Review: Between Burning Worlds by Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell

Hey all, Dani here.

It has been a wonderfully casual day, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t do a lot. I guess one of the benefits of being a geeky couple is that we have so many hobbies that don’t require us to physically go anywhere. So while we have to go into work during the week, on the weekends we can keep ourselves isolated. It’s been recommended to only leave the house once a week for groceries, and so far we’ve been able to stick to that too. Though we’ve also tried to support our favorite local eateries by ordering take-out. Seriously, the local pizza shop has you drive up the alley to their back door, stop the car, pop open the trunk, and then they put the food in the back. Since they have online ordering, there is no contact at all. I haven’t eaten fast food in like two weeks, which is pretty great.

Okay anyway, this time around I am bringing you a review for a book that was just released on Tuesday, March 24, and it is a book that I have been looking forward to since I finished the first one last year.

First I need to give a big thank you to both Simon Pulse and NetGalley for granting me access to an early digital copy of this book in exchange for a review. This privilege did not affect my review or rating in any way. In fact, I also had this book on my approved purchases list before I got early access to it.

All right, let’s jump into the review.

Book Details

Format: e-book

Pages: 688

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: March 24, 2020

ISBN: 153441066X (ISBN13: 9781534410664)

Summary

Les Misérables meets The Lunar Chronicles in the out-of-this-world sequel to Sky Without Stars that’s an “explosion of emotion, intrigue, romance, and revolution” (Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series).

A thief.
An officer.
A guardian.
All from different backgrounds, but sharing one same destiny…

The planet Laterre is in turmoil. A new militant revolutionary group has emerged calling themselves “The Red Scar” and claiming responsibility for a spate of recent bombings. The infamous rebels known as the Vangarde believe that in order to bring about a peaceful revolution, their charismatic leader, Citizen Rousseau must be freed from prison right away. Otherwise the bloodshed will only escalate.

Soon Marcellus, Chatine, and Alouette all find themselves pulled into battle with extreme consequences.

Marcellus is determined to uncover his corrupt grandfather’s plan to seize Laterre—even if that means joining the Vangarde.

Aloutte, trying to unearth the truth about her past, becomes a captive of Marcellus’s grandfather, the general.

Chatine, who is serving time on Bastille, hopes to escape the brutal and horrifying reality of the prison moon.

But the failed attempt to break Citizen Rousseau out of prison launches Aloutte, Chatine, and Marcellus into the middle of a dangerous war for control of Laterre. And in the midst of it all is the legend of a secret and dangerous weapon that could mean complete and absolute power to any that wields it.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

Let me just start off by saying that this book starts with a recap of the previous book, so if you don’t have the time to reread all 582 pages of the first book, the 2-3 page recap going through all the main players in the story and recounting the important bits of their story is pretty awesome to have. I honestly wish all sci-fi and fantasy series did that for those of us who just need a tiny refresher. So I’m already massively excited about this story after only reading a couple pages.

Also, can we talk about how this book is 100 pages longer than the first one? I’m currently riding high and pretty much obsessed with reading this on my phone in every free moment I can find. Of course I’m also reading a couple other books at the same time, as well as writing blog posts, and watching some shows. I try to keep myself pretty busy.

Okay, so I wrote the above portion of the review when I had just started the book, like I had only made it like 15-20% through it. And it’s all true. Thankfully it all remained true through the remainder of the book.

We get to add a few more characters into the spotlight for this one, and I definitely think they added to the overall story. Oh, and based on a revelation at the end of the first book, I was able to correctly guess a connection between Chatine and one of the other characters long before it was revealed on the moon prison of Bastille.

This was just such a delight to read, but at the same time it was also a nightmare to read. In the corrupt leadership of Laterre, I saw some of the same hate and bigotry that I can clearly see in the world today. I can see the same level of greed and those who don’t think those of the lower classes deserve basic human decency and compassion. Considering the state of the world, this was sometimes difficult to read.

The world-building continues to be great, and the story has action and intrigue and hints of romance all over, and honestly, this was a second book/middle book that didn’t not fall to the second-book-slump. Oh, and of course, there are still plenty of nods to the Les Miserables inspiration to this story. Who would have thought that Les Mis in space would be a story that I would be completely obsessed about? I definitely can recommend these books.

Now…where’s book three? Well, I guess we’ll all have to wait until at least next year to find out what happens next.

Where to Get a Copy

You can grab your own copy of this book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore through IndieBound.

You can also check with your local library.