Review : These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : These Broken Stars (Starbound #1)
Author : Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Publication Date : December 10th 2013
Publisher : Disney Hyperion
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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.


Personal Thoughts

It's hard to resist reading books when they have covers as stunning as These Broken Stars. This is one of those books I would not have picked up had it not been for the gorgeous cover. Having read the book, I want to say that I absolutely loved it as much as every other reader, but unfortunately there were little things about These Broken Stars that I thought were iffy and which prevented me from giving this book 5 shining stars.

One thing that These Broken Stars did well was the fantastic character development. I love it when books are character-driven and when you actually get to watch the characters grow right in front of your eyes. Told in the dual POVs of Tarver and Lilac, These Broken Stars presents us two wonderfully fleshed-out characters. I loved that we got to read the thoughts and feelings of both characters because it helped me grow close to both of them. The two authors also did an impressive job at manipulating the dual POVs. So often dual POVs end up failing to do their job because of how similar the voices might sound, but this was not the case with Tarver and Lilac's characters. Lilac, at the beginning of the book, is someone we're led to believe is a pretentious, snotty rich daddy's girl, and let's just say that she did not leave positive impression on me. However, over the course of the book, she started to mature into this independent, fierce and much more open-minded character as a result of which she grew on me and by the end of the book I really liked her. On the other hand, Tarver was someone I immediately grew an attachment to. He was this broody, mysterious but essentially good guy who stole my heart from the very start. His mysterious side was what made him an alluring character and slowly watching him open up to the readers and Lilac over the book was a brilliant experience.

The romance also worked really well in These Broken Stars and it might have been what really held my attention throughout. It was the slowly developing but intense romance that sprouted off because two people were in a dire situation. It was all the more fascinating due to Tarver and Lilac being the complete opposite in personality, but their differing characteristics are what made them such a complementary couple. The romance, to me, was quite perfect since it also gave me butterflies and I was rooting for the two of them. The plot, or lack thereof, was what prevented me from fully fangirling over These Broken Stars. It is at heart a survival story and so, the plot was quite slow to develop. It started off with a bang and I initially thought it was cinematic, but somewhere along the middle, the book lost its momentum and I struggled with it. There were also revelations and plot twists in the book that baffled me and that I still don't fully get because the ideas weren't developed enough. In addition, the world-building was rather mediocre and not fully fleshed-out. By the end of the book, I was still left with plenty of questions, which made the book not as enjoyable as I expected. Despite the plot and the world-building being extremely weak, the writing, the romance and the characters made this book worth reading.

These Broken Stars will appeal to a lot of readers because of the character development and the lovely romance. However, if you are expecting a solid plot and a strong world-building, you will be disappointed. If I had to describe These Broken Stars in two words, they would be guilty pleasure because that's exactly what it was for me.

Rating

Cover : 5/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 4/5



**Overall Rating : 3.5/5**

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for the e-ARC of These Broken Stars.