In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. In spite of the shortcomings, loyal fans will still enjoy the (predictably) happy ending.

Several other emotional moments, including a revelation about Aria’s father, feel more distractingly melodramatic than necessary. The attempts at increasing suspense by injecting jealous tension between Perry and Aria falls flat, as the previous novels so firmly established their strong commitment to each other. Unfortunately, their increasingly repetitive inner monologues, while believable, offer few surprises for returning readers. The novel focuses largely on Perry’s and Aria’s struggles to balance their personal feelings with their leadership responsibilities. Here, the inventive worldbuilding of the first two novels is replaced by a heavy reliance on contrivances-the origin of the Aether storms is too easily explained, yet the improbable existence of the Still Blue remains mysterious. But uniting the Dwellers and Tides demands painful personal sacrifices from the two inexperienced young leaders. Hijacking the hovercraft from the bloodthirsty rival Horn tribe leader’s control will require combining Aria’s Dweller technological knowledge with Perry’s Tides wilderness survival skills. This conclusion to the Under the Never Sky trilogy begins as increasingly destructive electromagnetic Aether storms ravage the landscape.ĭesperate, Perry and Aria decide to use hovercraft to transport the surviving members of the Tides tribe and the Dweller population to the mythic Still Blue, a region rumored to be free of storms.

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi