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These Broken Stars
496 pages
A sweeping, star-crossed romance forged in the eerie isolation of a haunted, uncharted planet.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping out of a glittering ballroom and plunging straight into a beautiful, terrifying wilderness. It masterfully balances the breathless tension of a survival thriller with the delicious, slow-burn angst of a star-crossed romance. The narrative pulls you in through alternating perspectives, letting you feel the sharp edges of class resentment slowly soften into desperate reliance and, ultimately, fierce devotion. Interspersed interrogation transcripts add a layer of creeping dread, hinting that the deserted planet they are navigating holds chilling secrets. The atmosphere is deeply immersive, both vast in its eerie, alien landscapes and intensely claustrophobic in its isolation. It is a perfect match for readers who want their sci-fi adventures laced with profound emotional stakes, haunting mysteries, and a romance that feels like it could defy the universe.
- Mood
- eerie
- isolated
- atmospheric
- tense
- swoony
- Tone
- earnest
- suspenseful
- romantic
- urgent
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- star-crossed love · survival and resilience · class divide · grief and trauma · isolation
- The writing
- Accessible and emotionally immediate, using alternating first-person perspectives and chilling interstitial transcripts to steadily ratchet up the tension.
- The arc
- Moves from icy mutual distrust and shock to desperate reliance, blossoming into a fierce, world-altering devotion.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave high-stakes survival stories where the slow-burn romance is just as intense as the eerie sci-fi mystery.
Content notes
- grief and loss
- PTSD and trauma
- mass casualty event
- mild sci-fi horror elements
About the book
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 Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.
Description from Open Library.
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