Starstruck (Starstruck, #1) by Brenda Hiatt Published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform on August 22nd 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, YA
Pages: 328
Format: ebook
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Nerdy astronomy geek Marsha, M to her few friends, has never been anybody special. Orphaned as an infant and reluctantly raised by an overly-strict “aunt,” she’s not even sure who she is. M’s dream of someday escaping tiny Jewel, Indiana and making her mark in the world seems impossibly distant until hot new quarterback Rigel inexplicably befriends her. As Rigel turns his back on fawning cheerleaders to spend time with M, strange things start to happen: her acne clears up, her eyesight improves to the point she can ditch her thick glasses, and when they touch, sparks fly—literally! When M digs for a reason, she discovers deep secrets that will change her formerly humdrum life forever . . . and expose her to perils she never dreamed of. Yes, the middle of nowhere just got a lot more interesting!
Read the opening chapters for free on Wattpad! http://www.wattpad.com/story/7692289-...
Starstruck by Brenda Hiatt is the second novel in the Spark bundle. I went in blind, without looking at the cover or reading the description. All I knew was that it had fantasy/science-fiction elements and targeted the young adult audience. That’s enough for me to start reading. It’s also very refreshing since I’m not able to form expectations from a book.
Marsha is an interesting girl, but I feel her development throughout the book is limited. I think she can grow more, and I’m hoping that will happen in the next books. Her infatuation with Rigel appeared much stronger than would make sense, but that’s explained later in the book. There were a few more moments like that, but Hiatt made sure to address the points that bothered me later.
The idea of having enhanced humans from Mars is novel and it did keep me reading, but the writing is average at best. Some scenes are definitely better than others and some conversation seems forced. If it weren’t for the new elements in the story, I would’ve stopped reading, something I rarely do.
Halfway through the story seemed familiar. A new transfer student helps the main character find out who she really is. This reminds me of the Wicca/Sweep series by Cate Tiernan, one of my favourite series. The story structure is about the same although Tiernan spreads it out over multiple books. If you liked Starstruck, I highly recommend checking out this series as well.
Starstruck receives a rating of 3 stars. It’s enjoyable, the story is nice, but I moved on pretty quickly after that. It didn’t make me think, nor was the writing, the relationships between the characters or the plot memorable.
Check out my reviews of the other stories in the Spark bundle as well:
The Dark Realm by Anthea Sharp
The Gatekeeper’s Sons by Eva Pohler
Sworn to Raise by Terah Edun
