Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 For Darkness Shows the Stars is a science fiction YA romance loosely based on Persuasion by Jane Austen. It's not a very good version of Persuasion, and it's not very good as romance, but it's quite good as science fiction and I felt intense empathy for the heroine even though I frequently felt that her story was not the most interesting story in the book. 
 Refreshingly, this is a YA story that is not told in present-tense, first-person narration. I have nothing against first-person, present-tense narration but having read about five YA novels in a row that use these devices I welcomed the change. Even though the narration is not first-person, it's squarely from Elliot's point of view. This is a bit of a problem because while we get to know Elliot very well, we barely know Kai at all, and what we see of him consists of him acting like a huge jerk. As far as romance goes, I only wanted Kai to be with Elliot because I liked Elliot and wanted her to be happy. I understand their previous connection, but in the present there doesn't seem to be any connection or rapport or even sexual tension - just a lot of anger on Kai's part and sadness on Elliot's. 
 As far as being a remake of Persuasion, there are some pretty serious differences that change the effectiveness of the story. The most obvious is also the least problematic, because of how the world building is set up. Persuasion is notable for being a story about older people who have cause to believe that their chances of love are behind them, while Darkness is about eighteen year olds. However, thematically this works fairly well, because in this setting people seem to mature extremely young (one character who is considering marriage is fourteen, and while people seem to think that this is unusually young they aren't shocked). Also, Elliott clearly has cause to believe that her chances for love and marriage are over, if indeed they ever existed at all, because of her downtrodden role in the family and her responsibilities. 
 A bigger difference, and a more serious one, is that there is no ease or rapport between Elliott and Kai. Kai does go through a bit of an arc where he seems to develop respect for Elliott, but it's very late in coming, whereas in Persuasion, Wentworth softens his attitude towards Anne about halfway through the book, which allows a relationship to grow between them. Kai and Elliott are just angry, and Elliott is actively mean. I never rooted for Kai and Elliott as a couple. I never saw them as a potential team. 
 - Carrie S.