Pretty Fierce

Gr 8 Up—Kaia has spent the past year trying to live as a normal teenager. Even the people closest to her don't know anything about her past, which is anything but normal: she is the daughter of professional hit men. When a job goes wrong and her parents are nowhere to be found, Kaia goes into hiding, trying to pass as an average high schooler. Fellow student Oliver is a great distraction, and together they share ordinary teen experiences until the day that Kaia is attacked by her parents' enemies and Oliver witnesses the whole thing. Now Kaia's secret is out, and she must take Oliver with her on the run as she escapes. Though Kaia's particular experiences will be foreign to almost all teens—having assassins as parents, attempting to take down a drug cartel—the struggles she faces with her identity and relationships with her parents and with her boyfriend feel universally real and relevant. Told in alternating viewpoints, with well-integrated flashbacks to Kaia's previous life, Scott's novel is a fast-paced page-turner that combines elements of a thriller with romance.