It took me a little bit to get into this book especially since is quite slow paced and it reads more like historical fiction than fantasy.

However, I pushed through and the story was actually not bad. I can't say that it captivated me (and since it's been a bit between reading the book and writing this review, I needed a bit of time to remember clearly what it was about).

The time jumps at the beginning confused me a bit and there are also many characters about which I couldn't remember everything while reading. The book, however is about the daughter of two merchants and how she always (almost) did what they wanted, not what she desired. Court politics and secret societies also get involved and turn the story from a bland kinda forced love story into a more interesting one. Bonus points: it's really inclusive.

Personally, I ended up enjoying the story, but I think it might not be for everyone, especially if you don't usually read lots of books and are prone to DNF-ing, because the beginning is really slow and confusing.

I like others found this to be a DNF. I could not get into the writing style and I was not invested in the characters. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

The beginning was so so. I was a little confused throughout and wasn’t the hugest fan of the writing style. That being said, I enjoyed the story concept very much and that’s what allowed to push through. About half way through is when it started to pick up in pace and the stakes shot through the roof. I was really into it but then ending was just… anticlimactic. Like… idk I was just kinda disappointed.

2.5 ⭐
I'm not one to DNF a book but boy did I want to.

The premise of the book was promising but it was poorly executed.
The amount of info we have in the beginning followed by many pages of useless dialog was mind boggling.
The pacing was off and combined with errors and mistakes created a difficult read for such a light book. This definitely needs more editing.

Plus points for the premise and a potential in the author - despite counting this book as a 'down' I'm sure she will have her 'UP' in the future and I will look her up to see the next publishings.

I got the arc from NetGalley which I'm grateful for but it will not be one of the best seller
#starsandsoil #NetGalley

Like many other reviewers, I had to DNF this book at about 5%.

I really wanted to like this one - court intrigue was a genre that is right down my alley and the blurb made this sound like the perfect book.

Unfortunately after reading it, it was clear that this book suffered from writing issues.

The main one that turned me off was info dumping. Information was being dumped left and right as soon as the book started. There was no structure to their world building. It ultimately made the book really hard to follow and understand.

The dialogue also felt stilted and awkward.

After reading about 5% of the book, it was clear that I wasn't going to find much enjoyment in this and so I had to drop it.

I’m sorry, I had to DNF this book.. I really wanted to like it tho..
It was so much input in the beginning, I had trouble to stay focused and get along with the story. Furthermore there were a lot of Xir/Xie in the beginning and it was just annoying and confusing and.. I don’t know, this book just wasn’t for me..

Unfortunately I had to DNF at just 10%
From the very first page this was incredibly confusing and very rushed. There were paragraphs of pointless dialogue. Every now and then I came across a sentence that was very poetic and lovely but for the most part I was struggling to comprehend anything.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ebook ARC to review.

There will be a more in-depth review on my YouTube in the coming week or so. There will also be a small “silent” review on tiktok, but just to give a taste:

The beginning was so so. I was a little confused throughout and wasn’t the hugest fan of the writing style. That being said, I enjoyed the story concept very much and that’s what allowed to push through. About half way through is when it started to pick up in pace and the stakes shot through the roof. I was really into it but then ending was just… anticlimactic. Like… idk I was just kinda disappointed.

Stars and Soil tells the story of Caitlin whose life gets uprooted by a gruesome murder and she is thrown into a world she never anticipated.

I was really hoping to love this story but unfortunately, it fell short for me. There was so much going on and things getting thrown in left and right that it just felt overwhelming at times. The world-building was done well but the amount of characters getting added in endlessly was too much and felt a little too jarring for me.

The ending felt quite rushed and I feel like it could have been prolonged a bit more to execute the ending a bit better. I feel like the book needs to go through some editing before I would recommend it to anyone. It has a very cool concept and I did enjoy parts of it, but overall, there were too many things that just took me out of it.

Thank you NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars (out of 5).

Despite its slow start (and slow pace overall), that made me think I was not going to be able to go through this book, I really enjoyed reading Stars and Soil.
The worldbuilding, even though I would've liked to dive deeper into the mythology and such, was really tight and great to discover throughout the story and I enjoyed the characters. There's many of them and I can't say I remember all their names and what they did but it did not hinder me while reading and every actions, twists and turns the story took were comprehensible and made me feel invested.
Caitlin is a great main character that I grew quite fond of, following her thoughts and growth. I found that her backstory was a great setting to the whole thing. I can't say I was that invested in the romance aspects of it all but its presence added some stakes to the story, so I wasn't bothered by it.

Most of all, I think what made me stick to the book, more than the story itself or the characters, is the writing. Dax Murray has a way of getting you hooked and their descriptive style is quite endearing. Their will to craft a world that is so unapologetically and simply queer was also something that made me quite happy while reading.
All in all a great read, mixing magic, prophecies, revolution and political intrigue.

Thank you BooksGoSocial, Dax Murray and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There’s a lot happening in Stars and Soil. It’s got political intrigue, competing religious sects, forbidden magic, and deals heavily with grief. It’s all told from the POV of Caitlyn, the successful daughter of two merchants who works for the family business, although more out of a sense of familial obligation to her fathers than a true desire to do the work. The story is mostly told in the present, but there are some chapters that are memories of past events.

I liked Caitlyn as a character and empathized with her, but found myself struggling to believe the depth of some of her relationships, as there’s a lot of time spent on worldbuilding and politicking and not as much spent on developing those connections. I think it’s interesting that the world itself is very diverse, with plenty of LGBTQ couples, non-binary characters, and even a couple of non-human races, but it’s still rather misogynistic and patriarchal.

My copy was an ARC, but this is an edited republishing of an existing novel, and the eBook contained numerous grammatical errors throughout. Not enough to make me DNF or not recommend the book, but enough that I’m sticking with 3 stars rather than rounding up for what is more like a 3.5 star read for me.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley, but my review is unbiased and left voluntarily.

This book has so much potential and I really, really wanted to rate it higher. However, there were things that needed to be fleshed out better and things that needed to have heavily edited out. Parts of the book dragged on and on without explaining much. I can't wait to see what the author does next and expands the story in future installments because there's a lot they could do with it.

I really wanted to love this book. I loved the concept and the cover art looked awesome. However, the actual book was pretty lackluster. The book really needs some heavy editing. Like, really heavy editing. There was just so much going on. Don't get me wrong, I loved the queer normative world, but xie/xir pronouns are probably fairly new to most people and I actually got lost in the beginning of the book when Caitlin was describing her late wife. I feel like Brenna's name needed to come up. I don't know. I loved the use of xie pronouns, but the writing made it difficult to keep track of. Also, there were multiple typos and even at least one instance of using she/her pronouns for Brenna.

Overall, this book has so. much. potential. However, I would not recommend buying a copy of this unless it had a huge edit before it was published.

I could not fully get into this book, no matter how hard I tried.

There was just so much happening but so little of it was moving the plot along. We had countless characters, loads of political intrigues and STILL I felt like DNFing multiple times.

The idea was really interesting, a grieving woman finds herself as a spy and trying to destroy the monarchy from within. It sounded SO fun and intriguing. But then it was all stuffy dialogues, some typos, a somewhat confusing writing style, entire paragraphs that added nothing and a weird timeline.

I think with a little more honing, this book could be awesome, because the potential is definitely there!

To end on a positive note, I liked how the author treated grief, abuse, abortion, all delicate themes really well conveyed. It was also great having a more mature MC than average fantasy books, with a life prior and her own ghosts. The clergy not so subtly threatening her, constant suspicions, assasins guild and the council meetings gone wrong were engaging enough, but I would not read this book again or recommend unless I know you specifically like complex worlds with lots of characters and okay-ish pacing up until just the end.

“She cannot grieve a freedom that she never had.”

“Stars and Soil,” by Dax Murray

I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t like this book very much. The number of times she says Xir in the beginning was super annoying. I felt maybe the timeline of the story took way too long, it was over many years, and it was at a slow pace. Also, the male character I liked was hardly ever in it. I couldn’t tell if she was bisexual because she made it seem that way through actions, but she said she was just a lesbian so idk. I just kind of didn’t like it much, 2 out of 5 stars.

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

all in all, this was an interesting read. the world building was absolutely immaculate, the characters were all uniquely complex and there were interesting, deep woven relationships between them all. i enjoyed how the political components within this universe were at play and explained more than other novels of this nature.

the book follows our main character, caitlin as she navigates life during grief, court politics and finding romance. i thoroughly enjoyed seeing the fact that being queer was natural in this world, there was no shame alongside it.

overall, it was an easy read and i look forward to reading more from dax. this book will be available for purchase on Oct 30th.

A fantastic read - so refreshing to read a book where LGBTQ+ characters aren't an add on but the norm, I loved the use of different pronouns, although slightly confusing at first (potentially a explanation in the beginning would be good). As a disabled woman it was so great to hear about disabled characters who are just as powerful even though they have their bad days - will look to read the next one too

This was a strong start to the Scions and Shadows series, it had that fantasy element that I was looking for from the description. I enjoyed the world that was created and how everything that I enjoyed about this genre. The characters worked well overall and was glad I got to read this. I’m excited to read more in this world and from Dax Murray.

I went into this book knowing very little about the plot and where it was going to go. I assumed it follows the typical fantasy structure - a young heroine who bands together with revolutionaries to overthrow a corrupt government.

My main worry was that the story begins with her wife’s death and this is almost the catalyst for the chain of events that we follow in this novel. I was therefore sceptical about the romance plot - as how can a new romance have weight and how can we root for their love, when she’s still grieving the wife she lost at the start of the book? The romance, however, wasn’t a major plot point in this novel.

Additionally, going into a new fantasy world with its own magic systems and political structures is always difficult. This is especially true, as was the case here, if the author doesn’t set them up very well. I.e. if the reader isn’t given an explanation as to what’s going on. This can lead to confusion and affect the flow of the story, as more time is spent by the reader just trying to grasp what is going on.

There was something about the writing style of this that just didn’t click for me. The use of multiple short sentences made the flow of the story seem choppy and jumpy, which made the story feel very abrupt and non-fluid. Especially with the random time jumps in the middle of a chapter with no obvious indicator that one had occurred - this made for a very confusing read!

I did, however, love the characters and the world. Caitlin is someone who’s lost a lot and just wants to make her dads proud. You can tell she’s really struggling and yet still manages to find inner strength. This made her a complex character that really stood out. The idea that she once again is put in a position she’s not fully comfortable with, essentially a rebellion spy, as she couldn’t refuse a royal proposal.

In terms of the world building, whilst confusing in parts, the themes of discontent and rebellion within the city really shone though. This made for a vivid picture of where the book was taking place and striking themes of espionage and court politics.

Overall, this book seemed to have a good base plot - but just didn’t click for me. If you prefer more high fantasy reads, that focus more on courts and politics, then this could be the read for you.

ARC copy provided by BooksGoSocial & NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

While I thought the world building was done well I felt overwhelmed by the amount of characters being thrown in. With a little more explanation to how they fit the story I may have been able to keep track better, but I kept getting confused. I enjoy books with many character, this style must not have been for me.

The pacing was pretty good. A tad rushed in the end, but still good. With a little polishing I think this could turn into a great read.