Week 33 Reviews: The Thief, Sky Without Stars

From Goodreads:
'The Thief' tells the origin story of fan-favorite character, Chatine.

From Goodreads:
A thief.
An officer.
A guardian. 

Three strangers, one shared destiny…

When the Last Days came, the planet of Laterre promised hope. A new life for a wealthy French family and their descendants. But five hundred years later, it's now a place where an extravagant elite class reigns supreme; where the clouds hide the stars and the poor starve in the streets; where a rebel group, long thought dead, is resurfacing.

Whispers of revolution have begun—a revolution that hinges on three unlikely heroes…

Chatine is a street-savvy thief who will do anything to escape the brutal Regime, including spy on Marcellus, the grandson of the most powerful man on the planet.

Marcellus is an officer—and the son of a renowned traitor. In training to take command of the military, Marcellus begins to doubt the government he's vowed to serve when his father dies and leaves behind a cryptic message that only one person can read: a girl named Alouette.

Alouette is living in an underground refuge, where she guards and protects the last surviving library on the planet. But a shocking murder will bring Alouette to the surface for the first time in twelve years…and plunge Laterre into chaos.

All three have a role to play in a dangerous game of revolution—and together they will shape the future of a planet.

Power, romance, and destiny collide in this sweeping reimagining of Victor Hugo's masterpiece, Les Misérables. 

My Review:
I thoroughly enjoyed these stories! I've never read the original, but when I was in High School Les Mis was one of the plays that I was in for performing arts. So to have a sci fi retelling, I was really interested in this story! 

The Thief, oh, man, just had me indignant on Chatine's behalf. Her family is terrible (though her sister is okay, if a little annoying) and I was so sorry she had to go through that. But what those officers did, taking all the money that she had legally earned, just because of her family's history? That was just awful! 

Sky Without Stars follows 3 characters, which is not bad, considering how many lead characters that there are in the play. The story is familiar, but it does branch off a bit with the politics and the history, the characters and their motivations, and the setting was new and I loved learning about it!

Man, that ending though! It's so frustrating when the bad guys get away with it, even if it's temporary. That they got away with a child's murder, that's just horrible. I can't wait to see where things go from here, because I'm pretty sure that this has diverged enough/went past the ending of the original, that there's so much potential in where it can go from here!

These were both such great reads, and I can't wait to continue the series! 

Authors: Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell
Series: System Divine #0.5, 1
Read: August 9th, 9th, 2020
Source: Online Free, NetGalley/Bought
Reason Why: Love her writing and it sounded good, and they're 2020 Retelling Reading Challenge Books and Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2020 Books and Sky Without Stars is a WoW Book!
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: January 6th 2020, March 26th 2019

The Thief:

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

Sky Without Stars:

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

/5 Stars