Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you’d been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival-not love-the issue?
A ship heading for New Earth is halfway through its incredible journey across the galaxy.
On board, sixteen year olds Waverly and Kieran are part of the first generation born in space.
They are in love.
They believe their future is written in the stars.
They have never seen a stranger before…
… until the day they are wrenched apart and suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives.

Glow is the debut book by Amy Kathleen Ryan, released in October 2011 by Pan Macmillan.

Waverley should be happy to marry Kieran, as 16yr olds, the first generation to be successfully conceived in space, as he will one day be Captain he has everything a girl should wish for. Except Waverley doesn’t wish for him. Instead Seth has captured her thoughts, but she’s not even sure about him. Her world is turned upside down when her ship is attacked by enemy forces and she learns that not all enemies are outside the ship.

Glow took a little bit to get into, there’s some pretty standard world building that has to be done in order for the story to play out, but after that I found the conflict to be satisfying. At first I thought it’s going to be the typical love triangle YA novel that seems to be thrown around at the moment. Safe to say Glow’s not like that. Amy’s take on a Dystopian future keeps you turning the page. I had to pry the book from my eldest teen’s hands (she snaffled the book the minute it turned up at our house – the cover certainly gets your attention doesn’t it?). I liked it because of my love of science fiction and it’s great to see so many more SciFi YA reads coming out, Glow certainly rates up there with the good ones. Waverley wasn’t some pathetic heroine waiting for her man to come and fix everything. I loved the fact that she took charge when things went wrong. Can’t tell you too much more than that or it’ll become spoiler time.

Well done to Amy, can’t wait for the next one.