Max Nocerino 
Star Wars: Eyes Like Stars is a solid romantic story that occasionally feels hesitant to fully embrace its convictions. Read our full review to find out if this galaxy far, far away adventure hits the mark.
Star Wars has taken its first foray into romance literature in Eyes Like Stars, and while I was expecting something steamy, the end result was a bit, well…..vanilla.
I’ve never read a romance novel in my life, so I was hesitant to read Eyes Like Stars. However, as a diehard Star Wars fan, I am obsessed with the different storytelling possibilities in this universe, and view Star Wars lit as a fractal kaleidoscope with an infinite number of states. Romance was tough, but I found myself flying through the first hundred or so pages; it was so well-written and a real page-turner.
Besides romance, the story also takes a stab at another new concept: the main character is a red-headed human girl named Ardent Quay, the heir to a famous astrogator’s family – a family that has also run a tour company business in its spaceship for generations. The captain of this old vessel is Ardent’s flamboyant and fluid father, who also served as a soldier in the Galactic Civil War. He is fiercely overprotective of his daughter, as his wife died years before on a wayfinding excursion, and Ardent’s older brother Val just up and left due to feeling like he was a prisoner on the ship, “doomed” to inherit the family business.
STAR TOURS
Many eagle-eyed fans may correct me, as the popular real-world Star Tours attraction has been going on for over a decade now (where fans can pretend they are tourists in the Disney theme park of the GFFA). Still, to my knowledge, this is the first real narrative told from the point of view of a tour guide, and I love the novelty.
The story begins with Ardent sneaking off the ship during a stop on Coruscant to find a romance holonovel she’s been desperate to find. The fact that people in Star Wars can travel FTL in a matter of hours and defy gravity without blinking an eye, but CANNOT read stuff on the internet, truly boggles my mind and is one of the prime reasons I love Star Wars’s retrofuturistic tech society. While they have a Holonet, it doesn’t work like Earth’s internet, and while you can find media on it, it’s really better to find things physically and in person. No Google Books or Archive.org.
SHOPPING FOR LOVE?
While at the shop, she finds the serial and is headed back to the ship, but fate (or the Force) compels her to turn back and return an old astrogation compass that the shopkeep accidentally put in her bag. When Ardent goes to return it, she witnesses the murder of the shopkeep and an attack on a humanoid male by the (at this time) mysterious First Order. She and the boy escape the shop, and Ardent learns his name is Sian and that he has a broken lightsaber the First Order wants badly (for some reason).
Sian is mostly human in appearance, except his hair is naturally silver and his eyes are pitch black with glowing white inside them. Despite sounding terrifying, Ardent is attracted to this boy (lol), and they end up escaping together and almost dying. Desperate to get offworld, he begs Ardent to let him stowaway on the Starfarer, just until he gets to the first stop on the new tour. It seems simple enough, and since the ship is quite large, Sian is able to hide in the pantry with only Ardent’s trusty droids knowing he is there.
A WELL WRITTEN ROMANCE!
Now, I have to say. This novel was mostly well-written, with some good plot points, but it was also very much layered like a birthday cake. The top layer was sweet and good, but every other layer of this cake suffered terribly from bad plot points and characterization. It’s almost like Ashley Poston would build up something great, then let all the air out in a quick, uneventful way that left you feeling like you missed something. It also tried to shoehorn in a lot of character interactions and development that weren’t drawn out long enough, almost like solving a math equation without showing your work.
The sexual tension between Ardent and Sian seemed good on the outside, but it didn’t really reverberate as they grew as characters. Sian was a smooth-talking pain in the neck, and Ardent was a straight-laced, easily angered young woman, but the way they showed the deeper layers of their characters was too abrupt and not properly focused. Ardent wanted to be more independent like her brother. But we didn’t really see a build-up to some of her inner monologues addressing that until BOOM-Ashley would drop them on us like a ton of bricks. The same can be said of Sian’s checkered past, which was squeezed out in inordinate spurts that felt rushed and not fun to uncover. Val’s sudden return also wasn’t handled properly, as we knew what he was up to too early in the novel. It just wasn’t paced properly.
MUGUFFINS APLENTY
Yet then on the other hand, Ashley excelled at creating plot devices that kept Sian on the ship for longer than he intended, extremely well. I was astonished that she could make such a fascinating mini-adventure from trying to steal back the droids from Jawas on Tatooine, so interesting (it is obvious that Ashley is a true OG fan for this). I also liked the danger and tension she created as the ship leaves Ardent behind on Tatooine, and her father only sends a cryptic transmission for her to run (when they catch up on the excursion shuttle).
Sure, we know who is to blame, but it felt very real to experience Ardent’s terror at being stranded alone in space without her father. Ashley’s ability to create original lore is a tad weak, but I think she was mostly focused on the romance so that I will give her a pass for that.
ROMANCE WITHOUT THE PAYOFF
Now, for a romance novel, this book was very PG, and I was a bit surprised as it was classified as a YA novel. Most of the sexual tension built up to just kisses, and while there was a pseudo-steamy scene where they are kissing and Ardent tries to remove Sian’s shirt, there is simply no sex. Claudia Grey had no problem with constant sexual references, so it makes no sense that Ashley would not cross that line as well.
Despite the unbalanced number of very good and very bad parts of this book, the ending, I have to say, was sloppy and juvenile. We see some major Sequel trilogy baddies appear. Still, they are watered down dramatically and reduced to almost Scooby-Doo-esque defeats that really take the traction away from their characters. I also think the whole subplot where Ardent realized she had a mother all along (in the form of her protocol droid) was set up so poorly that I almost laughed when that droid gave that deep monologue. Aside from being snarky and obsessed with making bad food in the galley, this droid did not strike me as “mother” to Ardent at all. Poston created something we didn’t see grow, and it was tripe and unsatisfying.
VERDICT
The good guys win, but we don’t feel like we won. The ending was also very drawn-out and tripe, but despite all this, I wouldn’t mind seeing Ardent and Sian again; the work needs to be done to make these characters more organic and transparent. There is potential here, and I commend Ashley, as I can certainly see that she is a superfan. She just needs to work on build-up and proper execution of her creations. And for the love of God, AT LEAST make a Star Wars romance novel a STAR WARS ROMANCE NOVEL. I’m not asking for hardcore gratuitous sex (not at all!), but maybe something more than a few kisses.
Star Wars: Eyes Like Stars by Ashley Poston is available to buy now.
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
