I received an eARC of The Last Hope (2019) from Wednesday Books. This sequel and thrilling conclusion goes off Saltare as our soul-linked heroes, Mykal, Court, and Franny, are trapped on a ship. I can’t reveal too much because everything would be spoiler territory, but there’s a shady new guy named Stork, and conspiracy after conspiracy. The ending just fits the path laid ahead. Trust me, friends, it’s a good one!

Read on below for an interview with Krista and Becca about how they brought The Last Hope to its epic conclusion.

Writing Together

What were some challenges in bringing this story to a close that felt true to the characters and the big secret revealed at the end of The Raging Ones?

A huge goal of ours going into The Last Hope was to have a super satisfying conclusion, and since it was the last book in the duology, that naturally came as a challenge. We wanted to make sure all the burning questions were answered so that by the time a reader finishes the last page, they end with a euphoric feeling of having gone on an adventure.

Which sequence was the most fun for you to write together?

There’s a scene in The Last Hope where a planet’s waste is dumped on their neighboring moon, and the characters must travel via dumpster off the “trash moon”—and we had an absolute blast writing this one! We joked to each other for weeks about the “trash moon” and dumpster-travel.

Can you talk a bit about bringing to page the intense psychosomatic connection that Franny, Mykal, and Court share? I thought it was such an intriguing layer to their relationship throughout the duology.

Soul-mate bonds are our absolute favorite to write, so once we had the chance to write a sci-fi/fantasy together, we wanted to up this to another level. With Franny, Court, and Mykal’s “link” they can feel each other’s emotions and some senses—which really connects them on an extreme empathetic level. It makes their dynamic a little tricky because there are major downsides to being able to feel someone’s pain or their anger, and they can’t shut off their connection. Ultimately, their link showcases the most human bonds between people, and they learn that along the way too.

Krista & Becca Ritchie are New York Times Bestselling Authors and identical twins, one a science nerd, the other a comic book geek. With their shared passion for writing, they combined their mental powers as kids and have never stopped telling stories. Graduates from the University of Georgia in Biology and English & Journalism, the twin writing duo now lives in Atlanta. The Last Hope is the sequel to The Raging Ones and you can get it from Amazon, Indiebound, Barnes & Noble, or wherever books are sold.