Even the Darkest Stars (Even the Darkest Stars Series, book 1)

By Heather Fawcett 

Blurb: 
Kamzin has always dreamed of becoming one of the emperor’s royal explorers, the elite climbers tasked with mapping the wintry, mountainous Empire and spying on its enemies. She knows she could be the best in the world, if only someone would give her a chance.

But everything changes when the mysterious and eccentric River Shara, the greatest explorer ever known, arrives in her village and demands to hire Kamzin—not her older sister, Lusha, as everyone had expected—for his next expedition. This is Kamzin’s chance to prove herself—even though River’s mission to retrieve a rare talisman for the emperor means cimbing Raksha, the tallest and deadliest mountain in the Aryas. Then, Lusha sets off on her own mission to Raksha with a rival explorer, and Kamzin must decide what’s most important to her: protecting her sister from the countless perils of the climb or beating her to the summit.

The challenges of climbing Raksha are unlike anything Kamzin expected—or prepared for—with avalanches, ice chasms, ghosts, and other dangers at every turn. And as dark secrets are revealed, Kamzin must unravel the truth about their mission and her companions—while surviving the deadliest climb she has ever faced.

2017 Review: 
I wouldn't have personally picked this book in a book store, purely because I'm stubborn and read the same authors. But since this was the book in my first FaiyLoot box, I thought I'd give it a go. I've tried to keep spoilers to a minimum but there may be a few.

To start of with I thought the beginning was very slow and I just wanted the party to hurry up and finish. But then when they actually started going on the adventure to the mountain it began to get interesting. When they were up in the mountain on several occasions it had me on my toes wanting to keep reading and then there was a few times when I thought something and then Kamzin thought something else to find that we were both wrong. 

I got about 100 pages from the end and realised that the book was going to end in a cliffhanger. But at the end the ending wasn't as bad as I expected and I sort of felt a bit of closure.

Overall, I'd recommend the book as it's a good story, reasonably paced and some good character background. Especially the family relationships as they relate to how people tend to feel about one another.

2020 Review: 
This was a reread as part of a group read, it was quite interesting to see how other people reacted to different things.

This time round I didn't find that it was slow at the start but I did find when they were on the adventure to Raksha it was quite repetitive. I loved the dragons within the book as well as the magic and hint of witches.

I feel the relationship between River and Kamzin was really sweet and I loved the scenes between them. I also loved the relationship between Kamzin and Tem.

I feel sorry for Kamzin at times because you can really tell that she hasn't had much love or appreciation within her family and that they don't really care about her. But then at the same time since her mother has died her father has been grieving and just concentrating on getting his eldest daughter the best situation for her life. Even her own sister doesn't really care about Kamzin and betrays her quite a lot without a second thought.

I also loved how River has the mystery profile around him and that he is hiding things. Obviously all these different puzzles and pieces come together towards the end of the book and we experience more betrayal. I also enjoy how you meet a new creature, a fire demon. It just adds that bit more difference to the book.

I love how this story develops and all the creatures within. I still don't feel like it meets the 5 stars because like I said before it got quite repetitive when they were on their journey to Raksha. Within this book there is great friendships, love, mystery and adventure with betrayal.

Favourite Character: Tim

Read: 20/01/20 - 28/01/20

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie