Peril Books in Order

The Peril books take place in a near future shaped by climate change, sinking coastlines and new political fault lines. In the middle of that unstable world stand two secretive peoples, the Tean and the Perilous, locked in a conflict that has lasted for millennia. Seventeen year old Meri Marlowe, seemingly an ordinary human girl, can see peril as a colour beyond normal vision, and that talent makes her both a target and a potential saviour.

In Peril, Meri is the last known member of her kind, hiding in a flooded, storm battered London with her guardian after her parents are killed. She can see danger glowing around people and objects, and powerful enemies are determined to erase her ability from the world. Kel Douglas belongs to an ancient race whose skins bear peril coloured markings when they come of age; by day he is a student, but in truth he is bodyguard to the heir to the throne. When their paths collide, Meri discovers that her sight is bound up with Kel's people and with a war she barely understands.

Glow pushes the story out into the wider world. Meri is not just a rare seer, she is also heir to Atlantis, a hidden island nation that has survived rising seas. She refuses to abandon Kel at the border, but the two are separated by politics and prejudice. Meri digs into Atlantean history to learn why the Tean and Perilous hate each other so fiercely, while Kel journeys across a drought stricken, unstable France to rally allies. Their romance has to withstand propaganda, assassination attempts and the weight of entire cultures telling them they do not belong together.

In Flare, the final volume, Meri and Kel flee Atlantis with enemies close behind and seek refuge in New York. There, an immense storm bears down on the city, underlining the series' running theme that the planet itself is no longer neutral ground. Meri learns that much of what she believed about her past was a lie, and that her gift might be the key to ending the conflict between Tean and Perilous or to making it worse. The action swings between political negotiations, daring escapes and hard conversations about who gets sacrificed when disaster hits.

Across all three books, the Peril series blends fast paced YA adventure with questions about power, climate justice and inherited hatred. Readers who like romance threaded through with big scale worldbuilding and moral dilemmas will find plenty to dig into.