City of a Thousand Tears (Beauty From Ashes) By Pamela Hart
Publication date: September 5, 2023
Buy Link: Amazon
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Summary:
Beulah is a city divided by privilege and poverty, and seventeen-year-old Ellio lives in the poorest district of all—the Downs.
Assigned there at birth, even his extraordinary gift with machines isn’t enough to escape Beulah’s rigid class structure.
But the boundaries of his world start to crumble the night he encounters a mysterious young woman.
Kaya is stubborn, impulsive, and volatile. His opposite in every way. Worse, she’s from Aurea, the city’s golden district, and beneath her hardened exterior lies a web of secrets tangled around Retiarius, the city’s elite fighting guild.
How did she wind up in the Downs that night? And what’s her connection to Retiarius?
As Ellio and Kaya’s relationship deepens, they defy the boundaries of Beulah’s class system, risking everything to continue meeting in secret. When their forbidden love is put to the test, Ellio will have to decide if Kaya is just another impossible dream, or if some things are worth fighting for—even in the Downs.
If you enjoy dystopian romances like The Lunar Chronicles, Red Queen, and Divergent, check out this story of courage, love, fierce heroines, and underdogs.
—
EXCERPT:
Ellio found a lot of interesting things poking around dumpsters in the Downs, but this was the first time he’d found a foot. Peeking out from under the bin, the glossy black nail polish shimmered from the light of a distant streetlamp. Getting over his initial shock, the young man breathed a sigh of relief when his further investigation revealed that the foot was still attached to a leg. A rather shapely woman’s leg swathed in black biomesh with metal grommets tracing up the seam from calf to thigh.
Falling to his knees, he ignored the water from the puddle now seeping into his jumpsuit and the cold rain that dripped down the back of his neck. He pushed his goggles up into his dark-blue hair. Another, older set dangled from his throat as he leaned down. Ellio peered under the dumpster and was further consoled that the shapely leg was still attached to not only a torso but an entire woman’s body.