Ever since this book was announced to be released, I’ve been waiting, somewhat impatiently because this writer is so good in world building, her words can let your imagination go wild; seeing flickers of that world, of those characters whilst reading. Not many Authors can do that in my opinion and now that I’ve finished this book I just need more, it’s like I’m addicted to this story and can’t wait to get my next fix.

We already know that the second book will be released in November and I know, with some authors we have to wait a whole year but November is still 6 months away. If you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, or rather what book I’m talking about… It’s Starside by Alex Aster.

Once every fifty years the gates to Starside open and 50 people get the chance to find a pool of magic and fill a chalice to bring back to Stormside to save their land or a sickness; you can even drink it to get immortality but, that can go wrong. Not many mortals survive the turn. 50 people obviously isn’t much and a whole lot more want to participate which is why to enter the actual Questral you have to go through two things first. One, you have to get up some ancient stone platform whilst guards and other contestants can kill you to bring back the number of people participating.

Aris has had a hard live, she has lost everything she cared about and loved at the age of eight. Her whole village burnt down with only her that survived. A forge master took pity when stumbling across her and took her in, raising her, training her and teaching her about metals. Without telling Stellan because she knows he wouldn’t let her; she goes to the event that can get you in the Questral; Get on the ancient stone platform. Doesn’t sound that difficult but it is. People from high houses get trained for this and because they have enough money, they usually have the better swords.

She eventually makes it into the gates as the 50^th participant and made a pact with Zane and Kira, to stay together and help each other reach the end. The first landscape you see when entering Stormside is a cemetery with a huge tree that has all kinds of swords hanging in its branches. People are trying to claim a sword but not everyone gets one. Aris is silently begging because she’s here for revenge and not it’s magic; suddenly holding a sword and not just a normal one but a Starside sword albeit a heavy one. Her sword didn’t come from the sky which means it wasn’t released from the tree. It came from underground.

Surviving on this side is hard, there are demons roaming the nights which means you’re not save when it’s dark but there are also very dangerous creatures, things you couldn’t have imagined to be true actually lives here and not to mention, this land is filled with immortals. There are good ones but since Aris has a very special sword, there are very bad ones also. Aris is stumbling along, not having the strength to really use the sword let alone the fighting skill necessary to actually survive. She’ll eventually ask the one person in this world she hates most, if she can come join him, because he is the most ruthless killer and has been the king’s guard for a very long time which gives her somewhat of a save passage.

The amount of times Aris gets into trouble is insane, there are so many chapters where she needs to be saved but still, a knight in shining armor is always close by and that hate that she feels lessens. Raker always wears a hood over his head with a mask on his face, so she doesn’t know what he looks like and he’s very hard to get a grip on. He’ll be ignoring or being mad at her, being funny and sometimes even close to flirting. With the number of days spent together and Aris finally letting her guard down a bit and Raker his, there seems to be a spark maybe a hesitant one at first but there will be a full-blown spice scene in this book that got my ears turning red. In this quest Aris meets a lot of new people, new tribes, faeries even and dragons. Her road to revenge has finally been traveled until the morning after the spice-fest, when she wakes her sword is gone and so is Raker.

Will she get her sword back? Will she get to accomplish her mission? Will she die or is there a chance to return to Stormside with so little time left before the gates close again? You’ll have to read for yourself. It’s Enemies to Lovers to Enemies to…. Figure it out.

I can’t give this less than the ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ stars it deserves I loved it.