Winterkeep (Graceling Realm) Cashore Kristin (2021)

A new land has been discovered to the east. Winterkeep is a land of miracles: a democratic republic run by people who like each other, where people speak to telepathic sea creatures, adopt telepathic foxes as pets and fly across the sky in ships attached to balloons. When Bitterblues envoys to Winterkeep drown under suspicious circumstances, she, Giddon and her half-sister Hava set out to discover the truth. Their investigation puts Bitterblues life and Giddons heart to the test when Bitterblue is kidnapped. Believing that she has drowned, Giddon must join Hava in solving the mystery of what is wrong in Winterkeep. Lovisa Cavenda is the teenage daughter of a powerful Scholar and Industrialist, representatives of opposing governing parties. She has a fire inside her that is always hungry and always nearly ready to make something happen. She is the key to everything, if she can discover what is going on before anyone else and is willing to transcend the person she has been all her life.