Reading Review - These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone. 

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help. 

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

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A timeless love story, THESE BROKEN STARS sets into motion a sweeping science fiction series of companion novels. The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

These Broken Stars on Goodreads      Amie Kaufman's Website       Meagan Spooner's Website

I was lucky enough to begin 2014 by reading an awesome book. These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner is a survival story set in a far off planet after a spaceship crashing strands the only two survivors. Lilac and Tarver come from very different worlds, and they must find a way to survive in an unknown, mysterious world. I rated this book 4.5 stars and happily added it to my favorites shelf on Goodreads. 

This book was a really interesting premise to me. The characters are interesting, good narrators, and develop throughout the novel. The plot is overall well paced and engaging, especially as the two explore the planet and begin their struggle for survival. This book is written in dual POV, and as some of you might know if you've read my other reviews, I have been loving multiple point of view books lately. Having both narrators be characters that I enjoyed reading was another benefit of this book. There are two reasons for why this book lost .5 a star. Firstly, Lilac's character was good, and actually developed even more than Tarver's as the novel progressed, but some of her actions and choices disrupted the flow of the plot. Secondly, the ending of the novel felt incomplete in a small way that hopefully will be expanded upon or resolved in the next book. Now, I want to talk about each of these qualities in more detail.

Beginning with the characters, let's talk about the two narrators. Lilac is a wealthy, privileged girl who is completely different from the stereotype that typically entails. She is not fickle or snobbish. Instead, her situation is a bit more unique. This added a lot to her narration and how her character developed. However, one of my problems with the book were the cryptic yet cliche endings Lilac would sometimes end her narration with, and more importantly, how some of what she did would disrupt the plot. Overall, these moments were scarce and so the overall pacing of the book didn't suffer, but it was something that detracted a little. Her character would grow to be a great one, and Lilac's character development has been some of the best I've read in awhile. Tarver was a wonderful narrator as well. He didn't necessarily change as much as Lilac's, but Tarver was already a stronger character to begin with, especially in regards to their situation and struggles. Reading in his POV was always interesting, and while I did prefer Tarver's narrations, I found that neither was irritating or slow paced. These two characters were very dynamic, worked well together, and proved to be interesting and engaging narrators.

The plot was well paced and intense. Although there were small interruptions as I mentioned earlier, the overall story was mysterious and engrossing. As the two explore the planet and recover from the crash, I found myself reading more pages every time I picked the book back up. That was a wonderful quality about this book- it felt as if the story was unfolding and becoming more and more intricate without slowing down or sacrificing world building. However, my one other problem with the plot was at the end. It felt as if a sudden shift occurred in the final pages that really left the story feeling a little unresolved. Looking at the description for the sequel and the series, I think this was done intentionally. It seemed to be a way to connect the sequel, which will focus on a different pair of characters. However, I am hesitant about this because it is something that needs to be addressed or resolved in the next book, and it was an ending that I was slightly disappointed with because it had seemed to be resolved already. Nonetheless I am excited to read more of this series.

In general, I found that this was a very well done book and that it's very enjoyable and interesting. The sequel will be focusing on another set of characters, but I find that overall the story in this book was finished. I'm excited to read more from these authors, and this world. If you've read this book, let me know what you think of it. These Broken Stars is now one of my favorites, and if you have any suggestions of YA that's similar, let me know!

From the paper world,
V