January Book Wrap Up!

Books Pledged to Read in 2015:

150

Am I On Track: 

3 books head

Books Read So Far: 

16

Total Books For January: 

16

This Shattered World

13138734

Suspicion

22533415

The DUFF (Re-Read)

6931356

Half-Blood (Re-Read)

9680718

Unleashed

23343587

Paper or Plastic

22249447

My True Love Gave to Me

20309175

Everything Leads to You

18667779

The Winner’s Curse

16069030

The Orphan Queen

18081228

Top Ten Clues You’re Clueless

20646933

Inspire 

22824819

From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess ARC

22718809

Kissing Ted Callahan (And Other Guys) ARC

18333999

I Was Here by Gayle Forman 

18879761

Fairest by Marissa Meyer

22489107

*       *       *       *       *      *

Book Review: This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

13138734Genre: 

Young Adult, more about  Science Fiction, store Romance

Pages: 

390

Part of a Series?:

The second in the Starbound Trilogy

Release Date: 

December 23rd, order 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Amie’s Website / Meagan’s Website 

GoodReads Summary: 

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet’s rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn’s blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

My Review:

While there will be no spoilers for This Shattered World, I cannot guarantee there will NOT be spoilers for These Broken Stars. You can read the review for that book here

When I read Amie and Meagan’s novel, These Broken Stars, I thought, this is incredible. This is an incredible mix of science fiction and romance and it blew my mind. It ended up being one of my favorites of the year, and I honestly held it in such high esteem when it comes to YA sci-fi. I seriously love it and I was highly looking forward to This Shattered World. I wasn’t able to buy it until this last week because, you know, holidays at Disneyland kept me quite busy. But once I bought this book and started it, I was completely hooked.

Because, honestly, I think this book is even better than the first. Amie and Meagan are absolutely fantastic authors. Such beautiful writing. I honestly had to pause a couple times and just marvel at how incredibly talented the two of them are and how they can collaborate on such a fantastic novel. The descriptions, the way the story flows and the characters they create all flow together in this perfect sequel to These Broken Stars. The world building is so impressive and its easy to forget that this world is fictional because it feels so real.

This is what really gets me about this book: it continues the story that we see in These Broken Stars but it also feels like a completely new story as well. While we do get to see Lilac and Tarver, the main focus is on Jubilee and Flynn and the struggle between the soldiers and rebels of Avon. While this connects to the story that was built in the first book, it feels like a story in its own right and you get so caught up in it that when the connection finally is made, it surprises you. This world is so vast and complicated, which is so great of a science fiction but its also so familiar and small at the same time. It feels new and exciting but you connect with the story so easily.

Which brings me to the characters of Jubilee and Flynn. I adored Lilac and Tarver for sure, but something about Jubilee and Flynn makes me love them more. I loved being in both of their heads, seeing their struggles to help each other out while also being loyal to their “families” so to speak. You felt for both of them, trying to do the right thing, especially when the right thing wasn’t very clear. Their dislike for each other to eventual alliance and later, romance, was natural and it flowed and I was on that painful journey with them the whole way through. A beautiful set of main characters that I definitely won’t forget.

Bottom line, if you’ve read These Broken Stars, you’re going to love This Shattered World. If you haven’t, get your ass off the computer and go buy both of these books. They are absolutely fantastic science fiction romances and you should DEFINITELY read them!

Rating: 

5 out of 5 stars