SOLVED. YA Fantasy/ Dystopian. Poor girl that has something to do w forbidden "magic". Lives in dangerous place in country at war. Ends up in military which tries to make her a special pilot. Romance w soldier of military family. Read around 2019-21. [s]

[Wil]

I've been looking for this book for ages, and I haven't had much luck yet so here is everything I can remember/think I remember:

I remember very vividly that it had either a phoenix or a flaming dragon on the cover on top of a dark background. (either way, there was a lot of fire)

-The main character is a girl (15-17 years old) she is poor and either is disabled in some way or someone she's close to is I think.
-There was some big catastrophe in the past that had to do with a "magic" of some kind and that magic is now outlawed where she lives.
-It might be multiple perspectives between her and her love interest though I'm not entirely sure.
-The love interest is a soldier around her age. His family is really embedded into the military structure of this world, and he's grown up around it.
-He seemed to think that he should be fighting at the front/somewhere else with his brother/father and is stuck here instead.
-Somehow the girl ends up (involuntarily) in this military unit that I think was only for those who had that "magic" and they were being trained to be special pilots for the military effort.
-The girl and the guy have some sort of enemy/rival thing going on.
-During some sort of exercise/learning to fly these things, some soldiers in her squad either die or get seriously injured.
-At one point I think they go to some bar that is on base, I remember something important happened there, but I'm not sure what it was.
-She steals the plane-thing to go fight, this was against someone important's orders.

That's all I can remember about the plot. I found it in my school's library at the time, and I remember reading it around the same time I read "A Curse So Dark and Lonely" and "Sky Without Stars". Though I don't know if that was the same time those books initially came out.

[Erin]

Kind of sounds like a couple different Marie Lu books. I'm sure someone will find it, this group is amazing!

[Capn]

Marie Lu for Erin's link.

She has a series ( https://www.goodreads.com/series/5067... ) starting with Legend which sounds promising. (Nice one, Erin!)

[Wil]

I scrolled through and read the descriptions of all Marie Lu's books and I'm pretty sure that it's not any of those

[Juels]

Maybe We Rule the Night by Claire Eliza Bartlett?

[Kris]

Google Books preview of We Rule the Night by Claire Eliza Bartlett - Juels's suggestion:

- https://books.google.com/books?id=_FZ...

[Wil]

Oh my god I think that's it!!! I was WAY off the mark on pretty much everything so I don't know how you found it, but I'm pretty sure that's right! Thank you so much!!! :)

[Juels]

You're welcome.