Review: These Broken Stars

First in the Starbound series
By Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner
Available December 10th from Disney-Hyperion
Review copy

I misspoke in my intro to the fun fact I shared for the THESE BROKEN STARS tour.  I poked around Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner's sites today and realized that two more books are coming.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  THESE BROKEN STARS is a complete adventure.  I'd enjoy spending more time with these characters, sure, but I'm not sure what story those future books will tell.

THESE BROKEN STARS is the story of Lilac LaRoux, the richest girl in the universe, and Tarver Merendsen, a war hero from a modest family.  When they first meet, they are instantly attracted, but Lilac must spurn Tarver or risk him coming to her father's attention in a very bad way.  This makes things super awkward when the survive the wreck of the Icarus together, the only two people in their escape pod.  Possibly the only survivors, period.

I loved how THESE BROKEN STARS develops.  There's the characters, first.  Lilac is more resourceful than she first seems, and I just adored her growth.  She's been repressed by her father for too long, and this is her chance to discover who she really is.  Tarver has the training to keep going and ensure their survival, but their journey forces him to face his weaknesses.  And it's just so lovely as Lilac and Tarver come to the point where they can talk about their initial understanding.  I adore communication as a key to romance.

I also loved how the science fiction elements are used.  The planet the Icarus crashes on seems innocuous at first, but as Lilac and Tarver soldier on, things start to get weird.  Hearing voices, hallucinating, things appearing out of thin air weird.  Figuring out what's up with the strange planet could be the key to Lilac and Tarver getting rescued.

I also liked that each chapter ends with Tarver debriefing his superiors.  It hints at the twists to come, but also shows that the official story he's giving varies greatly from what actually happened.  Why would he lie?  And when I say twists, I mean twists.  I'm still not sure I can believe that THESE BROKEN STARS went as far as it did.  I had to briefly stop and go, "Wait, that's not what really happened is it?  Oh my word, what happens next?"

I was enchanted by THESE BROKEN STARS.  It's been described as Titanic in space, but it's even better than that sounds.