When Stars Come Out by Scarlett St. Clair -a Review

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Description:
Anora Silby can see the dead and turn spirits into gold coins, two things she would prefer to keep secret as she tries to lead a normal life at her new school. After all, she didn’t change her identity for nothing.

As it turns out, hiding her weirdness is just one of many challenges. By the end of her first day, she’s claimed the soul of a dead girl on campus and lost the coin. Turns out, the coin gives others the ability to steal souls, and when a classmate ends up dead, there’s no mistaking the murder weapon.

Navigating the loss of her Poppa, her mother’s mistrust, and Roundtable, an anonymous student gossip app threatening to expose her, are hard enough. Now she must find the person who stole her coin before more lives are lost, but that means making herself a target for the Order, an organization that governs the dead on Earth — and they want Anora and her powers for themselves

Review:

When Stars Come Out by Scarlett St. Clair is the first book in her new YA series, When Stars Come Out.  After having finished this book, I was thrilled that this was a new series, as I really enjoyed this book, and its heroine, Anora.

Anora Silby, our heroine, moved to Oklahoma with her mother, after an incident in New York; and now she has a new identity and attends her first day at her new school. Anora can secretly see the dead, and turns their spirits to gold coins that will free their soul move on; she was hoping for a normal life, and on day one she runs into a dead girl on campus.  Anora was able to claim the soul, but she lost the coin, which stops the soul from moving forward, as well as enable someone who finds the coin, to steal other souls. Trying not to be suspicious while meeting new class mates, Anora is worried and determined to find the missing coin.

She meets many of her new classmates, especially the cute Shy, whom she immediately finds herself crushing him.  Shy is friends with Natalie and Jacobi, whom are suspicious of Anora; but she also befriends Lennon, Lily and Thane.  Who can she really trust? When one of her classmates is found dead, Anora knows that someone has found the coin, and is using it to create chaos; she is determined to find the person, and at the same time, learn how to use her growing powers.

We also learn about the Order, who are raven hybrids, in charge of protecting the town. Shy and Natalie begin to suspect that Anora is the Eurydice, who sees the dead and is able to summon open the gates to send them through to the underworld.  Is Anora really the Eurydice?

What follows is an exciting, at times tense story as Anora doesn’t know who to trust, and finds herself facing various creatures, and evil, as she becomes the target.  I really did like when all of sudden hellhounds decided to watch over and protect Anora; there were also witches, occultists, and half human/hybrid evils. When Stars Come Out was a terrific fast paced, exciting YA urban fantasy, with a wonderful heroine, great characters and a slow burn romance. When Stars Come Out was so very well written by Scarlett St. Clair, and I cannot wait for the next book.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher