Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family's estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot's estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth--an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.
But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret--one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she's faced with a choice: cling to what she's been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she's ever loved, even if she's lost him forever.
Inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.
I'm so mad at myself for not reading this book sooner. It was one of my most anticipated releases last year and I had it on pre-order for months, but for some reason I kept putting other books ahead of it. I'm to say that it has something to do with the serendipity of things that come to you when you need them, and I think at this time I really needed this book. It's so beautifully and brillantly written, I hardly noticed when reality faded and I was brought to this incredibly world that's so bleak and lovely at the same time. A couple weeks after reading it, I still feel as though I'm being lit up from the inside from all the hope, strength and wisdom that came from reading Elliot and Kai's story.
Persuasion is actually my favorite Jane Austen, probably because it's her most cynical - while still being completely heartwarming. It wasn't just the characters and the general plot that Peterfreund adopted, but she managed to capture that same tone and feeling I got when I read Persuasion. I also love the way she worked in the navy and twisted it to fit this dystopian world she's created. The navy in this case are actually shipbuilders who are all about innovation and exploration.
Which brings me to the dystopian world. The dystopian twist was the part I was most nervous about, but it's pulled of spectacularly. It's this fabulous mixture of a future world that has come to view technology and progression as a sin, so it resembles a few different versions of our past. It kind of envisioned it as a colonial Haiti, with a mixture of the new world exploration feeling of naval exploration from Christopher Columbus's time. It took a little bit to figure out all the terminolgy but the social hierarchy is very familiar. But utlitmately I am just amazed by it because it has that romantic feeling of the past, while still containing horrors like slavery.
Then there's Elliot and Kai. Their relationship is so complicated. It's complicated by their history and by their separation in class. They're raised with a different view of the world - Elliot is part of the elite ruling class, even though she works so hard to keep her estate running. Kai is from a lower class, but he goes out and makes something of himself. Their past relationship is wonderfully told through letters, which bothered me at first and then I realized how Jane Austen that was to tell part of the story though letters, and as their story progresses in the present it gets richer and more intense as you learn more about their past. Everything about these two is so intense because they're so right for each other, they're clearly not communicating properly, and they're both so stubborn that I really did find myself tensed up, anticipating their interactions.
This book went straight to my heart and it's not going anywhere. I love this book like a Jane Austen novel, it's one you go back to when you need a little bit of faith or reason to hope, or you need the feeling of loving someone so much it almost hurts. I can't stress enough how beautiful this book is and I have high hopes that Across a Star-Swept Sea will be just as fabulous.
Persuasion is actually my favorite Jane Austen, probably because it's her most cynical - while still being completely heartwarming. It wasn't just the characters and the general plot that Peterfreund adopted, but she managed to capture that same tone and feeling I got when I read Persuasion. I also love the way she worked in the navy and twisted it to fit this dystopian world she's created. The navy in this case are actually shipbuilders who are all about innovation and exploration.
Which brings me to the dystopian world. The dystopian twist was the part I was most nervous about, but it's pulled of spectacularly. It's this fabulous mixture of a future world that has come to view technology and progression as a sin, so it resembles a few different versions of our past. It kind of envisioned it as a colonial Haiti, with a mixture of the new world exploration feeling of naval exploration from Christopher Columbus's time. It took a little bit to figure out all the terminolgy but the social hierarchy is very familiar. But utlitmately I am just amazed by it because it has that romantic feeling of the past, while still containing horrors like slavery.
Then there's Elliot and Kai. Their relationship is so complicated. It's complicated by their history and by their separation in class. They're raised with a different view of the world - Elliot is part of the elite ruling class, even though she works so hard to keep her estate running. Kai is from a lower class, but he goes out and makes something of himself. Their past relationship is wonderfully told through letters, which bothered me at first and then I realized how Jane Austen that was to tell part of the story though letters, and as their story progresses in the present it gets richer and more intense as you learn more about their past. Everything about these two is so intense because they're so right for each other, they're clearly not communicating properly, and they're both so stubborn that I really did find myself tensed up, anticipating their interactions.
This book went straight to my heart and it's not going anywhere. I love this book like a Jane Austen novel, it's one you go back to when you need a little bit of faith or reason to hope, or you need the feeling of loving someone so much it almost hurts. I can't stress enough how beautiful this book is and I have high hopes that Across a Star-Swept Sea will be just as fabulous.
