Book Blurb:

Inspired by the lawless love story of Bonnie and Clyde, Jenna Voris’s heart-stopping tale of passion and crime will have you seeing stars.

Shane and Ava are a team. He steals the aircraft, she charms their mark, and together they take what they need. Not even their distracting chemistry could get in the way. Until Shane was caught and left to rot on a prison moon. Now, freshly escaped from confinement and simmering with anger, he has his sights set on their biggest job yet.

Cyrus just graduated from the flight academy with a shiny new position lined up reporting to a well-respected general. On his very first assignment, he stops the outlaws in their tracks—or he would have, if his annoyingly handsome copilot, Lark, hadn’t fallen for Ava’s deception.

But when Shane uncovers a top-secret plot that would leave his and Ava’s home world at the mercy of Cyrus’s military leaders, he makes it his mission to thwart them at all costs. It isn’t long before the two of them make interstellar headlines with each new heist. And thanks to a chance run-in with the rebels, Cyrus is caught between two versions of the truth. He must pick a side—and fast. Because Shane and Ava will bring the planet to its knees . . . or die trying.

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REVIEW:

Buckle up and hold onto your seats because Made of Stars is one thrilling, non-stop, ride that takes place in the wild west of space! This book opens with a suspenseful prison break that packs a punch of action. After a few chapters in, I decided to go ahead and do a little read-up on the history of Bonnie and Clyde–and readers, I highly recommend you do so for maximum enjoyment and “ah-has!” out of this book. Seriously. It’ll take 15-20 minutes to skim through the Wikipedia entry here like I did. (That said, you can definitely still understand and enjoy the book without doing so, but I truly do think knowing the general background of Bonnie and Clyde, and each person’s history and key events in their lives, really elevates the whole experience.)

The pacing of the book moved at a fast and clipped speed throughout with an angsty (in the best of ways) push-and-pull relationship between Ava and Shane. These two POV characters hail from a poor region of a cold, desert planet. (Which, by the way, how cool is that? A cold desert?!) Shane is determined to make life better for the subjugated citizens of his home planet, even if it means committing crimes–that see him end up in prison in the first place. Ava, on the other hand, is determined to subvert expectations and become a Somebody instead of a nobody fading into obscurity–so she jumps onto the chance to join Shane’s wild if not illegal adventures. Shortly after saving Shane from prison, they soon discover a nefarious plot that places their home planet in danger: a military general’s sneaky attempt of controlling the planet and its resources through political maneuvering, obfuscation of information, and utter disregard for interstellar law so long as if she can get away with it.

I particularly enjoyed Ava’s internal conflicts as the crew rushes to figure out how to protect their planet from the much stronger outside forces. From contending with corrupt politicians who are supposed to be protecting their planet to running from law enforcement because–well, they are criminals after all–Ava grapples with her moral sense of defending her home world while also acknowledging her inner desire to see the planet that has not been kind to her destroyed. On the other hand, Shane’s prison stint has shaken his core, and he has emerged a changed person…for better or worse. Fearful of Ava also landing in prison, Shane now must balance taking risks to protect his home and family and avoiding risks to keep Ava safe–but that just might force him to confront how he really feels about her despite his insistence that “everything is fine!” (No, not everything is fine. His mental state, for one, lol)

Our final POV character is Cyrus who graduated top of the academy and quickly stumbles across his commanding officer’s attempts of taking over *cough colonizing cough* a “dangerous planet being overrun by criminals” and clearly needs the “Opian military’s support to bring it back to peaceful rule.” Also raised in the slums, Cyrus definitely sympathizes when life deals you a shitty hand, and after a series of events, finds himself embroiled with the secret war between his general, Ava + Shane, and the planet’s corrupt leader. Torn between following orders and playing it safe vs taking a risk by collaborating with known-killers on the fragile hope of exposing a war crime, the choices Cyrus must contend with were definitely interesting to follow.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book’s themes and several nods to historical events revolving around Bonnie and Clyde (lots of parallelisms). To be clear, by the time readers are introduced to Ava and Shane, they are quite hardened, morally gray, and capable of great acts of violence. As a reader, there were several times where I truly could not predict which way the coin would land with these two, which made it a very engaging read!

***MILD SPOILERS BELOW REGARDING ENDING***

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While I suspected that Ava and Shane might not get the happiest of endings based on the true story of Bonnie and Clyde, the ending still caught me by some mild surprise (I was in a state of “will the author or will the author not” throughout the last 25% of the novel). Cyrus’ ending definitely ended on a more hopeful note, but I would not say it was a “happily ever after” either. Just as a heads up for anyone who has strong feelings about HEAs!

Tags: sci fi, space opera, bonnie and clyde, space western, societal commentary, no HEA, sci fi retelling