Love Galaxy by Sierra Branham

TL;DR: Pacing was all over the place, with a lot of flaws.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much!

Plot: A dating show to choose the next Emperor’s spouse, what could go wrong?
Characters: Ugh. Our MC is entirely incompetent and our love interest is grossly toxic.
Setting: I didn’t get much from the setting.
Sci-fi: Just a prop really. We had hints a ‘super evil’ alien race and were told about different planets but that’s about it.

Summary:

A romantic science fiction thriller in which a young woman from a dead-end planet gets cast on a reality TV show to compete for the hand of the prince—or princess. But not everyone is there for the right reasons…

Smart, sexy, compulsively readable and fun, this is for fans of Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit and Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire

Temmi, a young trash collector stuck in a dead-end job on a garbage planet, finds herself with a golden ticket she never expected: an opportunity to compete in an intergalactic dating show starring the brother and sister heirs to the galactic empire. Twenty-four women will compete on a televised program to marry the prince and princess—and future emperors—and to win the dynasty’s favor for their home planet.

Temmi may have been hand-picked to date the quiet, bookish prince, who is immediately taken by her brash personality and their shared passion for the sciences. But she can’t seem to keep away from the princess—and even though it couldn’t be a worse idea, their chemistry is undeniable.

But when contestants start turning up dead, and conspiracies begin to swirl around anti-imperial motivations of several contestants, Temmi among them, so much more than feelings are at stake.

Thoughts:

I went out on a limb with this one, I’ll admit. I was worried I wouldn’t like it and sadly it didn’t work great for me. I think had this had a far more competent main character and took itself a bit less seriously (it’s a dating show in space, come on) it would have worked a bit better for me.

Our lead, Temmi, is the poorest of poor but is meant to be mechanical genius. She’s scooped up off the street after accosting royalty to be part of the latest season of Love Galaxy. This is where the Emperor of ALL of humanity in SPACE picks a spouse. Don’t look too close at all the ways this could go bad, because we’re not meant too.

Once there things of course go sideways, of course. Murders begin and she just happens to end up caught up in it. Beyond that we also have an intensely toxic romantic lead. I could not STAND Spie. I found her snobbish and incredibly self absorbed and it didn’t get better till the very end. By then I had written her off and there was no saving her.

So not for me sadly. There could have been some really cool things here and there were cool moments, sparks of ideas. But I gambled and I don’t think it paid off. I’m not sure about this one guys.