Review of Reach the Stars by Lily Seabrooke
Why have I never read anything by Lily Seabrooke before? Reach the Stars is an incredibly cute novella and I want more.
Emma “Emmy” Montford is new to the song contest scene and all she wants is to have fun. Katarina “Kat” Jackson is an old hand at the game and only cares about winning. Nothing could make Emmy happier than to literally run into Kat, which, to the other woman, is the very definition of a nightmare. From the moment Emmy sets eyes on Kat, she attaches herself to her, even though Kat would much rather be left alone.
Emmy is a permanent sunshine, sickeningly nice and annoyingly talkative. Kat is endlessly grumpy. In an unforeseen turn of events, she reminded me of Han Solo. Not the scoundrel side of Han, the blasé Han. And even though she’s downright rude at times, I related to Kat a lot more than to Emmy, who keeps ignoring Kat’s boundaries in the most disrespectful yet charming way. Seriously, I should hate Emmy, but she’s too sweet for that.
Reach the Stars is told in first person from each MC’s point of view in alternating chapters. The two MCs are wildly different and Seabrooke gave them very distinctive voices, which made it easy to channel each character when reading their respective chapters, pulling my brain (and my heart) in completely opposite directions.
It was quite the emotional roller coaster, honestly, going from one to the other, building walls on one side and shattering them with the best intentions on the other. I was quite willing to believe the chemistry and the longing between Kat and Emmy because neither is as straightforward as they seem, yet because of the novella length, I felt some of it was a tad rushed. For this reason and also because I rather liked the two characters, I wish it was a longer story. I wouldn’t have minded getting to know some of the secondary characters better, either.
