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Recoil (Recoil Trilogy Book 1)
Genre
YA Dystopian Romance
Page Count
258
Synopsis
When a skilled gamer gets recruited as a sniper in the war against a terrorist-produced pandemic, she discovers there’s more than one enemy and more than one war. The Game is real.
Three years after a series of terrorist attacks flooded the US with a lethal plague, society has changed radically.
Sixteen year-old Jinxy James spends her days trapped at home – immersed in virtual reality, worrying about the plague and longing for freedom. Then she wins a war simulation game and is recruited into a top-secret organisation where talented teenagers are trained to become agents in the war on terror. Eager to escape her mother’s over-protectiveness and to serve her country, Jinxy enlists and becomes an expert sniper of infected mutant rats.
She’s immediately drawn to Quinn O’Riley, a charming and subversive intelligence analyst who knows more about the new order of government and society than he is telling. Then a shocking revelation forces Jinxy to make an impossible decision, and she risks losing everything.
Recoil is the first book in a Young Adult dystopian romance trilogy, and makes great reading for lovers of Rick Yancey (The Fifth Wave), Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games), and Veronica Roth (Divergent).
BONUS CONTENT! Chapter one of Refuse (book 2 in the Recoil series) included in this version!
Excerpt From Recoil:
Now, as the vehicle pulled off, I got to study the smiling gray eyes, the wayward mahogany hair, and the dark tone of his skin. I couldn’t decide if he was naturally olive-skinned or just deeply tanned, but together with the silver ring piercing his left brow, it made him look like a pirate. Black-and-white checkerboard sneakers stuck out below fraying denims — alone amongst all of us, he wasn’t wearing a disposable PPE suit. He was wearing faded Levis and a long-sleeved gray T-shirt printed with the graphic of a stick figure who had a single, vertical line for an eye, and something written below. As I leaned forward to read the message, the Hummer bounced roughly over a pothole and I lurched forward almost into his lap. He caught me around the arms, steadying me. Bruce grabbed a handful of the back of my suit and snatched me back into my seat beside him.
“Would you like to sit next to me” — the pirate gestured to the space beside him — “or perhaps in my lap?” His voice was deep with a slight lilt to it, and one eye twitched as he spoke. Unless … Had he just winked at me?
Where to Find the Book:
Meet Joanne!
When not writing, Joanne Macgregor is a counselling psychologist in private practice where she works mainly with victims of crime and trauma.
Although she lives in the frenetic adrenaline-rush of the big city, Joanne has always been in love with nature, and escapes into the wilds whenever she can. She's a Harry Potter fanatic, bakes the best choc-chip cookies on the planet, and is addicted to chilies and bulletproof coffee. She started her professional life as a high school English teacher and loves writing abuot, and for, teens. She is the author of several books for Young Adults - Turtle Walk (2011), Rock Steady (2013), Fault Lines (2016), Scarred (2015) and Recoil (2016). |
Interview
- When did you start writing?
- I had a (dreadful) poem published in the newspaper at the age of seven, so I guess I've been a word-wrangler since the get-through. But I started writing books, with the intention of getting them published, in 2008.
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- Oatmeal raisin or chocolate chip?
- Chocolate chip! (I bake the best choc-chips cookies, too, so it's a constant temptation.)
- Do you ever write characters you hate?
- Yeah, I do, but I often really enjoy writing them. Which worries me. I will add that even a villain is the hero of his own story, so it's important that there's some aspect about them that is admirable or likeable, otherwise they become one-dimensional (and unbelievable) caricatures.
- What's your favorite pie?
- Hmmm, it would have to be savoury. Let's go with steak-and-kidney. Though I would eat any kind of pie if I could eat it with Dean Winchester ;)
- What do you enjoy, outside of writing?
- Reading (I know, right? So surprising!), cooking, vegetable gardening, travelling, and shooting the breeze on Twitter.
- Were there any scenes in Recoil that were difficult for you to write?
- In Recoil, I really wanted to give readers a vivid sense of this near-future, plague-riddled world, so I spent lots of time thinking up plausible details that I could weave into the story without slowing down the narrative. I had to imagine what life would be like if you almost never went outdoors - how would you shop, go on dates, or get your schooling? What would the Oscars be like, and what would your world look like?
- In Refuse (the second book in the trilogy), the hardest bits to write were some hectically emotional scenes in which Jinxy really gets given a hard time. I hate hurting my protagonists, but somebody has to do it.
- Do you prefer your books in print or e-book format?
- Either, both! For me, it's the story that matters, not the packaging. I love that I can take paperbacks into the bath, but I love that ebooks are more affordable and eco-friendly.
- Batman or Superman?
- Harry Potter for the win! (If you force me to choose, I'd go with Superman, because he has the better heart, and doesn't have to rely on technological gizmos :)
- What is your favorite book?
- So many I could never choose one, but my favorites include East of Eden (John Steinbeck), Persuasion by Jane Austen, and the Harry Potter series (by the other Jo).
- Humor me, because this is my favorite (mythical) animal: Would you ever consider putting a platypire in one of your books?
- If I understand correctly, a platypire is a really weird creature (mammal with a duck bill that lays eggs, has poisonous spurs and electroreception), that just got weirder (wings, blood-sucking fangs). Have I written characters that descend on you, suck you dry, hurt you and behave like nothing you've ever encountered before? You betcha!