ARC: 'Soaring Through Stars' by Rajdeep Paulus

Date finished: 20 April 2015

Series: Swimming Through Clouds, no. 3

Rating: 4/5

With its beautiful whirlwind plot and deeply moving prose, Soaring Through Stars is the perfect conclusion to a trilogy that has undoubtedly caused its readers to work their way through many, many tissue boxes.

Jesse and Talia face even more challenges as they prepare for the ultimate confrontation with their father. As if they already haven’t suffered through enough pain, Gerard Vanderbilt seems determined to break his children’s spirits. While the Vanderbilt teens struggle to find their way alone in the world, an unexpected visitor throws everything out of the balance, and they are pushed to the limits of their faith and determination to find justice.

Paulus’s talent in weaving raw emotion into her characters is unprecedented in the YA Fiction genre. Because of this, they have come to life in such a way that I’m forever startled to glimpse up from reading their stories and find that they’re not right beside me. Her characters are so moving, so real, that I know I’ll keep encountering them in my memories for a long time.

Additionally, Paulus has introduced a new way of writing to the world – one that mirrors the distortions of reality through its heartache and sorrow, with an underlying gold thread of hope and genuine love. The world she’s created, although unjust and often disheartening, is woven using beautiful words that fill her readers with an overpowering sense of wonder for life. There is something truly powerful about her writing, and I sincerely hope that she continues to publish many more novels. Otherwise I’ll just have to invest in a lifetime supply of chocolate ice cream and cry my way through this wonderful series all over again.