These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

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Warning: This review may contain spoilers

“Amazing. Unique. I couldn’t put it down!”

Let me just start with WOW! Just. WOW! I can’t help but gush about this book. I had initially heard a lot of good things about it and I decided to give it a go. Little did I know that I would immediately be sucked into a weird and different world. These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner is the first book in the Starbound Trilogy.

The story, set in the future where space travel is possible, focuses on the struggle and growth of two amazing characters: Lilac and Tarver. Lilac, the daughter of the richest man in the galaxy is on a spaceship called the Icarus bound for another planet. She meets Tarver, a very young war hero who immediately is attracted to her. Tarver, on the other hand, does not recognize Lilac and treats her like a normal person. Lilac initially reciprocates but gives him a set down in front of her friends. The reason for this set down will be explained at the end of the book.

Traver vows to stay away from her until the spaceship Icarus gets kicked out of hyper speed and crashes on an unknown planet. Barely able to get aboard a maintenance ship, Lilac saves Tarver’s life by “hot wiring” the ship off the Icarus and crash landing on the planet. The two are immediately at odds as both of them try to lead each other. Lilac reluctantly follows Traver on a journey to reach the fallen Icarus to signal for help. The trip takes days on foot with both experiencing an appreciation of each other and growing into stronger people.

I absolutely love this story. I love Lilac and most especially Tarver. At the start of the book, Lilac comes off as a spoiled-little-rich-girl but as the story progresses, you see her grow into a strong woman. I love how the authors developed each of the characters. I felt like I really got to know both of them. It does help that they are the only two characters in the book.

Another thing that I loved about it is that it is written in both Lilac and Tarver’s POV, with the alternating voice in every chapter. I really thought this was a good way for the reader to get to know both of the characters well since they were basically the only two characters of the story. Reading with an alternating POV in every chapter is sometimes confusing but the authors have written it in such a way that each chapter flows seamlessly with each other. In fact, there was NEVER a part of the book that I had to stop and scratch my head in confusion.

The third part that I love about the story is its uniqueness. The twist, in the end, was so different that it was disturbing – but in a good way, I think. I’m still not comprehending what just happened in the last few chapters BUT I think that is a good thing. What with all the YA novels being a copy of each other, this was something that hasn’t been done before – at least, nothing that I have read, anyway.

I am impatiently waiting for the second book in the series. From what I have learned, it is a totally different story with totally different characters but the stories happen around the same time. So KUDOS to both authors. I am definitely pre-ordering This Shattered World.