Trust no one.
It is six months since the Arcadia set sail for the first time in forty years. But this wasn’t the freedom the inhabitants were hoping for. Esther Crossland did what she had to do, but it has left a trail of destruction in her wake. Now the wrecked ship is abandoned. Its inhabitants are in exile, trapped in sprawling make-shift shelters made up of warehouse, tents, shipping containers.
Esther and Nik, architects of the rebellion, are on the run. Esther is in hiding, desperate to do something to help her people, and Nik seems to have abandoned all hope, on a journey taking him further and further from home. And neither of them want to face up to their true feelings about one another . . .
Not only that, there is a new villain in town. With the fall of Commander Hadley, it’s left to the ruthless Admiral Janek to deal with the traitors, and her own past is beginning to catch-up with her.
Then the shaky ceasefire negotiated by General Lall, Nik’s mum, falls apart. Nik and Esther find themselves in a world of betrayals and double crossings – a game of power, with no one to trust but themselves.
It’s time for the final showdown.
Sarah Daniels is an ex-archaeologist who escaped academia and now writes stories from her home in rural Lincolnshire. Her work has been published in various online magazines and has been nominated for best British and Irish Flash Fiction and Best Small Fictions.
If you want to contact her, you can do so at the following locations: Website Instagram TikTok Twitter
My thoughts: it’s been 6 months since Esther crashed the Arcadia into the Federated States and the ship’s residents are now housed in a hastily built fenced in refugee camp, complete with poor sanitation, disease and grim rations. Maine, not part of the Fed, has offered them refuge, but first they have to get there.
Nik’s escaped and is hiding out in Florida under an assumed name, except that someone knows where he is and is trying to kill him.
Esther and Corp are trying their best to help people with medical treatment, while staying off the radar as the Fed has branded them terrorists and wants to execute them, which doesn’t help the refugees’ plight at all. General Lall, Nik’s mum, is supposedly negotiating with the Fed’s government but Esther smells a rat. Could she really be planning to sell everyone into a form of slavery?
As events start to unravel, Esther and Nik are brought back together and after discovering what’s been negotiated, must work together to stop it and rescue the ship folk for good. If they can stop bickering for five minutes.
Another fast paced and skillful teen thriller, no teenagers should have this much responsibility dumped on them, but no one else seems to be trying.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 