The Fate of Stars

Sea and Stars, Book 1

By: S D Simper

Narrated by: Lois Ridge

Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

"The Fate of Stars, the first book in the Sea and Stars trilogy, is delightfully dark and sexy, full of lush imagery, vibrant characterization, and enough adrenaline to keep me up way past my bedtime." (Anna Burke, award winning author of Thorn and Compass Rose)

A devout mermaid. A disgraced princess. A feud as ancient as the gods.

Worlds collide when Tallora is kidnapped from her ocean home and forced to be a pet to a tyrannical foreign empire. Her only hope for rescue lies with a sworn enemy - Princess Dauriel, infamous for her stone heart and conflicted past. But when Dauriel’s kingdom comes to the cusp of war, could their uneasy alliance be the key to defeating a common foe? Or will their growing feelings for each other lead them to ruin?

From the world of Fallen Gods comes a tale of ancient magic and cutthroat politics - and finding redemption through love.

"If you like your fantasy with an extra dark twist, exceptional world building and deeply complex characters then reel this book in fast. You’ll be hooked. Oh, and mermaids! Enough said." (The Lesbian Review)

©2020 Endless Night Publications (P)2020 Endless Night Publications

Great book

Not a tragic gay story! I was looking for a lesbian story with magic and fantasy, but it’s hard to not fall into tropes. This book doesn’t fall into any tropes. I listened to all three books in about a week.

Need more woman on woman romance novels

I very much enjoyed this book. I was looking for some lesbian/bi/woman on woman novels. It is astonishingly difficult to find decent ones.

While not the saucy, heavy heated novel I was hoping for, it quelled my thirst. Enough so that I felt I should leave a review encouraging others to give it a listen.

Gay Mermaids, nuff said

Definitely worth checking out if you like wlw romance, butch lesbians, and gay mermaids. I honestly never expected to love this series as much as I do

Tear jerker

I absolutely adored this book, but cried the entirety of last few chapters. Angst abundant.

Couldn't finish

The story is weird and disturbing, feels like someone's sexual fantasy. The narrators choice in voices for the characters is strange and makes listening hard. It disturbed me and I stopped a few chapters in. To be fair, maybe it gets better.

Loved this!!

This was such a beautiful love story. From beginning to end this story will rock your world! I would highly encourage listeners of all sci fantasy to give it a try!

What’s not to love? It’s got mermaids/lesbians

I never know what to write for book reviews but I hope you give this one a chance. It’s not like any other books that I read or listen to. I think it’s really unique and different and it takes some twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting. It has love anguish, romance, sexiness and action.

Sapphic fantasy with excellent world building

I've been reading mostly romcoms lately, but this book absolutely pulled me in from the get go. A mermaid seeking faith and purpose finds herself kidnapped to land by the princess of a nearby country. Far from home, she is furious and desperate to get home. Things go from bad to worse, then worse to truly terrible. Tallora finds herself trapped in a hostile country, being used and abused by her captors, with no one to turn to - until the gruff, cruel princess who got her into this mess rescues her from foreign ambassadors intent on taking advantage of her position.

A love so which burns brighter than the darkness

The Fate of Stars is a tale of two women who should never have met and a love that should never have been. FOS is a fantasy, romance, and emotional roller coaster of a book (and series) starting as unexpectantly as it concludes. Powerful characters, deep emotional subtext, an examination of culture, sexism, power dynamics, and how we genuinely define good and evil awaits!

From the start, the protagonists could not be farther from one another in nearly every aspect of life, quite polarized. Yet, no one is whole, and their opposite alignments created a perfect symmetry when joined. The author writes characters that evoke feelings of dislike and distrust, but also compassion and empathy. The villains and allies and deeply complex. None is necessarily "good" or "bad" in any simplistic notion. The story left me questioning why I liked or didn't like characters and my fundamental basis for forming such opinions.

Being a romance, there are love scenes throughout, some being quite lengthy. The romance is graphic and detailed, but it felt like every act served a purpose in the story and was in no way gratuitous. Many of the scenes served as mechanisms to expound upon the deep vulnerabilities of the characters and build the relationships of the characters. As a romance writer, I was pleased to see such beautiful, emotional detail deeper examination of pain, trauma, and PTSD confronted in such an intimate and yet peaceful way.

The story was unexpected, and I was often left unsure how or if issues might be resolved. The pace switched from slow to fast as needed and felt well thought out. The story's setting was loose and grew with the novels in scope and detail, but it felt alive. It was a world I'd like to meet more characters from and an exciting form of magic and gods. The characters were by far the most well-thought-out I've read in a long time. Their personalities were as complex and wounded as the rest of us. Their virtues and flaws played with their contextualized actions and interpretations, making the characters feel alive in their setting. Perhaps two of the more interesting characters were a witch and a general, one being chaotic and neutral and the other being lawful and neutral, respectively. Their personas were well written and felt alive and dynamic, literarily isolated from the other characters' perspectives.

addicted

I'm hooked. I have to know more. I am absolutely captivated and enthralled . I can't get enough .