Starlight

by Lisa Henry

Thank you so much for hosting me here at The Blogger Girls today, and letting me talk to you about my latest release, Starlight. 

Starlight, the third and final book in the Dark Space series, is unquestionably Brady and Cam’s story, but for a series that started out with Brady and Cam literally locked in a room together, the supporting cast has grown quite a bit since the first book. I’d tell you that was never in the original plan, but this is me talking here. There was never anything resembling a plan. 

So Brady and Cam’s story has grown since the first book. And one of the first book’s antagonists has, very awkwardly, become one of the protagonists in the third book. Or has he? Brady certainly has his doubts that Chris is on their side.

Sometimes when you’re writing a book, a character just comes along and demands attention. And look, this guy was only ever supposed to be in the background, but he just keeps insinuating himself in the action, and it turns out it’s a lot more interesting when he’s there. Chris Varro is that character in Starlight, I think, or at least he was for me. There’s a reason he made the front cover of Starlight, and it’s not just because I was afraid nobody would buy it if I put Kai-Ren on there… 

Chris Varro was introduced way back in Dark Space, first as a memory of Cam’s that Brady shared through their psychic connection, and then as an officer from intel who arrived to interrogate Cam. Brady hated him. Firstly on principal, because he was an officer, but also on a personal level, because Chris was Cam’s ex-boyfriend and Brady is nothing if not petty like that. 

We saw Chris again in Darker Space, where we first learned exactly how out-of-the-box his thinking was when it came to the Faceless. If Cam and Brady had a psychic connection to the Faceless, why shouldn’t Chris? So he injected himself with their blood to make it happen. 

In Starlight, Chris is in charge of what is a very strange diplomatic mission indeed. A small group of humans—most of them military but one of them very decidedly not—is travelling with the Faceless to see what they can learn about them. It’s not exactly going to plan, but when does anything go to plan for Brady? And being stuck in close confines with his boyfriend’s ex isn’t much fun either, especially since Chris seems to find Brady’s jealousy so amusing. 

But while Brady and Cam have been on a journey through the past three books, I think that perhaps Chris has as well. Brady didn’t notice it—he only looks at Chris to glare and fantasize about murdering him, probably—but a lot of the plot in Starlight rests very heavily on Chris, and how he’s going to react to what the universe throws at him. Brady doesn’t trust him and he doesn’t like him, but if he ever wants to make it safely back to Earth, he’s going to have to rely on him all the same. 

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