Brightly Burning

By: Alexa Donne

Narrated by: Therese Plummer

“One of the most anticipated YA debuts of 2018, Brightly Burning is a gothic, romantic mystery with hints of Jane Eyre, Marissa Meyer, and Kiera Cass.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“Brightly Burning delivers a brooding gothic mystery and a swoony romance, all set in space. Donne’s atmospheric, twisty update of a cherished classic will keep you up late into the night!” (Elly Blake, NYT best-selling author of the Frostblood Saga)

Stella Ainsley leaves poverty behind when she quits her engineering job aboard the Stalwart to become a governess on a private ship. On the Rochester, there’s no water ration, more books than one person could devour in a lifetime, and an AI who seems more friend than robot. But no one warned Stella that the ship seems to be haunted, nor that it may be involved in a conspiracy that could topple the entire interstellar fleet.

Surrounded by mysteries, Stella finds her equal in the brooding but kind 19-year-old Captain Hugo. When several attempts on his life spark more questions than answers, and the beautiful Bianca Ingram appears at Hugo’s request, his unpredictable behavior causes Stella’s suspicions to mount. Without knowing whom to trust, Stella must decide whether to follow her head or her heart.

Alexa Donne’s lush and enthralling reimagining of the classic Jane Eyre, set among the stars, will seduce and beguile you.

©2018 Alexa Donne (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

I'm a Fan!!!

I found Alexa Donne through the AuthorTube teaching videos and have loved her info myself as an aspiring Author. Once I saw her book was on Audible it was my chance to support and check out her writing directly. I LOVED the idea of Jane Eyre. And from the beginning, the irony hit me as you always see fairy tail and Jane Austen retellings, BUT rarely JE retellings that truly capture the mystery and epic-ness of the story. Enter BRIGHTLY BURNING which I binge listened to in TWO busy days as a mom on the go! I LOVED the story, I loved imagery and voice, and I loved the touches of the classic woven artistically with the sci-fi elements as if they were always hand-in-hand. The hardcover will be going into my shopping cart very soon as I can already tell I will want to reread this very soon. Thanks again Alexa and looking forward to more of your books soon!

I think I’m speechless

This book was amazing. I love Stella and all of the side characters. This book made me laugh, cry, mad at some of the characters decisions, and everything in between. Fans of the lunar Chronicles will definitely love this book. I don’t think I will ever get tired of this book. If you are deliberating over whether you should get this book, You should. You should at least give it a try, because if this is your kind of thing you will love it. I hope you like this book as much as I do.

Absolutely more than I expected...

The main reason I loved this book and story was the perfect combination of the remarkable talented narrative/narrator combined with a really skilled plot and a clever and original retelling of a classic Jane Eyre.
I have also to underline that everything settled in Space has a weaked spot on me, so this was just a perfect result in my personal taste.

A little note for the author though, I would have updated some technical devices to open the rooms doors on the sophisticated Rochester ship...

Nonetheless, I do recommend this book to everyone that had loved the ACROSS THE UNIVERSE trylogy by Beth Revis. I could just sense the influence this author got from that beautiful artwork so just give this book a try.

A very good read.

I listen to audiobooks almost exclusively. It isn't very often you can actually hear the writers voice in the narration done by someone else other than the author. Great narration and great writing. This authr truly has her hear in this book.

I Didn't Want It To End

I want to start this off by saying that I am not a big fan of Jane Eyre. I've never gotten all the way through it for a score of personal opinions that I will not share here.

I also generally hate books set in space. It doesn't fascinate me and I don't usually find the inner space station stuff appealing.

That being said, I loved Jane Eyre in Space.

I found the book by watching Alexa Donne's youtube channel. It's taken me a year to actually start reading it because of the reasons listed in the first two paragraphs. I have been wanting to read it though, so I eventually dove in.

I didn't want it to end. I liked Stella quite a bit. I'm not one for main characters usually but Stella was wonderful. I enjoyed the easter eggs throughout the book as well.

I can't think of a single bad thing to say about this story. Everything was wonderful. Now I'm going to have to hope lightning strikes twice when I read The Stars We Steal.

Wish me luck.

great audio book reader

great reader. sweet love story. G rated. I liked it. Alexa Donne is very good at what she does

Engaging Story with Beautiful Narration

Beautifully narrated, Brightly Burning has passionate love with intrigue and danger. Though not a roller coaster of emotion I thoroughly enjoyed following Stella on her adventure.

Good book, but the pacing of the story felt off

This book is one hell of a genre mash-up. Futuristic space setting meets old victorian class divisions and manners. Murder mystery meets potential ghost story. Dystopian meets nature survival. Toss in a bit of government intrigue and roll it all up in a YA romance interpretation of...Jane Eyre?
It sounds like it would be too many things going on, but honestly, most of it was very well executed. It's a very interesting world/society. The plot as a whole is entertaining.
My only issue with this book was the pacing. Everything before Stella finds out what's going on aboard the Rochester was too drawn out...and everything after felt rushed. A little over half the book transpires with very little more than her falling for Hugo and having a couple weird things happen on the ship. Then, she learns why weird things are happening, and all hell breaks loose. The rest of the book (which involves literally all the other genres/subgenres I mentioned above) just doesn't do justice to its content.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this book. I would recommend it.
I just wish the pacing was better.

The narration was good, with distinct voices for different characters. The narrator has a tendency to lend a bit too much levity to the final sentence of every chapter, though.

Exciting read with a The 100 vibe

The was a pretty awesome read. The story kept a nice pace and the premise of having to live in space reminded me of Kass Morgan's The 100, except the story was more about being in space than the ground.

I loved the characters, I was so rooting for John despite knowing that wouldn't work out. The complexity of the society was highly intriguing and it was refreshing to see some great character growth from some highly unlikable characters.

My only issue with the performance was that the narrative states quite plainly that Stella has a British accent due to the ship she was born on and the narrator didn't have that. Otherwise, she was absolutely brilliant. I was especially impressed by her male voices as sometimes I run across narrators who really only have one male inflection and it is a pet peeve of mine. She does really well making each voice unique so that even if the speaker isn't mentioned by name at first, you know who it is. She very much brought a lot of life to the author's story.

Nice Retelling, Jane Eyre in Space

Before reading this book you have to get familiar with the original story, otherwise it will be a really bizarre story to follow
So the story is about Stella who is an orphan living in a very poor spaceship, one day she get accepted as a governess in the Rochester spaceship for the child Jessa, but she finds herself falling for her older brother Hugo, and what will happen after that
I really don't get why did it have to be in space, I mean it could've easily been a really good contemporary book, it was an Ok book as a retelling

The narrator was really good and her performance was engaging