Across a Star-Swept Sea

Today’s post is on Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund. It is a companion novel in her For Darkness Shows the Stars series. It is 449 pages long and is published by Balzer + Bray. The cover has of the main characters Persis with water and gown making the rest of the cover. The intended reader is young adult but I think that anyone can enjoy this novel. The story is told from third person close moving from character to character as the story moves. There is no language, no sex, and no violence on camera. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- Centuries after wars that nearly destroyed civilization the two islands of New Pacifica stand alone, a paradise where even the Reduction- the devastating brain disorder that sparked the wars- is a distant memory. Yet on the island of Galatea, an uprising against the aristocracy 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 neighboring Albion, no one suspects that the Wild Poppy is actually famously frivolous teenage aristocrat Persis Blake. 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.
Justen is hiding things too- his disenchantment with his country’s revolution, his undeniable attraction to the silly socialite he’s pretending to love. Persis is also falling for Justen, but when she discovers his greatest secret- one that could plunge New Pacifica into another dark age- she realizes she’s not just risking her heart, she’s risking the world she’s sworn to protect.
Inspired by The Scarlet Pimpernel, Across a Star-Swept Sea is a thrilling adventure in which nothing is a sit seems and two teens from different worlds must fight for a future only they dare to imagine.

Review- I have not read the first book in this world but that is okay because Star-Swept is a companion to the first not a sequel. I really enjoyed this book. I love The Scarlet Pimpernel and I think that Peterfreund pays wonderful homage to it. She takes the basic plot of Pimpernel and makes new. All the characters are interesting. The plot is old and new. In general I really liked this book. The setting is so lush; Peterfreund makes these islands at the end of the world so real and beautiful.  I am going to be reading the first in this world soon. Peterfreund is introducing a whole new generation to classic literature and I cannot wait to see what book she is going to make over next. She adds the science fiction to update the book and I think that it works. Peterfreund does not really get into the why the science works and I think that was a good choice. She does explain some things but mostly it works because it does. If she had gone into the nuts and bolts of why that would have really slowed and bogged down the story. As it is she gives just enough to answer questions then she moves back to the point of the story.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library but I will be buying for my personal collection.