Lilac LaRoux, heiress extraordinaire, and Tarver Merendsen, war hero extraordinaire, run into a bit of a problem when their spaceship decides to stop working and drops them off on an abandoned planet with no other survivors.

With no means to communicate, no information about they planet they've been stranded on, and some creepy things happening on the aforementioned planet, the only hope Lilac and Tarver have lies in each other.

This book tells the complicated tale of their adventures on the planet and struggle to get home, get along with each other, and survive in a harsh, harsh world, and I only have good things to say about it.

First of all, just look at that cover.

Now, you may be thinking (after, of course, you recover your eyesight from being blinded by that cover's pure gorgeousness), is this just a book about a girl floating around in space in a dress? Or maybe you think this book is going to be exactly like the Titanic, but set in space.

While I understand where you're coming from if you're thinking like this, you're completely and totally wrong.

One of the few aspects that are similar to Titanic was the economical situation of the two main characters--Lilac being the daughter of the richest man in the entire universe, and Tarver being someone who wasn't born into a rich sort of world and is only on the ship for his war-hero-ness.

Plus the whole crashing the ship thing, but these are the only two big things that remind of me Titanic. The rest is a story of its own, and a very wonderful story at that.

The writing was completely fantastic, along with the characters. At first, if you're like me, you'll probably not be the biggest fan of Lilac, but as the book progressed I came to adore them both and adore the book as a whole. I'm not going to say anything else, because I think this is a book where you should just go in not knowing too much about beside the fact that it's an amazing sci-fi, like nothing else you've ever read.

Seriously, go and pick this up. I think you'll like it.

Max

This review and many others were originally posted on our blog, Crazy for YA.

Everyone in Florida knows Tia is a flirt. She goes to every party and never leaves alone. All she wants is a carefree senior year with no homework and a lot of hookups.

Will is the new guy from Minnesota. He's like a polar bear in the rain forest. It does not take long for him to figure out that being the new guy is worse than the Florida heat.

Tia is fine with her life until she meets the new kid, Will. His peculiar accent and charm labels him as her next target. But one night after a party changes everything. Tia does not want the restraints of being in a relationship, but Will does not get the message.
When Tia and Will are voted the Biggest Flirts in the senior class, neither of them are fine with it. The whole school is put into a gossip frenzy, especially Will's girlfriend. Can Tia and Will keep it casual or will they let their title ruin their fragile relationship?




This book was probably the most disappointing book that I read this summer. It was the opposite of what I was expecting. I wanted a realistic love story that made me laugh. This story is far from realistic and the only emotion I felt while reading was detachment. Normally, I get into a story and relate to the characters, but I had several problems trying to do this withBiggest Flirts.

First, Tia was a "perfect" main character. These kind of characters are one of my major pet peeves in books. These characters are smart, funny, athletic, attractive, etc. They are the perfect human being that everyone wants to be. Sure, Tia's life was not perfect, but her character was. She could cook, clean, make academics seem like a joke (I will elaborate on this later), play the drums, attract every guy within a ten mile radius, and she could make anyone laugh. For me, it is impossible to relate to these kind of characters. I am not flawless -- no one is. So why should fictional characters be portrayed in that way?

Second, everything serious was put on the back burner for most of the book. I love reading party scenes, witty conversations, and embarrassing moments, but they have to be balanced with actual substance. The serious parts felt forced to me and thrown into the story as breaks between the entertaining, but tiresome situation between Will and Tia. Also, academics were completely bashed in the book. Believe me when I say that you will not pass AP classes on sheer luck. WHICH IS WHAT TIA APPARENTLY DID! She also got a perfect score on the PSAT purely on natural talent. WHICH DOES NOT HAPPEN! I highly value academics in my life and seeing them degraded in this way made me consider leaving this book in my did-not-finish pile.

Third, everything was about Tia. I understand that she is the main character and all that, but secondary character development is a huge factor in any book. Tia's friends and family were often overlooked. I really wish Saywer had a bigger part in the story, or at least we got more of his back story. When I finished the book, I also realized that I do not really know that much about Will. When I finished this book I felt as if I did not know anything about the characters. There was not the usual closeness that I feel when I finish other books.

Maybe I am being unfair. In defense of the book, it did make me laugh. So, Echols did accomplish what she set out to do with this book. This book was not written to completely change the life of the reader. I was entertained, even though some parts of the book greatly annoyed me. So, I am rating this book three out of five stars. An average rating. That was all the book was to me--average. It was a standard YA contemporary.

This review and many others can be found on my original blog, Crazy for YA.