Shadows Grow and Rebellion Brews are books two and three of A Game of Stars and Shadows series. Since I binged all of these together and they’re pretty short books which flow together into one another I decided to combine the reviews for books two and three into one post. You can find the full review for book one here.

Shadows Grow

My name is Stella. I’m just a simple girl with simple needs: books, food and a warm bed to sleep in.
With Eldaren, the prince of elves, in my life, I may have found a place to call home.
He and I share a common goal. Heal the planet.
Eldaren tasks me with finding a gaia; a being who possesses Earth magic. But searching the elven library proves fruitless, and I begin to doubt that such a person exists.
And now, with vampires murdering civilians and earthquakes threatening to rip my city apart, finding a way to protect Liberty becomes more important than ever.
There’s one person who might be able to help me; someone I once thought lost forever.
Wilder.

Book two picks up pretty much where book one left off. I highly recommend reading one after the other if you can as 1) the story is pretty addictive and 2) book one leaves off on not exactly a cliffhanger but at a point where you want to keep reading because the story is not over. These short books are almost more like a serial in that way, you’re going to want to keep going.

In Shadow’s Grow we get to spend more time with Wilder and see things from his POV. From what we saw of most vampires in the first book, they’re made out to be mindless fiends driven by their thirst for blood, a thirst they’ll never be able to quench. Here we see Wilder is able to push back that thirst, to some extent. He’s more of himself than he was on the drugs, but he’s changed in that he’s stronger and more capable. But he’s also still got Stella in his heart and he’s willing to help her in her quest to find a Gaia for Eldaren in order to help the space Elves heal the planet. This also means Stella’s love life has become more complicated than ever as she’s starting to have feelings for the Elf Prince Eldaren. I am a sucker for love triangles siiiiigh.

The world is a little more fleshed out in this book. We find out some more of human history, how things have got to be where they are now. We also get to go with Eldaren on a visit to his home planet and meet his mother. I love that he’s torn between his love for Stella and what his parents will think, how he’s bonded with a human. Elves are not emotionless, even if they pretend to be. I’m also still curious about this rogue elf that has sabotaged the healing spell from book one that still hasn’t been caught. I have a feeling that I know who it is, but it might be a red herring. I also love that we get to spend some time with Stella’s friend Lyra in this book and that she’s getting her own back story. There’s more to Lyra than meets the eye and I’m loving it. I think this is going to be a great set up for conflict later on in the story. Overall, very pleased with the direction this story is taking. 4/5 stars.

Rebellion Brews

Together, Wilder and I found a lead on the location of a gaia. It puts me one step closer to helping Eldaren heal this planet.
But the last time I saw Wilder, he was fighting for his life—and mine.
I don’t know if he’s okay.
And now, I have problems of my own. Someone’s made me a target, and I’m being hunted.
It doesn’t make any sense. I’m just an ordinary girl. I’m not special. Why does someone want to kill me?
My ignorance may prove my ruin, and I need answers before time runs out.

 

In book three we’re on the quest to find a Gaia, and with the help of Wilder (unbeknownst to Eldaren) he might be closer than ever to being able to make some real progress in healing the planet. We get some new characters here! We’re introduced to Sophia, who lives on an island off the coast in an isolated village and can hear the earth speak. Meanwhile, Wilder the vampire is off forming his own little gang of vampires, determined to only kill ‘bad people’ all while some mysterious ‘head vampire’ keeps trying to recruit him to their own gang.

We’re actually getting  a good bit of character development here, mostly with the side characters, as the story line and plot continues to unfold. We’ve got humans rebelling, a bad vampire leader who may or may not also be an Elf trying to kill Stella who may or may not have some special power. Things are getting complicated! I kind of love it. There’s a good amount of action in this one and the pacing is great. Because we have a new POV in this we spend less time with Stella and Eldaren, that would be my only real complaint. But even so I really love the new POV so it’s not really much of a complaint! There are a lot of little mysteries and clues sprinkled throughout, I’m having a fun time trying to piece everything together. Excited to see where the story goes next! 4/5 stars.