Title:   Sky in the Deep
Author:   Adrienne Young
Genre:   YA
Rating:   5/5

Seventeen-year-old Eelyn grew up fighting beside her family and her Aska clansmen in their rivalry with the Riki clan. All she does is train and fight as she tries to keep herself alive and kill as many enemies as possible. Then she sees her brother on the battlefield, fighting with their rivals, a brother who died five years before.

Her father doesn’t believe her, but Eelyn sees her brother again, and is captured by him and his best friend, Fiske, in an effort to keep her alive. Her only choice is to spend the winter as a slave and escape in the spring to return home.

As she lives with the family who made her brother one of their own, Eelyn struggles to adapt to being surrounded by the enemy. Fiske thinks she’s dangerous, as do most of the clan, but she starts to see the Riki as more than just warriors. When the village is raided by a clan from legend, it is up to Eelyn and Fiske to get the Aska and the Riki to work together. Together, they have a chance, but they will both fall if they cannot work together against their common enemy.

This was a fantastic book! I read it straight through in one sitting, unable to put it down. Eelyn is a complex character dealing with the upheaval of everything she’s ever believed—and betrayal where she never imagined it. This is a brutal, violent world, and Eelyn is a brutal, violent warrior, but her entire world changes as her eyes are opened to possibilities beyond the traditions her people have believed in for generations.

I cannot speak highly enough of this book!

Adrienne Young was born in Texas, but now lives in California. Sky in the Deep is her debut novel.

(Galley provided by St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

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