After the Icarus is yanked out of hyperspace and crashes on a strange planet, wealthy Lilac LaRoux and war hero Tarver Merendsen find themselves the only survivors. Forced to work together, they navigate their way across the planet, looking for shelter and praying rescue crews arrive quickly. 
 These Broken Stars books was positioned as a space opera, and while that might be true in future installments (multiple planets, travels through deep space, etc), I found this series opener to be much more of a survival and romance story, with a dash of mystery on the side. Lilac begins hearing strange voices and seeing apparitions. Certain lifeforms lead Tarver to believe the planet was terraformed by humans-but where are those humans now? The plot here is steady and true, focusing on character development and how Tarver and Lilac regard each other. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the book were the epigraphs precededing each chapter: conversations between Tarver and unnamed officials, in which he explains the details of the crash and the subsequent days. These epigraphs served as both comedic relief and masterful foreshadowing. For hesitant sci-fi readers, this could be a nice introduction to the genre. For fans of romances and survival stories, this is your book 
 Originally reviewed here.