Fractured Suns by Theresa Kay

While Jax and Lir fight separate battles, their missions have more in common than they realize. It’s a race against time to stop men driven only by greed and power. But the people they trust the most might be the very people working against them—and "family" doesn't mean what it used to. Will they recognize their friends from their enemies in time to save the people they love or will they lose each other in the process? 

Just gonna go ahead and get this out of the way... Fractured Suns does not suffer from second book syndrome... it was AMAZING!!!!  

The Broken Skies Series is a true hidden gem! This is a series that is WAY under-hyped! Theresa Kay makes writing look easy. Fractured Suns is the second book in the Broken Skies Series and again doesn't disappoint. When Theresa contacted us again to review her second novel I have "give me hands" flying all over the place! I knew I needed it but had no clue how much I was going too get out of it. Fractured Suns picks right up where Broken Skies ended. I'm going too keep this review 100% spoiler free because if you cant tell by now I'm very pro team-read this series.

We have Jax our leading lady. She continues to be a strong willed, stubborn, powerhouse of a heroine. She is such a strongly written female character and in this book we continued to get so much out of her. With her new found strength and power she really becomes a force to be reckoned with. Then we have Lir, who really steps up his game in this book. He is strong, supportive, swoon worthy, amazing male character. Since this book is written in dual POV (100% A POSITIVE THING FOR THIS NOVEL) we get so much more out of both these characters and it made their stories intertwine so seamlessly and it really pulls this novel together. Their relationship is just such a joy to read and get to experience. Though their relationship, of course, is a fictional one it feels so real. They are still new to it and are learning that trust and communication is the key to getting past anything. These two together have me head over heels with being head over heels in love. They have sky rocketed and easily have become one of my favorite book couples. I can't wait to see where they're relationship heads in book three. Especially with how the story is left off.

We also have a lot more secondary characters in this book. Sadly, I wont get to mention all because some are new players. We do however get a lot more Rym time! Which made this girl a happy camper. LOVE HIM!!! and his horrible comic timing. We also get a lot more Jace and Flint. These two characters were ones I knew would be important, but going into this book had no true sense on how much we were going to get out of them. Their characters took this book to a whole new level! (I wish yall could see my face right now.... It's.... Ugh... My mouths open my hands are fan-girl flapping around... I'm struggling to form actual words!) These two... Just wow. These characters are what would have made this novel a "make-or-break" for me. They made this novel.

The best part of Fractured Suns in my opinion is it's pace. You're never overwhelmed by one certain aspect. It has the perfect mixture of action packed scenes, romance, character development, and set this series. Even the scenes that are not fast paced action moments are still filled with amazing Easter eggs and little hidden treasures. Wait, did I say the pace was my favorite part?... I might have lied, the plot twist was my favorite part. Trust me when I say you think you'll have the "big reveal" figured out.... BUT YOU ARE WRONG!!!!!!!! You might be right about a few things that will happen, but you still wont be ready for what happens. I thought I knew exactly where this book was headed... but when the actual twist happens... I seriously jumped off the sofa, started throwing pillows around, pulling my hair, and then balled my eyes out. I'll never again make the mistake of turning my back to you Theresa, because it's clear you're not above shoving a knife into it and then twisting!
 

What an amazingly perfect, gripping, and heart breaking twist... No, not just twist, but story. This series needs to be on shelves everywhere and moved to the top of your TBR list. Theresa was clearly born to write. She is a writer I could easily see slip into other genres like New Adult and Contemporary and again make it look like she has been doing it forever  

This is a knock out novel and series that continues too surprise me. Fractured Suns will have you paying for the whole seat... but you're only going to use the edge of it.

10/10 Stars 
-Angela 

Auto Buys

If you're big on books and book buying then you already know what auto buys are... For those of you who don't let me explain. It's this freaky weird thing book people do when they can't help buy a book because (insert bizarre reason here). As a book collectors ourselves we know all reasons for auto buying are usually odd and pretty off the way. You also know if you collect books that everyone has their own auto buying reasons. Sometimes its genre related sometimes it's just because of who wrote it. We decided to share a few of ours. 

Angela: I love to collect books. Love it! (Clearly right?!) I also prefer owning actual dead tree copies to downloading E-books. I'm so very, very guilty of buying books for the reasons listed below... Not kidding I'll buy just about any books that fall under these things. 

I will buy any book that has half a girls face on it. Why? I don't know. I wont even read what the book is about before purchasing it. If I'm strolling down my local B&N aisles and see a book with a girl with half a face on it I will just pick it up! Sometimes it's like a knee jerk reaction. I'll even try to talk myself out of it, but then my inner book girl wins out and I purchase it. 

The other cover related auto buy I'm guilty of is buying any and every book with a girl underwater. Under water covers are my favorite!!! I'm obsessed. Not kidding, I have always been in love with pictures taken underwater, so it figures my love for it would flow into the book world. Again these are books that I automatically add to my cart and wont even care what the synopsis are. I have never met a cover with an underwater picture on it that I didn't like. The pictures to the right are only some of the ones I own.

Of the half face and underwater covers I think The Kricket Series (Under Different Stars/ Sea of Stars) and Unteachable are my favorites. 

Books Featured: The Ring and Crown, Mystic City, Branded The Lux Series, Unteachable. Wicked, The Kricket Series, Ten Tiny Breaths, The Mara Dyer Trilogy. 

The next two things I'm guilty as charged of doing are buying books that are written by two authors. I will not only automatically buy anything by these two authors, I will drop anything I'm currently reading to pick up one of their new books... Jennifer L. Armentrout and Colleen Hoover. These are my two favorite authors! I'm obsessed with them. They are two authors that never let me down. Between the two I'm sure you all know that my all time favorite however is Colleen Hoover. She is the ONLY author who has never let me down. Her books are both amazing and life Ugly Love, Maybe Someday, and Maybe Not are my favorites. As far as Jla her Lux Series and The Dark Elements Trilogy are my favorites.
changing. Of all books

I saved my favorite auto buy for last... My all time favorite purchases to make are *drum roll please* Alien related reads. I AM FREAKING ALIEN OBSESSED!!! I can't stop! I will read, purchase, see, watch anything alien related. Of any "genre" (because I don't really think Alien is a genre, even though it should be) Aliens are my favorite. All this alien news about a Lux movie actually happening now has me all jazzed up. Daemon Black on the big screen, whoosh, don't even get my started! I also am barely breathing waiting for The 5th Wave movie coming out next year and the last book in the trilogy, The Last Star, coming out later this year. Alien books are almost, probably, my most own books. Of all my Alien books/series I think The 5th Wave Trilogy, The Lux Series, and The Broken Skies Series are my favorite.

Featured books: Wait for You, Wicked, The Lux Series, The Dark Elements Trilogy, The Half-Blood Series, The Return. Hopeless, Slammed, Point of Retreat, Ugly Love, Maybe Someday, Confess. The 5th Wave Trilogy, Alienated Series, In the After Duology, The Taking Series, Fire in the Woods Series, Broken Skies Series, Gravity, Rush Series.  

Leah: Like Angela said, auto buying is a knee jerk reaction where you've ended up buying something without even realizing it sometimes. Being a fangirl is tough sometimes! I'm SUPER notorious for auto buying because along with reading and collecting books, shopping is my other favorite hobby. It really makes for an expensive hobby.

First, my usual auto buy is a series. Doesn't sound weird, right? Well, I will buy an entire series of something before even reading the first book on the assumption that I will love the first book and feel the need to devour the rest of the series. Well.... if y'all have read any of my recaps, you know that I am also notorious about getting bored in the middle of a series. I'm not one of those people who like to binge read through a super long series. I like to read a book or two then go to something else then come back later. For example, I have the full series for Vampire Academy, The Mortal Instruments, The Hunt, The Covenant, and The Pledge all on my bookshelves right now. I'm about 3-4 books deep into each one of those series. I'll finish them eventually, but I probably could just bought one book at a time instead of the entire series at once. #autobuy 

I'm also very loyal to my favorite authors. If Colleen Hoover, JLA, John Green, or Gillian Flynn releases something new, I'm buying it no questions asked. Like Angela, I will put down anything that I'm reading and dive straight into my new book. These authors have never given me a bad book or disappointed me, so I know no matter what kind of slump or mood I'm in, they will give me a good pick me up. The Fault in Our Stars is my favorite reread, but I also absolutely adore Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns by John Green. My favorite CoHo books are Slammed, Maybe Someday, and Ugly Love and I will pick those up if I need a good cry/romance in my life (I plan on reading Point of Retreat this week when I'm alone so I can ugly cry all by myself). JLA knows how to bring the steaminess and also bring the action. My FAVORITE JLA is Wicked, hands down. I love that it is just the start of the series so there is so many places for it to go! And when I'm feeling a little darker and need to indulge my inner serial killer, I turn to Gillian Flynn who never disappoints with her mind-effs. 

My last two big auto buy categories I'm going to partially blame on Angela because before she and I became raving fangirls, these two were never things I cared about. UK cover editions and signed copies of books. I don't care if I already own an entire series, if a sweet UK cover releases, I'm 

buying it. For example, I have two full (well, full so far since the series isn't complete) sets of the Throne of Glass series in both the US editions as well as the beautiful white UK editions. My favorite UK edition that I've bought so far is the florescent graffiti style Hunger Games set. So beautiful! 

Lastly is the signed copy problem that I've developed. Ok, it's no secret that we love going to book signings. Cool, that's not weird. The auto buying weirdness comes in when I go into a bookstore and see a book that is an autographed copy. MUSTBUYNOW. It's kind of weird having a signed copy of a book for an author you haven't met,  I can't resist. I need to see that signature on that title page. Must collect them all. For example, I have signed copies of The Fifth Wave and To All The Boys I've Loved Before that I have picked up in bookstores. 

Featured books: The Mortal Instruments series, Vampire Academy series, The Covenant series, The Hunger Games series, Throne of Glass series, To All The Boys I've Loved Before, The Pledge, Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars, Wicked, Maybe Someday, Ugly Love, Slammed, Point of Retreat, Dark Places, and The Fifth Wave.

Fictional Book Boyfriends Pt 3

About once a month we like to gather a small list of  what we and others like to call Dream-cast or Fictional Book Boyfriends. We've said it in the past we LOVE putting faces to the characters in our books (especially the men). We also LOVE seeing page to premieres. So we combined the two to do our spin on dream casting. We picked a few titles and show you who we imagined the leading men to be. We'll put the link to the previous ones at the bottom of this page. 

Slammed by Colleen Hoover 

girl moves to Michigan and falls for poet neighbor

Aaron Johnson as Will Cooper 
Because who doesn't think Aaron Johnson is beyond charming?!

Red Rising by Pierce Brown 

Boy disguise himself in a higher class to help lead a rebellion to free the suppressed lower classes. 

Douglas Booth as Darrow

All those rough edges has us love Douglas booth.

Never Never by Tarryn Fisher and Colleen Hoover  

Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen. Complete strangers since this morning.

Brando Eaton as Silas 

That boyish charm...Swoon.

Broken Skies by Theresa Kay 
Aliens have invaded earth and have always kept their distance until now. 

Wade Poezyn as Lir

Slap some scales on him and try and tell us he doesn't look like Lir!!

pt 1

pt 2

<3 A&L

Broken Skies by Theresa Kay

"Thirty years ago, civilization collapsed. Few survived.
Ten years ago, the aliens arrived…and stayed.
One year ago, I killed two men and went a little crazy.
Today, the aliens took my brother and I will do anything to get him back." 

Until recently, the E’rikon have remained segregated in their city and ignored the few humans who have tried to engage them, that was until now... They have taken Jax’s brother. After the aliens have taken him she finds that she wasn't the only one left behind. One of the aliens was also left.  Coming to some sort of an agreement, they decide to work together to get her into the alien's city. That seems like it would be the hardest part of their journey... it's not. In this world where alien and human are at odds, the connection forming between the two could have major consequences. What started off as a rescue mission sets a chain of events in motion which threatens everyone one earth. 

We were fortunate to be asked by Theresa Kay to give this book a try in exchange for an honest review. Below we are going to post both of our views on Broken Skies. 

Angela's Review

All I knew about Broken Skies was that it was being compared to The Lux Series a lot... If you know anything at all about me you know that The Lux Series is my favorite series. And yeah it is very comparable, but too me it was more like The Lux Series, The Dustlands Trilogy, Taken, Alienated, and The 5th Wave had some kind of crazy sex party and during which a baby was formed and that baby turned out to be Broken Skies. Yeah it's that insane. On top of all of that I am a known Alien obsessed freak so I have very high standards when it comes to alien books... All that being said... I LOVED THIS BOOK! I LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT IT.

Starting off with the characters. Jax is this fiery strong willed sassy redhead that you will love. Her loyalty and determination are absolutely amazing. Her character growth is off the charts! She is strong; yet weak at the beginning, but by the ends transforms into the leading lady that you wanted and you'll be standing behind. Her attitude is much like mine aka very sarcastic, and made it very easy for me to connect with her. Lir... OH LIR... I loved him. The second he appeared and was described I knew I was in love. Normally it's the characters I have to worry about falling in insta-love, nope this time it was me. whoosh, SWOON. Even when I hated  him I loved him. The relationship between the two is what really makes this story, and I have no complaints about that. Their relationship is an emotional roller-coaster that I want to ride on another 50 times. They don't have insta-love just insta-like and it was to cute for words. I like how their relationship builds, what it becomes, and how it is left at the end. At one point when they are in the Alien city and things happen with Lir (can't say what because spoils) that I seriously screamed....

It's just so good. The sub characters like her twin brother Jace, her family friend Flint, and Lir's cousin Rym were all strong and well rounded. I especially liked Rym. Pretty sure if some kind of side story or novella was written from his point of view I would eat that junk right up. The next thing I loved about Broken Skies was the world building. It wasn't anything over the top. It was just enough to get it's point across and then left it so you could fill in the rest yourself, and I loved that. Their journey never feels forced or rushed, another plus side too this story. With strong characters, and a strong story you think that is all I would really have to say about this book but its not... My favorite thing about Broken Skies is that Theresa has given us something new to the alien genre!!! AND THANK YOU!!! She gave us a new spin on what aliens look like. Their hair color was brillz, their eyes amaze, but the fact that they have these scales on their backs leading into their hair line was something that I thought at first hear was going to be odd... NO LOVED IT!!!!! Never thought a man with scales could sound sexy, but I loved being wrong about that.... And I know I've said this before as well but I don't care Imma say it again... I DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE IF ALIENS DO COME HUMANS AND ALIENS COULDN'T BE TOGETHER!!!!! I seriously love them that much. And who are we kidding I know we all hope aliens come and that they look like Lir, Daemon Black, and Evan Walker. BEAM ME UP HOTTIES!!!! AM I RIGHT?!?!

The plot is fast paced and constant, leaving you with a "never a dull moment" feeling. The story starts small and just keeps building up and up until the ending leaves you breathless. No it didn't per say leave on a cliffhanger but just about as close as you can get too one. Action packed, no emotion left un-felt, and super suspenseful... Too me the ending was left at the perfect moment.

 I can not wait to read book two in this series, and hope that Theresa will bless us with more chances to read her work... Theresa Kay was born to write. She might be an "under known" author right now, but I have no doubt that that will end soon. 

10/10 Stars 
-Angela

Leah's Review

I'm not as big of an alien fanatic as Angela, but I do love some romantic action packed alien stories. When Theresa contacted us and described this as a post-apocalyptic scifi novel that is like Lux.... Well, SOLD.

I was sucked into the book as soon as I started reading. You find out early on that Jax is pretty damaged as far as emotions and people skills go. Something really awful happened to her which pretty much changed her life and now she relies on her brother to keep her together. Once her bro is taken away by some aliens, she kicks it into high gear and sets out to find him. Problem is that one of the aliens got left behind and is now with her. He also just happens to be a super handsome, sarcastic, and charming alien named Lir (seriously, who knew a dude with a line of scales on his back could be hot... don't knock it until you read it!!).  The thing that I love about Jax is that she knows she is broken. She knows that what happened to her really screwed her up, but it doesn't stop her at any point in the book from being a complete BA. She reminds me of Katniss from The Hunger Games where she channels her hurt and pain into doing what she has to do for her loved ones. I think she is a killer leading lady.

The majority of the book follows Lir and Jax on their misadventures through the woods trying to make it back to the alien city where Jax's brother is supposedly being kept. A lot of stuff happens along the way that brings them together... then apart... then together... You get the picture. Basically they spend two weeks together hiking through the woods and almost dying several times and accidentally fall in love with each other. They have to learn to depend on each other and trust each other, but EVERY TIME things seem to be going good for them, something else happens. It was so frustrating!! It was also sort of awesome at the same time because there isn't a whole lot of insta-love going on and you have to stay on your toes to keep up with all the action. But when it happens, BAM YOU LOVE IT. Oh, and I just love Lir. I love how he could be Daemon Black's handsome witty cousin. They could get together and be sarcastic and makes girls drop their underwear all over Earth.

There are some pretty major plot twists that happen. Like, I had NO idea and was completely thrown off my game because I had no idea where the book was going to go. In short, this book was amaze-balls. I was on the edge of my seat pretty much the whole time because I had no clue where Theresa was going to take the ending. My favorite part of the book is when Lir and Jax actually get to the alien city and the time they spend inside of it. My only complaint with the book is that I wish that there would have been a little less time in their woodsy adventure and more time focused on them once they got in the city. THAT ENDING THO. Holy bananas. Talk about a cliffhanger. I seriously need book two NOW because everything ended right when you are on the edge of your seat and have NO idea where your allegiances lie.

If you are an alien lover or just a fan of scifi in general, this is definitely a book you want to pick up. It reminded me a lot of Lux, The 5th Wave, and Alienated, which btw all happen to be my favorite alien books.

5/5 stars
-Leah