BOOK REVIEW – All the Stars Left Behind by Ashley Graham

All the Stars Left Behind by Ashley Graham
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Relocating to Arctic Norway would put a freeze on anyone’s social life. For Leda Lindgren, with her crutches and a chip on her shoulder the size of her former Manhattan home, the frozen tundra is just as boring as it sounds. Until she meets her uncle’s gorgeous employee.

Unfortunately, no matter how smoking hot the guy is, Roar comes with secrets as unnerving as his moving tattoos. And Leda doesn’t trust him.

Roar shouldn’t be drawn to the moody human girl with eyes that leave him weak in the knees. But when Leda gets shot by one of his enemies and survives, Roar finally understands why he’s drawn to her: Leda is exactly what he was sent to Earth to find. A weapon of immense power capable of saving his planet.

She just doesn’t know it yet.

Review:

All the Stars Left Behind had so much promise!  The premise was uniquely fascinating, the characters stood out and were original, and the parts about space travel and science blew my mind.  There was so much about this book that I loved.  Yet there’s a huge but.  It felt as though I was reading a beta copy.  Which means, I kept finding scenes that contradicted itself, moments where the ball was dropped, and things weren’t always fleshed out or made sense.  I don’t think I’ve ever re-read so many scenes just to figure out what was going on.  It was frustrating, because I wanted to enjoy the story.  Yet I found myself making a huge list of notes in regards to all of the issues.  And I’ve never done that before, unless I’m beta reading.  So if you’re not as picky as me, in regards to follow through and details, then you could have a lot of fun reading this book!  But if you want to take a peek at the list of issues I had with this book, then you can continue on below.  But be warned, there are spoilers since I talk about the problems in that corresponding chapter.

✩✮✩✮✩ Spoilers Below✩✮✩✮✩

Chapter 1

Uncle Arne tells Leda and Nils that he could use their help in his shop.  Yet when she gets out there, he never asks for her help.  

Chapter 2

Roar states – “He’d rather lie and work with the humans than become like the Woede.”  So how is his situation on Earth different than the Woede’s situation on Earth?  We aren’t told anywhere in the book how the Woede’s situation is worse.  Our does he just not want to be similar to the Woede in any way?  It wasn’t clear.

Chapter 4

Roar made Leda and himself move from the shop to her house.  One, we’re never explained how Roar made that happened.  Two, she just drops it.  Down the road, she questions about him appearing in front of a different house, but she never questions what happened between the two of them.  Also, the next time they hang out she doesn’t even mention it.

Chapter 5

Oline complains about Stein pulling a disappearing act in public.  That he’s taking risks.  Later on in the chapter Roar says “none of us are getting drunk and blowing cover.”  YET Roar and Petrus just did the exact same thing, blowing cover, at the end of Chapter 4!  

I don’t understand why they had to drug Petrus and Roar’s guardian.  This isn’t explained to us.  Why couldn’t they just tell him they’re missing a friend and will be out looking for him?  Or is there an instance in the past where their guardian didn’t grant them much freedom?  Why did they have to take the drug route?

Oline was so hot in the spaceship that she stripped down to her bra and underwear.  Then pages later it mentions her pulling a blanket up to her chin.  If she’s cold then why wouldn’t she put back on her clothes?  I don’t understand her actions, especially since it never mentions her grabbing a blanket.

While I love that we got to be in both of their heads, and it doesn’t bother me that sometimes we’re a few chapters with Leda before we go back to Roar, the transition felt choppy since I never know who we’re going to be with.  There’s no notice to who we are with.  Plus you never know if the next chapter is a continuation of the previous scene or if time has passed.  

Chapter 8

Why was Charlie hiding in the closet with Leda?  Why wouldn’t they be out in the open?  He knows Roar or Petrus will be coming home, so why hide in the closet?

Chapter 10

Roar calls her defective when talking to Leda’s mom.  It would have been better to say something like ‘you think your daughter is defective’.  That way the word isn’t associated with making Roar look horrible, but instead would just make her mom look horrible.

Her Grandma hints that she shouldn’t get close to Roar.  But then down the road, everyone is shocked about what happens with both of their bloods when combined.  And that seems like the reason they can’t be together.  So is that the reason her Grandma says she shouldn’t get close to Roar?  Beause if so, she never confirms she knew it.  And if not, she never once tells Leda the reason behind her statement.

Her blood changed color because she came into close contact with Roar.  Why?  Is it because of their genetics and what they are to each other?  Or is it because he’s the same type of alien as her?  If so, her Grandma and Uncle are new aliens to her, so why wouldn’t they activate it?  There’s no explanation for this phenomenon.

They talk about Nils being a bargaining chip, yet they never use him when they’re desperate down the road.  No one mentions it once when they’re trying to figure out what to do.  And Nils is barely even mentioned on the ship in the future too, which felt a little strange since him and Leda became good friends.

Chapter 11

Contradictory statements – Roar couldn’t be alone with Leda without her Grandma or Uncle right behind him, then the next page it states that he’s there with her all night alone, with no mention of her Grandma or Uncle checking in or being right behind him.

Chapter 12

How is the spaceship not captured or controlled by the government?  Because in Chapter 14 Leda’s mom and the interrogation person have no problem finding them up in the sky.  

Also, I know they came to Earth on an escape pod, so is that how they all got up to the spaceship?  Neither of those were explained. (Just found answer, explained in Chapter 23….. that’s quite a long time to wait to find out)

Chapter 14

Petrus asks to talk to Roar in private, so Roar has Stein take over the ship so he’s free, but then he walks away to find Leda.  Petrus’ request was forgotten.  Also, what did he want to warn Roar about Leda?  He doesn’t bring it up again.

Chapter 15

She never asked how her being a weapon worked, that sat a little weird with me.

Chapter 21

How did another ship get out of their planet if there was a web all around it not allowing anyone to get out.

We were never explained why Tulva tortures Leda.  Yes, Tulva says she wants answers, but she never asked Leda questions.  What was the point of torturing then?

Chapter 22

Their whole mission was to find Leda and bring her back.  So these words seem off –

“Oline wanted to head back to Aurelis. Abandon Leda and Stein to whatever fate they faced. Deep down, Roar knew it was the right thing to do, but returning home without the weapon meant they’d lost.”

How can it sit right with him when she’s his mission?  I can’t see how their planet needing them is above bringing back the weapon – aka completing their mission.

Chapter 27

Toorn stated –

“Activating the weapon doesn’t simply destroy the Woede, you know. Or perhaps no one mentioned that? Aurelites and Woede, we are connected in ways you might never imagine. Are you prepared to make that kind of sacrifice?”

But what doesn’t make sense is that that he’s taken over their planet and is killing people there.  So how does that work……he can murder many, but not all and his race will still be okay?

Chapter 28

It wasn’t very clear, but if she’s out in space without a suit and she’s with Roar (he has a suit on), then how did she not die?  Wouldn’t she run out of oxygen?

*ARC kindly provided by Entangled Publishing, LLC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Related Posts