Joint Review: These Broken Stars by Aime Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Author: Aime Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Date of publication: December 2013

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.

These Broken Stars was a pretty good read.  I felt like it was fast paced and never really stalled anywhere for me.  I actually liked that most of the story took place on the deserted planet.  I gave the main characters a chance to really develop a relationship.  I loved that Tarver and Lilac didn't get along at first.  Their friendship and love developed over time.  It was nice that there was no inst-love and no love triangle!

It's kind of hard to review without giving away key plot points.  I liked the couple of twists that the characters find out about the planet and what really happened there.  I also loved how it ended. The book alternates between Lilac and Tarver's point of view with the story continually moving forward.  Sprinkled throughout the book are excerpts from Tarver's interview about what happened on the planet.  I liked that concept.  Autumn and I both listened to the audio and it was well done with two different narrators.  I look forward to reading the next in the series, This Shattered World.

Like Kari mentioned, I liked the alternating view points.  I particularly liked the interviews at the beginning of each chapter.  It gave the reader a glimpse into how Tarver was treated by his superior officers and what happened off the planet.  

There were some pretty amazing plot twists in this book.  In fact, I kept thinking to myself that these authors were pretty rough.  However, I think they kept expectations fairly realistic.  Like if this were to happen, what's a realistic reaction?  Not some kind of romantic reaction and I liked that.  I liked the verbal interplay that Tarver and Lilac had too.  It was fun to listen to.
I would definitely recommend it and look forward to the next book.