Read: Jacqueline Carey - Santa Olivia

I bought this book last year while visiting New York, and read it in one fast go over a couple of days. I left it behind for my friend to read, and then picked it up again when visiting this past weekend.

It's a pretty off-beat future story - the world has somewhat fallen apart after a flu epidemic, a US town that borders Mexico ends up caught in a military-controlled no man's land when the border is sealed. It starts off with an ordinary woman meeting an unusual man - a genetically modified man with great strength, speed, and no fear. You think it's going to be their love story, or maybe a government intrigue story, or an end-of-the-world society falling apart story, but it isn't. She gets pregnant, he flees the military, and it becomes the story of their daughter, Loup, who inherits her father's characteristics.

Growing up she's the force behind some pranks that convince the town that Santa Olivia (a legendary girl who brought peace during a war by bringing a basket of food to the soldiers) is real, and wreaking vengeance upon the evil and doing good deeds for the well-deserving. So you think it's going to be a Robin Hood kind of story, but it isn't. The pranks get too much heat from the military, so she backs down, just as her brother dies in a boxing accident. Next thing you know, it's a boxing story - she's taking on his legacy to fight the man who killed her brother.

And it's a good boxing story - something I never thought I had any interest in, but Carey makes it comprehensible and gripping. Along the way Loup falls in love with the most unlikely person in town, makes friends with another unlikely person, fights her fight, and then makes her escape. It's all set up for a sequel, which I see on the author's website is in the editing stage - I can't wait to read it, because it's pretty difficult to predict where the plot will twist with this character.