Review #267: Balance Broken (Starbright, #2) by Hilary Thompson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” 

----Charlotte Brontë

Hilary Thompson, an American YA author, pens the second book, Balance Broken in the Starbright series, where the story continues with Astrea, Lexan, Stian and Zarea trying to break free from the bond of prophecy that dictates their fate to save their city, on the other hand, the people of their city from where they just escaped are dependent on Astrea and her leadership to save them from their ill-fate.





Synopsis:

Balance Broken is the second in the Starbright series. In the first book, Justice Buried, Astrea fights to remain independent in a world which demands she submit to an ancient prophecy. In Balance Broken, she learns that independence means little when the world is depending on her.

The world cries for Order, but she’s igniting a revolution.

One hundred years before, the Great Sickness reduced the world to three cities. Now, Asphodel no longer lingers underground, and the Starbright Maiden of Justice has returned.

Everyone has faith in Astrea’s ability to save the world - but only she knows the dark truth about her powers.

Astrea teams with Stian, Lexan, and Zarea to enlist the help of Lord Hadeon of Tartarus. They hope Hadeon will aid in attacking Asphodel’s First Leader Keirna, but the Destroyer usually takes lives, not sides.

As Astrea discovers life outside of Asphodel, she begins to wonder whether the remaining world is too broken to save - especially since the price of freedom just might be her own life.

Once again, let's take another moment to wow at that beautiful book cover that have been carefully and smartly created to fall into the pattern of the story. In the first book, we see Astrea discovering about her fire power and along with her friends, Lexan, with whom she has been promised to be betrothed as per the prophecy, Stian, the hot guy from the world above, and Zarea, escape to a different world, where she realizes that the people she actually trusted, betrayed her with the lie that she will be the one to save the three cities and bring them together, whereas she also found out that there were people who will not stop at anything to stop Astrea from following the prophecy, and on top of everything, Astrea wants to be free and independent no only in the field of saving the world, but also in the love sector. Because by maintaining a balance in every fields of her life can make Astrea the Lady of Justice who will save the world.

Okay, now some readers might think that why is there so much romance and chemistry in the book, but let me tell, as you keep on reading you will realize that love plays a pivotal role in Astrea's life to fulfill the prophecy. Firstly, Astrea is attracted towards Stian, but she has to be together with Lexan in order to save the world as their power together grows stronger, whereas Astrea wants to be independent and do the things on her own way.

The writing style is once again left me astounded with the quality and flawlessness. The narrative is easy to comprehend with and flows freely. The prose is articulate with a fast pace layered with lots of action and mysteries and danger lurking at every turn of the page.

The readers left with unanswered questions from the previous book, will now realize the deep hidden secrets behind this carefully and skillfully developed fantasy as well as science-fiction filled world, that will not will fascinate the readers, but will also surprise them. The world developing is done with vivid imagery as well as with detailed descriptions.

The characters, especially the main ones, grow out of their space, and makes the readers fall for them. There are lots of supporting characters that are strikingly sketched with lots of depth. The author introduces a lots of evil characters that have the power to instill fear into the readers mind with their great and villainous demeanor. Lord Hadeon, the king of city, Tartarus, is one such character that makes the plot quite chilling and scary, as Lexan and Astrea pleads with the king to save them from their own city.

The chemistry, as usual, is portrayed with lots of passion and depth. There are lots of adrenaline-rushing moments and might give a Hunger Games as well as Divergent kind of feel, which keep the readers on their edges all throughout the book. The ploy unrolls like a movie with action, drama, romance, betrayal, power, fear, death and friendship, in a world that is breath-taking and enigmatic and that definitely made me looking forward towards the third book in this series.

Read the review of the first book, Justice Buried, here

Verdict: A must read series that will not disappoint you, I assure you. So YA dystopian lovers grab a copy of this book now!

Courtesy: Thanks to YA Bound Book Tours, for the review copy. 
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Author Info:
Hilary Thompson was born to parents who made a habit of taking roads less traveled. But she was also a first child, and an independent, willful child, so she has made a habit of taking a few roads on her own.
After trying on hats made for artists, architects, restaurant and retail workers, landscape designers, legal secretaries, and professional students, she retreated back to her first loves of education and writing.
Hilary now teaches high school full time, writes whenever and wherever she can, and reads as much as her eyes can handle. She also tries not to spoil her own independent, willful children or neglect her wonderful soul-mate of a husband too much. She tends to ignore laundry baskets and dirty dishes.
Visit her here 


Book Purchase Links:

• Amazon US 
• Amazon India