This book was provided to me free by the author, in exchange for an honest review.

She's trained to follow wherever her Core leads. Until it leads her away from everything she's ever known . . . into mortal danger. Eighteen-year-old Kayli-el is part of a new species on her planet, with a powerful internal guidance called the Core. After her teacher is murdered for its secrets, Kayli-el runs for her life - right into the arms of Tamber, a boy who's crossed the ocean on a mysterious quest. When the killers who murdered her teacher capture her best friend, Kayli-el faces a choice with devastating consequences: follow her Core's wisdom and flee across the ocean to safety with Tamber, leaving Serene behind, or defy her own guidance to try and save Serene's life.

This book had my attention from the beginning. The action starts almost immediately, and rarely stops. That aspect appeals to me and made this a quick, fun read. I also enjoyed the characters, especially Tamber, who I felt was the most well-developed, despite the fact that he wasn’t the narrating character. Kayli-el was likable and relatable, but could have used some more fleshing out. Tri and Serene (the latter for good reason) weren’t given a lot of face time, but I have the feeling that will change in the second book. The story line itself felt fresh and Ms. Miller’s style is interesting and easy to read.
While I greatly enjoyed this book, and absolutely look forward to reading the next, there were some problems. There were some editing issues, like name changes, misspellings, and speaker confusion, but they weren’t overly distracting. The one thing that did bother me was the use of slang. There is nothing to indicate that the story takes place in a future version of our universe, but they use slang terms such as “trashed” and “effing”. For me, this was jolting, and felt out of place. Despite this, I found myself eager to get back to this story any time I had to put it down.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to YA fantasy fans.