somewhat scientific: all the stars left behind by ashley graham

ashley graham's debut, all the stars left behind, introduces us to leda lindgren. she's recently moved to norway to live with her uncle and grandmother after her father died and her mother went awol. she's not all that excited about living in a new place. and meeting new people. especially since she can expect awkward stares and teasing once she explains her medical condition of spina bifida.

when she meets roar, it's like time stands still.

roar isn't like other boys. he's not from planet earth for one thing. he's been sent to find a weapon for another. and when leda turns out to be the weapon he's looking for all bets are off. it appears that his elders and hers have left a whole lot of information out of their stories. and as drawn as roar and leda are to one another, not just romantically, but genetically, being together could kill them. it could destroy entire species of aliens.

as leda and roar race against time, the woede, the different government agencies who want to conduct interrogation and experiments on them, and the traitors in their midst, their connection deepens and grows beyond anything either of them ever expected. leda always imagined that the only thing people could see when they saw her were her crutches. but roar sees beyond that. he sees her beauty and her intelligence and the light that glows within. that light sets him aglow too.

so they have battles to fight, a war to win, peace to broker. not a big ask for two teenagers in crazy love with each other and forbidden from consummating it. the book doesn't solve every one of their problems. in fact, one thing i liked about the book is how it didn't take easy shortcuts when it came to fixing things. there are a couple of opportunities where the author could have given leda an easy out as to her disability. even though life isn't like that, this is science fiction. the impossible should be possible. in this case though, it means something that it's not.

**all the stars left behind will publish on june 6, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (entangled: teen) in exchange for my honest review.