For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

For Darkness Shows the Stars

Author:   Diana Peterfreund
Publisher:   Balzer + Bray
Release Date: July 12th, 2012

Source: Kindle Purchase

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 jumpstarting 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.

First and foremost: Slowest. Opening. Ever. 

Let me explain a little.

Despite my final rating and overall enjoyment of this piece, this was one of those stories that is so heavy in the beginning it was like a ball and chain around your ankle. No I haven't read Persuasion (maybe it could have helped?) But seriously, it was confusing and there were so many new elements and terms and it read like a crazy sad tragedy. And that tragedy element? Pretty sure it never went away. From an outsider perspective, never having read the inspiration, I just felt a bit caught up in the muck.

You know in love stories where your like, pretty sure it'll all work out? There was a point I just stopped rooting for it during this novel. It was like, depressing! There was so much woe I just wanted to read something happier...I felt like I should be coaching Elliott. "Hey, this guy is a jerk, move on! He came back and treated you like garbage and you never did anything to him!" I stayed in the story for the minor plot elements, but I honestly lost my love of Kai. I didn't feel like he ever made up for how he treated everyone. To be frank, he was an ass!

And you know, I can't make it without a spoiler, so here it is. Spoiler spoiler spoiler. When he flirts with Olivia, then is like "oh, I may have done that to make you jealous, and then she like, fell off a cliff and all and thankfully she fell for Donovan so i didn't have to deal with it."

Whhhaaaatttt?

Okay, not word for word but that's totally how it came across for me. Then it's like, "run away with me!"

No.

This story is just a little messed up. Just a little.

So calming down. Let's talk about the good. The sort of dystopia here was sort of fun once you get into it. Kinda interesting society kind of redeveloping after almost wiping humans off the planet. Making new inventions, trying not to, you know, mess everything up again. Elliott's struggles felt very human, and other than the Kai thing, I liked her.

But man. Someone needed to kick him. Hard.


That is all.