Be sure to finish the series with Tales From the Cityverse: A Short Story Collection.
Set twenty-two years before The Liberator, Causes and Courtships is Amelia Ruby's story.
Amelia's family is poor and struggles to afford food due to soaring food prices and the Government's restrictive food laws: no sharing, no reselling, no refunds. Her goal is to help bring change to the City, but her parents refuse to let her attend Cause-organized protests. Instead, they want her to apply for a Courtship and get married now that she's sixteen, which is her nightmare.
Her life changes when a mysterious man connected to the Cause gives her an opportunity to help some of the City's poorest. This chance, and meeting the handsome, wealthy and kind Malcolm Connor, whom she can't stop thinking about, leads her to make allies and enemies and to achieve her goal on a scale greater than she imagined. Along the way, she learns about friendship, explores her insecurities and discovers that love might be worth the risk.
Excerpt from the book
As the people around Amelia trickled away, some power beyond her control forced her to stay. She needed to see how this ended. Blake was tugging her arm, which didn't matter or make her move.
She heard marching footsteps coming from down the street, the opposite direction from the one Amelia and Blake had come. They were in sync and rhythmic; uniformed guards were coming to clear the protest.
"Amelia!" Blake yelled. "We have to run!"
He gave one hard yank on her arm, and she snapped out of her daze. There was no way her parents would take her getting shot well. She wasn't sure if that would be better or worse than getting arrested. She sprinted with Blake the way they'd come, clutching her bag tight to her chest. Of all the times to wear heels. If Amelia had known she was going to run, she would've changed her shoes. There was no time now.
Causes and Courtships is the prequel to The Liberator Duology, but it can be read on its own.
