These+Broken+Stars

//These Broken Stars// by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner



I read the book so don't have the audio perspective (which I know the voices can sometimes make or break the experience). I actually enjoyed this book and it was a quick read. Totally original....no. It is what I'd call a space opera. It is really a romance novel wrapped in a sci-fi container. For those kids who enjoy romance, I can see it being a hit. I actually picked up the second book in the series which gives you a second set set of star crossed lovers on one of the planets mentioned in the first book and you start to get the more political view of what is happening in the universe at the time. If you are looking for a great sci-fi book, then this may not be it. Romance book...hits more of the buttons.

-Amy Inglis Barrington PL

Tarver is a military man who falls for Lilac, a socialite out of his league, on a doomed luxury space ship. When the ship is knocked out of hyperspace, Tarver and Lilac happen to be in the same vicinity, and she happens to know where the nearest escape pod is, and how to detach it from the ship, thereby saving their lives. They land on an unknown planet that appears to have been terraformed, but is clearly deserted. And then the voices start. The last half of this book are what made it memorable. Until we figure out what's going on with the voices, and the visual/tangible creations of said voices, there wasn't a lot to recommend this story, but figuring out what was going on, and the inevitable love story that took its time in happening, made the rest of the book fly. The girl in the flowy dress may dissuade boys from reading this book, but, if they can get past that, this is a good book for teen boys and girls. Not sure it's Flume-worthy, but it's good. -Kirsten Rundquist Corbett, Sandown PL