"Until the Stars Fall" introduces a captivating premise set in a war-torn, magical world. It follows a human servant who embarks on a fake engagement with a fae prince to prevent a conflict. While this setup holds great promise, the novel grapples with significant issues in character development and plot execution, leading to a 1-star rating. As a reviewer, I always strive to find the positives, especially for indie authors, but unfortunately, I struggled to do so in this case.

The female main character (FMC), Lieke, is utterly insufferable. Initially naive, her behavior quickly escalates to outright stupidity as the story unfolds. She repeatedly recognizes that her actions are ill-advised yet continues, demonstrating infuriating selfishness. Her willingness to risk a war and countless lives to stop a marriage with a prince who doesn't reciprocate her feelings nor respect her is absolutely bonkers. This isn't the type of setup you want to see between characters or for an FMC you want to root for. Especially when her father died because of the last war! It isn't about being "in character" or "out of character" at that point because it just doesn't fit the tense atmosphere the author is trying to create.

Connor, the fae prince, is equally frustrating, if not more so. His beliefs about mates are inconsistent with his actions toward Lieke, leading to an insufferable dynamic. Their supposed fated connection is unconvincing since none of that was present before Lieke came home from being trained. The story would have greatly benefited from more intimate moments and a slower build-up to their romance, perhaps even necessitating a second book to do their relationship justice.

This "love triangle" between Brennan, Connor, and Lieke was weird and felt out of place. Brennan barely acknowledges Lieke, yet she remains hopelessly in love with him?? Their supposed childhood friendship is never shown on the page, leaving us to guess at their bond and hope that there was one to make it a "realistic" love triangle.

Another major flaw is the narrative's timeline. Unexplained time gaps create confusion, making it unclear whether events happen the next day or years later. We go from one page in one year to skipping a year in the next chapter and three years in the chapter after that. Then, everything basically slows to a halt. I know we needed to get to the "plot" of this story, but there was such a lack of planning on how to do that properly that it frustrated me to no end.

With the problematic characters and plot, the author's writing creates an erratic, disjointed narrative. Everything is over-explained and made to feel as though the reader needs help figuring things out, yet we don't get that information promptly when something should be explained. At 500 pages, the book is excessively long, and the timeline's disjointed nature makes it difficult to follow the progression of events.

"Until the Stars Fall" had the potential to be a compelling romantasy. However, it is ultimately tainted by an unlikable FMC, inconsistent timeline, excruciating length, and underdeveloped relationships. With the premise of this novel, I thought for sure it was going to be a standout novel for me—I even pre-ordered it!!! But it just left me extremely disappointed.