Description:
Mind-bending, fast-paced YA sci-fi with heart.
In the year 2154, virtual reality is an enticing escape ... but just for the privileged. For others, like sixteen-year-old Liv, reality means living by a contaminated bay that's sickened her little sister to the brink of death.
Liv is determined to find a cure. She ventures to a mysterious tropical island to infiltrate a tech empire owned by the world's most powerful man. When she encounters his son, Wolf, she's shocked. He isn't the shallow celebrity portrayed in the virtual world--he's an idealist with heart, committed to righting his father's wrongs. And when Wolf promises to help save her sister, he might just capture Liv's heart, too.
But as Liv and Wolf confront a danger beyond anything they could have imagined, they must unravel the deadly scheme at the core of the tech empire. And their world starts to crumble ... just as they're falling in love.
Rooted in futuristic science and ancient wisdom, Virch explores truth and illusion, human and environmental rights, and the forces of love behind it all.
Brief description: Laura Resau is the award-winning author of nine highly acclaimed young adult and middle grade novels, including The Lightning Queen, Tree of Dreams, What the Moon Saw, Red Glass, Star in the Forest, The Queen of Water (with Maria Virginia Farinango), and the Notebook series. Loved by kids and adults alike, Laura's novels have garnered many starred reviews and honors, including the International Reading Association's YA Fiction Award, the Americas Award, five Colorado Book Awards, spots on "best-of" book lists from Oprah, School Library Journal, the American Library Association, Bank Street, and more. Resau's writing has been called "vibrant, large-hearted" (Publishers' Weekly on Red Glass) and "powerful, magical" (Booklist on What the Moon Saw). You might find Laura writing in a vintage trailer in her backyard in Fort Collins or in her tiny cabin in the Rocky Mountains or on her travels in Latin America and Europe. When she's not writing, she's often wandering in the forest with her husband, cuddling with her senior rescue beagle, or head-banging (very carefully) at her teenage son's rock shows.