Book #17: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

This is like a fantasy futuristic version of the Titanic--an unsinkable (uncrashable?) luxury spaceship airliner is pulled out of hyperdrive and crashes on an uncharted planet. Everyone dies, except for Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen--and they have to figure out how to survive and how to be rescued. They come from different worlds: Tarver is a regular kid who's made the big times by being a war hero, and Lilac is the only daughter heiress of the richest man in the universe. They have had a few awkward encounters before they crash together, and they start off as enemies and eventually (spoiler alert!, but not actually unexpected) fall in love.

I actually really enjoyed this book. It has been sitting on my bedside stand for a few weeks now (not to mention the years it's been hanging out in my to-read list on Goodreads) and I was debating just returning it to the library and ignoring it. But the cover was too enticing, so I figured I'd read a few chapters and then chuck it if I didn't like it. But it was enthralling and I couldn't put it down after that. I read it in a few big chunks last night and today and already finished it. I liked how the authors did an alternating perspective, every other chapter from each of the main characters, and how you got a look into their minds, which saved you from thinking they were too obnoxious or too uppity--it just helped to see their true thoughts and insecurities. I thought it seemed pretty believable how they overcame their original prejudices against each other (sometimes it happens so quickly that they go from enemies to lovers that I just can't buy it), particularly since they were in a life-or-death survival situation and lots of chance they would die there with each other. I have to say that I was a little confused by the ending and the whole sci-fi jumping through dimensions/rift in the space-time continuum sort of thing. Maybe I was reading too fast to really understand it (sometimes that happens, when I am anxious to get to the end and see how it all ends happily), but I feel like it was a little confusing and surprising that it all worked out. Oh well.

This shows how much I liked it--I checked out the two sequels from the library today because I wanted to read them too. I especially like the idea of the sequels because they are stories about DIFFERENT PEOPLE and not just a continuation of the same theme, making up new difficulties for Lilac and Tarver to get through once they get back to their normal lives. I thought the writing and the world was interesting enough that I would like to read the sequels--especially once I'm nursing all the time and need something light to read and keep myself entertained.