Five-star review of Between Mountain and Sea: Paradisi Chronicles (Caelestis series book 1) by Louisa Locke

 Mei Lin Yu, a descendant of one of the ten families that fled a dying Earth for a planet they call New Eden, knows she’s different from her peers and has disappointed her parents. When her eye surgery prevents her from taking a college entrance exam, her nasty older brother sends her off to her grandparents who live at the Yu ancestral home at the base of the Mynyddamore mountains, the word meaning between mountain and sea in the language of the native peoples of the planet. There she’s tutored by her grandparents and gets to know her great-grandmother and the Ddaerens, even their animals. She finds the diary of her many times great grandmother, Mabel Yu. Each chapter starts with a piece from that diary. The world-building and characters are wonderful. Mei Lin’s growing awareness of her true heritage alone is beautifully executed. I’m excited to read the rest of this series and other books by other authors but set in the same world and following a few of the other families.