AustLit

'Knock down, kickass nightclub bouncer Ava Sykes takes us deep into a dystopian world and out the other side in this dark and gritty, high-action urban fantasy

'Some things are better left in the dark . . .

'Undergraduate by day, bouncer by night, Ava Sykes is just trying to make her way in New LA, a city recovering in the 'Aftermath' the time after an earthquake tore the country apart. Ava studies hard, trains at the local dojo, and teaches kids self-defence. Sure, she has a rare blood disorder and a stolen identity, but who doesn't keep a few secrets these days? Life is tough, but when Ava takes a job at the trendy new club, Poseidon, her financial worries seem to be over.

'Then the evil wakes up.

'After stumbling into the VIP area of the club, where humans are on the menu, Ava is attacked in the street, and finds herself in the hospital, trying to put the pieces together. The bizarre hallucinations aren't helping, and neither is Dr. Miguel Rossi, the man who claims to know more about her origins than she does.

'Shocked to the core at the discovery, Ava begins a search for her birth mother — and the truth — but with a copycat killer on her tail, the attractive and powerful Daniel Bane offering to protect her and a doctor bent on unravelling her mysterious 'condition', the facts are hard to pin down. Meanwhile, the 'otherness' in her blood makes her increasingly irresistible to all the wrong people.

'Ava used to dream of knowing where she came from but faced with the truth, she'd give anything to forget.' (Publication summary)