Book cover
The world building is probably the thing I liked the most about Catching Stars.  There are people who have magical abilities and a larger group of people who don't.  Within magic users, there are different types of magic users.  There are kingdoms and politics, palace intrigue, roving gangs, sailing ships, petty rivalries and fierce prejudices.  Though the story is quite different, the emotional feel of the world is similar to the book Steeplejack by A.J. Hartley.  Take that basic world with its gritty dangers, add magic and remove the detailed economic modelling.  None of this would be interesting without a good story to go with it.

The story is very action packed, every chapter switching back and forth between the perspective of the two main characters, Jayin and Maddix, and the author does this very well.  The book starts off establishing Maddix, and throwing him in front of very powerful magic.  This quick action sets the pace for the rest of the book.

This is the first book in a series, which I say because I wasn't actually aware of it when I read this.  If you want a book to have a climax, this book delivers.  If you want a book to have a resolution, THAT part is probably found in book two.  I was much more disappointed by this when I expectantly turned the page to find the heading ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS than I am now, a few days later.  Now, honestly, I'm just looking forward to the next book.

Nitty gritty:  There was one important thing that was introduced in the middle of the story that I missed.  I think I missed it because it was introduced in the middle of fast paced action scenes.  I tell myself this often, but I need to slow down and read carefully.  I also spotted at least two places where it seemed like a negative was missing, which had me re-reading and hunting context to make sure I understood correctly what was going on.  Maybe I mis-read something, but watch for those.


I bought this book from the author on the evening before BookCon started, she was staging her table stuff in the lobby of the Javits Center as I was leaving from the last day of Book Expo.

Catching Stars
Oftomes Publishing
Fantasy
Released May 8, 2018
Paperback, 352 Pages