AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER
RELEASE DATE MAY 7, 2024
Sixteen-year-old Avall Tinning lives in a near-future world where genetic engineering, or “splicing,” is used to treat everything from acne to cancer—assuming you can afford it. And assuming you support it, which Avall’s mom definitely does not.
That means when Avall’s best friend Lyra can’t afford treatment for a life-threatening disease, Avall takes matters into her own hands. She finds Dr. Cutler, a geneticist who runs a summer camp where underprivileged teens can “earn” treatment by participating in research. He agrees to splice Lyra, but only if Avall serves as a stand-in for her friend at his camp. Avall decides it’s a small price to pay for Lyra’s life.
Until the camp–and Dr. Cutler–turn out to be shady as hell. There’s an Infirmary where Dr. Cutler conducts questionable genetic experiments on the campers. And risky challenges designed to pit campers against each other. Also, the doctor has a shadowy past involving over-splicing, illegal human cloning—and Avall’s mother. The stakes become even higher when Lyra is hospitalized with pneumonia.
Ultimately, Avall must decide if her friend’s life is more important than the other campers—including her summer-camp crush, Dr. Cutler’s son.
COMING SOON:
On a stifling Sunday afternoon, in a tiny town near Las Vegas, Mia, Riley, Liv and Katelyn are sitting through yet another lesson in Young Women about forgiveness. The teacher says the subject was a special request from one of the 16-year-old girls, and Riley Roberts wants to know who. The guilt from having made out with a random guy at a party the night before is weighing like a millstone around her neck.
Actually, it turns out all the girls in the class are struggling with forgiveness in one way or another. Liv has spent the last few days obsessing over a classmate who refuses to forgive her for being unkind. Katelyn is consumed with guilt over her mom’s recent death. And Mia, who was adopted just last year by her aunt and uncle, can’t fathom how she could ever forgive her biological mom and her mom’s abusive boyfriend.
The four girls return to school Monday to learn that Jack, who is in charge of planning Junior Prom, forgot to schedule the venue. That means Prom has been moved to the coming weekend. Everyone is suddenly scurrying to get dates. Now, the girls aren’t just worried about who will forgive whom–they are also stressing over who will go to Prom with whom.
To make matters worse, someone keeps posting video clips of Riley’s kissing session online. When Riley’s parents see the video, they ground her from boys–right after Ethan asks her to Prom. Unfortunately, that’s not the worst of it. It turns out Katelyn was hoping Ethan would ask her to Prom, and she’s devastated when she finds out he asked Riley instead.
Things escalate even more when Katelyn, now deeply depressed, disappears the day before Prom. Liv, Riley, and Mia put aside their own issues–and Prom plans–to come together and find their friend…discovering the power of the gift of forgiveness in the process. #forgiveme is a Young Adult religious fiction novel intended primarily for an LDS audience. It is told from the points of view of Riley, Liv, Katelyn, and Mia.
Kelli Price 