Review: Eclipse the Moon

Eclipse the Moon by Jessie Mihalik
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.3 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

I'd wanted Varro from the moment I'd laid eyes on him, and that instant, fierce attraction had only grown into deeper affection the more I'd gotten to know him. 

Falling in love in a space opera is never really a good idea but lucky for us readers, Kee can't help herself as soon as she gets a look at Varro. Eclipse the Moon is second in the Starlight's Shadow series and you're going to want to read the first, Hunt the Stars, before you embark on this journey. Kee is the Starlight's resident hacker, tiny but fierce, not afraid to let out a good cry, and, sometimes, dangerously optimistic. When the war between the Federated Human Planets (FHP) and Valovians managed to come to a tentative peace three years ago, Kee joined the crew of the Starlight, which consists of her found family of Captain Tavi (Hunt the Stars), Eli, newcomer Anja, and sometimes Lexi. In the first book, all the introductions are made and we see the Starlight's human crew get joined by a crew of Valovians, Chira, Havil, Varro, and General Torran. Tavi and Torran fall in love and, oh yeah, they save the Valovian Empress' heir while uncovering a tangled weave of possible traitors, treason, and warmongers who seem to be lead by an FHP Commodore Morten with maybe help from a Valovian Sun Guardian. I liked how the author didn't info dump what happened last book but interwoven some key details that happened in the first but it's a subtle recap that wouldn't work for a new reader. 

“I didn't know,” he said, his voice rough. 

I nodded, glad, at least, that my feelings hadn't been so obvious. “That was the point.” 

“No,” he said, something fierce and dark in his tone, “I didn't know.” 

This starts off pretty soon after the first ended and the Starlight's crew and newly joined Valovians have decided to try and ferret out Morten to expose and stop any possible plans he has for reigniting the war. As the computer expert, Kee has been trying to search for Morten online and with her feeling her attraction towards Varro isn't reciprocated, she makes plans to be dropped off a space station that is having a first of it's kind collaboration fashion show between humans and Valoffs because her instincts are telling her it could be a cover for something else. Of course, Varro ends up on the space station with her and we get a one bedroom (but bunkbeds!) forced proximity couple weeks of them together. This is told in first person pov all from Kee, so you know what I'm going to say, I missed reading Varro's thoughts. There was some delicious tension in the beginning, especially since Kee and Varro are pretty much alone together, so the story gets to really focus on them but every time they start to get closer, Kee comes right out and tells Varro she like likes him at 20%, something has Varro pulling away. Look, since this is romance, it's obvious Varro wants Kee but I want to experience, feel it in a way that most often comes from reading a character's thoughts and emotions, not solely mannerisms and actions. Getting his thoughts and emotions would have also helped with his characterization immensely, too. I never felt like I had a good look at his character, I needed more on his background and why his powers were stronger than the other Valoffs. So, while we definitely get a good amount of our leads together, the instant attraction that started in the first book, gets repeated here and I missed getting more depth between them and from Varro. 

Hope fizzed through my veins. Was it possible that we'd both thought we were being obvious, and we'd both been oblivious? My fingertips tingled with a combination of nerves and excitement, and I couldn't help the smile blooming on my lips. “We have got to work on our communication.” 

Varro's gaze moved over my face with the kind of intent focus that made the butterflies take flight again. “Agreed,” he murmured, his voice a soothing rumble. 

While I enjoyed the first half with Kee and Varro getting to spend some together, there was too much explanation and story given to Kee searching computer systems for Morten, especially since I don't think it's ever given a payoff, in the end she doesn't find Morten that way, so it made all that computer talk feel pretty pointless and dragged the pace down. The Starlight's crew that we got to know and care about from the first also takes a backseat in the first half as Kee and Varro meet and make new friends. When the fashion show gets attacked, Kee, Varro, and now the Starlight crew comes back into the picture, are suddenly on a mission to rescue the two lead fashion designers, one of the fashion designers security, and Liang, one of the Empress' sons who made a surprise appearance at the show. The second half gives us more of that space political drama and the crew is back to rescuing, trying to figure out if it's humans or Valoffs working to spark the war back up, and Morten and the telekinetic Sun Guardian pop back up. 

Varro cupped my jaw and tipped my head up until he could meet my eyes. “Cho wubr chil tavoz,” he murmured. My life for yours. 

The last 30% was a lot of action with the romance getting left in the dust more but the last 15 pages gave us a bedroom scene between Kee and Varro that felt a bit jolting because of the previous 400 pages of, mostly, there was two scenes of heaving making out, kisses. Varro also drops one or two lines of dirty talk that nicely had my eyes widen but mostly I was wondering where in the world did it come from; that whole missing a lot of Varro's characterization. I liked the thought of Kee and Varro together and they delivered on some moments but their relationship development wasn't deep enough for me and had one too many stop and go moments. 

Eli winced. “You know I don't love the status quo.” 

“But are you willing to do anything about it?” I demanded softly. 

The crew manages to survive this battle but with some known and unknown villains still in the wind, their work isn't done but this time, they'll have an FHP Admiral in the wings. I was a little disappointed that Lexi and Nilo, we get to know them a little bit in the first, didn't show up here at all and the next in the series looks to star them. The author managed to grow this fun space opera world nicely and from what I remember, Lexi and Nilo had some eye-catching unresolved tension between them, so I'll be looking forward to the third book, hoping Morten gets his due and finding out more about a certain Sun Guardian.

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