“Revenge. It was a word that pumped through her blood and set the stars on fire.”
Poetic prose as sharp as knives. Captivating characters that weave together, plot points ebbing and flowing, unfolding in escalating waves. Oh. And don’t forget the stabby girls. All the stabby, stabby girls. These are just a few of the reasons Scavenge The Stars is one of my favorite reads of the year.
Alternating between the two perspectives of Amaya and Cayo, we get a sweeping range of the country Moray. Decadent yet tarnished, I love how we see both the spectrum of the upper class and the seedy underbelly through Cayo. But really, that’s how we see all the characters. Through various lenses that allows each of them to become a fully developed, three-dimensional person. They glimmer while showing their tarnished edges, just like we all do.
“All he saw was a girl without a mask to hide behind, flawed and fierce and beautiful.”
Another one of my favorite things is how Sim plays with our senses. She features gambling as a major component of Cayo’s character. But she uses the same tricks in her own writing, dazzling us with what we think we know while blindsiding us with a card we never saw being played. It’s this talent with words that makes each character fit in with their scenery, giving the reader extra flavor to expand the world beyond the pages.
To say I enjoyed this book is a massive understatement. And in a cruel twist of fate, or maybe in a move giving me exactly what I want, the book ends by only promising more. The first in an epic duology, Scavenge The Stars will keep fantasy readers turning pages late into the night. It’s stabby and full of revenge but is also full of unexpected heart and gut punching twists.
Before I go… I leave you with this quick bite…
Excerpt:
Revenge. It was a simple word when spoken out loud, but it was so much bigger, like the hidden city under the atoll. It was a word of fire and blood, of a knife’s whisper and the priming of a pistol.
It was a word that consumed her, filled her entire being until she knew that she could no longer be Silverfish. Silverfish’s will was to survive, to simply make it to the next day, and hopefully the day after that. But that was no longer her will.
Now it was revenge.
Captain Zharo. Kamon Mercado. Moray.
They would all pay.
Delicious right?!
Huge thank you to Rockstar Book Tours and Disney-Hyperion for including me on this blog tour and sending me a copy!
Want to win a finished copy??? Enter below!!!
3 winners will receive a finished copy of SCAVENGE THE STARS, US only. Giveaway ends February 14th at midnight EST.
Check out the links below, and don’t forget to check out the rest of the tour!
When Amaya rescues a mysterious stranger from drowning, she fears her rash actions have earned her a longer sentence on the debtor ship where she’s been held captive for years. Instead, the man she saved offers her unimaginable riches and a new identity, setting Amaya on a perilous course through the coastal city-state of Moray, where old-world opulence and desperate gamblers collide.
Amaya wants one thing: revenge against the man who ruined her family and stole the life she once had. But the more entangled she becomes in this game of deception—and as her path intertwines with the son of the man she’s plotting to bring down—the more she uncovers about the truth of her past. And the more she realizes she must trust no one…
Packed with high-stakes adventure, romance, and dueling identities, this gender-swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo is the first novel in an epic YA fantasy duology, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Sabaa Tahir, and Leigh Bardugo.
Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo , TBD
Tara Sim is the author of SCAVENGE THE STARS (Disney-Hyperion) and the TIMEKEEPER trilogy (Sky Pony Press) and writer of all things magic. She can often be found in the wilds of the Bay Area, California.
When she’s not writing about mischievous boys in clock towers, Tara spends her time drinking tea, wrangling cats, and occasionally singing opera. Despite her bio-luminescent skin, she is half-Indian and eats way too many samosas.
Tara is represented by Victoria Marini at Irene Goodman Literary Agency.
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Tour Schedule:
Week One:
| 1/13/2020 | Books,Dreams,Life | Excerpt |
| 1/14/2020 | Kait Plus Books | Review |
| 1/15/2020 | Starlight Reads | Review |
| 1/16/2020 | Here’s to Happy Endings | Review |
| 1/17/2020 | BookHounds YA | Excerpt |
Week Two:
| 1/20/2020 | Do You Dog-ear? | Review |
| 1/21/2020 | fictitious.fox | Review |
| 1/22/2020 | The Pages In-Between | Review |
| 1/23/2020 | Wonder Struck | Review |
| 1/24/2020 | A Gingerly Review | Review |
Week Three:
| 1/27/2020 | Jrsbookreviews | Review |
| 1/28/2020 | Two Chicks on Books | Excerpt |
| 1/29/2020 | Nay’s Pink Bookshelf | Review |
| 1/30/2020 | onemused | Review |
| 1/31/2020 | Fire and Ice | Review |
Week Four:
| 2/3/2020 | Ficticiouswonderland | Review |
| 2/4/2020 | Jena Brown Writes | Review |
| 2/5/2020 | She Just Loves Books | Review |
| 2/6/2020 | Books and Zebras | Review |
| 2/7/2020 | Mycornerforbooksand | Review |
Week Five:
| 2/10/2020 | Smada’s Book Smack | Review |
| 2/11/2020 | Cover to Cover Reviews | Review |
| 2/12/2020 | History from a Woman’s Perspective | Review |
| 2/13/2020 | Two Points of Interest | Review |
| 2/14/2020 | A Bookish Dream | Review |
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