Initial Thoughts

[Kim]

Discuss your initial thoughts about the book here. Please remember to mark all spoilers!

[Lucia]

How doI mark spoilers... let me try to figure it out

[Lucia]

I am putting this book on standby and probably not picking it up again.
The pace is hard to follow, there's little description of the surroundings.
Tarver and Lilac's voices are nor distinct, they sound exactly the same. We (or I) are not really into their heads. They don't tell us how they feel they just tell us what they see and how they react to it. We know nothing about their internal world, at least until page 81.
The book didn't hook me at all, some of the character's reactions make no sense, and like I said, their voices don't seem genuine.

For example, Lilac is a rich spoiled teen but she sounds more adult, mature and put together.
I don't know... I gave it a chance and I don't want to force myself to read something if I don't feel it.

[Angie, YA lovin mod!!]

I am waiting on my copy from the library. Lucia: Goodreads has made it easy for us all to hide spoilers with HTML tags. Just type "spoiler" inside the tag brackets like this (without the periods): <.spoiler> Sample Text and you get this: (view spoiler). Hope this helps!

[Lucia]

Got it, thank you! I didn't have much to spoil anyway :P

[Kaojoua]

I just got my copy of the book from the library, and I'm excited to begin reading it, though the plot line does sound a little cliched with the rich girl and the poor guy who get thrown together and through a series of events, fall in love. So hopefully there are surprises and lots of action and adventure.
I'm also really hoping there's no love triangle because I'm getting sick of those. It seems as though every book I've been picking up lately has one.

[Grace]

My copy is "in transit". I'll join the discussion soon.

[Grace]

Kaojoua wrote: "I'm also really hoping there's no love triangle because I'm getting sick of those. It seems as though every book I've been picking up lately has one. "

Would you like me to recommend a book that doesn't have any love triangles? It's a collection of short stories.

[Shannon]

Started reading... Love the cover!

What does it say about me that I am not sick of Love Triangles? :)

[Grace]

Grace wrote: "What does it say about me that I am not sick of Love Triangles? :) "

Maybe you haven't read twenty books in rapid succession in which the love triangle was the main plot point.

Or, maybe you've been fortunate in that all the books you've read so far are well written with interesting variations on the love triangle.

[Shannon]

I think I'm just a sucker for romance...

[Lucia]

Shannon wrote: "Started reading... Love the cover!

What does it say about me that I am not sick of Love Triangles? :)"

You realize is a cheap and easy way for an author to create conflict.

[Grace]

Lucia wrote: "You realize is a cheap and easy way for an author to create conflict. "

...and it's a method that dates back at least to 1805. Jane Austen used the romantic triangle in many of her books and people are still reading them today.

For me, a love triangle is tiresome when an author uses it as a device - as part of a formula. When a love triangle is introduced with some creativity it can be a lot of fun.

[Lucia]

Grace wrote: "Lucia wrote: "You realize is a cheap and easy way for an author to create conflict. "

...and it's a method that dates back at least to 1805. Jane Austen used the romantic triangle in many of her b..."
Right, exactly, it just seems like a lot of YA dystopian authors are using it now

[Shannon]

I agree that it may be overused---and sometimes it is an easy out---I am certainly not advocating reading nothing but love triangles.

I like well written characters... for me if you get the character right you can't go wrong. And if my character happens to have trouble chosing between two other fabulous characters...

[Kaojoua]

Grace wrote: "Kaojoua wrote: "I'm also really hoping there's no love triangle because I'm getting sick of those. It seems as though every book I've been picking up lately has one. "

Would you like me to recomme..."

That would be super awesome. Thanks! :)

[Grace]

In response to my offer to recommend a book that didn't have a love triangle, Kaojoua wrote: That would be super awesome. Thanks! :) "

I'm afraid when I offered to recommend a book, the one I had in mind wasn't a YA book. So I should ask you are you willing to consider books that are outside this genre? I'll provide another list if you do.

As far as books within the genre are concerned - it's really hard to find many that don't have a love triangle. This group has read two in the last year:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Princess Bride so you may have already read those.

Here are some others:
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Across the Universe by Beth Revis (it's been a while since I read this but I'm pretty sure there's no triangle.)
Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda (same disclaimer as above)
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
The Yo-Yo Prophet by Karen Krossing
Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

I hope there's something here that you'll enjoy.

[Roo]

I'm eager to join the discussion! These Broken Stars has been collecting dust on my shelf since it was first released. I'll get to it as soon as I power through Cress!
As far as initial thoughts go... omg that cover! Isn't it just the bestest?! Whoever did the cover art deserves some kind of reward. I hope the sequel (or the companion I guess?) has an equally stunning cover.

[Kaojoua]

Grace wrote: "In response to my offer to recommend a book that didn't have a love triangle, Kaojoua wrote: That would be super awesome. Thanks! :) "

I'm afraid when I offered to recommend a book, the one I had ..."

No, Grace, this list is awesome. I've heard of a few of these books but have never read any of them, so it's exciting for me to find new stuff. Thanks again! :)

[Kaojoua]

Roo wrote: "I'm eager to join the discussion! These Broken Stars has been collecting dust on my shelf since it was first released. I'll get to it as soon as I power through Cress!
As far as initial thoughts go..."

I absolutely adored Cress. I read it as soon as it came out, and it only reaffirmed my love for The Lunar Chronicles. And I agree that the cover for These Broken Stars is beautiful.

[Grace]

Kaojoua wrote: "No, Grace, this list is awesome."

I'm glad you liked it. I hope you don't mind if I add one more book: The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj.

[Grace]

I finally started reading These Broken Stars. I have mixed feelings so far. I think I've carried over some concerns that were raised in the discussions in the previous books.

It's obvious this book is set in either the far future or a fictional parallel universe. They have faster than light travel so why are the main characters European? Wouldn't you expect that Asians would be the richest and most powerful people by then (whenever then is)?

Why are the super-rich fixated on Victorian dress? Is that supposed to lend a steam-punk feel to the book?

Maybe I'm just being cranky but those elements of 'world-building' are bothering me.

The one good thing is that it seems the authors have set things up so that there is no possible way that a love triangle could possibly happen. That seems to be very clear from the liner notes. (Besides (view spoiler)[ it seems that any man who tries to get close to Lilac is risking his life (hide spoiler)].)

[Angie, YA lovin mod!!]

I am finally number 1 at the library. Hoping to get it this week!

I really love this cover too. It makes me think this book will be a type of sci-fi book since they are in space. I have been in the mood for sci-fi lately so I am hoping my thoughts are correct!

[Grace]

I almost quit reading the book. There was a brief period when I thought it was going to follow the pattern of so many romance novels - like the early Harlequin romances. Fortunately, some of the science fiction elements captured my interest and I stuck with it long enough to realize that I was enjoying it and found it hard to put it down.

[Lucia]

I couldn't get past page 85. The pace was hard to read for me and the voices exactly the same and boring boo!

[Grace]

Lucia wrote: "The pace was hard to read for me and the voices exactly the same and boring boo!"

You might get further - at least as far as it starts to get interesting - with the audiobook which has three narrators making it easier to remember who is narrating the chapter.

[Stephanie (Gorelenore)]

Lucia wrote: "I am putting this book on standby and probably not picking it up again.
The pace is hard to follow, there's little description of the surroundings.
Tarver and Lilac's voices are nor distinct, the..."

I did end up finishing this book (as an audiobook - so that helped with the voices) but I too found it super slow and hard to get into. It took me months to listen to the whole thing :/

[Amber]

Ok.. So I was a little iffy when I saw this was the current book. I can be a little bit of a sci-fi nerd at times and so I get a bit worried that a book won't measure up to it. But I'm also excited because I'm a sci-fi nerd at times. So yeah.

[Angie, YA lovin mod!!]

I hope you like it Amber!

[Alexis]

So can I start now? ( It looks great and I've been wanting to read this book forever) *sci fi fan alert* ME!