Series: Starbound #2
Published by Disney-Hyperion on 2014-12-23
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fantasy & Magic, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Source: Publisher
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The second installment in the epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.
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.
I guess this was one of the most anticipated release of the end of 2014. These Broken Stars was one of these fantastic super hyped books from 2013 and everyone was extremely excited to finally get their hands on This Shattered World. Now, it’s not necessarily a sequel, but rather a companion book that is set in the same world and continues the timeline of These Broken Stars but with different character.
Two unlike characters that feel in love!
Jubilee is a very young captain in the military positioned on a planet where the military enforces the order and keep people in check. And Jubilee is the perfect military kind of person, she loves order – she likes to follow orders and she’s a true hard ass. Before she met Flynn, she also never questioned that the military completely took over a whole planet and enforces rules on the people who live there. Only when she comes into contact with Flynn – the leader of rebellion she slowly (very very slowly) begins to questions the motives. Basically the people who were born on this planet never got the chance to speak for themselves or to govern themselves or to make decisions. Also, this planet seems to be completely abandoned from all plans to make the planet more habitable.
A match between Jubilee and Chase clearly seems so highly unlikely that it’s quite intriguing to follow their relationship, to see where and when they begin to trust each other, even though they are so extremely different not only in status, but also in personality. Where Jubilee likes order and is such a hard-ass – Flynn is more emotional and reflects more on the reasoning of the military, but also his own rebellious people. He’s definitely not a blind follower and I loved that the most about him. He tries to see reason also among his people and is not blinded by anger, or rage or even orders.
When Expectations are too high and you’re just not feeling the chemistry!
As much as I tried – I couldn’t shake off the Romance and story from Lilac and Traver in These Broken Stars and even though I didn’t want to compare these too, I did. But, This Shattered World is just a completely different story. First of all, Jubilee and I didn’t hit off at all. She was too hard for me, too tough and was more of a Tomboy than a girl, I wanted to see more emotions from her, and also more emotional growth and yes, I also wanted her to be more female in the end. She just wasn’t my type of girl and we didn’t connect. This of course made a huge impact on my love for the book. I did love Flynn however, who was more open with his feelings ans emotions. But then, I didn’t get why he fell for Jubilee in the first place, they just didn’t make so much sense for me.
Another aspect for me was the storytelling and dynamic of story development, there were dream scenes added in between chapters that didn’t make sense for me at all and I actually skipped them. The did made sense at the end though, but this then came too late for me.
With all these negative things saying it was still an enjoyable read and people with different expectations might love it more. Also, I am sure that there are readers who loved such a headstrong heroine and connected with her better. The story itself fit nicely in the world and series that begun in These Broken Stars and also got us a few glimpses on out beloved Lilac and Traver (just not enough for me..)
Bewitched Rating
Bottom Line
This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner continues the Starbound series that begun with the amazing “These Broken Stars”. The storyline itself was great and compelling and the relationship between such unlike characters quite intriguing to follow. I was just unable to connect with Jubilee – the female heroine was just a little too headstrong and tough. I’m sure though, that I will love again the next boo, which hopefully comes out by the end of the year!
Did you read These Broken Stars and were you as sad as I was when you realised that the next book would be NOT with Lilac and Traver? How did you like This Shattered World in case you read it? And … when is a heroine “too” tough and too strong, or do you like these kind of heroines better than I do?
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I hate when I don’t hit it off with a character. Something like what happened to you with this book and the romance/characters happened to me when I read Crimson Bound recently because I had SOO loved Cruel Beauty. I still really enjoyed it but I think my own expectations got in the way.
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I have a copy of this and I just haven’t had time to get to it, but I’m dying to read it, even after reading your review. I have heard a lot of bloggers say to try not to compare the two books, because they are so different, so I guess we’ll see!
Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy recently posted..Beware the Obscura: SHUTTER by Courtney Alameda – Review
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I just started reading These Broken Stars and I think you just broke my heart a little because I didn’t know it wasn’t going to be about the same characters. Still I’ll have a go at the whole series. I’m really enjoying the first one so far.
Happy reading!!
Gina recently posted..I’ll Be Right There by Kyung-sook Shin
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The first book in this series was ok but it really didn’t wow me like it did for a lot of people. I hope that when I read this one that I like the story more. I just had a big issue in the last book with the plot and how slow things were and how everything was about terraforming. I hope for more from this one.
Sorry you were not in love with it but thanks for the great review!
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