These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1)

by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

[Berls]

I've owned this book for 5 years and have planned on reading it several times. Boy am I kicking myself for waiting all this time. I don't think I even remembered the premise when I put this book on my TBR list. I think I just remembered I wanted to read it, that I owned it, and the cover was beautiful. This was a fantastic read, complete with staying up way too late because I just couldn't put it back down.

The story is told from Tarver and Lilac's POV, alternating. I enjoyed both of their perspectives and seeing how differently they saw things and how skewed their perspectives were of each other. It made their character development that much more interesting and fun to watch. They both were more than they appeared on the surface and they both grew as individuals.

Even more interesting than the characters, though, was the plot. Absolutely brilliant tale of survival in the face of shipwreck on an unknown planet. I was frequently on the edge of my seat, anxious to see how and if they would survive. The Sci-Fi / Fantasy elements are intertwined really well - it didn't take a heavy world build for me to understand or to recognize what was "normal" for their world view and what was unusual.

This book really does work as a stand alone, in that when it finished I didn't feel myself anxious for another book. But there are 2.5 more and I probably will read them at some point. But I'm perfectly satisfied with where this story ended.