Review - Even the Darkest Stars by Heather Fawcett

Even the Darkest Stars by Heather Fawcett

Published 5th September 2017 by HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray

Star Rating - ***

Goodreads Challenge - 23/50

I was gifted a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Kamzin has always dreamed of becoming one of the Emperor’s royal explorers, the elite climbers tasked with mapping the wintry, mountainous Empire and spying on its enemies. She knows she could be the best in the world, if only someone would give her a chance.

But everything changes when the mysterious and eccentric River Shara, the greatest explorer ever known, arrives in her village and demands to hire Kamzin—not her older sister Lusha, as everyone had expected—for his next expedition. This is Kamzin’s chance to prove herself—even though River’s mission to retrieve a rare talisman for the emperor means climbing Raksha, the tallest and deadliest mountain in the Aryas. Then Lusha sets off on her own mission to Raksha with a rival explorer who is determined to best River, and Kamzin must decide what’s most important to her: protecting her sister from the countless perils of the climb or beating her to the summit.

The challenges of climbing Raksha are unlike anything Kamzin expected—or prepared for—with avalanches, ice chasms, ghosts, and even worse at every turn. And as dark secrets are revealed, Kamzin must unravel the truth of their mission and of her companions—while surviving the deadliest climb she has ever faced.

My Thoughts

I was lucky enough to be gifted a copy of this book from the publisher a while ago in exchange for an honest review. I was really intrigued by the premise of this one and I loved the sound of the setting but unfortunately I felt it was a bit lacking in plot. There were lots of things mentioned in this premise that I love in books. I love reading about explorations in rural and harsh environments with lots of secrets, mystery and magic thrown in so I was really expecting to love this one but alas I did not. I did love the setting, we follow our main character Kamzin as she becomes partner to the Royal Explorer, River Shara, and together they have to tackle the tallest, deadliest mountain in this world. I think the author did a fantastic job at building up this world. The descriptions of the harshness of the environment were really detailed and I really felt like I was immersed in the world. I could feel the cold, the winds and the snow just as much as our characters did which I think is a testament to the authors writing ability. Unfortunately, as much as I loved this setting, I did feel this story was lacking in plot. Our main characters did a lot of travelling in this book and I get that this was one of the main points of the story however, I felt like nothing really happened until we were about 75% of the way through. Then when finally something did happen I felt it was quite anticlimactic. I also felt the story was quite predictable and I was able to figure out the twist from about a third of the way through so this wasn't a surprise to me either. The characters were okay. I liked Kamzin, she was determined and strong willed which was nice but there wasn't really anything stand out about them. I wasn't a fan of Kamzin and Lusha's sister relationship and I didn't think the romances were that great either. Overall I loved the setting and the world building in this one but the plot and characters just didn't live up to my expectations. I will probably continue with the series though as I was intrigued by that ending but I will probably wait until I can pick it up for reasonably cheap or get it from my library. Overall Rating