ALEXA DONNE
Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Stella Ainsley wants just one thing: to go somewhere—anywhere—else. Her home is a floundering spaceship that offers few prospects, having been orbiting an ice-encased Earth for two hundred years. When a private ship hires her as a governess, Stella jumps at the chance. The captain of the Rochester, nineteen-year-old Hugo Fairfax, is notorious throughout the fleet for being a moody recluse and a drunk. But with Stella he’s kind.
But the Rochester harbors secrets: Stella is certain someone is trying to kill Hugo, and the more she discovers, the more questions she has about his role in a conspiracy threatening the fleet.
Content:
Language: uses of minor language
Violence: as with the original Jane Eyre, there is someone aboard the ship is causing destruction and even attempts murder (there is also talk of a past murder). Mentions of massive parts of the fleet being killed off.
Sex: few kisses, but nothing too descriptive. Mutual attraction between two characters. The male love interest is suggested to be a playboy, “popular with the ladies.”
Side note - the love interest (Hugo) spends a lot of the first half of the novel either drunk or drinking, but it’s done in a very YA-appropriate way
LGBTQ: one of the side characters is gay
My Review: Brightly Burning is a simple, easy read, but I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. It had the core plot points of Jane Eyre and then expanded and became something entirely its own. I am a huge fan of The Lunar Chronicles and while this did have certain elements that were similar, I wasn’t too bothered by it.