by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Hardcover, 374 pages
Published December 10th 2013 by Disney Hyperion (first published November 20th 2013)
ISBN 1423171020 (ISBN13: 9781423171027)
Series Starbound #1
Blurb
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.
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.
Mini Review
Can we just take a minute and talk about how amazingly beautiful this cover is? It reminds me a lot of the original covers for Beth Revis’s “Across the Universe” trilogy—very Hollywood!
"These Broken Stars" is basically a modern-day "Titanic" story, as many other reviewers have already pointed out. I wish there had been more time spent on the actual ship, however, like in the actual "Titanic" movie so we could have learned more about the society, the universe, the government structures, etc. Once they shipwreck, we don’t really learn about anything outside of the habitat of the planet they landed on, which was a pretty big disappointment for me. Without spoilers, I’d just like to say that the inhabitants of the planet they land on were really intriguing, I loved them. As my boyfriend pointed out, it all felt very "Star Trek"-ish.
The romance aspect of the story was a little too predictable, campy, and frustrating, just because it felt very staged most of the time. Oddly enough, however, this did not seem to bother me one bit. I still really enjoyed Lilac and Tarver together. I really appreciated that two different authors wrote the points of view so the voices were distinctly unique and separate, although I have to admit I was a little biased toward Meagen Spooner given my love of the Skylark books.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book and it will be interesting to see where the next two books go, since each installment is apparently about a different pair of people. If you enjoy books about ship wrecks, aliens, survival, and space, you might want to consider looking into this series. I must warn, however, that the main focus of the book is the romance and everything else takes a backseat.
Thank you to Netgalley.com and Disney Book Group for allowing me to review this book! Review copy was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.