Review: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

First of all, can I just say that this series has the best covers?! So pretty! And second of all, the story inside is just as enjoyable. A mix of romance, scifi, and mystery, it makes for a compelling read. It's not perfect, but you'll be having too much fun to care. :)

It's a quiet story. Tarver and Lilac spend the majority of the book all alone on an unknown planet. But what it lacks in action, it makes up for in all the mysterious happenings that keep cropping up. So many details intrigued me and even while I speculated on what the answers were, there was a twist near the end that was completely unexpected. In a good way! And the conversations or transcripts that happen before each chapter give little glimpses of the future, but only enough to make you keep turning pages. I rather enjoyed that aspect of the story!

Of course, I loved the build up of the romance. Tarver and Lilac have great chemistry together. And their journey from frustration and irritation with one another to being unable to deny their love was well done. It does move a little fast on a few occasions, but overall I could believe that their feelings were real. And I appreciated how they grew to respect one another and become friends first, before their hearts got truly involved.

The setting and atmosphere of the novel was lovely! The descriptions of the spaceship and more so the planet they crash on are vivid. Ms. Spooner and Ms. Kaufman gave just enough detail to allow me to picture it in my mind, yet didn't go overboard with it. Which is important with a story that's set somewhere that doesn't actually exist. And like Tarver and Lilac, I grew to rather like the planet, even with it's mysteries.

This was an excellent story in my opinion. It kept me unable to put it down and I read it late into the night. Always a good thing! (Except maybe when I have to get up the next morning. ;)

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I've been walking ten minutes or so when I hear her. Not right behind me, where I'm expecting her to be by now. She must have stayed in the clearing, or even walked away from me, because she's something like half a klick back.
She's screaming.
I'm sprinting before I know I'm moving, grab bag banging against my back, Gleidel hauled out of my holster and fitting into my hand without any conscious decision to draw it. You develop instincts. Like my drill sergeant used to say: Learn fast, or don't.
Branches whip my face and tear at my clothes as I crash through the undergrowth, churning up mud along the edge of the creek as I choose speed over caution.
I burst into the clearing without any pretense of stealth.