To learn more about why I started doing this Save The Date feature and how it differs from my reviews — go here!
* Release date according to Goodreads
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Pre-Order It | Add It To Goodreads
What These Broken Stars Is About: When the luxary spaceliner, the Icarus, seems to be pulled out of hyperspace and freefalls to a mysterious planet, Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen find themselves thrust together as the only survivors of the crash thanks to the quick thinking of one of them. Lilac is the daughter of the most powerful and rich man in the universe — the very man who built the Icarus. Major Tarver couldn’t be any further from her social circle as a war hero who certainly didn’t come from money. They trek across the strange planet to find the crash site, encountering many dangers that could kill them as well as their own disdain for each other, and hope they will find rescue crews have come for them. When they start to see and hear things they can’t explain, they begin to uncover secrets that change everything.
Why You Should Be Saving The Date:
1. What a page-turner!!!: From start to finish this book made me furiously turn the pages. Everything about it was fascinating and I wanted to devour it in one gulp. The questions start burning at you immediately and certainly ignite the reader to read faster and faster. It wasn’t that it necessarily was action packed at all points, because there really were some more quiet and poignant moments, but even in those moments you still couldn’t put it down. The one thing that really made it a page-turner was a page after every chapter or so was a few lines from an interrogation of Tarver that was juxtaposed within the story and it made me ANXIOUS to know what they were discovering on the planet.
2. The setting completely had me smitten: SPACE!! We are first on a luxury liner (a la Titanic) in space — in a galaxy not ours. Then when the crash happens we are on a new planet that is FASCINATING and mysterious. I LOVE survival stories and this planet was deserted and so a big part of this story is survival — from the elements, lack of food and the strange things they encounter. As the story progressed, it really reminded me a lot of LOST and I LOVED IT.
3. Tarver: YOU WILL LOVE HIM. He’s seriously one of my favorite guys in YA right now. This “from opposite social spheres” trope could have been lame but it was seriously well done and your heart will BREAK for Tarver a million times. Tarver is just such a well fleshed out character in his own right and also in the context of the romance.
4. The writing is superb: I couldn’t get over how flawless and beautiful the writing was. It was dazzling when it needed to be, sparse when it called for it and just altogether amazing. I thought the more science-y things were well written and not TOO confusing so that was nice for a science fiction newbie like myself.
Who Should Save The Date: Fans of YA science fiction who have been disappointed with a lot of recent YA science fiction (and even if you don’t typically read a TON of science fiction, like me, it’s worth a read!), people who like novels sent in space/on other planets, those who love a good survivalist story, fans of LOST to some degree, people who love their romance to be all consuming but not overtaking the plot or the real meat of the story.
A Sneak Peek: “The Icarus is falling. She’s like a great beast up in the sky, and I imagine her groaning as she wallows and turns, some part of her still fighting, engines still firing in an attempt to escape gravity. For a few moments she seems to hang there, eclipsing one of the planet’s moons, pale in the afternoon sky. But what comes next is inevitable, and I find myself reaching out to put an arm around the girl beside me as the ship dies, pieces still peeling away as she makes her final descent.” (this is taken from the advanced copy I received from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review, and could be subject to change)
Be on the lookout for my FULL review closer to the release date where I will flesh out my thoughts a little more!
Have you read this one? Are you excited for it?? Putting it on your TBR list?
Stormy @ Book.Blog.Bake. says
Eeek I LOVED this one(and yet I gave it 4 stars on GR–might need to bump that up because I keep GUSHING about it). And yes, TARVER. I love him! I think he’s one of my favorite characters in YA right now. I really loved the romance in this book too–survival romances AND different social class romances are two of my favorite tropes when it comes to the romance in books so having them combined was pretty awesome.
Johannah Doll says
Okay, okay… I’ll pre-order it. Ha ha.
Rachel says
I have this ARC but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. But your post just made me like 10x more excited to read it lol. I might have to bump it up on my TBR list 🙂
PS. I love this feature! haha.
Jen @ Pop! Goes The Reader says
I’ve been looking forward to These Broken Stars ever since I first heard of it a few months ago, so I was very excited to see that you enjoyed it enough for it to warrant a ‘Save The Date’ post! 🙂
I’ve never been the biggest fan of science fiction but ever since reading Across The Universe last year I’ve certainly been more open to reading novels from that genre. I love the idea that this one features a ship similar to ‘Godspeed’ in the aforementioned novel, and I really love that Lilac and Tarver are from such drastically different backgrounds, as I can already imagine the sparks beginning to fly. It also reminds me a little of Under The Never Sky in that two previously unacquainted people who ordinarily likely wouldn’t get along are thrust together out of necessity, and we all know how much I adored that novel so I have no doubt that I’ll love These Broken Stars, too! I know what I’ll be asking for for Christmas this year 😀
Thanks for the wonderful post, Jamie! I don’t think I could possibly be looking more forward to the release of this novel if I tried, and I loved hearing little tidbits about it to wet my appetite until I can read it myself.
Wattle says
Oh this sounds wonderful. It’s been a while since I’ve read a good sci-fi novel…and on to the TBR list it goes!
Alise says
Anything that might remind me of LOST goes immediately onto my to-read list! Thanks for the recommendation!
Krista says
I got my copy of this at BEA and i’ve been waiting until a little closer to the publish date before I read it. But, it’s getting harder to wait because I know i’ll love it. I loved the Across the Universe series; I’ve been dying to go back to space!
Alyssa @ Swept Away By Books says
YES! This is easily one of my favourite books of 2013! Such stunning writing and the cover is definitely in my top 5 favourite covers ever!
DannyBookworm says
This book was made of win and awesome! I heard people being exited about this book, but I couldn’t quite believe it until I read it and devoured it! This book was amazing and outstanding!
Zoe says
I agree! This book looks SOOOO amazing! I need it now! 🙂
Ikao @ Sky Duck Books says
This totally makes me more excited for this book! Can’t wait for full review and ofcourse the book itself! I’ll preorder it this month XD
Becca @ Lost in Thought says
Because of this post I picked up this book yesterday and I’m about 40% of the way in and I am completely hooked. From the first page I was just sucked in and I’m loving it. I was a little disappointed reading Across the Universe earlier this year as I had such high expectations so diving into this completely unaware of its awesomeness is just making it a 100 times better than I thought it would be. It is totally Titanic in space for the first few pages and the interrogation parts at the end of each chapter is just so intriguing! Thanks for highlighting this book as I don’t think I would have picked it up without seeing this post! 🙂
Hannah @ So Obsessed With says
Well dang it, Jamie! You’ve just made me interested in a book that wasn’t even really on my radar before this. I really love that you do “Save the Date” posts for a little early buzz about books. I think this cover is really lovely, so I’m so excited that the story inside lives up to this cover!