Renegade (edition 2019)

Justine's SF stories are just as rich as her contemporaries. They're romances, sure - he and she get together despite obstacles, HEA. But the obstacles are not randomly thrown in their paths, and there's an arc to the whole series (or serieses - this is the end of the second trilogy, all of which are one broadly connected story). An extended war against a tyrannical culture comes to (another) successful end, in this area. There is a lot about emotion in this story - not, or not entirely, what they feel for each other, but the emotion that the Coalition deliberately suppresses in its people - useless stuff like hope or pleasure in beauty. Pride, anger, revenge - those are the only allowable emotions. And with death or "wipe" the answer to deviation, smart people like Caze learn to hide everything else, even from themselves. So a lot of the story is him learning how to open up, and how to deal with these emotions once he feels them. Not your standard shoot-em-up, but the war is the driving force behind all the actions - from raids to trying to turn Caze. It's a very rich story, especially as part of the overall arc. I really hope Justine gets to write more Coalition stories, I wanna read them! ( )