A Diary of a Book Addict: Around The World ARC Tours Presents The Leveller (The Leveller #1) by Julia Durango

About The Book:

Nixy Bauer is a self-made Leveller. Her job? Dragging kids out of virtual reality and back to their parents in the real world. It’s normally easy cash, but Nixy’s latest mission is fraught with real danger, intrigue, and romance.

Nixy Bauer is used to her classmates being very, very unhappy to see her. After all, she’s a bounty hunter in a virtual reality gaming world. Kids in the MEEP, as they call it, play entirely with their minds, while their bodies languish in a sleeplike state on the couch. Irritated parents, looking to wrench their kids back to reality, hire Nixy to jump into the game and retrieve them.

But when the game’s billionaire developer loses track of his own son in the MEEP, Nixy is in for the biggest challenge of her bounty-hunting career. Wyn Salvador isn’t some lazy kid looking to escape his homework: Wyn does not want to be found. And he’s left behind a suicide note. Nixy takes the job but quickly discovers that Wyn’s not hiding—he’s being held inside the game against his will. But who is holding him captive, and why?

Nixy and Wyn attempt to fight their way out of a mind game unlike any they’ve encountered, and the battle brings them closer than either could have imagined. But when the whole world is virtual, how can Nixy possibly know if her feelings are real?

Gamers and action fans of all types will dive straight into the MEEP, thanks to Julia Durango’s cinematic storytelling. A touch of romance adds some heart to Nixy’s vivid, multidimensional journey through Wyn’s tricked-out virtual city, and constant twists keep readers flying through to the breathtaking end.

Hardcover, 256 pages

Expected publication: June 23rd 2015 by HarperCollins

Review:

First off let me tell you something this book is the shiz ni eeee or sugar honey ice tea because I do not play video games but my son and husband are gamers and they loved the story. I started reading out loud to my son and then my husband started listening and they loved it. They kept asking me how I could get the second book and I told them to slow down let the first book come out first then we talk about book two.

A video programmer has created this new game that is all the rave with the kids called MEEP. It is a virtual world where the kids can do whatever they want and have no responsibilities. The only draw back to the game is that in reality the kids stay asleep the entire time they are playing.

So the parents hire Nixy a self made leveller who goes in the game and gets the kids back to reality home to their parents where they belong. Then she gets the biggest case she has ever had and that is the game developer's son is in the game and no one can find him. So the father hires Nixy and she soon learns that this game is playing for keeps and will not let go of Wyn without a fight. And that is what Wyn and Nixy do. They fight together to get out but everything is not what it seems and they are in for a true battle to get out of the game and back home.

About The Author:

Portrait of Julia by Bridget Stevenson

I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, to the Greiders. They always called me Julie when I was a kid, not Julia (too adult-sounding!), and I still go by both names. Due to my father's job, our family moved often. My older sister, Sherry, and I attended seven different schools in five states from California to Rhode Island. We never minded, as we always had each other wherever we went. It helped that we were close in age — born exactly one year and one week apart.

Julie & Sherry, 1970

When Sherry started school ahead of me and began learning how to read, I was SO jealous! But my sis was nice enough to come home every day and teach me how to read. By the time I started Kindergarten, I was an avid reader. Now Sherry is a teacher and reading specialist...and I still love to read.

Julia & friends in Bogotá, Colombia

In 1985 I left home to attend the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where I received degrees in Latin American Studies and Political Science. I traveled frequently to Latin America during that time, but mostly to Colombia, where I worked in a program for street children. I loved working with the kids, but it was also very sad to meet so many kids without homes or families. I later co-authored a chapter in Hate Crime: the Global Politics of Polarization about the abuse and murder of Colombian street children. I still travel to Colombia whenever I can.