Capture the Sun

A Novel

By: Jessie Mihalik

Narrated by: Frankie Corzo

Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2023 Jessie Mihalik (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Characters

I really liked the narrator, I wish the author would continue the series. So many more good story options.

I just didn't like the MC

I didn't care for this book as much as the earlier ones because Lexi annoyed me.

Once everyone was back working together I liked it. There was just way too much angst over the love intrest. I wanted to smack her.

Loved it!

This was a great book, I finished it in one day and have already listened to it again. I loved the character building for both Lexi & Nilo, as they weren't in Eclipse the Moon, it was great to get to know Lexi (I understand Lexi's back and forth battle with feelings and relationships), Nilo (he is my new favorite) and know more about valovian culture besides the life bond. Had more sex scenes which is a huge plus for me. it's bittersweet that the series is over, I would love an Eli novella or book.

Series ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper

With Lexi as the lady lead, I was hoping for a lot more action and fireworks. After all, she’s an Indiana Jones style bounty hunter and in the first book Nilo beat her to the punch, kicking off what could have been an epic showdown here. But instead of Indy-Marion passion and more competitive-flirting, this was a lot of them skulking around looking for information. When they’re not skulking, they’re hanging out like awkward teens, completely unable to express their romantic interest, even though they hook up to scratch their itch in the first quarter. Further first half of this book is just the two of them.
That’s right, six hours of Lexi’s prickly insecurity and no real action or intrigue.

The second half gets marginally better, first adding Kee and Varo, then the entire Starlight crew. It’s still very low on action. Morton remains a one dimensional bad guy. Nilo and Lexi take far too long to figure out how to make their relationship work. And there’s a lot of info dumping where we’re told how everything resolves. I finished this book feeling vaguely dissatisfied.

The lack of action, intrigue, and humor made it harder for me to get past little issues, such as the handful of F bombs that seemed out of place or the ongoing annoyance of the narrator’s missing “t” whenever she pronounces “Morton.” Despite this disappointing listen, I would be up for a book 4 at half the length, with a self-contained adventure arc involving the entire Starlight crew and maybe starring Havel’s thrupple dilemma. But, the summary says this is a trilogy. Hence, every other member of the starlight crew, Havel included, conveniently starts towards their HEAs and gets wrapped up here. It felt a bit like the author storyboarded some more romances, but ran out of ideas for full length books and therefore threw them into the final quarter of this one.

Mostly a romance novel

Would say about 30% Sci fi. While interesting the cultural interplay, the romance parts get tedious and repetitive