Manipulation. Love. Betrayal. When people are the scarcest commodity, anything goes. Kessa McKnight's future was secure, but security is an illusion. Now, broken and desperate to escape the constant reminders of what her life should have been, Kessa volunteers as ambassador in a newly-established marriage and trade alliance between the two largest remaining cities in North America. When a dark secret from her past threatens both new life and old, Kessa must rise up or risk losing everything. Jace Morton has lived his whole life in his older brother's shadow. When Jace finds himself traded to another city, the slave yet again of his father's political ambitions, he embraces the upside. In a place where no one knows his family, he can finally be himself. But a thousand miles isn't far enough to escape his father's control, and this time Dad's madness might destroy everything he's grown to love. What Lies in the Middle is the first in a series of standalone YA dystopian romance novels perfect for fans of Kasie West and Marissa Meyer.