Starshine: Aurora Rising Book One (Amaranthe 1)

It's a good story, if a bit complicated in parts as the story shifts attention to other characters and sub plots. I liked the two main characters Asked and Caleb as well as a few other main characters. There were a few lesser characters that didn't get enough attention that I felt a bit lost in their involvement. Overall it came together as I expected. Expected because it was pretty obvious. Not in a bad way. I liked the book and will read the second and see where it goes.

This is a book that slowly pulls you in, until you can't put it down. It's exhilarating, fun, and just all around fun stuff. Thre's intrigue, romance, action, you name it, it's all here. It took me a second because I've not read an epic book like this in a long time. But, once I got dug in, there was no stopping. Can't wait to read all the books and series here. GJ Jemsen, keep it up. I'll recommend this to anybody who loves good scifi, and even somebody new to the genre. Great first dive. Enjoy yall, and happy reading!!

What a pure joy this book is, I’m only 100 pages in and I can't stop, nor do I want to!!(Correction, i've just finished the novel and good god sweet marry it was amazing, there are literally no words to describe the pure emotional adrenaline rush of a high im on after just finishing what is quite possibly my new favorite Sci-Fi novel ever.) It’s like an addiction, one I’m completely ok with having! I mean the writing is so crisp, stark, and intelligent it almost baffles the mind. While I may still be reading the book ill change this review if I feel like there are any significant changes (which I doubt there will be regarding the absurd quality this far).Pros:• Phenomenal world buildingo The attention to detail is amazing, and it is more than evident that the author has done their research; as several modern experimental scientific endeavors have come to fruition in this fantastic new universe G.S. has created. One such example is using stem cells to reverse the aging process.o Plus the technical wording is an absolute joy for any hardcore Science-Fiction buff (myself included)o Also the main plot is full of mystery and has made me genuinely curious as to just how future events will unfold• Intricate, believable, and relatable characterso Not much else to share here, outside of the fact that the protagonist Alexis (or Alex as she prefers) is in a lot of way what I could only hope humanity would be like over 300 years from now. She motivated, determined, independent, and most important of all curious. The rest it speaks for itself, plus I don’t want to give away any spoilers• “Non-apologetic” style writingo What I mean by this is that this novel makes no efforts to conform to what makes what most would call a “mainstream audience” comfortable, it's graphic, and detailed when and where it needs to be without ever going overboardCons(?):So far there are only two possible cons I can find and both are quite subjective, they are either;• The technical wording which I know I’ve listed as a “Pro” but I understand that some people, even sci-fi fans, may not enjoy.OR• The abundance of characters early in the book.o So far there have been quite a few characters introduced in rapid succession, and the majority of them are, or appear to be quite integral to the plot. While different people have different capacities to keep track of multiple plot threads I can see how for some it may be perhaps a little on the overwhelming side.In conclusion it’s a fantastic first entry in what I hope to be a forever lasting series of outstanding books. Fortunately I have not found myself affected by the aforementioned “cons” in any significant way, which is great because that means that I have fewer obstacles to avoid in order to enjoy the reading experience! Also I’d like to end with one more pro; that is getting me back into reading, I was at one point a pretty avid reader until school and other things were quick to snuff out any chance I had to read due to stress, lack of time, or both. And believe me I’ve tried the past few years to re-ignite that spark and failed to do so at every turn, until now. I understand if someone is skeptical of that statement, since I happen to be avid skeptic myself. It would take an essay five times this size to truly convey why what said was true since it is such a subjective experience, so I ask for your trust in that I know what I felt when reading this book. So Thank you. I’d like to sincerely thank you; Ms. Jensen, for enabling my love to books to really shine through and here’s to you, in hope you can finish the next installment as soon as possible! :)

Starshine is a fantastic science fiction adventure that will take you across the galaxy to vivid and exciting worlds. GS Jennsen weaves a complex and intruiguing plot, and you will keep turning the pages, eager to see how the pieces all fall into place. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next in the series. The two main characters were absolutely endearing and I can't wait to read more about them. Jennsen's writing is superb, and at times there are sentences or phrases so beautifully and perfectly crafted that one can't help but be impressed. The author's ability to describe character emotions is some of the best I have ever seen. I also particularly appreciated the author's portrayal of female characters. Too often, I read books where the female characters are mere caricatures meant to fill some placeholder role so the men can do all the important things. That's not the case in Starshine. Each of the female characters is a unique individual with believable, relatable motivations and personalities. I loved all of them for that, but was particularly fond of Alex and Miriam and the relationship between them. Olivia was also a very interesting character and I hope to see more of her in the next book.There are a few reasons why I didn't give this book 5 stars. The main issue I had was in the way characters were presented, especially in the beginning of the story. Point of view changes frequently, and with such a myriad of characters thrown at you all at once, it becomes very difficult to keep them straight. The character index is helpful, but might have been unnecessary if the characters were presented in such a way that made them more distinct, memorable, and distinguishable. Many of the characters seemed to blend together for at least the first half of the book, and at times I wondered why the point of view chapters for some of the more minor characters had been included at all.I admit that I am not really an avid science-fiction reader, so this may just be a personal preferrence. However, I was a little frustrated by how much in-depth explanation of science and technology there is. Scientific concepts have never been easy for me to understand, so some of this felt like it was completely over my head and obviously that's just my own failing. However, it wasn't always the content of these sections that annoyed me, but the way in which they were presented. At times--particularly early on in the book--Jennsen interupts the action of the story to tell us about some bit of technology and how it works. It's a little off-putting to be reading an exciting spaceship chase only to have it interrupted so that the author can tell you about particle beams.That being said, this was without a doubt an excellent story. I would certainly recommend it to any science fiction fan and, as I said, I can't wait to read the next books in the series.

Why I didn't get the second in the series...Downloaded this book ages ago and thought it was quite good and couldn't understand why I didn't get the second in the series. So, I downloaded it again. And at that particular point in the book, and we all have one, I went "ah-ha, now I remember".So, without giving too much away...Usual fare, quite well done. Humans fighting, good guys, bad guys, bad guys being good guys, good guys being bad guys, alien invasion etc. etc., beautiful heroine, handsome hero. Quite easy to read but blatantly which characters were going to get the jiggy on. As I say, usual fare.However, it was all just a bit much as soon as they got it on. The flirtation was excessive to begin with and once the knickers hit the floor, It took over the book. Didn't quite go so far as to enter the realms of the 18+ books, but it did lead to a lot of swiping on the kindle. Eventually the swiping got to the stage I just deleted it and moved on.If you are one of those who like smouldering looks framed by luscious curls draping sown over eyes like sapphires and chiselled jaws, give it a go.If you want aliens invasions and space opera, slide on by...Perhaps in book two it gets better but I simply couldn't tolerate the simpering and the lingering touches anymore.

I understand that an amount of work has gone into this but that does not necessarily make it better and without feedback there is no improvement.Where to start, I do fully understand this is a work of fiction and as such is a work of fantasy and pure imagination. But when you are in what the author makes clear is a lean, mean, stripped down racing machine of a spaceship do you really have toast with peanut butter and jelly on?????And then croissants??????I managed to read 28% of this then mentally collapsed, unable to take anymore, I think it was when I read a “none earth” humanoid using the moronic term “my bad” it was time to give up, I think that was just after possibly the same character put the stove on to boil the vegetables.No research, no putting your head into the time and place you are writing about just grab a keyboard and rattle away, then self publish and call it a book. Had I paid for this I would not have been so polite in my feedback.Someone somewhere once wrote:- Everyone has a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay. And for me this is definitely one of those.The review refuses to allow me to give zero stars.

When I first started reading this I thought I was going to enjoy it quite a lot. The lead characters Alexis and Caleb are both interesting sorts. One an explorer and treasure hunter who loves nothing more than being free flying among the stars and the other a black ops spy who loves the adventure and thrill each mission gives him. Both are fairly likeable and well written and the scenario they get into not trusting each other but having to work together to escape a barren planet was fun to read if a little Twilight in the eye rolling romance department. ( I enjoy that kind of trashy stuff occasionally though so sue me :P )The problem is that every time something interesting would happen the book jumps to another character doing something across the galaxy that's semmingly important and just not that interesting. This happens almost every other chapter and to so many characters that I lost track of a few of them as the chapters are also often short and in some cases seemingly meaningless. (One simply existed to show Alexis was out of contact on the net, something both obvious and previously mentioned in her own chapter so...why?) In fact 43% of the way through the book and another chapter popped up with yet another character somewhere and I just couldn't do it anymore. I'd been reading in chunks anyway fed up of the disjointed narrative constantly but that was the limit of my patience. Alexis and Caleb are really the interesting part of the novel and to constantly tear away from them for this uninteresting subplot just kills the pacing constantly for me. To make it worse the subplot lacks any subtlety to it at all, pretty much spelling who the enemies are etc to the reader which kills any suspense or mystery that could be developed in the background to boot.All in all, it's not 100% bad but just completely lacks focus I feel. Maybe by the end these many threads come together for a great ending but I just couldn't make it that far. More time on the main characters and their predicament, less meaningless side characters and more subtlety to the emerging subplot could have made this a pretty good read. It's kind of frustrating as it has potential but seems to constantly throw roadblocks in the way.+ Alexis and Caleb have potential as characters..- Constantly chapter jumps all over the place.- Too many small characters, most seemingly meaningless or uninteresting.- Subplot is pretty uninteresting lacking any mystery.

This is the first book I've read by this author. Usually, I dip in and out of sci-fi novels, just reading the odd one by a particular author and not bothering to buy another book in a series. For the first time, I'm going to read the entire series and I've even joined the mailing list - another first for me.In this novel, the author has managed to create a logical and believable world of the future, peopled by characters that seem real and compelling and very definitely three-dimensional. And she tells a hell of a good story that is also believable, not least the pointless bickering of Earth-bound bureaucrats seemingly too stupid to appreciate the huge threat lurking in the heavens above them. For anyone who's ever had any dealing with government officials, that will strike a very familiar chord. She knows the science and manages to convey details about faster-than-light travel and technology in a way that seems just to be reminding you of something that you already knew but had forgotten about. That's a difficult trick to pull off, but she manages it effortlessly, which means she took a lot of care over her writing.One characteristic of self-published books, and even some commercially-published novels, is the number of typos, punctuation errors and the like that creep in, sometimes making the book virtually unreadable. This is a big book telling a big story and I was unable to find a single error, which is both astonishing and highly commendable. And I do know what I'm talking about - I'm a commercially published author of over thirty books and even when the manuscript has gone through all the professional editing stages it is still possible for errors to exist. As a self-published author, she must either have a brilliant copy-editor or check the manuscript ruthlessly herself: either way, it's an excellent result.And she can certainly write. My only tiny negative comment is that I didn't like the explicit sex scenes. This is something that I've noticed before: almost every book I've read that contains such scenes has been written by a female author. Male authors tend to stop the description at the bedroom door and leave it there. Having said that, I do know why she did it, because it was important in establishing the relationship between the two main characters, and she does write the scenes with a particularly deft hand. But I still think she could have done without them.Overall, an excellent first novel - in fact, it's very difficult to believe that it was a first novel because it is so well written - and highly recommended. I'm greatly looking forward to reading the other books in the series.

I read at least a hundred books annually and when a book hooks me in it will last two days max, hence having an unlimited subscription. This book took me the best part of three weeks to get through, it took a long time to understand the relationship between characters and even longer for the various factions to coalesce into plot. When it got to the point (some 80% through) where I thought something was going to actually happen, it seemed to fizzle out. My conclusion at the end is that this book was a scene setter for books to follow. That said I don't think I can be bothered to read the next one.......sorry..!!