Frankie recommends... Winterveil - Ava Reid

Frankie says... This one is for all the people who grew up with Hunger Games/ Maze Runner/ Divergent and are still partial to a school-based drama! Definitely for older teens and above, this politically tense story brilliantly explores divided loyalties, mysterious orders from above and the future of war technology. With clever yet flawed characters, a plotty energetic story and thrilling tension, this makes the perfect pacy read. Think The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes crossed with an American Stormbreaker!! --- There is no application process for Valeran Academy, but it boasts the brightest – and precociously criminal – students in the nation. A disgraced politician from a powerful American dynasty. A coldly brilliant strategist who will sacrifice anything to win. A former pageant queen with a talent that could change the world. A prodigious female soldier with an enigmatic past – and a dangerous secret. With eerie war simulations, cutthroat competitions and foreboding new technology, Valeran trains its students to be elite assets in a Cold War that has dragged on for nearly a century. But as a sinister conspiracy takes shape and these four are drawn together for a mysterious mission, their loyalties are tested, their convictions shaken and they all begin to wonder: are they ushering in a new era of freedom, or tyranny?