The Stars We Steal, written by Alexa Donne, reviewed by Bethany Bratney

Summary: Princess Leonie, “Leo” to her friends, comes from a royal family with a secret. The family fortune is running out and the only way to save her family’s dilapidated spaceship and royal status is to enter the Valg, a matchmaking season that will mark her as eligible for marriage, hopefully to the son of a wealthy family. As the oldest daughter, Leo bears the brunt of the Valg, but she has no interest in marriage. She was in love once, to Elliott, an employee of her father’s, but he was deemed an inappropriate match considering her family’s financial ruin. But Elliott’s lot in life has changed. He is now the owner and proprietor of a whisky ship, and has returned to enter the Valg as a wealthy bachelor, much to the delight of many of the Valg participants, including Leo’s sister. Elliott entering the Valg takes Leo by surprise, but she has no time for jealousy or her quickly resurging feelings. She must find herself a match to save her family before it is too late. 

Straight Talk for Librarians: The Stars We Steal is The Bachelor meets debutante season mixed with intergalactic politics. There are plenty of slow-burning feelings to hook romance readers quickly, but the politics interwoven in the story keep things exciting and mysterious. The feelings and the history between Leo and Elliott are serious, but the Valg activities and the amusements available on a world-class spaceship continue to provide unique settings that ease the tension and keep the reader engaged. I would have liked to see even more of Leo’s scientific side. Her failed, pre-Valg plan to save the family was to sell a water filtration system that she invented, which takes significant exploration and tinkering that we only glimpse in her character. The book does a nice job with the upstairs/downstairs power dynamics of the world, not only evidenced in Elliott, but also with some of his travel companions and one of the ship’s servants. Readers will be sucked in by the premise and stay for the interesting plot and for Leo, a classic underdog to champion.