Book Review: These Broken Stars (Starbound #1)

 

These Broken Stars (Starbound #1)

Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Source: Netgalley
Recommend For Fans Of: Sci-Fi, Romance, Anyone!

It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

Review:

I am not usually a fan of science-fiction. But I had heard from so many people that These Broken Stars was amazing, that I just had to give it a try.
And I am very, very glad I did!

These Broken Stars had the perfect amount of adventure, romance, and science-fiction elements. The two authors, Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner worked perfectly together.

The book was told in a dual-alternating-point-of-view. Lilac and Tarver.
Amie and Meagan did a really great job with the characters.
At the starting of the book, I was not a big fan of Lilac. But as the book went on, around the middle of the book her character had a huge turn. I was able to see her in a very different light and that made her an amazing character.
However I loved Tarver the entire time! He was so good to Lilac. His elements that caused his different actions had so many layers.

I have never seen the movie Titanic, but from what I have heard the starting of this story sounds a little like it. After crashing on a seeming uninhabited land, Lilac and Tarver have only each other. They must battle ridiculous odds to survive.

Overall the book kept me interested, the romance between Lilac and Tarver was wonderful, and the science-fiction elements were enjoyable (something that doesn't happen that often with me). I would recommend this to pretty much anyone. I can't wait to read the sequel of this book! A definite 4/5 stars.


I received this book for review by the publisher via netgalley. This is no way affected the honesty of my review. I was in no way compensated.

 

Stacking the Shelves (15) + Weekly Summary

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

 

Here are the books I bought/received this week.

 

 

All three of these are paperbacks that I won, and all three just happened to show up within a couple of days of each other!

 

Weekly Summary:

I posted two reviews this week, and quite a few other things.

 

Book Review - Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone (4.5/5)

Monday Young Adult Author Interview With T. M. Franklin

Giveaway! Sirenz by Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman and 100th Blog Post Published.

Top Ten (Or Twelve) 2014 Release's I'm Dying To Read

Waiting On Wednesday - The Rules For Breaking

Book Tour + Review + Giveaway - Cover Assignments

Just A Note......(please read!)

Dash & Lily's Book Of Dares Readalong Sign Up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would love to visit your Stacking the Shelves! Please leave me a link in the comments below!

Stir Me Up Book Blitz

Stir Me Up

by Sabrina Elkins

Release Date: 10/01/13

Harlequin Teen

Summary from Goodreads:

Cami Broussard has her future all figured out. She'll finish her senior year of high school, then go to work full-time as an apprentice chef in her father's French restaurant, alongside her boyfriend, Luke. But then twenty-year-old ex-Marine Julian Wyatt comes to live with Cami's family while recovering from serious injuries. And suddenly Cami finds herself questioning everything she thought she wanted.

Julian's all attitude, challenges and intense green-brown eyes. But beneath that abrasive exterior is a man who just might be as lost as Cami's starting to feel. And Cami can't stop thinking about him. Talking to him. Wanting to kiss him. He's got her seriously stirred up. Her senior year has just gotten a lot more complicated….

Available from:

  

About the Author

Sabrina Elkins, author of Stir Me Up, has also worked as a journalist, movie copywriter and prep cook. She graduated from USC and currently lives with her husband and three children in the greater Los Angeles area.

Sabrina loves hearing from her readers, and encourages you to visit her at

www.sabrinaelkins.com, on Twitter @sabrina_elkins, Facebook at elkins.sabrina, and Goodreads.

***Author Links***

   

GIVEAWAY:

Win 1 of 3 stockings filled with holiday candy, chocolates, a hand-crafted Christmas charm bracelet and $10 Amazon gift card.  Open Internationally. Void where prohibited.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Blitz Organized by:

 

 

Excerpt:

 

            “Let’s put the the mud back out in the yard where it belongs.”

“Not this stuff. It’s too expensive.”

“Expensive?” He takes the jar of Fango beauty mud from me, opens it, sniffs it—and I push it onto his nose. “Ach.”

“Oops,” I say with a grin.

“All right, that’s it.” He takes some mud and tries to smear it on me, but I intercept his hand and make a grab for the jar.

            “Let go,” I cry, laughing and struggling for it.

            “Not a chance.”

            I get some anyway. “Hah!”

            “No, don’t come near me with that,” he says, and I paste him. “Ach!”

            “Ooh, the big fierce warror’s upset.” He comes in for the kill. “Wait!”

            “No.”

            “Yes!”

            “No. No mercy.” He tries to smear me—and I wind up smearing him instead.

            “Hah!” I cry. “No mercy for you! Nice nose.”

            His muddy hand touches my stomach.

            “Hey, faces only.”

            “That’s not in the rule book.”

            My eyes close as his hands smear mud across my stomach.

            “There,” he says. “Now your innie’s a little mud pit.” His hand trails across my middle. I squirm slightly, and his eyes meet mine. They’re darker now, heavier. “Where next?”

Dash & Lily's Book Of Dares Readalong

I have been wanting to read this one, and after hearing from several people that it is a great Holiday read I thought why not? I have to have at lease five other people interested (aka signed up) for me to do this! So please spread the word! Readalong will go from December 10th to December 31st (three weeks). I will post an update within a couple of days if I get enough people interested.

Sign up with this form: here
Please leave a comment after signing up!

Thanks! And remember! Must have at least five other people interested!

Just A Note..........

Hey everyone! So it is Holiday time, and I have a ridiculously busy schedule........the next month or so I will try to stay with posting two reviews a week, but some weeks it might just be one.

I have made it my Christmas goal to reach 150 GFC followers, and it is up to you to help me reach this goal! If you are like me, I keep a bunch of blog links on my computer, but I don't actually follow that many blogs so if you could go over and help me with my 150 goal I would love it!

Another thing is I now have a facebook page for the blog (The Book Butterfly) and if you could do me a huge favor, and go over there and "like" it I will love you forever! (Although I already do love you if you are reading this).

An author Charlotte Bennardo offered up a copy of her books Sirenz and Sirenz Back In Fashion, and an audio of Sirenz......I am running that giveaway here on the blog. There are very few entries, so you have a pretty good chance at winning! GIVEAWAY HERE.

I am also interested in doing a Holiday Readalong with Dash & Lily's Book Of Dares (goodreads) by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, if I can get maybe 5 people interested in doing it, I will host the readalong.

I recently posted my review for the Covert Assignment Blog Tour which includes a $25 Giftcard Giveaway. (you can find it here)

I am also looking for Young Adult Authors for my January section of my Monday YA Author Interviews, If you yourself are an author interested, or you know of an author interested you can find the information here

Thanks for reading this! Happy Holidays!

Covert Assignment Blog Tour Review + Giveaway

 

Book & Author details:

Covert Assignment by Missy Marciassa

Publication date: December 2nd 2013

Genres: Contemporary, New Adult

Synopsis:

    Covert Assignment is a New Adult, Coming of Age Novel with a strong romantic element. Elle is ready for graduation and full-fledged adulthood: no more living like the leftover of her parent’s divorce. She’s about to graduate with her degree in Information Science (the 21st century term for Library Science) and has a ten-year plan as well-designed as any model for analyzing metadata: earn her JD/MBA, enjoy a couple of years as a single professional, then marry her college sweetheart, Adam, and start her own family.
    Yet Elle feels like she returned to an alternate universe her final semester. There are pictures of Adam with a classmate who must be surgically enhanced, but he insists he wants Elle. CIA recruiters show up on campus, and they aren’t just interested in recruiting Elle for future employment: turns out she’s already working for them since they’re funding her thesis. Hot operative Preston Raddick is tasked to work with her. Preston isn’t just hot: he’s hot for Elle, but is he offering happy ever after or happy for right now? A fling with Preston could be the beginning of a new life plan, which is exciting and scary, especially with espionage thrown in. Elle needs a predictive model to tell her which decisions have the greater likelihood for happiness…
    Covert Assignment is about the unexpected turns life can take when making “adult” decisions.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18454338-covert-assignment?ac=1

Purchase: 

—Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Covert-Assignment-Missy-Marciassa-ebook/dp/B00GW9H4HA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385394183&sr=8-1&keywords=Missy+Marciassa

 

 

 

 

    

The book kind of reads like a romance/comedy movie. As a matter of fact in my opinion it would make a really good movie! I found myself really picturing everything and really integrating myself into this book.

Elle is just a regular girl trying to get through college without financial (or emotional) help from her parents. The problems with her relationships with both her parent root from their divorce when she was 6 and their eventual estrangement of her as they continue on with their own lives. Cue Elle coming home from Christmas vacation to find out that her boyfriend Adam cheated on her.
Her two best friends Marni and Tina have very different views on it....with Marni being all about moving on and Tina being all about forgiving him and moving on with the marriage plans. Right after this cheating episode Elle meets Preston a CIA agent who is really interested in her. But still being with Adam, Elle doesn't do anything about it.

The way that Elle handles things at the starting of the book is a bit impulsive, she doesn't really stop and think things through. But as the book goes on, you can see a definite change in her behavior.

The CIA part of the plot is a little deceiving, as it doesn't get as much attention as Elle's romantic life does. But the part that it does get is really exciting and well written.

As I said above, the visualization was done really well and I believe that is why I think that it would make such a great movie! Being able to see everything so clearly has been rare in the latest New Adult books I have read and definitely a high five to Missy for doing such a good job!

As for the connecting with the characters part, I found myself yelling at Missy as she made some impulsive mistakes. And then cheering as she finally sticks up for herself against everyone.

The ending ties itself up pretty well, but I was still thrilled when I noticed on the authors blog (http://marciassa.com/2013/10/23/intro...) that this is going to be a series!

Entertaining, fun read that I would recommend to anyone looking for a short fun read! And except about some cheesy lines that I would expect in a cheesy romance/comedy movie I have no problems with this book.
3.5/5

Thanks to the author/publisher for providing an e-copy of this book. I am in no way compensated for the review.

Giveaway:

Grand prize giveaway

Prize (open internationally): 

--$25 Visa gift card

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AUTHOR BIO

(No author picture)

Missy Marciassa loved getting lost in novels from the time she could read, so it’s no surprise she wanted to write. Her very first “novels” were re-writing the books she read to get the endings she wanted in second grade. Missy continued to read and write through grade school and high school.

After becoming rather disillusioned with fiction after writing literary criticism as an English major in college, however, Missy focused on her enjoyment of learning about people and studied psychology. Reading fiction fell to the wayside with all the reading and writing required for college and graduate school, but once Missy became a doctoral candidate, she rediscovered her love of fiction. Then she started getting the urge to write, an urge that wouldn’t go away (she refuses to diagnose it as a compulsion). Covert Assignment is the end result of that urge.

Links:

Website: http://marciassa.com/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7254740.Missy_Marciassa

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MsMarciassa

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MissyMarciassa

Waiting On Wednesday (12) The Rules For Breaking

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

 

The Rules For Breaking (The Rules For Disappearing #2)

Ashley Elston

Expected publication: May 20th 2014 by Disney Hyperion

 

 

 

Anna Boyd almost lost her life to get what she wanted most in the world: freedom.

But just when it seems that her family has finally escaped Witness Protection, the illusion that Anna could resume a normal life comes crashing down.

The deadly man Anna knows as Thomas is still on the loose, and now he's using her as a pawn in a dangerous game with the drug cartel determined to silence her forever. When Thomas and a mysterious masked man capture not only Anna but also her fragile younger sister and her boyfriend, Anna decides it's time to break all the rules-even if it means teaming up with the lesser of two evils.

Anna will do whatever it takes to protect the people she loves and win her life back once and for all. But her true enemies are hidden in plain sight. Before long, Anna will learn that putting her trust in anyone may be the last mistake she ever makes.

 

 

Past Books In Series:

The Rules For Disappearing

 

I really liked The Rules For Disappearing, and can't wait to see what the author does in this sequel!

Please link your Waiting On Wednesdays in the comments below! I would love to visit.