This Shattered World

While I really enjoyed this book, it did not live up to the first one for me. I really enjoyed Tarver and Lilac's story but did not feel as drawn to Jubilee and Flynn. That being said I did appreciate all the extra knowledge and information we learned about the whispers and where the come from and what they are doing.

I really wish we had gotten more of Tarver and Lilac but I get that these are companion novels not really sequels. Flynn and Jubilee were quite the pair though. This is another great example of true hate then love relationships and I really enjoyed it. Plus it was not over the top. Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner do a great job of having the action and story take the forefront in the book with the romance being a side character.

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I actually started this series, reading These Broken Stars, so I could read this book and understand what was going on. I liked These Broken Stars a lot more than I thought I would. (It was weird and quirky and hit EXACTLY the right notes for me to adore the two mains.)

But this one... Okay, they say These Broken Stars is dystopian. To me it's not. I consider it a strange hybrid between space opera, survival story and romance. I don't understand it, and I sure have no clue how it works, but for me it did, beautifully and unexpectedly. This Shattered World IS dystopian though, through and through. I don't like dystopian.

I have tried so many times to read dystopian books and I've never found a single one that I actually like. It's just one of those genres that I don't like and I probably never will. So, the fact that this book is so strongly dystopian does it no favors for me.

Also, I really don't like Jubilee or Flynn. Lee is the type of girl I just never like, all ‘badass' and ‘tough' even though she's really an emotional basket case most of the time. And Flynn...well, okay, he's not terrible, but I feel nothing for him.

The plot seemed like it was on a yo-yo. There was a constant back-and-forth that got so aggravating to me because it seemed like the story literally never went anywhere. Every time I thought ‘well, that'll shake things up' we snapped back to square one.

If this book hadn't been the middle book of a series, I would have stopped reading it about halfway through. Ultimately, I am glad I didn't because, plot-wise, things did improve in the second half. (And I loved getting more information on the whispers.)

Hearing from Lilac and Tarver again, in a way I totally never expected, was nice - especially Lilac. But it did Lee and Flynn no favors as it just showed me how much more I liked Lilac and Tarver than these two.

I will be reading the third and final book in this series, but I am hoping the setting is not dystopian this time around and also that I like the characters more.

I thought this was a stronger book, overall, than the first book in the series. The enemies-to-lovers theme is much more engaging than the “he thinks she's a spoiled princess; she can't let him see her real self” plot of These Broken Stars. The stakes are incredibly high from the first moment that Flynn and Jubilee meet and the tension never ebbs until the last page. Okay, I'm hooked - off to read #3 ASAP.

I'm rereading this series and even I feel like I've been sleeping on it.

RTC

Please pardon me while I sweep my shattered emotions up off the floor. These two authors made me fall in love with Lilac and Tarver in These Broken Stars. Their story was a perfect mixture of tragic and beautiful, with the kind of romance that makes me all mushy inside. I was a bit upset when I found out that This Shattered World wouldn't focus on the same characters. Still, I had high hopes that Jubilee and Flynn would soon fill that void with their own gorgeous story. They did, my friends. They definitely did.

Spooner and Kaufman have the tragic love story down to a science. Within the first five or so chapters, I was completely under their spell. Jubilee's hard demeanor, the way she lived her life with detachment, was heartbreaking. As I read, and learned where all of that stemmed from, it was all I could do not to want to hug her tight. She'd probably hate me for that. Then there was Flynn. A member of the rebellion, but with a pure heart and good intentions, he was undeniably likable. When these two met, and their personalities clashed, I just knew there would be sparks. I couldn't wait.

The fact is that these two characters are the exact opposite of one another, yet perfectly matched. Once again I watched as a tragic and beautiful love story unfolded in front of me. I smiled as they stole moments together, was aghast as war threatened to tear them apart, and teared up when things looked bleak. Let me tell you, I was attached to these two wholeheartedly. I'm genuinely sad that their story is over. It was a Romeo and Juliette of sorts. Two souls, two different sides, tragically meant for one another.

What I loved about this story more than anything though was that it wasn't all romance. Lilac and Tarver's story was very romance heavy. It was just the two of them on a planet, and so their romance was in the limelight during the course of the story. While Jubilee and Flynn definitely have a romance, there is so much more at stake. Lives lie in the balance. Secrets hide just out of reach. It's easy to get lost. Read this! It's worth it.