When the planet Balen finished his mourning for his lost avatar, he contacted the Sector Guard to get the miners out of his territory so that he could replenish the frozen surface. Zenina Sin Ar is the one to get the message and when she tries to inform the powers that be, they set a price on her head. With no other place to turn, she runs for the museum and the rocks that landed on the surface when she did. Completing a circuit, her powers activate and she can finally become what she was meant to be, Tears of the Star.
Sovereign is the Sector Guard officer sent to evacuate the planet, the surprise he feels at seeing a woman flying around the surface is matched only by the knowledge that this is the one his sister said he would meet. The child of two avatars with a destiny irrevocably tied to the planet below.
Balen the planet is waking after 100 years of mourning his previous avatar. Zenina is the daughter of the previous avatar and is slated to be the new one. Her blood father, Olaris is the avatar of the sun.
Balen has decided that a Sector Base will be set up and therefore Zen will also be joining that group. Sovereign, a Sector Guard, turns up to assist.
Sovereign is soon to replace Olaris as avatar of the sun and he wishes to start courting Zen.
Not much of a romance in this book so I'm not adding it as a category. Zin is made an avatar to a planet she lives on, a job her birth mother used to have. I don't know what specifically I found wanting in this book but there was something missing for me.