Lost Stars

Claudia Gray's YA Star Wars novel Lost Stars is a Romeo and Juliet-style tale of two people from the same Outer Rim planet of Jelucan. Despite being separated by social class, Thane Kyrell and Cienna Ree initially bond over a shared love of flying. As the well-known events of the Star Wars saga rage around them, including the Battles of Yavin, Hoth, Endor, and Jakku and the Escape from Cloud City, these childhood friends discover the depths of their feelings for one another, even as they find themselves on opposite sides of the Galactic Civil War.

A fast-paced read, I had fun reading Lost Stars, despite the romance element so prevalent in the most popular YA novels (one reason I don't venture much into the genre). Although I found myself rolling my eyes a few times, Gray strongly crafts two complex main characters and fully realizes them as multi-faceted individuals with conflicting thoughts, emotions and loyalties. This novel should easily appeal to Star Wars fans as well as romantic YA fans.