Burn the Water

Author: Billy Ray

Interest age: from c 14 years

Published on 12 March 2026 by Scholastic in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 368 pages
128 x 197 x 25 | 246g

From award-winning screenwriter of The Hunger Games movies

Billy Ray comes an immersive and breathtaking enemies-to-lovers

epic romance about war, loyalty and the power that love has

to save ... or destroy.

The year is 2425 and London is underwater.

Three hundred years ago, rising oceans drowned a vast majority

of the English Isle. London is now a jungle of dead skyscrapers

and submerged streets. Fighting over the scraps of a world none can

remember, two Houses - the Crowns and the Rogues - have been at

war for three centuries.

Rafe is the Rogue army's fiercest captain. Jule is the

Crown army's deadliest soldier. They are vicious and merciless,

courageous and beloved by their Houses. They are sworn

enemies.

And then they fall in love.

It's a death sentence. But their love is all-consuming. As Rafe

and Jule try to keep each other alive in their war-torn world,

they are forced to confront new, horrifying threats. When mysterious

foreigners appear on their shores, the warring factions may destroy

each other, unless their two most ruthless soldiers can show

their people a different way and save them all.

A thrilling, war-torn, enemies-to-lovers romance set in future

London

This is YA dystopian Romeo & Juliet as two

rival soldiers risk everything they've ever known to fall in love

Perfect for fans of Shatter Me, the Delirium

triology and Lightlark.