Author: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Release Date: December 2014 (Aus)
Source: Allen and Unwin
Goodreads
The second installment in the epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.Review by Nara
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.
The stunning second novel in the Starbound trilogy is an unforgettable story of love and forgiveness in a world torn apart by war.
As I'm sure is true for many, many other people, I was quite excited for the release of This Shattered World for two reasons:
1. It's the sequel/companion to These Broken Stars
2. Do you really need any other reason?
Okay, make that one reason.
In any case, after the fantastic book that was a weird amalgamation of a survival story and a Titanic-esque romance, set on a deserted planet after a spaceship crash landing, I was expecting quite a lot from the sequel.
And boy, did I get everything I'd hoped for. Fabulous romance, fast paced action, some mysteries solved and some mysteries left for the last book...if you enjoyed Book One to any degree, you must get your hands on this one too.
The romance, my god, the romance. Kaufman and Spooner are seriously fantastic at character development, and that translates into a truly shippable romance. Gotta love that hate to love romance trope. Honestly, I can read a million variations of that trope and never get tired of it. Lee (short for Jubilee, which I'm glad wasn't used more often because the name Jubilee makes me picture a horse for some reason) and Flynn (unfortunately this name had me picturing Flynn Rider from Tangled. Or is that actually fortunately?) had a relationship that was slowly developed from hostility- what do you expect when you kidnap someone- to love, and gahhh so adorable.
I think one of the reasons I enjoyed This Shattered World more than These Broken Stars was because a bit more of the science was explained, and the world building was just better on the whole. While, like the first book, the romance is quite a large focus, there are also other intriguing aspects, including the underlying mystery that's snaking its way through the series, to do with LaRoux industries and their shady back story, and I hope that it gets solved in the last book, because SO MANY QUESTIONS.
If you've read the first book and need any more convincing to read this book, you should know: Tarver and Lilac make cameos, and it's glorious.
Incredible
Ratings
Overall: 10/10
Plot: 5/5
Romance: 4.5/5
Writing: 5/5
World Building: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 4/5
