Songlight

Elsa lives in a remote seaside village in Brightland, a harsh country that has come through an apocalypse and is ruled by men. She keeps most of herself hidden: her feelings for Rye, her contempt for the way the country is run, and above all her songlight. People born with that gift are labelled Unhumans and despised, so she buries it deep.

Rye is the only other person Elsa has ever known to have songlight, and that shared gift has drawn the two together. Then a desperate day brings her world down around her, and she has nowhere to turn. In her grief, a girl appears in front of her, though the girl is not physically there. Her songlight has been pulled toward Elsa.

The girl calls herself Nightingale. Her home is a city hundreds of miles from Elsa's village, where her father holds a government post and is charged with rooting out Unhumans. Neither girl expected to meet this way, and a friendship forms across the distance.

As they learn how strong their power is, they are pulled into a war that threatens their survival. This is the first book of a trilogy, a dystopian young adult fantasy built around a friendship, a romance and a hunted gift. The setting is brutal and the stakes rise quickly.