Editorial Content for Chasing Stars

From Helen Douglas, the amazing author who wrote AFTER EDEN, comes the next exciting installment in the After Eden series, CHASING STARS! Although this is Douglas’s debut duology, it is simply riveting! Douglas’s unique style of blending suspense, science fiction and romance shines through in these two books.

CHASING STARS starts right where AFTER EDEN left off, with Ryan just about to save Eden. From then on, the book takes its own shape. Ryan and Eden are taken back to the future where Ryan faces trial for breaking the strict rules of time-travel. Meanwhile, Eden tries to adapt to the strange world of the future. With help from friends, Eden and Ryan both face their challenges together.

"Douglas’s unique style of blending suspense, science fiction and romance shines through in these two books."

One of the aspects of this book that I loved the most was the perfect blend of sci-fi and romance, which is difficult to find especially in YA literature. I also enjoyed seeing the relationships between each of the characters in this book. Typically in romance novels, the relationship between the main characters is put front and center and all of the other supporting characters are ignored. In CHASING STARS, Eden interacts with her friends and with Ryan’s friends and we get to see multiple facets of her relationships with them.

Apart from the aforementioned positives, I wasn’t really a fan of this book. I really enjoyed the debut, AFTER EDEN, but CHASING STARS seemed very underdeveloped. Although it was nice to see that Eden had relationships with people outside of her relationship with Ryan, it was very frustrating how she seemed not to care about Ryan at all at certain points during the book. It seemed as if Eden and her friends were more concerned about partying and sightseeing instead of being concerned about Ryan while he was facing trial.

I also did not enjoy some of the plot holes in this story. I can understand why Ryan would have to be brought back to the future, but the logic behind bringing Eden to the future was weak. I couldn’t understand why Eden didn’t seem very concerned about Ryan during her time in the future.

Moreover, the ending was quite dissatisfying. I was expecting to be fully content with this book as it was a sequel in a duology. However, the ending left me a bit frustrated at the lack of closure for the characters. I could definitely see this series as a trilogy.

To conclude, I feel that the reason I did not enjoy this book as much as AFTER EDEN was because I kept questioning Eden’s decisions and mentality. The writing style of this book might be better suited to someone who would relate a bit better with the characters. I would recommend this book to fans of science-fiction, time travel, and especially romance over the age of 13 as there are a few slightly explicit scenes.