Star Mother by Charlie N. Holmberg

A woman's heart proves as infinite as the night sky in a breathtaking fantasy by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg. When a star dies, a new one must be born. The Sun God chooses the village of Endwever to provide a mortal womb. The birthing of a star is always fatal for the mother, and Ceris Wenden, who considers herself an outsider, sacrifices herself to secure her family's honor and take control of her legacy. But after her star child is born, Ceris does what no other star mother has: she survives. When Ceris returns to Endwever, however, it's not nine months later--it's seven hundred years later. Inexplicably displaced in time, Ceris is determined to seek out her descendants. Being a woman traveling alone brings its own challenges, until Ceris encounters a mysterious--and desperate--godling. Ristriel is incorporeal, a fugitive, a trickster, and the only being who can guide Ceris safely to her destination. Now, as Ceris traverses realms both mortal and beyond, her journey truly begins. Together, pursued across the Earth and trespassing the heavens, Ceris and Ristriel are on a path to illuminate the mysteries that bind them and discover the secrets of the celestial world.

This is a BEAUTIFUL romantic story with writing up to the standard I'd expect from Holmberg. The one thing I wished it included a little more of was things happening, often the story dragged on, but the writing and characters are so beautiful that I didn't mind too much,.

3 very sad stars. I love Holmberg's writing style and I've given 5 stars to every other book I've read from her but this one wasn't doing it for me. And they're sad stars because Star Mother has been on my TBR forever and I was really looking forward to it.

Part of my dislike was because this book has a strong theme of motherhood and what it feels like to yearn for your child. I am not a mother so I couldn't relate to Ceris' all consuming feelings about her star. She is constantly talking about her star, thinking about her star, singing to it, wanting to be near it and as someone who doesn't have a kid I got tired of hearing about her star after a while.

I also found Ceris herself to be a little boring. I thought that I liked her until I met Ristriel then I spent the rest of the novel wishing the book was about him instead. He was just so much more interesting than Ceris in my opinion.

Nothing that interesting happens in the book which is saying something because there is a literal war between gods happening IN THE BACKGROUND! The book is more of a character study so don't go into this book thinking that you're going to see some epic action scenes.

The love story was okay. I can believe that Ceris and Ris fall in love over their long journey together, but Sato loving Ceris was pointless. I also didn't understand why. The only thing Ceris did was ask questions so the reader can understand what's going on and survive the birth of her star and then Sato was in love?

Major plot spoilers below here!!!!

Deeply disliked the last 3-4 chapters. What is the point of setting up this love story if the main couple has to be separated for many years before they can be together? And I understand Ceris wanted to spare the other Star Mothers and she was living with Sato for a long time but why did they need to have more kids together? Again, why establish an OTP if you're going to have the other man live with/ be in love with/ have MORE kids with the woman before she goes off to be with her true love? I know their gods and they don't care but she was basically cheating on Ris for 348 years! THAT HOE DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT A DECADE BEFORE SHE WENT CRAWLING TO SATO FOR AFFECTION!!! And then that bullshit at the end with Ceris saying she grew to love Sato but Ris was her true love so she had to go to him?! WHY ARE YOU EVEN IN LOVE WITH ANOTHER MAN IF YOU SUPPOSEDLY LOVE RIS?! That just doesn't make sense to me. It felt like Ceris was in love with Sato out of convenience because he was nice to her and she was stuck in his palace waiting for her real husband for 351 years. Just dumb.