Under the Never Sky trilogy

Under the Never Sky, 374 pages
Through the Ever Night, 341 pages
Into the Still Blue, 392 pages, all by Veronica Rossi

Three hundred years ago, a massive solar flare disrupted the upper atmosphere, causing the earth's magnetic poles to fluctuate wildly and allowing cosmic storms past the atmosphere, blocking out the sky. With Aether storms making it nearly impossible to live out in the open, a lottery was held to determine who would live in the new, self-sustaining pods and who would be stuck to fend for themselves outside. Aria has only ever known life inside Reverie, one of the pods. But when the link to another pod goes down, cutting her off from her mother, she's willing to do anything to find out what's going on. With her friend Paisley in tow, she sneaks into a damaged part of Reverie with Soren, the son of Hess, a leader of the pod, with the hope that Soren will have some info about what happened to her mother. What happens instead is that all hell breaks lose. Helped by an Outsider that just so happened to have snuck in, Aria manages to avoid losing her life, just to find herself kicked out of Reverie by Hess in an effort to keep Soren out of trouble and to smooth everything over.

Perry, brother to the Blood Lord of the Tides, has been pushing his brother to move their tribe further inland in an effort to get away from the Aether storms. Vale will have nothing of it, meaning Perry feels like he's forced into either challenging Vale for leadership of the Tides (something that usually ends in death) or leaving for good. But he doesn't want to leave his nephew, Talon, behind. But when Talon is taken by Dwellers and Vale mysteriously returns home with lots of food for the hungry Tiders, Perry knows he has to leave. It doesn't take long for Perry to find Aria and save her again. After a rocky start, they soon figure out that they're stronger together, kicking into motion events that could lead them to the last refuge from the Aether, possibly saving them all.

I feel like pretty much every review I write ends up with me squeeing over how good a book or series is, but whatever, I guess it's my thing. Veronica Rossi has crafted an intriguing future world, opting to go more sci fi than straight dystopia/speculative fiction. And, since it's YA, there's plenty of wonderful romance - in fact, it might be just as much a romance as it is a dystopic action adventure story. I also really enjoyed how she switches perspectives between Aria and Perry, making the story about them and how they're affecting change, as opposed to the whole chosen one trope. Not that I have anything against chosen one stories, it's just that a LOT of YA dystopia uses that as its starting point, so it's refreshing to get a story that is about two people, not just one. It's an engaging, rollicking adventure that manages to keep churning along breathlessly without losing steam. If you're a YA dystopia fan, then this is a trilogy you'll definitely want to check out if you haven't already.