Eyes Like Stars

All her world's a stage.
Beatrice Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She's not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.
Until now.

Welcome to the Theatre Illuminata, where the characters of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Theatre by The Book--an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family--and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.

Beth says 5 Stars...
I'm going to try to keep the gushing to a minimum, or at least make it sound intelligent. This book is absolutely amazing. I loved every minute of reading it, and wish that it had taken me longer. Bloggers often throw around the words unique and unusual, but this book absolutely deserves them. I've never read anything like it, and am so glad that I finally have. The plot was so fresh that it immediately captured my attention, and so interesting that it held it. Manchev's writing was absolutely magical; it captured the vibrancy of the theatre honestly, and blended it seamlessly with fantasy elements. Bertie was strong, interesting, and simply jumped off of the page. I want to sit and have coffee with her. All of the other characters also felt deep and realistic in their personalities. I loved how many familiar characters from Shakespeare were given new lives and personalities. I particularly enjoyed the antics of the fairies. They cracked me up constantly. Something else that I found interesting was that there are quite a few lines that the characters say that are from Shakespeare, either the same or slight variations. It was fun to try to find them and figure out what shows they were from. This book is perfect for anyone, but especially those who love theatre and/or Shakespeare. This is the best debut novel I've read in a long time, and can't wait for the rest of the trilogy. This is one that you should just go out and buy as soon as you can because not only is it amazing, but the cover is stunning. A fantastic first novel from an extraordinarily talented and imaginative author.

Nathan says 5 stars...
For me, books need interesting characters, original plots, and great writing to be considered a work of art. Eyes Like Stars needs to be in the Louvre (and not just because of the awe-inspiring cover). We've been anxiously waiting to post this review until closer to the release date, and now I just have a lot of bottled-up love trying to escape. The book absolutely sucked me into the Theatre, and refused to set me down until the final curtain call; however, I can't say that I minded. Original, fresh, and unique don't even begin to cover the world Mantchev has so lovingly and skillfully created. I'm so excited to see what the rest of the series will reveal after such an explosive and charismatic debut.