Ardent Forest: A Novella

Ardent Forest by Nancy Jane Moore
This was a nice, if not overly complex, quick read that did not take much effort to get through.
The two privileged girls, Rosa and Cecily, are the step daughter and daughter, respectively, of the governor of Texas in a post economic meltdown of the US (and apparently that means the world too.)
The Governor, Guy Gisborn, seized the governorship from Rosa's mother 5 years before the story takes place and in a fit of paranoia exiles Rosa from the city.
This sets up the rest of the story but I felt that everything came to the girls without the hardship and trials that make a good science fiction/ fantasy story. It had all the elements and the set up but the complexities were not there. The people or things they were looking for were found almost effortlessly.
If Moore was trying to also make a statement about sexuality and gender stereotypes in the modern world, that was also done poorly as the characters that were addressing these issues did not face any sort of judgement or hardship because of who they were, which is unfortunately the case at this point in time.
I gave this 2 out of 5 stars.
I received this book to review through Library Thing Early Reviewers