First sentence: The extravagance made my teeth hurt.
Premise/plot: Princess Leonie “Leo” Kolburg stars in this space opera retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. To be fair, Austen isn’t the only inspiration, as the rose on the cover might hint. There’s a bit of The Bachelor influence as well.
Set several hundred years in the future, it features a society of strict social class divisions, the haves and have-nots. The elite want all the supplies, even luxuries—no rations. The poor are starving and dying. Not every spaceship or starship is equal. Leo’s family has lost their wealth but not their royal blood. They are the Scandinavian royal family. Leo, her father and sister are living a little on the charity of their cousins. Her aunt is a captain of a very elite starship. The ship that is hosting the Valg Season. Held every five years, it offers humans the opportunity to meet and arrange marriages across space/starships. All the ships dock and a series of social events are held over a series of weeks. In the end, engagements will be announced. Leo doesn’t want to have to get married. But her family desperately needs money. There will be plenty of men who want to marry into royalty.
Elliot Wentworth is one young man who has come for the season, but are his intentions honorable where Leo is concerned....
My thoughts: I love, love, love Persuasion. I do. I absolutely loved the premise of turning the story into a space opera with a futuristic almost dystopian setting. Things aren’t all comfy cozy while humans wait for Earth to thaw and become inhabitable again. There is a political element to this one. It isn’t all fluffy romance. In fact the fluff is kept to a minimum, in my opinion.
I definitely liked this one. I may even really like it. But not quite love. There were a few things that kept me from loving it. I would recommend it to most teens, perhaps not Christian teens looking for a squeaky clean read. But most teens I would recommend this one.
© 2020 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
1 comment:
It sounds like a fun read to me. Great review! :)
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