle part of the book really dragged, and it felt like the story lost some of its energy. By the time it picked back up, I wasn’t as invested anymore, which was kind of disappointing.

This book had a lot of potential, especially with the mix of historical fiction and the Roswell incident, but the slow pacing and lack of character depth kept it from being as engaging as I’d hoped. If you’re into historical fiction with a hint of mystery, it might still be worth a read, but for me, it fell a bit flat.

I’m a fan of Olivia Hawker, but this book was not my fave of hers, The premise and start of the story was promising, but it stalled out about mid-way through and never picked back up, The writing style seemed more simplistic than in the other books of hers I have read. I would have gone with 2 stars, but the author’s note at the end convinced me to bump it up to 3 stars as I had not realized how much history was embedded in the story, and The Roswell Incident itself is fascinating.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Stars and their Light by new to me author O. Hawker is an historical fiction novel. Ser in the 1947 in Roawell, it tells the story of Isabel and the clerus who questions her about her medical condition, including sister Mary Agnes who forms a bond with the girl.
I read the blurb and was intrigued, but I found it difficult to connect with characters and story.
Blurb: It’s 1947 when Sister Mary Agnes arrives in New Mexico. Her mission is to establish a monastery in the town of Roswell, where weeks before rumors of the crash landing of an unidentified craft have triggered a crisis of faith. Residents are drifting away from the divine, awed no longer by the heavens but rather the stars.
In service to the frightened and confused, Sister Mary Agnes soon befriends Betty Campbell, a teenager marked both physically and psychically by the inexplicable event. Mary Agnes is also unsettlingly drawn to Harvey, an attentive handyman refurbishing the monastery—and a firsthand witness to the crash. But as Mary Agnes tries to guide her wayward friends back to the church, it’s the fantastic and the forbidden that begin to loom large in her imagination.
Mary Agnes must choose whether to uphold the order in which she came of age or embrace the truth she feels in her heart, despite its terrifying complexity.