Words I Write Crazy: Week 46 Reviews: Among the Nameless Stars, For Darkness Shows the Stars, The First Star to Fall, Across a Star-Swept Sea

Saturday, November 17, 2018

Week 46 Reviews: Among the Nameless Stars, For Darkness Shows the Stars, The First Star to Fall, Across a Star-Swept Sea

From Goodreads:
Before Kai joined the Cloud Fleet, he wandered… AMONG THE NAMELESS STARS

Four years before the events of FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS, the servant Kai left the North Estate, the only home he'd ever known, and Elliot North, the only girl he ever loved, in search of a better life. But the journey was not an easy one.

Featuring narrow escapes, thrilling boat races and at least one deadly volcanic wasteland.

From Goodreads:
It's been several generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.

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 jump-starting 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.

From Goodreads:
Discover how it all began…

New Pacifica was designed to be a tropical paradise, a refuge for humanity filled with natural wonders and technological marvels. A place of perfect peace, where "war" was only a war out of ancient history–or so the privileged teenage aristocrat Persis Blake had always been taught.
But then comes the revolution and the death of a queen, and suddenly it's no longer enough for Persis to trust the words of her parents, the lessons of her teachers, and the decrees of the men in power.

One terrible night, Persis witnesses the truth: there are those who will stop at nothing to destroy her world… but is there anyone who could save it?

From Goodreads:
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. Yet on the isle of Galatea, an uprising against the ruling aristocrats has turned deadly. 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.

On the neighboring island of Albion, no one suspects that the Wild Poppy is actually famously frivolous aristocrat Persis Blake. 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.

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. 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.

In this thrilling adventure inspired by The Scarlet Pimpernel, Diana Peterfreund creates an exquisitely rendered world where nothing is as it seems and two teens with very different pasts fight for a future only they dare to imagine.

My first review of For Darkness Shows the Stars
My Review:
I loved reading all of these books! I'd only read the first full length book before, so I was really excited to read the whole series, and read them together! I couldn't wait to see how these worlds are connected, because the characters and technology in the second are not in the first!

I really enjoyed being in Kai's head, of the events that happened before Darkness, because those events definitely shaped him! Not all of them were bad, he met some of the characters who he'd be with in Darkness, but there were a lot bad events!

The second book was part spy thriller, part political maneuvering. And when we learn just how connected these worlds are, that was a fantastic reveal! Persis has a lot of balls in the air, and she handles them very well, she was such a great character to read about!

I know that it's been a while since this series was published, but I would love to have more. Like, a 3rd book staring Ro/Tomorrow or something, because you'd think that they'd heal all the Reduced. I would love to be in the head of a character who was healed of the Reduction.

Loved this series so much, it was a really fantastic read!

Author: Diana Peterfreund
Series: For Darkness Shows the Stars #0.5, 1, 1.5, 2
First Read: November 3rd, 2012
Read: November 15th, 15th, 16th, 16th, 2018
Source: Ebook.bike, Library
Reason Why: Rereading! And they're 2018 Dystopian Books and Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2018 Books! And Across a Star-Swept Sea is a End of Series 2018 Book, LLFL Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, Balzer + Bray, Smashwords Edition
Published: July 4th 2012, June 12th 2012 June 29th 2013, October 15th 2013

Among the Nameless Stars: