The Obernewtyn Chronicles
For readers who loved post-apocalyptic worldbuilding, hidden power, oppressive institutions, secret histories and societies rebuilt around old catastrophe.
Book one of a planned trilogy | Seeking publication
What We Did To The Stars
A fast-paced adult post-apocalyptic romantasy about a guarded autistic woman, a dangerously devoted love interest and the ruined world that refuses to stay buried.
Positioning
What is the book?
What We Did To The Stars is an adult romantasy with New Adult crossover appeal, set one hundred years after the holy war that ended the world. Emelyn is twenty-seven, avoidant, overwhelmed and the only person who may be able to fix what is left.
When her father disappears, she leaves the protected underground city where she grew up and enters the ruined, strange world above. On the road she catches up with Riven, a rude and alluring young man from the background of her life, whose obsessive devotion and mysterious connection to her force emotions she was never prepared to face.
Reader fit
Who is it for?
Readers who enjoy emotionally intense romance, post-apocalyptic societies, dangerous devotion, corrupt institutions, hidden histories and speculative worlds where magic may be misunderstood technology may enjoy What We Did To The Stars.
For readers who grew up on The Obernewtyn Chronicles and now want adult romantasy: ruined-world mystery, oppressive power, secret histories, strange inheritance and a sharper, spicier romantic thread.
Post-apocalyptic romantasy
Ruined-world mystery
Obsessed love interest
Reluctant chosen one
Ancient prophecy
Dystopian resistance
Mysterious romantic connection
Emotional avoidance
Found family
Corrupt religious authority
Secret histories
Hidden identity
Lost technology mistaken for magic
Comparison titles
What is it similar to?
Foundation
For civilisation-scale science fiction questions, long consequences and the shape of history.
Fourth Wing
For spicy romantasy, danger, high stakes and intense romantic pressure.
The Hunger Games
For dystopian resistance, institutional control and survival inside systems built to exploit people.
Mistborn
For magic systems, hidden histories, religious power and the discovery that the world is not what people were taught.
The Expanse
For direct prose, humour, science-fiction texture and human conflict inside large-scale systems.
Content notes
What should readers know?
Violence, attempted sexual assault, religious coercion, captivity, psychological manipulation, family separation and explicit sexual content.