THE ASSASSIN'S GUIDE TO BABYSITTING

A BountyApp job booking makes a night of babysitting go very wrong for a superhuman teen.

Seventeen-year-old Tru Stallard has spent nearly eight years hiding in plain sight from the people who murdered her parents. She’s learned from the best—her infamous ex-assassin guardian, Logan Dire—how to be constantly vigilant for when (not if) the bad guys come back. No one, not even her best friends, Sage, Embry, and Amethyst, can know that she used to be named Gertrude Grey and, worse, that she’s a bastion—the rarest of all the talents in their underground world of superpowered people. Bastions are impervious to injury, making them feared and hunted in Underhill, the talented community existing in tunnels beneath Kansas City, where Tru lives. But when an innocent babysitting job turns violent, Tru must decide whom she can trust with the truth in order to protect baby Thea, whose mysterious powers have attracted the worst kind of attention. The threat includes Lila, Tru’s longtime crush and Sage’s older sister, who happens to work for the very people who are hunting Tru and Thea. Parker balances energetic action scenes with nuanced character development in which main and side characters alike shine. While the romance between Lila and Tru feels a bit superficial, the plot twists and endearing friendships will keep readers engaged. Tru, Logan, and Sage read white, Embry is cued Latine, and Amethyst has brown skin.

A heart-pumping, high-stakes ride.