Starr
Valentine
Wende
Dikec
Genre:
Young Adult/Sci-Fi
Publisher:
Inkspell Publishing
Date
of Publication: March 10, 2016
ISBN:
978-1-939590-76-3
ASIN:
B01AO8XJRI
Number
of pages: 176
Word
Count: 64,000
Cover
Artist: Najla Qamber
Book
Description:
What
happens when the beautiful swan becomes the ugly duckling?
Starr
Valentine has a perfect life in Middleton, Ohio. She was named
captain of the cheer squad, her mother finally allowed her to get
highlights, and the cutest boy in school asked her to homecoming. But
everything comes crashing down when she finds out her parents are
actually monarchs in exile from a mysterious planet called Vega.
Starr doesn’t want to leave, but loves the idea of being a
princess, and decides moving to an alien world might not be so bad.
When she gets there, however, she discovers that something is
terribly wrong.
Starr
has always been the winner of the family, but now everyone is fawning
over her chubby older sister, Astra. And everyone, even a handsome
and annoying young duke named Julian, seems to hate her. That is when
she realizes the awful truth. Astra is now the pretty one. Astra has
all the friends. Astra gets all of the attention. And Starr
Valentine, voted Miss Perfect, is now the ugly duckling. Her biggest
fear is…will she be able to turn back into a swan, or is she doomed
to be a loser forever?
My Review
Starr Valentine had it all. Cheer captain, quarterback boyfriend, popularity and the pretty face everyone envied. Then it all changed when she turned 16 and her parents revealed they were going home. To a planet called Vegon where Starr and her sister were royalty! What could be better? But their arrival on the beautiful planet was less than stellar for Starr. Could she survive on a planet where beauty isn’t important?
Wende Dikec’s Starr Valentine is entertaining, funny, and at times, sad. This book was good from cover to cover and I just couldn't put it down! I think I have found a gem of an author. I adore Starr Valentine and I cannot wait to see what she writes next! 5 stars!
Excerpt:
We all met in the
captain’s lounge just after the transport ship had safely landed.
My father wore some sort of military uniform, and he was completely
dashing, as always.
“Girls, you both
look lovely.”
I smiled up at him.
“So do you, Daddy,” I said, and he patted my cheek.
My mom fluttered up
to us in a cacophony of lime green lace and feathers. A large gold
medallion was pinned to her breast and she had on the crown she’d
worn for the nightly news. She reached for our hands, tears swimming
in her eyes.
“I have something
for you,” she said, her voice trembling. Captain Augustus stood
behind her, looking just as handsome as my father. He held open a
wooden box. Inside were two small, yet perfect, tiaras.
I gasped.
“Diamonds.”
“These are not
your true crowns,” my mother explained. “Those went missing
during the confusion when we were trying to escape. These are just a
substitute until we can find something better.”
I couldn’t imagine
something better. The tiaras seemed perfect. I leaned over slightly
so my mom could slip it onto my head, glad I’d decided to wear my
hair up in a French twist. The tiara was beautiful. I admired myself
for a few minutes in the mirror before looking at Astra. She and my
mother stood side by side, their hair a riot of dark curls, their
dresses positively painful to the eyes, and I sighed. I really hoped
they didn’t humiliate themselves too much at the ceremony. They
looked like clowns from a circus performance.
My father, of
course, didn’t seem to notice. He bowed and kissed my mother’s
hand gallantly before linking it through his arm and leading her out
the door. I could tell it was a very emotional moment for both of
them. They were returning to the home they loved after being exiled
for so many years. Even I could feel my throat tightening up.
Astra walked up and
took my arm. “Are you ready?” she asked, and I nodded. It was
time to face the music, or the Vegonians, as the case may be.
We stepped out into
a warm, sultry evening on Vega. Lights had been set up all around the
landing bay, and we followed my parents to an elevated platform near
the ship. People waited as far as the eye could see, and as soon as
my parents stepped up to the podium, the crowd roared.
I stood arm in arm
with Astra, taking in the moment. The city of Celesta glittered in
the light of the fading sun, just beyond the crowd of people
assembled before us. It sparkled like it was made of glass. I could
see what must have been the royal palace on one side of the city on
top of a small hill, and it made me think of Aladdin’s castle, all
gilt and white marble. I decided I could definitely get used to
living there.
As I stared at the
people in front of me, I started to notice something odd. The women
here were not at all what I’d expected. Supposedly the most
beautiful women in the universe, they all looked a lot like my mother
and sister, with short, oddly shaped bodies and large behinds. They
also dressed just like my mother and sister, in a riot of colors and
patterns.
A quick assessment
told me that I was the only pretty girl around, other than Maya, and
definitely the best dressed. Maya had been forced by her parents to
wear some sort of Vegonian monstrosity made out of a hot pink
iridescent fabric. Torture. I, on the other hand, felt like an
elegant swan dumped into the middle of a bunch of plump, gaudy,
peacocks.
I heaved a sigh of
relief. I’d been a little teeny tiny bit worried when I’d heard
about how beautiful Vegonian women were. It was good to realize those
rumors had been pure exaggeration. No one in this crowd could hold a
candle to me.
Another quick look
around told me that there wasn’t a single bad looking guy here. I
was completely devoted to Adrian, of course, but I couldn’t help
but admire and appreciate male beauty when I saw it. The boys were
all works of art. It was as if I’d been dropped into a huge candy
shop full of the most delicious boys I’d ever seen, and knew I
could have my pick. Of course I would never cheat on Adrian, but it
felt like a candy shop here, nonetheless.
My joy proved
short-lived. None of the boys even looked at me. At first I thought
that several of them stared at me, which made me happy, but soon
realized it wasn’t me they stared at. They had their eyes locked on
Astra with the same sort of enraptured expressions boys usually
reserved for me.
A cold wave of shock
crawled over my entire body. Boys never looked at Astra like that,
especially when I stood right next to her. Something was very wrong
here.
I smoothed my hair,
which was perfect and didn’t need smoothing. I stuck out my chest
and turned my body so they could see my best angle, but none of them
even noticed me. Astra had suddenly become the center of attention.
My mother gave a
very lovely and heartfelt speech, which I barely paid attention to.
The crowd roared and screamed her name, but I hardly even heard it.
People waved and cheered with tears streaming down their faces, but I
felt numb to everything.
When we were
introduced to various dignitaries, everyone said “lovely,” and “a
vision,” when they met Astra. When they saw me, they looked a bit
confused and then mumbled something boring like “nice to meet you.”
Something very strange was going on, and I had to figure it out.
I searched the crowd
for Adrian, but he was nowhere to be seen. One sexy, appreciative
look from him might have been enough to restore some semblance of
balance and order to my universe. But he wasn’t around and I’d
been cast adrift in a sea of beautiful boys to whom I was invisible.
“Art thou okay,
Princess Starr?” asked Captain Augustus. “Thou art pale.”
I blinked as I
digested his words. The Vegonians spoke English, but a weird form of
archaic Elizabethan English mixed with modern slang. The only people
who had spoken like that on the transport ship were the captain and
the crew. All of the Vegonians who been on Earth for the last fifteen
years spoke standard, modern English, although I’d heard a few
“thou’s” and “thee’s” begin to slip into the language of
the older passengers, including my own parents.
“I’m fine. Thank
you.”
As the captain bowed
and turned away, I realized I wasn’t fine at all. I stared around
at the sea of happy, glowing, faces, including those of my parents
and my sister, and understood that suddenly, and without any
explanation, I had become the outsider.
“Thou art in hell,
Starr Valentine,” I murmured to myself.
About
the Author:
Wende
Dikec has spent her life traveling the world, and collecting stories
wherever she visited. She writes in several romance genres, and her
books are quirky, light, and fun. Fluent in several languages and
married to a man from Istanbul, Wende is a trekkie, a book hoarder,
master of the Nespresso machine, and mother of three boys. A puppy
named Capone is the most recent addition to her family, and she blogs
about him as a way of maintaining what little sanity she has left.
Tour
giveaway
$25
Amazon Gift Card to a Newsletter Subscriber, to be awarded June 1,
2016.
