Book Review: These Broken Stars (Starbound #1) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: YA Sci-Fi Romance
Length: 390 pages
Author: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: December 10th, 2013
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

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.

The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

IT WAS A BLAST.

Laughing at my own pun if you’ve read this book.

ANYWAYS.

Uh first and foremost, this is a standalone series. I was not aware as I don’t read synopses very often. If you also do this, here’s your heads up now. It didn’t really take away from my reading, I was just surprised whenever I looked up the next book and noticed a new couple on the cover. Apparently they all interconnect which is nice.

I really liked this forbidden romance! It was very fast paced and the audio was perfectly accomplished. I read through it quickly wanting to know what was going to happen next and if anyone was going to rescue Lilac and Tarver. The pacing of the romance was pretty spot on too. For an initial standalone I liked the slow burn nature as they started to truly rely on one another to survive a new planet.

There’s a lot of interesting nuggets about the world building and other species present in space. Things definitely tripped me out at times and I was rather shocked with how some of the last moments occurred. The authors kept this action packed and even with a bit of a slow middle I was all for this adventure in space.

Overall audience notes: