Throwback Thursday Review: For Darkness Shows the Stars

 

 Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature & linkup here at I Heart YA Fiction where we will be reviewing older releases and/or books that have been on our shelves for awhile. Feel free to participate by reading from the bottom of your shelf and adding links to your recently reviewed older titles! We would love to read your Throwback Reviews! 

This week's feature?

Release Date: June 12, 2012

Publisher: Balzer + Bray  
Pages: 407
Source: Won from Jen Ryland @ YA Romantics

ISBN-10:  0062006142

Rating: 5 Hearts

Book Description

"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."

 

Review

Short and Sweet:

This book is really SO amazing! I have two more books to read before I can read Across a Star-Swept Sea and it's killing me. I need to know more!!!

*Potential spoilers if you haven't read this book* Beware!!!!

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To Elaborate...

I've seen For Darkness Shows the Stars around forever, but I did not know (or I forgot) that it was inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion. However, it's been so long since I read Jane Austen's books that I have no idea how closely it follows the story line. I can say that, like any Austen novel, there is absolutely a quality to FDSTS that is lovely and angsty all at once.

Years ago, when Elliot made the choice to stay on her family's farm, rather than run away with Kai, she broke her own heart to follow her duty to her protect the Reduced that live and work on the North Estate. Elliot loved Kai desperately, but she did not consider her own love life to be more important than the fate of so many who would be hurting without her. Elliot is above all else: kind, caring, strong and fiercely protective of those she loves. Letting Kai go actually exemplifies these qualities perfectly. I really enjoyed Elliot as a strong, female character. She makes unpopular choices and she doesn't mind being unpopular so long as she can do what is right.

Kai, once her playmate and servant, is still angry with Elliot after so many years. He treats her poorly, speaks cruelly, and seems determined to show her that she is now nothing to him. In his eyes, Elliot betrayed him that day so long ago because she thinks she's superior to him. After all, she is a Luddite and he is a Post. I understood his position and his hurt pride was an obvious contributing factor, but I was so pissed that he refused to see that the world doesn't revolve around him. For all of his anger at the injustices and inequalities of their world, it seemed like he would have understood her choices and admired them. I felt like her priorities involved hard decisions and self sacrifice and that Kai's behavior toward her was abhorrent. These two are addictively frustrating and all you will WANT is for them to get over themselves, have a conversation and BE TOGETHER!

*deep breath*

The story is told in alternating chapters of 'now' and 'then.' With the 'then' aspect told through letters between Elliot and Kai as they grew up together and fell for each other. I love that you are watching them fall apart in the past, and heal in the present at essentially the same rate so that the two are weaving together. This was such an interesting way to read a story. You sort of get to solve the mystery of their 'love gone wrong' and see how they ended up where they currently are with each other. I really enjoyed the style of it all.

However, these two idiots made me want to pull my hair out at times. This is how I felt for most of the story: 

Kiss already! Just kissssssssssssss!

Please? Could you just.... Omg, FINALLY.

Okay back to things besides kissing. :) I loved (and hated) how stubborn Elliot and Kai both were along the way. But mostly, I just really loved the entire book and I can't recommend it highly enough. I will absolutely be rereading this again one day soon.

5 Adoring (and Angsty) Hearts! 

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