Spinning Starlight ~ R.C. Lewis (earc) review [@RC_Lewis @DisneyHyperion]

Spinning Starlight
(companion to Stitching Snow)
Disney Hyperion
October 6, 2015
336 pages
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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.

Spinning Starlight has a different tone from what I remember of Stitching Snow. It is heavier and doesn't have that humor. While that fits the characters and their situation, I did miss it.

This is definitely not a sequel to Stitching Snow, it doesn't have any of the same characters and is not even in the same universe. Besides the same alliterative titles, though, they companion novels do have some things in common. Liddi is not Essie, but the w people who are some parallels. Both are strong characters who are not without their doubts or vulnerabilities. They are both on planets that are ot their home, with secrets that could put them in danger.

While Essie was alone on Thanda, except for her drones, Liddi is someone who hates silence and has almost always had at least one of her eight brothers around.

Only, now they're missing.

I really loved that Liddi's family was so important to her She may have been the baby sister, but she was not going to give up on her big brothers, even if it put her at risk.Her character is unable to speak for much of the novel, but we still get to know her through her thoughts, how she attempts to compensate, her actions an little flashbacks.

I did not connect as well with the other characters (save maybe two) or the general plot of the book. Something about the characters did not stand out as much as I wanted. While parts of the plot did not click with me, I thought they were well imagined and complex and followed a smart progression.

The author does a really nice job with Liddi's character, what she decides to keep secret, how she communicates and who she is. The way of other characters getting information worked well, too.

Though something about Spinning Starlight didn't work, for me, as well as I would have liked, there are not things I can point to and say, 'that was bad;' something just  did not do it (for me). It is a very good story that introduced me to a fairy tale I was not previously familiar with. I am looking forward to the next title from author RC Lewis, I enjoy her creativity and the worlds and characters she creates.








digital review copy received, from publisher, via NetGalley