Defy the Stars

The premise of this book alone should intrigue you. You have a human fighter pilot and a human-like mech working together to save the universe. I absolutely loved how Noemi and Abel's story unfolded. The progression of their relationship was extremely well done. They went from two people who had to work together due to programming to something much more. It was a really interesting dynamic between the two and I appreciated seeing a relationship grow between two unlikely characters. I also really appreciated that one of the two main characters was not entirely human (it reminded me of AIDAN from the Illuminae Files, if only he had a more prominent role).

That being said, the world was confusing at times. I'm not sure if there will be a map in the finished copy since I read an eARC, but I would have really liked to see something to show all the different planets that Noemi and Abel explore on their adventure through space. I think the book would have benefited from a bit more background on what was going on between Earth and Genesis. I got the overall big picture but I would have loved more specific details and knowledge about what happened in the past.

The ending of this book was also quite odd. There are definitely a few big questions that still need answered, but at the same time I feel like the story is complete. I'm really confused on how Claudia Gray is continuing with the next book after this. This is a planned duology so she obviously has more story to tell, I just do not see the need with how the arc of this book panned out.

Last thing I want to mention is how great so many of the secondary characters were in this book. Noemi and Abel met a lot of unique people on their adventure from many different backgrounds with different life stories. I loved getting to know these characters and how they impacted the story and helped our two main characters one their journey. I really hope we get to see more of them in the next book.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of the book

One spoiler comment, I feel like it was completely unnecessary "character development" to kill off Noemi's one and only friend at the beginning of the book. This death was constructed as the reason Noemi had the motivation to go through with working with a Mech to destroy the gate. I just did not like using the death of the only friend someone has as the driving force for their actions.