Disruption

YA author Shirvington’s solid dystopian thriller for adults depicts a near-future America in which everyone turning 18 is fitted with “M-Bands” that can detect pheremonic compatibility, allowing people to find romantic partners. Those who register as “negative” with too many people are culled from society. Maggie Stevens’s father was one of the culled, and Maggie, who’s based in the Washington, D.C., area, has spent years attempting to find where he was taken. Her efforts involve breaking and entering, occasional acts of violence, and blackmail. The latter is what she uses to keep her hacker accomplice in line and to manipulate the rich and handsome heir to the M-Band fortune for her own purposes. Shirvington (the Embrace series) has a knack for writing tense action sequences and for classic YA romantic tension. A well-crafted twist sets up the next book in the series. [em]Agent: Selwa Anthony, Selwa Anthony Literary Management. (Oct.) [/em]