Review: Capture the Sun by Jessie Mihalik

Capture the Sun (Starlight’s Shadow #3)
Jessie Mihalik

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF

Blurb:
Acclaimed author Jessie Mihalik returns with the thrilling conclusion to her Starlight’s Shadow trilogy. An intergalactic thief must join forces with the charming teleporter who stole her last job—and may now be her only hope for saving her former crew.

As a recovery specialist, Lexi Bowen’s jobs typically require more trickery and thievery than honest work. Her former captain might not approve of her flexible morals, but stealing artifacts for rich assholes pays the bills, and Lexi’s had enough of war and death. The FHP left her to die once; she doesn’t plan to give them a chance to finish the job.

Unfortunately, her latest contract takes her to Valovia itself—and right back into the orbit of Nilo Shoren, a Valovian teleporter who already cost her one payday and nearly stole her heart.

Armored against his clever charm, Lexi plans to get in, get the job done, and get out. But when her former crew goes missing in Valovian space, Lexi will have to work with Nilo to figure out what happened—and stop it—before the galaxy’s two superpowers can use the disappearance as an excuse to return to war.

My Review

I received a free copy from the publisher through Netgalley and I voluntarily reviewed it.

I really enjoyed this series and was excited to read the third and last book in the series. Unfortunately this book was a bit of a struggle, both due to the book itself and due to my reading mood and reading time. Which made me really sad. It is a great series, but this last book was the one I enjoyed least of the series.

Capture the Sun follows the point of view of Lexi, she’s not quite part of the crew of Starlight and mostly works alone. When out on a job she encounters Nilo again, she has conflicted feelings about him due to the way he stood her up and stole her job the last time they met. They have to team up to make it off the planet alive and save the Starlight’s crew.

It took me some time to warm up to Lexi, she’s this prickly character, a type I often don’t enjoy reading about. As I read more about her and grew to understand her a bit better I warmed up to her a bit, but she still didn’t come close to how much I liked the character form the first two books. It bothered me sometimes how she acted or communicated, although I did appreciate the author gave her depth and it made sense why she was that way. I am impressed by Jessie Mihalik’s ability to write all her main characters differently and with their own personality. Lexi is different from the main characters of the first two books and this book has it’s own vibe due to that. I had wished we had seen more of Lexi’s skills and thievery, she keeps saying how good she is, but we never quite see her actual thievery skills in action as much.

I liked the start of the book, especially once I had gotten used to Lexi a bit. The book quickly gets into the romance and I liked seeing Nilo and Lexi together. Nilo is great and I liked how he is there for Lexi, shows how much he cares, but also respects her boundaries. I was a bit confused and annoyed as we didn’t know exactly what happened when they first meet and I felt like I was missing something, but those details slowly come to light and the last piece even quite late. There were some back and forth between them I didn’t care as much about, but I liked seeing Lexi slowly open up and let Nilo in and how they actually attempt to communicate late in the book. I was sad we didn’t get to see as much of the rest of the crew of the Starlight, but that increases later in the book. I also wished we would get a book about Eli as I am really curious about his romance with the two Valoffs.

While I liked the romance and that first part of the book, I struggled more with the plot and the rest of the book. I felt there was quite a lot to wrap up and the plot focused on planning and executing rescue missions. And for some reason the plot just didn’t grab me, it feels like there are a lot of events and chapters, but not much happened in bigger lines. Or maybe that’s just me and because I wasn’t as invested and didn’t read as much and the whole middle and late part of the book felt incredible slow to me. There was too much planning for my taste and then the dangerous parts weren’t interesting either. It just wasn’t as interesting to me and struggled through it, even fit in another book in between for variety before returning to this one and struggling through the rest as I did want to know how things ended. The wrap up felt a bit fast and rushed at the end with lots of summarizing what’s going on. And it just felt off and didn’t have that big finale vibe I was hoping for.

To summarize: I really like this series, but this was my least favorite book of the 3. I struggled with with this book due to a combination of factors; the actual book, my reading mood and my reading time. It took me some time to warm up to Lexi and I didn’t like her as much as the previous two main character. I did warm up to her a bit as I got to understand her better. I liked her romance with Nilo and the first part of the book I enjoyed as she and Nilo grow closer. Nilo was great and I liked how he shows her he cares, but also respects her boundaries. I didn’t really care for the plot of this book though and after they leave Valovia I struggled with the story even more. It just didn’t grip me and it felt super slow but that might also be because I didn’t read as much. The ending felt too fast for me and a bit rushed and I just wasn’t as invested and didn’t feel the wrap up was as interesting. All in this is a great series even though this last book didn’t quite work for me.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.