Mommy's Reading Break

I received a copy of this book as a gift from the author after reviewing The Moon Dwellers.If you read my review of The Moon Dwellers back in January, you'll know that I pretty much loved it. In fact, I gave it 4.5 stars. However, I had other books I needed to read, so I didn't move right on to The Star Dwellers. Honestly, as months went by, I was starting to get ashamed of the fact that I hadn't completed this series that I'd seen so many others love so much, and that I had really enjoyed the introduction to. So finally, after 7 months, I decided to rectify the situation!I was a little nervous going into The Star Dwellers, as I have a pretty decent friendship with David Estes on Goodreads, I have almost all of his books, and his fans are extremely loyal and love his books. Obviously, I had pretty high expectations for The Star Dwellers, and I was really nervous that it wouldn't be able to live up to them. Also, since it had been seven months, I didn't remember much of the previous book, other than the fact that I thought it was great.Honestly, I will say that for the first half or so of The Star Dwellers, I wasn't hugely impressed. There was some twists and surprises that I totally didn't see coming, but aside from those, the pace was much slower than I was expecting. I kept trying to remember the previous book, and even though I wasn't positive, I thought it was faster paced than The Star Dwellers was turning out to be. It was a lot of backstory, war/rebellion discussions, and exposition, but not a ton of action. Also, since Adele and Tristan are separated, there's a lot of thinking of, daydreaming about, and pining for each other that I also felt slowed down the pace about. However, I knew I had to give it a fair chance, though, because I know a lot of people love it. Also, I'm well aware of the "second in a series slump", so I knew that chances were, The Star Dwellers was setting us up for bigger and better things.I am SO GLAD that I stuck with The Star Dwellers because around the halfway point, I believe, it picked up and picked up wonderfully. I found myself feverishly flipping the pages to see what would happen, and as the action and intensity picked up, I found myself holding my breath and my heart in my throat. There was so much going on at the end that I could barely keep up (in a good way, not a confused way). There were surprises and threats, and several scenes that had me choking back tears. In fact, I liked the ending so much that I threw away my reading schedule and went straight into The Sun Dwellers!One other thing that bothered me a little in this book: Even though I'm all for guys being emotional and unafraid of tears, there were so many scenes with guys, but Tristan especially, having to blink back tears that I was starting to get frustrated. Tristan is supposed to be a great fighter, and strong, yet he was super emotional in this book. I suppose it's understandable with everything that's going on in his world, but it just annoyed me a bit. Adele, on the other hand, spent most of her time being her amazing kick-ass self! I LOVE her!Overall, while I think The Star Dwellers suffered a little bit from a slower pace and second-book-in-a-series syndrome for the first half, I thought that it was another great book by David Estes, and it definitely left me wanting more of the story immediately!