I picked this up based on a recommendation of this author on Ilona Andrew’s blog – I will trust any recommendation she has for authors she enjoyed.
Vesper works for R&D at a company owned by one of the ruling families in this universe – at this point in time, the galaxy is ruled by families called Regals, who have their power from psionic “magic”. Her mother came from nowhere, but had enough power to be sent to an academy for those with magic, but she was sent home when she got pregnant, and her powers weren’t as good as they seemed. She abandoned Vesper, bitter at where her life had gotten her.
Vesper does have a little seer power of her own, which makes her very good at seeing how to fix things, or make things that aren’t working well better. So when the prototype starship at her company crashes on its maiden voyage, Vesper figures out that it was sabotage. Which starts her down the road to come to the attention of the Regals, mainly in the form of Kyrion Calderan, the head of the Arrows, the elite force of the Imperium. They get bonded together in a way that they can’t ignore, and must look into this conspiracy together.
In a lot of ways, this is Pride and Prejudice in Space, but it’s more than that. This is a great set up – there’s a lot going on this world, so I’m interested to see where all the political maneuvering will take us.