Spark Rising: The Progenitor Saga, Book 1

Corcino’s intriguing first novel posits a near future where fossil fuels have run out. Only those with magical Spark talent can keep electricity flowing, and the government is desperate to control them. When Lena Gracey was a child, her parents faked her death to hide her from authorities bent on taking girls with Spark talent. As a young adult, she lives in an abandoned gas station outside the city enclave. When Alejandro Reyes, a government agent secretly helping the Sparks, discovers her home, he knows Lena is one of the most powerful Sparks he’s ever come across, and he hopes she’ll be the key to the revolution he’s been plotting for decades. Balancing the demands of his double identity makes it difficult for Alex to convince Lena that he wants to keep her safe, but when he brings her to a secret school to train her talents, she realizes there’s more to Alex than she originally had thought. As Lena learns to use her powers, biding her time before getting revenge against the council that destroyed her family, she discovers a new cause: saving other girls with Spark talent in a world where even fellow revolutionaries can’t be trusted. Alex and Lena’s slow-burning, tension-fueled romance, and a uniquely layered postapocalyptic world, will have readers eagerly looking for the next installment. (BookLife)