Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund

Persis is a much bolder noble-born girl than Elliot. In Across a Star-Swept Sea, Diana Peterfreund introduces a land just as broken and in need of healing as the one in For Darkness Shows the Stars. ◆ A copy was provided by Harper Collins for review ◆ His darkest secret could plunge both islands into a new dark age, and Persis realizes that when it comes to Justen Helo, she’s not only risking her heart, she’s risking the world she’s sworn to protect. Though Persis is falling for Justen, she can’t risk showing him her true self, especially once she learns he’s hiding far more than simply his disenchantment with his country’s revolution and his undeniable attraction to the silly socialite he’s pretending to love. The teenager uses her shallow, socialite trappings to hide her true purpose: her gossipy flutternotes are encrypted plans, her pampered sea mink is genetically engineered for spying, and her well-publicized new romance with handsome Galatean medic Justen Helo… is her most dangerous mission ever. On the neighboring island of Albion, no one suspects that the Wild Poppy is actually famously frivolous aristocrat Persis Blake.

The revolutionaries’ weapon is a drug that damages their enemies’ brains, and the only hope is rescue by a mysterious spy known as the Wild Poppy. Yet on the isle of Galatea, an uprising against the ruling aristocrats has turned deadly. Centuries after wars nearly destroyed civilization, the two islands of New Pacifica stand alone, a terraformed paradise where even the Reduction-the devastating brain disorder that sparked the wars-is a distant memory.

Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund