Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner {review}

Their Fractured Light 
by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
♦publisher: Disney-Hyperion
♦release date: December 1st, 2015
♦hardcover, 432 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Starbound Trilogy, book 3
  review of book 1, These Broken Stars
  review of book 2, This Shattered World
♦source: from publisher for honest review

A year ago, Flynn Cormac and Jubilee Chase made the now infamous Avon Broadcast, calling on the galaxy to witness for their planet, and protect them from destruction. Some say Flynn’s a madman, others whisper about conspiracies. Nobody knows the truth. A year before that, Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux were rescued from a terrible shipwreck—now, they live a public life in front of the cameras, and a secret life away from the world’s gaze.

Now, in the center of the universe on the planet of Corinth, all four are about to collide with two new players, who will bring the fight against LaRoux Industries to a head. Gideon Marchant is an eighteen-year-old computer hacker—a whiz kid and an urban warrior. He’ll climb, abseil and worm his way past the best security measures to pull off onsite hacks that others don’t dare touch.

Sofia Quinn has a killer smile, and by the time you’re done noticing it, she’s got you offering up your wallet, your car, and anything else she desires. She holds LaRoux Industries responsible for the mysterious death of her father and is out for revenge at any cost.

When a LaRoux Industries security breach interrupts Gideon and Sofia’s separate attempts to infiltrate their headquarters, they’re forced to work together to escape. Each of them has their own reason for wanting to take down LaRoux Industries, and neither trusts the other. But working together might be the best chance they have to expose the secrets LRI is so desperate to hide.

Review:  Sigh.  It's over. All done. No more wonderful adventures within this fantastic space fantasy world.  Despite my sadness at reaching the end, I really enjoyed this final installment. 

When I heard this one would be about Sophia, I was overjoyed. I loved the small bit we got to know her in This Shattered World and was excited to delve more into her story. I don't really remember Gideon from the previous book, but he was a joy to get to know and I loved the chemistry between these two. The two of them both have such faceted characters, and we get to see all their cleverness, their vulnerability, they major trust issues. And while the attraction might be there straight away, the closeness and real feelings between them develop slowly and make for some great swoony scenes. 

The first half read a little slow for me, but as a whole this story is incredibly exciting. There are some really gut-wrenching surprises and I loved seeing a few familiar faces, especially as story lines from this and the previous books start to come together. Once again we get the interjected voice of the alien "whispers" and again, while most of it is cryptic and mysterious, it helps the whole plot culminate into its final conclusions. In the end, it was their voices that brought me to tears. 

My small issue with this one was the point where this started to feel a little like a typical zombie survival story. It was really just one small part to everything that was going on, but seemed a bit ordinary and overdone in a story where everything else is unique and mind-blowing lol. One other small problem I came across was the alternating POV. For most of the story, it works beautifully and I love getting to see both sides of their story. But at the main cast got larger, it became harder to distinguish who was talking, so if I'd forgotten whose name was at the beginning of the chapter, I would sometimes get confused and have to back up a few pages. But perhaps that was just a "me" problem. :D

Despite either of these small issues, this was an incredibly exciting and fully satisfying finale to this series.  I can't wait to see these two authors working together again in the Unearthed series in 2017! 

Find Amie Kaufman online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Instagram

Find Meagan Spooner online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Tumblr

Purchase Their Fracture Light:  BookDepository  •  Indiebound  •  Amazon

*Sigh* Swoon with me over Their Fractured Light!! {cover reveal}

Not sure if this one just came out of if I just missed the reveal, but its my first time seeing it today. GORGEOUS. Everybody swoon with me, because the Their Fractured Light cover is here!!

And the three together:

  ♥ SO MUCH LOVE FOR THIS SERIES!! ♥

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner {review + giveaway}

This Shattered World
by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
♦publisher: Disney-Hyperion
♦release date: December 23rd, 2014
♦hardcover, 390 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Starbound, book 2
  review of book 1, These Broken Stars
♦source: ALA Las Vegas

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.

Review: It astounds me just how different the feel of this book was from These Broken Stars while still being just as gripping of a story. Far from the eerie and mysterious planet where Tarver and Lilac fought for their survival, This Shattered World takes place in the stark, swampy world of Avon, where Captain Jubilee “Lee” Chase and colonist Flynn Cormac find themselves at the turning point of a rebellion.  He kidnaps her, convinced that her high position in the military can answer questions he has about a “disappearing” base in the east. As their two opposing worlds coming crashing down around them, they find themselves thrown together working toward the same truth.

Lee is known for being icey and hard-hearted by her squadron, a serious soldier through and through, and it’s interesting to see how she struggles with this reputation herself---constantly at odds with her own emotions about living up to it, or not living up to it. Flynn is also in much the same situation; he is basically alone in thinking it may be possible to talk his people and the military down from war, but he's determined to do so. He is also the younger brother of a well-known rebel, so the pressure is there to live up to what she began.  Each of them surprises the other in unexpected ways, and in the end they’re drawn together in a deliciously slow-building attraction. This whole story rides on a wave of high emotions all the way through, one heart-stopping and sometimes violent event happening after the next. 

There is also a sickness known as the Fury taking over the minds of the people---with very little warning it switches on a violent rage and usually ends in bloodshed.  This is where much of the story’s violence really comes in and I admit it’s what made me it just a tiny bit less appealing to me than These Broken Stars.

Still it was outstanding, the plot twists and tie-ins with the first book are exhilarating, and those hoping to get a little glimpse of Tarver and Lilac from These Broken Stars will definitely not be disappointed!  The fantastic writing and world-building in these books makes it a definite that not only will I be reading any other books in this series, but also seeking out other books by the individual authors!

Find Amie Kaufman online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Find Meagan Spooner online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase This Shattered World: Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

*GIVEAWAY!*
I ended up with an extra copy of this, so who wants it??? Enter below! :)
 •US mailing addresses only please
•must be 13 or older
•Ends 12/26/14

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Becky's View: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
♦publisher: Disney-Hyperion
♦release date: December 10th, 2013
♦hardcover, 374 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Starbound, book 1
♦source: gifted

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:
This book. THIS BOOK.  ♥♥♥

Most of the time, I don’t really go for survival stories, and I’ve even started to cool a bit toward the dystopian/sci-fi genre, but this book brought me right back into love with both.   The scope of These Broken Stars just feels so grand, and romance builds so genuinely that it doesn’t overpower the story. It's just the perfect blend of so many things that really make this story shine.

The Icarus is basically like the Titanic in space.   Wealthy, spoiled heiress Lilac, daughter of the ship’s creator, is on board.  Tarver, a recently decorated war hero , is on his way home to his family.  The story is told in alternating POV by these two and that worked so perfectly for this story to fully bring the reader into their completely opposite worlds.  They catch each other’s eye almost immediately, but their second encounter ends in disaster. 

And then the ship goes down.

Tarver and Lilac find themselves thrown together on a deserted planet.  As much as they try to keep hating each other---sometimes to emotionally protect themselves, sometimes to protect the other---they each can’t help but be surprised by the other’s cleverness, kindness, or unexpected skill.  I love how slowly the ice melted between them and how the reader gets to ease into knowing each of these characters back story and the reasons for being the way they are.

What I loved most is the eerie feeling of the planet itself.  The mystery surrounding the lack of life or terraforming,  the creepy, haunting occurances that start to happen, the psychological  play between madness, hallucination, or…something else.  It all had a very “Twilight Zone” type of feel to it.  There are a few wicked twists that will literally tear your heart out and leave your jaw gaping.

Beautifully crafted storytelling, a tale that I found myself swallowed up into from the beginning and hypnotized by until the end.

Find Amie Kaufman online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Find Meagan Spooner online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase These Broken Stars: Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

These Broken Stars
by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner 

hitting shelves December 10, 2013 from Disney-Hyperion

description: 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.

The first in a sweeping science fiction trilogy, These Broken Stars is a timeless love story about hope and survival in the face of unthinkable odds.

My thoughts: OH this looks good. I can't wait to find out about the "whispers".  The whole concept makes me think of Twilight Zone or Ray Bradbury stories. Which I love. :)