An absorbing tale of adventure, politics, and with a dash of romance in it, this is the perfect story for all of those readers who want a little something more in their reads. 

You know? The readers who feel as if no author, can surprise them anymore... *hands in the air*

(at least it works for old jaded me!)

This is probably the most inspired Scarlet Pimpernel retelling that I'll ever read!

(Okay, this is the first one I've read...but I doubt that I'll read better! lol)

Of course I probably said the same about For Darkness Shows the Stars, when it comes to it's Persuasion retelling in it.... and it's still true! ;)

(Read my review here! )

So yes, I admit it: I am in love with this world, with these characters....with the writing, with the visuals, with the whole imagination behind it!

The cove!! *.* (it's a scene in the book. You have to read it!)

What can I say?

This is just my cup of tea. Or better yet, _as the coffee addict that I am! _ my perfect cup of coffee!

What could be better than an innovative retelling of the Scarlet Pimpernel, in which the main character is a sixteen year old girl, who is competent, courageous, friend of her friends, and extremely fond of her family?

___________

Just a sixteen year old, that having all those traits, also does the work of a much needed hero.

Oh, and one who has a pet Sea Mink genetically altered, who goes by the name of Slippy!

Persis smiled. “Would you really avenge me with neuroeels, Isla?”

“For you, darling, I’d gengineer a neuroshark.”

“Aww.” Persis pressed a hand to her chest. “That’s very sweet.”

Having already been familiarized with this dystopian world, through FDSTS (For Darkness...), I didn't encounter any difficulty in getting reconnected with it, despite the time that has passed since I've read it.

 In fact, I found  the New Pacifica's "expressions, "Aristos" and "Regs" more easy to follow, than the ones used in the first volume.

And although "Across A Star- Swept Sea", didn't pull at my heartstrings in exactly the same level as "For Darkness Shows The Stars" did, with its story of lovers gone astray, as a faithful Persuasion retelling should _although a much more complex one _ this tale, in it's own different way, in it's own originality, was done in the same amazing way, and it kept me glued to it's pages.

Both of  stories were kept true to their natures: FDSTS more romance oriented, and this one, written as full political intrigue /adventure tale.

Of course some things never change.

The writing as always, is gorgeous:

"Love was magma, shooting from the Earth.
It had the potential to form pillars of rock that would last for a thousand years or plumes of ash that choked the sky.
She would never love like her father, never let herself be loved like her mother. She would never suffer what her parents were suffering now."

The plot was brilliantly developed, so the only nitpicks I have, as the expression indicates, are small things, like for instance, the characters age.

They sound older than your typical YA gang. Which is Great, don't get me wrong!

I just couldn't help thinking that maybe they could be a little older on paper (Persis is sixteen, Justen is eighteen), although I understand the reasoning of this, due to the "Damocles Sword" which is poised above one character' head.

Besides that, there is this "expression" that is used regarding the mental state of some of the characters :

 _"The Darkened", it, refers to a condition, a mix of Alzheimer's and maybe Lou Gehrig's disease.

 A couple years ago, I wouldn't find any problem with it. 

But now that I know better, I can't help wishing that another term had been used...

Bottom Line:

A+,  for the Plot

A+, for the characters

A+,  for the writing

And a B+ because in the end I wanted more pages!! o_O

It ended a little too abruptly ( no, no cliffhangers!)....in fact, the way it ended was just mean! ;)

Okay, I'll say it...

( I can't believe I am about to say this o_O)

I guess it could have a little more romance in it... o_O

(looks at the ceiling...)

Author's Official Site 

Buy "Across A Star- Swept Sea" (With Free Worldwide Delivery!)

Bookdepository.com 

Set in a different part of the same post-apocalyptic world as For Darkness Shows the Stars, this book is more of a companion novel than a sequel. The two islands of New Pacifica are Albion (think a futuristic pacific islander England) and Galatea (sci-fi revolutionary France). In Albion they have democracy and happily genetically alter their bodies to be their very best selves. Princess Isla is the regent of Albion until her toddler brother comes of age, because while they are big on genetic engineering, they also seriously underestimate women and still believe in primogeniture. In Galatea, the general population rebelled against their tyrannical despot of a queen and are currently subduing all of their former nobility with drugs that pretty much chemically lobotomise them. Unfortunately, as Revolutions are wont to do, things are starting to go a bit pear-shaped, with those in power Reducing (giving the drugs to) anyone not entirely agreeing with their point of view. The leaders of the glorious revolution have become as bad as the leader they initially rebelled against.

The Wild Poppy is an Albian spy who through a series of rescue missions liberate Galatean citizens, taking them to safety in Albion. Because everyone is incredibly sexist and no one believes that women are any good at anything, it is assumed that the Wild Poppy is a man. This suits Lady Persis Blake perfectly, as no one would suspect that the vapid, teenage socialite and best friend to the Princess Regent of Albion is in fact the most talked about spy in New Pacifica. Along with some of her friends, she risks her life repeatedly to rescue Galateans from the Reign of Terror they are under. Making very sure that no one remembers that a few years ago, Persis Blake was one of the most brilliant and promising young minds in Albion, Persis instead acts like every single fashionista party girl you can imagine. She's princess Isla's BFF and fashion adviser, throws the best parties and knows all the good gossip. She's also brave, excellent at disguises, brilliant at deflecting unwanted attention and a loyal friend to the beleaguered young queen. 

Justen Helo is a Galatean medic who is deeply disenchanted with the direction the revolution is taking. He wants to defect to Albion and help find a cure for the all the people who have been chemically Reduced. Princess Isla wants it publicly known that Helo has defected from Galatea and decides that he and Persis should pretend to be an item, something neither of the two are all that happy about. Yet the princess gets what she wants, and Persis and Justen have to pretend to be madly in love. He believes she's a narcissistic socialite with nothing more serious on her mind than what she's going to wear next, never realising that she's the genius hero behind all the daring rescues. He wants to find a cure for the chemical Reduction which his guardian, the head of the Galatean revolution is responsible for, as well as rescuing his sister who is still in Galatea. As they spend more time together, they banter and argue and obviously grow more attracted to one another. Persis knows that Justen despises her chosen persona, but can't risk showing him her true self. 

There are so many excellent female characters in this book. Persis is an amazing heroine, all the more remarkable because she's just seventeen. Her friendships with princess Isla and Andrine, another of the members of the Wild Poppy league are realistic and nuanced and it's great to see these young women taking advantage of the prejudices of the society they live in, in order to make the world a better place and save lives, without ever asking for credit or glory. While I didn't like her much (she is one of the villains, after all) Vania Aldred, Justen's foster sister, is also an impressive and strong female character trying to prove herself in the Galatean army but constantly being underestimated and accused of only gaining her position thanks to nepotism. Justen's sister Remy, while young, clearly also wants to make a difference and make a name for herself, even if she has to risk her life to do so.

Peterfreund's world building is a thing of beauty and I am simply not doing the plot or the richness of the environment these books are set in justice in my review. I love The Scarlet Pimpernel and this was such a cool gender reversed science fiction re-imagining of it. Lady Persis Blake is in many ways even more of an impressive hero than Sir Percy Blakeney, because he was a very wealthy and fully grown man. Persis is rich, to be sure, but she's also just a teenage girl, running a spy ring consisting mainly of other teenagers. It makes her feats even more impressive. Of the two books, this was absolutely my favourite. I'm so glad I finally got round to reading these books. 

Boy, I like this series better with each successive novel. I really enjoyed For Darkness Shows the Stars last year, and I think this one manages to raise the bar even higher. I appreciate that the author builds complex relationships, between friends, siblings, love interests, and parents and children. I appreciate the author's exploration of gender roles, and her willingness to allow her heroines to question their place in the world. I thought this was a great re-telling of The Scarlet Pimpernel, and enjoyed the brief reunion with Elliot and Kai. I definitely hope there is more to come in this wonderful series - I can't wait to find out what happens next.

VOTING IS CLOSED: I'm reading The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond.

I am polling to choose my next YA read. All plot summaries from amazon. Choose from the following:

When aspiring music journalist Ren Kingston takes a job nannying for a wealthy family on the exclusive island of Nantucket, playground for Boston's elite, she's hoping for a low-key summer reading books and blogging about bands. Boys are firmly off the agenda.

What she doesn't count on is falling in with a bunch of party-loving private school kids who are hiding some dark secrets; falling (possibly) in love with the local bad boy; and falling out with a dangerous serial killer...

The romance of Beauty and the Beast meets the adventure of Graceling in a dazzling fantasy novel about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom, Nyx has always known her fate was to marry him, kill him, and free her people from his tyranny.

But on her seventeenth birthday, when she moves into his castle high on the kingdom's mountaintop, nothing is as she expected—particularly her charming and beguiling new husband.

Nyx knows she must save her homeland at all costs, yet she can't resist the pull of her sworn enemy—who's gotten in her way by stealing her heart.

For fans of bestselling authors Kristin Cashore and Alex Flinn, this gorgeously written debut infuses the classic fairy tale with glittering magic, a feisty heroine, and a romance sure to take your breath away.

When you’ve been kept caged in the dark, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

 In Stephanie Kuehn's brilliant debut Charm & Strange, Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable. 

Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present. 

Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying. 

Five years ago, the gods of ancient mythology awoke around the world. 

This morning, Kyra Locke is late for school.

Seventeen-year-old Kyra lives in a transformed Washington, D.C., home to the embassies of divine pantheons and the mysterious Society of the Sun. But when rebellious Kyra encounters two trickster gods on her way back from school, one offering a threat and the other a warning, it turns out her life isn't what it seems. She escapes with the aid of Osborne "Oz" Spencer, an intriguing Society field operative, only to discover that her scholar father has disappeared with a dangerous relic. The Society needs it, and they don't care that she knows nothing about her father's secrets.

Now Kyra must depend on her wits and the suspect help of scary gods, her estranged oracle mother, and, of course, Oz--whose first allegiance is to the Society. She has no choice if she's going to recover the missing relic and save her father. And if she doesn't? Well, that may just mean the end of the world as she knows it. From the author of Blackwood comes a fresh, thrilling urban fantasy that will appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman, Cassandra Clare, and Rick Riordan.

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.

****************

Vote in the comments. I'll read the book with the most votes.

What tickled me: Only thing better than a Scarlet Pimpernel hero? A Scarlet Pimpernel heroine!

What ticked me off: This future world includes mentions of some classic books -- even though The Scarlet Pimpernel isn't one of them, that just got a little too meta for me, somehow.

Who might like it: Readers who enjoy "reimaginings" of classics.

Across a Star-Swept Sea is a sequel set shortly after For Darkness Shows the Stars, yet opens in a very different post-apocalyptic world,  which was confusing at first. In this area -- encompassing two kingdoms, Albion and Galatea -- technology has been embraced. However because of Earth's tragic past, flying machines have been outlawed, which explains why this otherwise technologically advanced civilization believes they are the only people left on Earth.

In this version of the Scarlet Pimpernel story, Albion is essentially England, although the roots of the people appear to be Polynesian. Galatea is post-revolutionary France. Galatean Justen Helo has become disenchanted with the revolution, which is deliberately punishing "aristos" with a form of chemically-induced brain damage. He escapes to Galatea in the hopes of continuing his research on the Helo cure invented by his grandmother, which cured Earth's survivors of the "Reduction" that left some of them genetically altered, but which had a tragic side effect for a small percentage. There he is forced to pretend to be dating the Regent's lady-in-waiting, the brainless, fashion obsessed, society darling Persis Blake. Of course he has no idea that Persis is actually the brilliant and brave "Wild Poppy," the Albion hero who is sneaking aristos away under the noses of the revolution.

This version sticks fairly closely to the original, though it's more even-handed about the revolution. The setting brings a new level of chill to the already exciting story, because of the threat of Reduction. (I was initially troubled by the depiction of the "Reduced" and the attitude towards them, which I had not found offensive in For Darkness Shows the Stars -- thankfully, this was actually addressed.) The weakest point is probably the romance, and admittedly, it has a huge bar set: there is just nothing to compare to Percy's kissing the steps where Marguerite had walked, or Marguerite's desperate journey to save him.  Although the gender-bending is very cool, in having the ultimate symbol of bold cunning be a woman, something is lost in Marguerite's role. (For more on her character, see this interesting article in The Toast.) So I wasn't quite as swept away as I was by the first book, though I will eagerly await the next one.