Review ~ "These Broken Stars" by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Title: "These Broken Stars"
Series: Starbound, #1
Authors: Amie Kaufman, Meagan Spooner

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Published: December 10, 2013
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Space
Pages: 374
Format: Hardcover
Source: MeL Cat

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Luxury spaceliner Icarus suddenly plummets from hyperspace into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive -- alone. Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a cynical war hero. Both journey across the eerie deserted terrain for help. Everything changes when they uncover the truth. The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

Going into this book, I expected there to be more action and adventure. It is a survival story of two young adults being stranded on an unknown planet, but there isn't nearly as much action as I expected. For most of the book, the two are just wandering around, trying to find any sign of life. And arguing. A lot of arguing.

The two are very different people. Lilac is the daughter of the richest man alive. Tarver is a war hero. So, naturally, they will clash. But the pair seem to be unwilling to fully open up to each other, and that lack of trust could be what prevents them from being saved. The characters' stubbornness became annoying after a while. I just wanted to the two to get over themselves, especially Lilac, and work together without issue. I've read other books where it's had characters not being completely honest with each other, and it makes more sense. This, however, was just aggravating, and not in a heart-wrenching way like it has been with other books.

For most of the book the two are just exploring and disagreeing on things. The pair are the only two, that they know of, that survived the crash to this strange planet, a crash caused by a sudden emergency on the space ship that thousands of people were on. They've seen no sign of life around them, every though there are hundreds of escape pods on the ship. Lilac believes that her father will find them any day. Tarver doesn't think so. Because of this, they try to at least find anyone else who survive. And while they don't find any other survivors, they feel a strange presence that seems to be following.

This strange presence turns out to be aliens who have no physical body. This confused me for the entire book. Just when I thought I understood it, it turned out I didn't. Maybe it will be expanded upon in the sequel?

The relationship between Lilac and Tarver was confusing. They coulnd't stand, yet were attracted to, each other at the beginning. Then all of a sudden they seemed to admit their feelings and then were having sex. Things just progressed so fast. Maybe this will also be discussed in the sequel?

Even with all of these things that I didn't like, I still liked the book. The characters were interesting. Lilac was a typical rich girl; she actually had brains. And the world-building was interesting. The idea of an empty planet was really interesting. And even though I didn't understand the aliens, they were creative. Though parts could get boring, I still wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Even though I fave this book three stars, it's a good three stars. It's not a "Meh, I liked it." It's more of a, "Yeah, I liked it!" It's a happy like, not a disappointed like. Just looking back at the book, I realized that I didn't like it as much as I thought I did. I didn't love it, I didn't really like it. I liked it. Remembering the book made me realize there were things I didn't like. I think I just thought I liked it more because of the hype and the fact I had just won a signed copy of the book.

Overall, this book was good, not great. Good enough that I want to read the sequel and see what happens next, even though it is a new pair. Maybe I'll like the it more than this one.