Wow, this book was perfect in every single possible way. The Stars Never Fade tells the story of Nina Kane, a 16 year old living in a dystopian world unlike any I have ever read before. Over 100 years ago the Demons ravaged the world, leaving only a few settlements intact, though they had consumed the souls of many who'd perished. As such, there is now a severe shortage of souls, leading to many still born pregnancies. To combat this problem, the Church have taken control, and a whole multitude of sins are severely punished in order to ensure that the remaining population are pure and worthy of the souls they use.

Considering I have read a lot of dystopian novels, I was quite pleasantly surprised to discover how unique and fresh the concept was in this novel. I'm not a religious person, but to see the controlling nature of a society run wholly by ecclesiastics was a definite shock to my system. As the book progressed, the church government became an even larger part of the plot, and there were twists and turns at every moment. The biggest plot twist involving the church was so shocking that I definitely hadn't seen it coming, which is a nice surprise.

Nina was a perfect teenage protagonist: strong, a little angsty, and imperfect. There was definite character development with her, and I can't wait to see how she progresses in further instalments. Finn was a great male character; whilst he was a love interest for Nina, that's not all he was. There were layers to his character, which is shown throughout the course of the book, and he, and the rest of the group, were there for Nina when she needed them.

Overall a really enjoyable novel, and I would definitely recommend it to lovers of YA dystopian/fantasy.

Publication Date: 18th June from Harlequin

Source: Netgalley

Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she’s too busy trying to actually survive. Her town’s population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. The two of them are a family. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago.

So this was right book right time for me, being as I am on a YA kick at the moment and it was totally brilliant, a little different to any I’ve read before and as addictive as chocolate.

We meet Nina, who lives in a world where one of the major worries is demonic possession. Yep – after a war with the Demons, society is now watched over and protected by The Church and its exorcists – Life under their rule is regulated and strict and not always pleasant, but needs must in order to protect humanity from the demon hoardes. Of course not everything is on the up and up as Nina starts to discover..

I adored this – a completely mad adrenalin rush of a story that gets you hooked right in, no waiting around. Plenty of action, a touch of romance (you’ve GOT to have a touch of romance and this one is particularly intriguing for reasons I obviously won’t go into) some terrifically drawn characters and a main protagonist in Nina who is pretty brave, easy to like and has a whole heck of a lot of problems thrown at her in very short order.

Descriptively speaking this is gorgeous – the fight scenes are particularly excellent hence the adrenalin rush but the author also manages to temper this with some clever character development and throws in a few surprises for good measure along the way.

Some of it is horrific in its concept, some scenes are quite distressing, but only in so far as is required to move the tale along and really get the reader thinking about some of the issues our characters are facing. In this it is intelligently constructed and packs a real emotional punch.

Overall a decidedly accomplished and exquisite piece of Young Adult fiction. Atmospheric and thrilling, with an ending that will make you willing to sell your soul for the next instalment, this comes highly recommended from me for fans of YA whatever your age.

Happy Reading Folks!

The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent was so action-packed and fast-paced that in some ways I find it a little difficult to talk about in any kind of meaningful way. I was reading this book and it felt like this mad dash towards the end in which I was furiously clicking for the next page on my Kindle and everything kind of whizzed by me. It was an exciting read, that's for sure!

Without Rachel Vincent's name attached to this book, I'm not sure how excited I would have been. But it is Rachel Vincent and I loved her Soul Screamers series. They were emotional and surprising and every bit as fast-paced. So these were my expectations coming into this first book in a new series. And The Stars Never Rise really managed to do everything I wanted it to do including set up this new story and world and populating it with interesting characters and relationships.

All right, so this new series. It's set in a future America in which there have been a plague of demons that have consumed many souls. And it was only with the help of an exorcist and a war waged by the Church that the war has won and the demons defeated. Now the Church rules everything and there are few souls to go around.

Living in this world is our main character, Nina Kane. She is seriously struggling to keep afloat with bills and school and taking care of her younger sister, Melanie. The two girls live with her mostly absent mother, and are quite happy to do their own thing. Only doing her own thing has meant that 15 year old, Mellie, announces she is pregnant and it sets off this shocking turn of events that changes everything.

I don't want to tell you too much more of the story because that is really where everything switches gear into this fast-paced action-packed story in which Nina teams up with this band of bad-ass exorcists and wage their own battles against demons and the Church in order to protect both Nina and Mellie. There is a rather unconventional romance between Nina and one of the exorcists in this group who call themselves Anathema and I could not be more intrigued by how things will work out!

Speaking of the romance, ahhhhh! I loved Nina and Finn. But there is so much standing in the way of them being together. And the anticipation of all that drama coming our way in future books feels like delicious anticipation for me right now!

One of the very surprising elements of the story actually happens before Nina meets up with Finn and has all of these earth-shattering realisations about her family situation and the Church and everything she's ever known about demons and exorcists and the state of the media and the world in general. And the element of the story in which shows how far Nina will go to protect and feed her little sister was one of the things that surprised me about this book. Not the level of concern or love between the two sister but the lengths Nina went to. This book goes to some dark places, as witnessed towards the end of the story in the final show-down!

I thought The Stars Never Rise was a fantastic, gripping and addictive story. Sort of like a demon, this book swept into my life and consumed me until I was finished and I loved every second of it. I love Nina's determination and her bond with Mellie. I loved all the members of Anathema from snarky Devi with an attitude to gentle giant Reese. I can't wait to read more in this series.