Review: The Astrologer's Daughter by Rebecca Lim

Title: The Astrologer's Daughter
Author: Rebecca Lim
Publish Date: July 9th 2014

"Avicenna Crowe’s mother, Joanne, is an astrologer with uncanny predictive powers and a history of being stalked. Now she is missing.
The police are called, but they’re not asking the right questions. Like why Joanne lied about her past, and what she saw in her stars that made her so afraid.

But Avicenna has inherited her mother’s gift. Finding an unlikely ally in the brooding Simon Thorn, she begins to piece together the mystery. And when she uncovers a link between Joanne’s disappearance and a cold-case murder, Avicenna is led deep into the city’s dark and seedy underbelly, unaware how far she is placing her own life in danger.

Pulse-racing and terrifyingly real, The Astrologer’s Daughter is a stunning, original novel. It will test your belief in destiny and the endurance of love." 


StoryLine: I don't usually read mystery/crime thriller books, just because I am more of a fantasy type of gal. But I loved the cover and the premise of a story weaved with astrology intrigued me, so I requested a copy. I'm glad I did, because I ended up really liking this book. The astrology was obviously very well researched and felt authentic, and while there was a couple times where the description of reading ones horary caused my eyes to glaze over a bit, for the most part the astrology explanations were easy to follow.

There was definitely a lot of mystery going on here, at first with Avicenna's mother going missing, but then with all these other mysteries she left behind about not just her self, but also some of her last clients. There were a few different side plots going on here, but Lim did a good job weaving them all together in the end and I never got lost or found it confusing.

One thing that really pulled me in to this novel was the tone. It's been years since I read Wake by Lisa McMann, but something about the tone of the novel and the romance reminded me of Wake. And I loved Wake. It dark and gritty and suspenseful, and I really enjoyed that.

Characters: Avicenna is strong, stubborn, and smart, but over the course of the book she start's to realize that she was wrong and that she doesn't really know everything. She was in a fire when she was a child, and that left her side of her face and her ear badly scarred. Years of moving around and always being both the new kid and deformed has caused her to build up a shell around her self and she tends to keep people at arms length. She does do a lot of crying in this book, which seems to be out of character based on everything else we know about her, but her mom is missing so I can forgive her that.

At first Simon comes off as a jerk, Avicenna's enemy and sole competition for her schools $10,000 prize given to the top of the class at the end of their last year. But, as we get to know him, we see that not everything with him is what it seems, and that he doesn't actually have the perfect life. I loved Simon, I loved Simon and Avicenna. He's sweet and smart and even though they aren't friends, and they are each others biggest competition, he always ends up being the one there for her throughout the ordeal.

I also really enjoyed Wurbik and Boon. Both were unexpectedly kind and fatherly towards Avicenna, and did what they could to help and protect her. And both you could tell actually cared about her and her well being.

Parting Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book, more than I was expecting to, and the ending left it open enough that there could be a sequel while leaving it tied off enough to satisfy even if there isn't. But I really hope there is a sequel.

33/5 Stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.