Lost Crows and Fallen Stars (Bonds of the Imnicus, # 1)
By: Abelia Sumpter
Publication: April 9, 2024 by Rose & Lavender Press, LLC
383 pages
Genre: New Adult, Science Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)
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Goodreads description--For romantasy readers who want to dip their toe into sci-fi, this enemies-to-lovers thriller will enchant you before it breaks you.Today I met my husband for the first time . . . again.
Milo Arris–the young ruler of two planets–is as cruel as he is handsome, and for some reason, he chose me to be his wife. He chose me to be the Columess–the girl he seems to hate more than the invaders who wiped my memories.
But I have bigger problems than Milo’s cold words. Servants in the palace are hiding strange burns on their bodies. A maid is murdered at the ball. Not to mention there’s the looming mystery of why my memories were wiped to begin with.
Danger lurks in the shadows, and with every strange occurrence, I fear someone aboard the Imnicus may be putting both our lives in jeopardy.
Lost Crows & Fallen Stars is a new-adult space romantasy. Please see the author’s website for a full list of content warnings.
I was sucked into the story of Lost Crows and Fallen Stars pretty quickly. Amnesia stories bring intrigue from the questions immediately thrust upon the character and the reader. Margot wakes up from what appears to have been an attack where she was tortured for information. She doesn't know who she is, but her lady's maid is brought to the hospital to help her figure out who she is. We learn that she's the Colum's wife (Colum = King).
Let's pause here and discuss this world. This is a science fiction story. The Colum, Milo, is the ruler over two plants, Lavenai & Ashtanabo. His home is on a space station, type of ship, or something that hovers near both planets. His father was Colum before him and conquered Lavenai. From what he shares with Margot, it seems like Lavenai just wants its independence back and is causing problems for Milo and his rule. He paints the picture that he's just trying to help Lavenai get back on its feet after the war, but they are rejecting all his attempts to aid them.
Milo has a group of special, military type of soldiers that he keeps close called proditors. They have superhuman abilities that deal with the mind when they touch other people. I got the impression that each one has a little uniqueness to their abilities, but only one was discussed in detail as to what that proditor could do. These people are stronger than the Colum but are his most trusted warriors, I guess. I'm struggling to find the right description for aspects of this book. There are five of these proditors that live on the Imnicus (the ship/space station where the Colum lives) that are the strongest and closest to Milo. I'll come back to them in a bit.
There was so much about this book that didn't make sense to me or didn't feel fully fleshed out. Margot wakes up from her amnesia and only remembers her first name. She gets immediately annoyed when she learns she's married and her husband hasn't come to visit her. It felt like she wrote him off immediately based on that. The two have a combative beginning. She's told they fell in love, but she's annoyed by the smallest things that he does. At one point, he even tells her that he hated her even before the amnesia. So how did they have this whirlwind love affair that resulted in their marriage while simultaneously hating each other? Aside from that, Margot makes several assumptions about life and other people in a way that doesn't seem to make sense given her amnesia. Granted, I don't fully understand how amnesia works, but I felt she was too opinionated over things she didn't know anything about.
Margot takes down a proditor that snuck up on her. They explain that her body has this muscle memory that her brain might not realize is associated with past memories. She's told she was a soldier who quickly worked up the ranks to become a spy. Apparently, she was extremely good at this. Later, we find out that Margot wasn't all that athletic when it came to physical fights, so how she had the muscle memory to take down a proditor doesn't make sense. The muscle memory thing is not over yet as far as not making sense. She opens a locked tablet with a passcode that her brain doesn't remember, but her fingers apparently do. She's ultimately sent on a spy mission for Milo. Before the mission, no one is particularly concerned about her amnesia because "don't worry, her muscle memory will take over." I feel confident that spies probably use their brains and training just as much as any muscle memory. The goal of a good spy would be to never need to be in a combat situation, right? Anyway, the only opportunity the reader has to see Margot spying is that she once follows Milo around for a week, trying to sneak up on him. He tells her almost immediately that he knew she was following him. And then we learn he even knew where she was so she didn't catch him off guard. This could be explained away with some spoilers, but I don't think the explanation makes any more sense than anything else about this book. Not to mention that we do learn that Margot wasn't all that capable of a spy in the first place.
Margot and Milo supposedly fall in love. I say "supposedly" because there are no events that happen that should create any deep connection between these two. Sure, they have several surface-level interactions. But there's no depth of feeling involved. There's no analysis of the other person's character that inspires any emotion. It's just like we're told they fall in love, and so we're supposed to believe it. Perhaps this is a telling versus showing problem. If anything, I believe there was some attraction and lust, but I didn't experience anything that would lead me to believe these two were in love at all.
Back to the proditors. The term crows is used about the proditors and their abilities. Someone's crows are sick. Someone else's aren't powerful enough to give them full proditor abilities. These guys are so confusing. There are 5 of them on the Imnicus. Two Margot has an immediate liking to. They feel like old friends in a way. One of them, she doesn't meet until her spy mission, and then he is only mentioned in passing. This HAS to be set up for some piece in the future of the series because otherwise, he was entirely unnecessary. One appears to hate her for no reason she can determine. One keeps getting her drunk and seems like he just wants to hang out with her. How their abilities work, how they work for Milo, nearly everything about them is just confusing. What in the world do crows have anything to do with anything? How many crows are there?
There's a giant twist that should make things make more sense. In some ways, the twist does, but in other ways, I just ended up with more questions.
I read Lost Crows and Fallen Stars really quickly. I was driven forward to keep reading because I wanted the answers to Margot's memories. Who was she before all of this happened to her? But so much of this world and the events of this story didn't make any logical sense. I had more questions after the book than I did to start with. And I can't fully say that I loved any of the characters. Margot was made out to be some top-level spy with an epic love story with her husband that she doesn't remember yet falls in love with again. Milo seemed like a good enough leader with perhaps a short temper, yet I couldn't find anything in his character to draw Margot to him. And I couldn't see why he came to love her either, except perhaps she showed a little spunk. There are plenty of spoilers I can't talk about, but I have to say that I'm not sure if I'll continue this series or not. I'm curious about what might happen next, but with so much not making sense logically and with characters that I don't really care about, I am not sure I'll find the desire to continue the series all that strong when the time comes. I'm giving Lost Crows and Fallen Stars 2.5 Stars. Have you read Lost Crows and Fallen Stars? What did you think? Let me know!
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