At fourteen, Robert "Hutch" Hutchinson is out of luck. His charm and singing voice-and penchant for bursting into song at all the wrong times-can't keep him out of trouble anymore. When he's arrested (again): he's given a choice: die in juvie or become a shadow: the fearless, unstoppable, and top-secret guardian of a Future Important Person, or FIP. With nothing to lose, Hutch accepts. After two grueling years at the Future Affairs Training and Education (FATE) Center, Hutch can barely remember the boy he once was. His entire existence has been erased. Ready for anything, he expects to be plunged into a battle zone. Instead he learns that his FIP is someone named Ryo Enomoto. Yes, the Ryo Enomoto: front-man of world-famous boy band International. Worse, Hutch has to put his old talents to use. He must join the band and change his name to Bobby Sky. Is this for real? Has he really turned himself into a lethal killing machine . . . only to become a teen pop sensation?
This debut thriller combines a pulse-pounding thriller with a new-adult coming-of-age story set at Texas A&M University.
When Ren Sharpe was fourteen, she was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called FATE and trained to be a human weapon.
Now, four years later, she receives her assignment: protect Gareth Young at all costs. Currently a student at Texas A&M, Gareth will someday change the world. FATE calls people like Gareth “FIPs”—future important people—and they’re everywhere, each with a FATE-trained shadow.
But when disaster strikes, Ren will have to turn on her maker. Together with Junie, a fellow abductee and the one person she trusts, Ren takes Gareth on the run.
Because whatever else happens, failure is not an option.
“The greatest strength is Ren’s jokey, snark-a-minute narration; that alone puts it in the same ballpark as Michelle Gagnon’s Persefone trilogy or Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider thrillers.”—VOYA