Review: Capture the Sun

Capture the Sun by Jessie Mihalik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

The man in front of me tilted his head, and I caught a glimpse of a familiar one-sided smile. My breath caught. It couldn't be. 

The third and conclusion to the Starlight's Shadow series, Capture the Sun gives us the ship's wild card recovery specialist Lexi and the Valoff that once betrayed her, Nilo. This would be much better read as a series instead of standalone, book 1 (Hunt the Stars) lays the foundation for the space opera world. Heavy on the politics of the world, you'd be pretty lost, especially in the second half, as all the plot threads laid through out the first two come to a conclusion here. The first half focused more on the relationship between Lexi and Nilo, they get to spend a good amount of time alone without the distraction of all the other crew members and Valoffs. Book one alluded to Lexi and Nilo having previously met and we get the full background story here where Lexi feels Nilo only flirted with her to take a job from her and while accurate, there was truth behind Nilo's attraction. I missed seeing these two in book 2 (Eclipse the Moon) and I think that would have helped me have more of feeling an emotional connection between these two. While they spent good alone time together, I'm not sure I felt all those emotions that has me loving a couple. 

“Starlight's Shadow disappeared.” 

While some of the emotional foundation and depth was missing for me between Lexi and Nilo, I did think this third installment married the blend and pace of romance and space opera together the best of the series. It gave us a first half of romance, where I could spend time with Lexi and Nilo and then a second half of space adventure and bringing in all those characters the worldbuilding had previously got me to care about; this author is really great at managing a bigger character list. If you've read the first two, you'll know about how the Starlight's Shadow crew had fought in the previous big war between the Federated Human Plants and the Valoffs, leading to some initial distrust between our humans and Valoffs but oops, they're falling in love with them and uncovering what looks like some chaos agents trying to destabilize the fragile peace between the FHP and Valovian Empire. At the end of book two, there's strong hints as to the whos and whys but they need the proof. So our crew sets out to rescue a Commodore Morten from the Empress of Valovia and bring him back to an Admiral they know they can trust. This will hopefully lead to a trial with Morten and out who's trying to start the war. Lexi and Nilo are a little outside this but they come in when the Empress makes a play for Lexi to use her for leverage and Nilo rescues her. As they get reacquainted for some romance in the first half, it becomes apparent that something has happened to the Starlight's Shadow and her crew. 

Nilo had somehow wormed his way into my heart, and I wasn't above trying to steal his in return. The second half was full of planning, rescuing, and battles, bringing in all those humans and Valoffs we have grown to care about throughout the series and their antagonists, Morten, Sura Fev the Sun Guardian (Special Forces, elite soldier for the Valoffs) herself, and other Valoff fodder soldiers. The battle and danger scenes, for the most part, kept up the pace (I feel like one or two could have been cut or shortened) and tense tone to leave me fearing for the characters and wondering how it was going to wrap-up. 

“What do you want, Lexi?” he murmured. 

You, just you. 

Like I said, I did think this one blended the romance and space opera elements the best out of the series but I just couldn't feel the depth of emotion between Lexi and Nilo. Told all in Lexi's point-of-view, I enjoyed her character, but with the romance, Nilo came off feeling flat to me; I just didn't feel the vibrancy from him the way the other aspects of the story hit. They were just kind of attracted to each other without the emotions and Nilo seemed all in from the beginning, what they had to work through was Lexi's PTSD from the war (not trusting/fearful of Valoff's and their powers) and her not feeling good enough, always ruining relationships. I will say it did have some hit nice steamy open door scenes, especially towards the end. If you're looking for a space opera with some romance and manageable at only three books to the series, this was a fun one. Each character was memorable some way to me and the space world captured my interest and was plain fun to get involved with, can't wait for the next world and adventure the author has planned.

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