Ones to Watch in 2017: Hold Back the Stars Katie Khan.

Publication Date: January 26th From Doubleday

Source: Review Copy

‘We’re going to be fine.’
He looks around, but there’s nothing out here: nothing but the bottomless black universe on their left, the Earth suspended in glorious technicolour to their right.

Carys and Max have ninety minutes of air left.
None of this was supposed to happen.
But perhaps this doesn’t need to be the end…

Adrift in space with nothing to hold on to but each other, Carys and Max can’t help but look back at the well-ordered world they have left behind – at the rules they couldn’t reconcile themselves to, and a life to which they might now never return.
For in a world where love is banned, what happens when you find it?

Hold Back the Stars is a love story like no other.

Gah! I hate love stories. Except this one. I loved this one.

I was hooked into the idea of reading this because its something slightly out of my comfort zone (the whole romance thing) and I like to try things I might normally pass by, but also had the whole lost in space running out of air vibe which seemed like it might be quite thrilling. Which it was. But mostly it was beautiful.

So Carys and Max they fall in love. Except in the world they live in you are not allowed to do that really. The world has changed. Things have happened and to counter that people live differently. I say no more on that, because that is part of what you will learn while you are up there in space with Carys and Max, desperately praying for their survival as you begin to understand what it is they have to survive for.

Hold Back the Stars gets under your skin. As the minutes tick away, as these  two try everything to get back to safety, you will be completely immersed – when we were getting to the end, when those precious minutes were disappearing , I was barely breathing myself. And I didn’t even have Osric…

ANYWAY thats not the whole of this. Even if it was I would have been entirely engaged by it. Katie Khan has a gorgeous almost ethereal use of language that just gets you right in the gut even in those quieter moments. The flashbacks to life on earth, how Carys and Max came together, how they may well change the world yet again, those parts are entirely emotive and cleverly written.

Add to all that a fascinating and imaginative setting that asks those questions, makes you consider the world around you. Thought provoking stuff – instead of giving us a society that is broken Katie Khan gives you one that actually may be mostly mended. This is not the Hunger Games, here the problems almost seem gentle. But they are problems none the less. I came to the end wondering if there was actually anything like a perfect world. See?  Thought provoking.

A love story like no other.

Yep.

Also I cried at the beautifully placed, intensely emotional, unforgettable ending.

Just send me all the chocolate in the world….

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Happy Reading!