Tag: chasing starlight

ARC, Historical Fiction, mystery, three star book, ya

Chasing Starlight ARC Review!

Courtney/Enchanted.to.Read.You

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Teen for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own.

Movies, mansions, and murder in the Golden Age of Hollywood! Teri Bailey Black’s Chasing Starlight is a historical mystery from the award-winning author of the Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel.

1938. The Golden Age of Hollywood. Palm trees and movie stars. Film studios pumping out musicals, westerns, and gangster films at a furious pace. Everyone wants to be a star—except society girl and aspiring astronomer Kate Hildebrand, who’d rather study them in the night sky. She’s already famous after a childhood tragedy turned her into a newspaper headline. What she craves is stability.

When Kate moves to Hollywood to live with her washed-up, ex-silent film star grandfather, she walks into a murder scene and lands on the front page. Again. Suspecting someone living in her grandfather’s boarding house is the killer—one of the young men or maybe even her grandfather—Kate searches for clues. Kate’s too sensible to drop out of high school to work at a movie studio, hunt a killer on her own, and fall for a penniless actor with a head full of dreams. But that’s exactly how her stars are aligning.

Part Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, with a dash of Veronica Mars.

– Goodreads

Okay, first. This cover. I love the black and white, with gold writing, and the red hair. Omg. I saw it and immediately wanted to know what it was about. It just popped!

I did a twitter thread of my thoughts while reading! You can see it here! It was my first one, but I’m hoping to continue. It was fun to live react to the book!

Okay, let’s get into this review! The book had sort of a slow start for me. I was excited about an old Hollywood murder, but the first 30% was Kate moving in with her silent movie star granddad and his “unsavory borders”. Her granddad isn’t so famous anymore, and it shows. Kate eventually comes around, but man it takes a while.

At 30% the murder happens. I think it’s about to pick up! Which it did, but it was still a little slow. Also I found it weird the guy was murdered in their house, and they just cleaned up and kept living there like it was no big thing? Like, I would move. I would have to. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

The investigation was a little slow going, and at one point it felt like there was more than one mystery. I kept up fine, but it was just a lot happening, but not a lot happening at the same time? I don’t know how else to explain it.

Chasing Starlight is set in the 1930s. I know at that point in time, women were supposed to look pretty and be homemakers. But multiple things were said by men AND women that just made me cringe. Like, don’t talk about your astrology. You’re only as important as your husband. Like I said, I KNOW this is typical for that time, and Kate does fight against it, but it still just made me mad!

The characters were all okay. None of them really stuck out to me except Ollie, the granddad. He was super fun! I would love to hang out with him one day. There was romance, but it didn’t really stick out to me either. I would say it was like a slow burn, enemies to lovers, but like, it’s SUPER SLOW.

I did honestly enjoy this book. If I hadn’t been playing Overcooked 2 all weekend, I’m sure I could have finished it in a day. It’s a quick read that’s a standalone with a nice, wrapped up ending. I loved that I knew who dunnit, why they did it, and where everyone ended up! It’s a super easy mystery to read, and I think it’s worth a try, especially if you like old school Hollywood!

Below is a giveaway hosted by the author! You should definitely enter!

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Is Chasing Starlight on your radar? Do you think you’ll pick it up in June? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time…