Emerald City By Astrid Cole

After nearly suffering defeat at the hands of her sister, Sage Arpine does all in her power to return to a normal life. Her fairy-tale dreams of marrying a prince and living at the palace don’t quite turn out, but she can’t complain now that she’s found true love, reunited with her nieces, and returned to her pizzeria in Diamond City. At least, that’s what she thinks.

With the Lolligo spying on humans and using women for reproduction experiments, Sage knows she isn’t safe no matter where she turns. As try as she might to ignore the calls to battle, she doesn’t have a choice when she realizes the new Diamond City Allseers are plotting to capture her, too. As the successful offspring of a Lolligo and human, Sage’s blood has the potential to turn others into enhanced warriors, and what growing city wouldn’t want an opportunity to empower their army? Sage’s hopes of running her pizzeria and marrying her fiancé are dashed when she’s betrayed—yet again—by the very city she united in the past. Forced to flee once more, Sage finds herself in the Outskirts, where she battles more than just Lolligo and their laser guns—she discovers Emerald City and their disturbing, dark secrets.

Sage is not the only hybrid out there. Like the Lolligo, Emerald City has been experimenting with genetics and they want all their test subjects back. If Sage wants any semblance of that fairy-tale dream she’s after, she has to confront the strongest army of enhanced beings she’s ever faced in her life. Stopping them would be so much easier if she didn’t have a family to protect.

Sage could run and hide forever…but it’s never been in her nature to do that. With people’s lives at stake, she’ll have to fight, even with the odds stacked heavily against her.

Really stacked. Diamond City and the Lolligo haven’t given up on her, either.

Sage should have stuck to pizza.