Alex Aster says Starside is true enemies-to-lovers because they want each other dead

Alex Aster wants you to know that Starside is not one of those enemies-to-lovers stories where two gorgeous people mildly inconvenience each other until the kiss scene arrives like an Amazon package. On Booked, Blonde & Busy, Alex Aster said the romance in Starside is “true enemies-to-lovers” because the leads “actually really hate each other and they want each other dead.”

This is a useful correction for the current romantasy economy, where “enemy” can mean anything from sworn assassin to man who used the last oat milk. Aster is selling the old-school version. Murder first, yearning later. Healthy? No. Searchable? Absolutely.

it’s very much like enemies-to-lovers, but true enemies-to-lovers. They actually really hate each other and they want each other dead.

That line matters because Starside is Aster moving beyond the YA machinery that made Lightlark huge. She describes the new book as more adult, more romantic, more rage-soaked, and, crucially, something she had been hiding in a drawer while the Lightlark fandom was busy making maps, theories, and probably some very intense playlists.

I’ve been writing it in secret for many years, and I didn’t tell anyone.

The revenge quest is the point

Aster’s cleaner pitch for Starside is not “girl finds herself.” Thank God. The heroine is in her 20s and, as Aster puts it, “kind of knows who she is.” What she wants is revenge. That gives the book a better engine than the usual destiny smoothie of prophecy, self-acceptance, and one conveniently shirtless immortal.

The world is split between Starside, the land of magic, immortals, and gods, and Stormside, where mortals fight over scraps. Every 50 years, gates open and 50 mortals can cross into Starside on a deadly quest to bring back magic. The heroine joins the quest not because she wants to heal society with sparkle dust, but because somebody has earned her wrath. Honestly, fair.

she’s going on the quest not for magic, she wants to get revenge.

This is where the female-rage branding does actual work. Aster is not talking about rage as a TikTok caption slapped under a woman staring at a wall. She frames it as something the heroine has to move through, not simply monetize. She gets knocked down, rises, hardens, softens, and maybe stops treating anger as the only available personality trait. That is a more interesting arc than “she was furious and therefore correct.”

The sword magic is wonderfully extra

The most charming thing about Aster here is that she still talks like a reader who built the book out of everything she personally wanted to encounter at 1:00 a.m. Magical balls. Deadly creatures. Beautiful dresses. God swords. A massive tree you jump off in hopes a winged creature catches you before gravity turns you into a cautionary tale.

There is also a character with a sword tattoo made from metal ink that can become a real sword, plus a little blade on her finger. This is ridiculous in the correct direction. Fantasy does not need less of this. Fantasy needs more body art that doubles as emergency weaponry.

I want a magical tattoo of a sword that like becomes a sword. That would be so useful.

Aster also says the Starside audiobook uses duet narration because she wanted Harlan Riker, the scary enemy figure, to have his own voice. That is a smart instinct. The audiobook boom has made narration part of the text for a lot of readers, especially the ones toggling between the hardcover, Spotify, and dinner prep like they are operating a NASA console.

She is not pretending this is some quiet literary meditation, either. Starside is being pitched squarely to BookTok: a portal book, a feelings book, a revenge book, a book where the love interest may need to stop trying to kill you before he can earn a playlist. The claim is not subtle, but it is clarifying. If you are tired of enemies-to-lovers where the enemies mostly disagree about email tone, Aster is promising blood on the floor.