TWISTED won for best book in the 2013 Young Author Contest by Deep Sea Publishing. It is part 1 of the Twisted series by Brittany Hawes. Street-smart and sassy Lola Phillips has never had it easy. An orphan at the age of eight and a high school dropout at the age of 16, Lola’s only concerns in life are making it to the next day while living on Skid Row and seeking out her missing parents. When a mysterious man approaches her with a tempting offer to help her find out what happened to her parents, she agrees. Her agreement: To take on the name of Harlot Rue and become his personal agent and assassin. Easy, right? Lola takes her new job and is propelled into a world she had no idea existed underground. Welcome to H Corporation, a secret organization burrowed miles beneath the earth, hidden away from the rest of the world. Their goal is to maintain peace throughout the world and they need people like Lola Phillips to do so. Unfortunately, being a teenaged girl comes with the same problems no matter where you are—even miles underground. Enter infuriatingly handsome and haughty Retro, a fellow agent whose main mission seems like it may be to make Lola fall madly in love with him. It’s up to Lola to stay grounded enough to do what she came to do. But finding her parents won’t be as easy as she’s expecting, especially when there’s another organization who would do anything, including murder, to stop her.