Following Desolate Empire, I turned next to a new Young Adult book: Secondborn by Amy Bartol. It is set in a future where the privileged first born rule, the second born serve them and any third born are criminals to be hunted down. The protagonist is Roselle, the daughter of a leading member of the government who is sent by her ruthless mother to be cannon fodder in a bloody war against rebel secondborns fighting for equality.
You get a kick-ass heroine who’s mentally sharp and sassy, highly trained militarily and still realistically vulnerable. It’s set against a fascinating future world which expands as you read it with cinematic (in your head) landscapes. There’s also plenty of romance and a potential romantic quadrangle, let alone a triangle. And there’s a creepy villain in Agent Crowe.
There are two more books to come, so plenty of time to iron out potential flaws such as her relationships with some of her admirers.
It was a definite page turner (if you can still call them that on an e-reader).