Starflight by Melissa Landers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Space Opera
Content: Implied Sex

What happens when you combine Firefly with Overboard? Well, you get something like Starflight. While I'm sure the comparisons to Firefly are abundant, I couldn't help but think of Overboard as well for the first part of this book. One character loses his memory for a little while and another takes revenge in much the same way as Kurt Russell took revenge on Goldie Hawn in that movie. I would have loved if it had gone on a little longer in this book than it did.

Solara Brooks is an orphan and an ex-convict who is looking forward to starting a new life for herself in the outer realm, a lawless place that a lot of other people would steer clear of. She is so desperate to find a way there that she indentures herself to Doran Spalding, an oil baron's son, so that she can obtain passage on a ship bound in that direction. Solara and Doran have a history, one that was unpleasant for Solara, because he made her life miserable in school. They eventually end up on the Banshee where Solara becomes the ship's mechanic. It's on the Banshee that everything starts to change for both Solara and Doran.

Starflight is a light, romantic space opera. It's also a YA novel, so if you aren't a fan of YA that includes some romance then you might not like it. I thought it was a lot of fun and at times pretty darn funny. I loved the space pirates and the Daeva reminded me a lot of the Reavers from Firefly. There were quite a few things that reminded me of Firefly. Solara was very likable and Doran grew on me. He was a real jerk in the beginning and I was surprised at how much I ended up liking him. There was a whole lot of changing on his part. This book had some surprisingly deep things to say about love and relationships.

I can't really think of anything negative to say about this book, except that I predicted the plot twists pretty easily. I'll be looking forward to the sequel.



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