What I Read in July!

_{Once a luxurious cruise ship, it became a refugee camp after being driven from Europe by an apocalyptic war. Now it floats near the coastline of the Federated States – a leftover piece of a fractured USA.}

_{For forty years, residents of the Arcadia have been prohibited from making landfall. It is a world of extreme haves and have nots, gangs and make-shift shelters.}

^{Esther is a loyal citizen, working flat-out to have the rare chance to live a normal life as a medic on dry land. Nik is a rebel, planning something big to liberate the Arcadia once and for all.}

_{When events throw them both together, their lives, and the lives of everyone on the ship, will change forever . . .}

_{SPOILERS FOR BOOK ONE IN THIS SYNOPSIS.}

_{It is six months since the Arcadia set sail for the first time in forty years. But this wasn’t the freedom the inhabitants were hoping for. Esther Crossland did what she had to do, but it has left a trail of destruction in her wake. Now the wrecked ship is abandoned. Its inhabitants are in exile, trapped in sprawling make-shift shelters made up of warehouse, tents, shipping containers.}

_{Esther and Nik, architects of the rebellion, are on the run. Esther is in hiding, desperate to do something to help her people, and Nik seems to have abandoned all hope, on a journey taking him further and further from home. And neither of them want to face up to their true feelings about one another . . .}

_{Not only that, there is a new villain in town. With the fall of Commander Hadley, it’s left to the ruthless Admiral Janek to deal with the traitors, and her own past is beginning to catch-up with her.}

_{Chandler Cohen lies for a living.}

_{When she accepts her next ghostwriting gig penning a memoir for cult actor Finnegan Walsh, it should be a dream job.}

_{However, Chandler knows him best as something her worst-ever one-night stand . . .}

_{She’s determined to keep things professional. But when she finally admits to Finn that their night together wasn’t as mind-blowing as he thought, he’s mortified, and determined to make amends.}

_{So, they strike a deal. During the day, they’ll work on the book, and at night, she’ll school him in the art of satisfaction.}

_{As they grow closer, the line between business and pleasure starts to blur.}

_{Can Chandler and Finn have both, or will they have to choose?}

_{Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.}

_{So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone–she isn’t sure her heart can take it.}

_{And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.}

_{Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.}

_{Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.}

_{After all, love is never a matter of time–but a matter of timing.}