Reviewed by Anabela
TITLE: Eating Stars
AUTHOR: Angel Martinez
PUBLISHER: Mischief Corner Books
LENGTH: 121 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2020
BLURB:
Flee. Scatter. Take your mates and your offspring and run.
A new Science Fiction Romance from Angel Martinez
The escape pods fall to Earth one by one over the course of weeks, a mysterious and diverse alien diaspora, each pod containing a different alien race and leaving the world’s governments scrambling to deal with this unexpected immigration. Serge Kosygin, still grieving and isolated after his husband’s death, watches events with gray disinterest until one day he witnesses a pod crash for himself while driving home. Two of the alien visitors have died, but one survives, badly injured, and Serge is determined that if this alien is also going to die, it won’t be under the harsh lights of a government facility.
Devastated by the loss of his life mates in their desperate effort to reach safety, the knowledge that Een is the last Aalana in this sector of the galaxy only compounds his sorrow. He wakes in an alien dwelling under the care of one of the native dominant builder species, a being who appears to share nothing with Een besides a bipedal structure. Slowly, with the help of his patient and kind host, he discovers they are more similar than he imagined as they share harmonies and his host assists him with language acquisition.
Their tentative first contact soon evolves into a deepening friendship, a balm for two grief-weary souls. They’ll need each other and their growing bond for the troubles lurking just ahead.
REVIEW:
If I was ever close to melting into an emotional puddle of tears, it would have happened while reading Eating Stars. I can’t begin to explain the emotions this story portrays, the heartbreak the characters have been through. Sage after the loss of his partner and Een after the death of his mates and the annihilation of his entire species, the Aalana.
They bonded over music at first, when they were still unable to communicate. And I think it was then that their souls in some ways started to reach toward each other, recognizing the absolute sorrow and anguish they both felt. Physiologically speaking, they couldn’t have been more different. While humanoid in appearance, Een was a phophagic being. He fed through photosynthesis, needing the sun to fuel and spending hours in the light, eating stars. He even started to learn Serge’s language with books on Earth’s vegetation, and he had this absolutely adorable way of calling people all plants, whether wildflowers, grass or trees.
The beautiful thing was that, after the initial shocking encounter and once Een stopped fearing he’d be eaten, they were never aliens. Strange, unfamiliar and different, yes, what with Een’s being covered in feathery scales and sporting appendages on his head, but wonderfully more similar than not. From millions of miles apart in the universe, yet so alike in their ability to feel the whole range of emotions: grief, hope, fear, affection, love. That’s why seeing Serge and Een connect filled my heart to the brim with happiness. Watching them not only talk, but also getting closer and closer, seeking each other’s warmth and companionship, cuddle together and beginning to see one another firstly as friends and then increasingly more.
And just when I was swooning and awing, the author had to crush my bubble because Een got severely, close to dying ill. In mere seconds I was bawling my eyes out, crying at the unfairness of the situation. In a corner of my mind I knew that Angel Martinez wouldn’t deny Serge and Een a happy ending, but in that particular moment I couldn’t go past the panic and the devastation.
Fear not, because they found help in a surprising way and the book had a marvelously stirring, joyful finale. I’m so grateful for this reading experience, for the intense highs and lows, and for the stunningly written love story. I absolutely loved it!
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
[…] Review […]