It’s been a long wait for book two in Molly McAdams’ Thatch series, but after reading To the Stars, you’ll know exactly why it took so long to get our hands on this story.

To the Stars is a raw, terrifying, intense story about a woman who made a choice that has brought her nothing but pain. Before we get into the details of what to expect from this story and/or what we thought about the book, it’s important to know that this is not a fluffy love story. This is a dark and intense tale that broaches a difficult topic.

With that said, here’s our review of To the Stars.

About ‘To the Stars’

Knox Alexander loves Harlow Evans more than the distance to the moon or the sun. He loves her to the stars. Their age difference won’t matter in few short years, so he is determined to give her space to grow until that day.

Harlow Evans is head over heels for Knox Alexander, but thanks to their age difference, she has to love him from afar. She might tell him that he’s wasting his time waiting for her, but she never believes it for a second. She can’t wait for the day when they will be free to love each other in each and every way.

Life doesn’t always play out the way we want, and soon circumstance drives them apart.

Each goes on to see the harder sides of life until one fateful interaction in a coffee shop years later. This could be the second chance they’ve both been waiting for, but there are a couple of major obstacles between them that need to be cleared first.

‘To the Stars’ book review

Anyone who has read Letting Go knows exactly what to expect from Molly McAdams. The first novel in the Thatch series didn’t pull a single punch when it came to gut-wrenching drama, so the series’ second novel was destined to be fraught with equally crushing emotional trauma. Molly McAdams has mastered the art of the tearjerker, and To the Stars is further proof of that.

One of the most interesting facets of To the Stars is the way it is told. Chapter by chapter you see the entire story unfold a piece at a time. Bouncing between the present and the past keeps the reader from falling too deeply into the happiness of Harlow’s past or the terror of her present all at one time. Including both the past and present for Knox as well paints the entire picture clearly. If we had spent too much time in either of their heads, it would have resulted in a completely overwhelmed reader. Both Knox and Harlow have extreme emotional responses to the things that are happening in their lives in both the past and present, and the balance is found in constantly changing perspective.

When we first meet Harlow, we are reliving the defining moment of her life so far. She had no idea the repercussions that day and that decision would have, but she made the biggest mistake of her life on the day she turned eighteen.

You go on to see just what horrors await her because of her choice on that fateful day four and a half years before. The chapters telling the story of Harlow’s relationship with Collin are nothing short of terrifying. The escalation of their intensity throughout To the Stars borders on unfathomable. Readers may or may not have any experience with a relationship like theirs, but nothing could dampen the horrifying nature of it. In fact, knowing that there are women suffering just like Harlow makes her pain and terror that much more real.

When you read Knox’s chapters, you see just how strong his feelings for Harlow are and always have been. The hardest part of this story is knowing the life that Harlow could be living if she would have responded differently to Knox’s call on her eighteenth birthday. He’s slept around a bit in her absence, all in an attempt to bury true heartbreak for four and half years. His personal hell may not match Harlow’s, but he knows at least part of her pain. The pain of being separated from love.

There are so many ways this story could have progressed differently. If even one of them would have made a different choice at any step along the way, things could have been so much better. It’s hard not to be frustrated by their circumstances, but that’s what makes this story what it is.

Sometimes we need to be saved, and sometimes we need to save ourselves. Harlow needed both. She needed to know someone out there wanted to save her, but she had to make the choice to run for her life on her own. In To the Stars, we watch a young woman find the strength inside herself to fight. It doesn’t matter how many times she resigns herself to a life of threats, pain, and abuse, as long as in the end, she chooses to give one hell of a fight to live. To the Stars reminds us that in order to love the way we should, we have to be willing to show our pain.

To the Stars is available now. Get your copy at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Indiebound today.