Out of the Shadows

After the last YA book introduced a brilliant cast, Reath Silas, Master Cohmac and Orla, Affie, Leox, and Geode, Ireland makes the questionable decision to ignore most of those characters, and turn Reath and Cohmac into side characters.

Instead, a new character is introduced, and the book focuses more on a ham-fisted romance story, that I'm certain gets more credit than it's due purely because it is an LGBTQ+ relationship. It was sweet at times, but I do not care for these two characters. They were really dull and uninteresting, and I could not believe the focus they got in this novel. A totally misguided sidestep.

Justina Ireland's writing style is quite possibly the most dull I've read since Barbara Hambly's Callista books, but it has the opposite issue. While Hambly's prose was endless and spiralling through long and complex descriptions and other nonsense, Ireland's is annoyingly simple.

This book reads nothing like a YA book. It feels targeted at young teens who read romance fanfiction. Every character seems to have an eye for one another, and the way the main girl, Syl, eyes women is almost creepy. If a man was written like this, people would be very mad, but to me, it is just as strange. Listen, we're attracted to people. We have thoughts we wouldn't openly share with everyone. But it seems to be on her mind 24/7, and I don't always need to see this on the page.

NO SHIP FOR YOU. YOU ARE A TERRIBLE PILOT, VERNESTRA RWOH, AND I WILL NOT LET YOU RUIN WHAT IS LEFT OF MY FLEET

Out of the Shadows is the Star Wars book that, for me, comes the closest to just being a comfort book. It's just such a comfy read. The first half of the book is so slow and just takes it's time to settle us into Vern's day to day and how her relationship with Imri is growing. I could read a whole series of books about those two just interacting with everyone on Starlight Beacon and just them hanging out, its all great.

The new characters introduced here are also great, Sylvestri and Jordanna are a great pair and play off each other well whenever they're together and Xylan Graf is a great rich loser, I liked how the book went more into the concept of the Hyperspace Rush and the families that helped chart the routes out. I think that's such a fun idea in Star Wars.

Although it's mainly a chill read theres still a healthy amount of setup for future plot points, especially regarding Vern and her visions which I'm very interested to see where that goes.

Second time through always brings more to light and reminds one of what was forgotten. Probably too much time between reading this the first time and reading the third adult novel.  The reader was solid, not getting too far afield with outlandish accents for everybody. 

2.5 stars