We Can Do Anything, Together

Published:  December 10th, 2013

These Broken Stars (Starbound #1)

By: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Disney Hyperion

ISBN-13:  9781423171027

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 torturous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain seek to 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

     What exactly can you say about a book that's full of so much good stuff?  And how much can I reveal without spoiling the actual details of the plot and the ending?  I guess we're about to find out!  This is a book about a boy, Tarver, and a girl, Lilac, who are from different social stratospheres - but they collide together and change one another's lives irrevocably when they do.  Lilac is a society darling, daughter of the richest man in the world and Tarver is a decorated war hero, never taken seriously due to his young age.  They meet on one of her father's luxury spaceships the Icarus, conversing and connecting with each other, before she blows him off to protect him from her father.  Then the unthinkable happens, and the ship crashes down on a planet neither of them is familiar with.  The unlikely pair is forced to overcome all their differences to survive in a strange/dangerous environment, while discovering the mystery behind the planet's seeming consciousness and why colonization of that planet was deserted.  Can Lilac and Tarver come to a solution and a rescue before it's too late?

     It's such a gradual change for both of these characters, moving from the stereotypical and boxed in personalities they have when the book starts, to unlocking their full potential.  I've seen comparisons to the Titanic's history (and I assume the infamous movie) in terms of plot, and I can see some similarites.  But once the Icarus crashes (that name has some mythological irony for sure), the majority of the book is spent on the unknown planet, with Tarver and Lilac struggling to work together.  She's dealing with the restrictions of her class in society, and the stranglehold of her father's love and power, while Tarver is dealing with the guilt of surivivng his older brother, and the honors of being a hero (which he doesn't feel he deserves).  Also, Tarver's parents are both teachers so he is WAY out of Lilac's "league."  Lilac begins to experience voices and visions, while she and Tarver are fighting to find a way off, back to civilization.  This and the interactions she and Tarver have with the terrestrial environment leads up to a startling climax that is the perfect meld of science fiction and romance.  The interludes with Tarver being interrogated by men employed by Lilac's father definitely contributed to the shock of how things fit into the puzzle!  And geez, that cliffhanger!  Can't wait to read the next one and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting something innovative, surprising and overall gripping to read.

 

VERDICT:  4/5 Star

 

**I received this book from Disney Hyperion, on NetGalley.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book was published December 10th, 2013.**

I Will Survive On My Own, Thankyouverymuch

Published:  August 2nd, 2012

Survive

By: Alex Morel

Razorbill

ISBN-13: 9781595145109

Hatchet meets Lost in this modern-day adventure tale of one girl's reawakening

Jane is on a plane on her way home to Montclair, New Jersey, from a mental hospital. She is about to kill herself. Just before she can swallow a lethal dose of pills, the plane hits turbulence and everything goes black. Jane wakes up amidst piles of wreckage and charred bodies on a snowy mountaintop. There is only one other survivor: a boy named Paul, who inspires Jane to want to fight for her life for the first time.

Jane and Paul scale icy slopes and huddle together for warmth at night, forging an intense emotional bond. But the wilderness is a vast and lethal force, and only one of them will survive.

Review

   Jane comes from a really dysfunctional family - both her Grandma and her Dad killed themselves because of mental illness.  Now Jane has attempted at least twice, so she's been packed off to the hospital where she has to convince the Doctors that she is well enough to go home again.  But Jane is just playing along, so that once she's out of there she manage to actually kill herself without any interference.  On the plane ride home for Christmas, Jane's in the bathroom with her pills getting ready when turbulence knocks her out.  Upon waking up Jane figures out that the plane has crashed and she and the guy next to her, Paul, were the only two that survived.  Now it's up to them to figure out a way to survive until the rescue crews can find them.  In the meantime will Jane figure out that she never really wanted to die and fight for her life for the first time ever?   I went into this book thinking that it was a winner for sure.  A survivalist fiction story, with a heroine who starts out like Charlie in LOST and ends up wanting to live?  If done right, it could have been phenomenal.  It was very sub-par in the way it turned out.  I was majorly disappointed that Jane wasn't really depressed and only treated suicide like a freaking family tradition.  That was very poorly done.  How can you sympathize as a reader with someone whose thought process is that ridiculously stupid???  Then there was the romance with Paul.  It got on my nerves that they barely knew each other, they were both pretty messed up (not to mention he was old enough that she was jailbait) and they ended up falling in 'love' and sleeping together.   Then one of them DIES.  What the hell?!!  The survivalist parts were few and far between compared to the boring build-up and this novel just didn't compare to the expectations that I had built up for it in my mind.  Not one I would recommend for fans of more hardcore books like the Hatchet series, or My Side of the Mountain (which I never considered hardcore per se before reading this piece of trash).  This is a romance masquerading as a survival story.  If you like that sort of thing, have at it by all means.  If not, avoid it like the plague.

VERDICT:  1.5/5  Stars

*  I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review.   This book became available for purchase on August 2nd, 2012.*

My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean...

Expected Publication:  August 21st, 2012

The Raft

By: S.A. Bodeen

Feiwel and Friends

ISBN-13: 9780312650100

Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn’t panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft. 

And then . . . she’s in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there’s no sign of help on the way.

Review

   Robie has been having a blast visiting her Aunt in Hawaii, but when her Aunt has to leave suddenly on business Robie is told that she has to go home.  She manages to talk her Aunt into just having a friend check up on her, but after being accosted by a homeless man Robie freaks out and decides to go home after all.  Catching a cargo flight at the last minute, Robie is on her way home to her small island.  Then a major storm hits knocking out the engine, causing her and the co-pilot Max to abandon flight for an emergency raft.  Now they must figure out a way to survive with no food other than a bag of Skittles, no fresh water and no obvious rescue in sight.  They find an island to wait on for rescue, but it might be too late by then.  Will Max and Robie both make it home alive?  This book intrigued me because of the fact that it is survivalist fiction in the tradition of Hatchet, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite books.  So I decided to try it out and was really hoping that I would like it a lot better than I actually did.  In the beginning of the book Robie is a just okay character and she quickly denigrates into highly useless, annoying and a major coward.  Poor Max is dependent on her to make sure he doesn't die and Robie does a HORRIBLE job!  After he threw her out of the plane to save her instead of rescuing the pilot, you think she'd be a little more grateful.  She steals the Skittles for herself and when the island gets in sight, she leaves an unconscious Max to fend for himself.  I was bored by all of the sleeping and whining that Robie does throughout her time on the raft.  Yes, it was realistic but it did nothing to further my interest in continuing the book.  I wanted more excitement and more pro activeness.  It's like Robie doesn't even care enough about their survival to try and be innovative.   Plus, when she has opportunities to eat something on the island she's more worried about the cute little animals then her survival.  Give me a break!  After a week of barely anything in your stomach, a seal's life is more important than yours?  Yeah freaking' right!!!  I really HATED the plot twist involving Max and whether or not he survives.  BORING and predictable.  Yes, this book has some exciting action and a really good premise.  But I'm not in it for realism and slow-moving, immature characters.  I want something that has heart-pounding, back-breaking action.  I did not get that from this book.  

VERDICT:  2.6/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  It will be available for purchase on August 21st, 2012.*

Glowing With Some Serious Craziness

Published: September 13, 2011
Glow
By: Amy Kathleen Ryan
St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN-13: 9780312590567




What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?

Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them...

Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.

Review

   First thoughts: Haven't I read this before?  This book sounded very interesting and the concept was definitely new, although dystopia has arguably become the new vampire (genre-wise).  It grabbed me in from the first page and it read sort of like a cross between Across the Universe and Wither.  Waverley was an engrossing protagonist and her friend Samantha (who before the incident she wasn't all that close to) was very sharply intelligent.  Also, 'Pastor' Anne Mather of the 'New Horizon' ship is a fairly complex and chilling villain.  Now that the positives are out of the way I'll get to the negatives.  After the first third of the book I became bored.  I started skipping the parts with Kieran, Seth and the other boys who were left behind to an odd Lord of the Flies type existence on the 'Empyrean.'  You know why?  Because I just didn't CARE.  Which brings me to the downside of the third-person narrative: I was majorly disconnected from the characters and because the action happened so quickly, I had no time to really understand or even like Kieran.  To be honest, I'm surprised I even cared about Waverley at all.   The story was so drily written that it just felt like cardboard to me.  It was mainly exposition (badly done mind you) for the rest of the series, which I will not be reading.  It felt contrived and just like a waste of time.  I didn't hate it and it deserves some credit for keeping my interest for as long as it did.  But that's about it.

VERDICT: 1.5/5  Stars

*No money was exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores and online.*