In an alternate version of the mid-2020s, global famine, mass extinctions, and the mysterious exhaustion of soil and water all threaten humankind. A corporate-run fascist American government concocted a profitable formula to increase crop production and now holds a world food monopoly—but cancers and birth defects have spiked both at home and abroad. In Minneapolis, 26-year-old Caitlyn Svendsen defiantly tries to unravel the government’s secret formula and fight what the docile public accepts: “The health crisis was camouflaged as the new normal. As if a sixty-three percent cancer rate among the population could possibly be normal.” The rest of the planet is not so willing to ignore the crisis. Russia spearheads an alliance (including Mexico, Japan, and Israel) to blitzkrieg the American coasts, wipe out Food Traitors (a group based in Washington, D.C.), and seize the heartland. Russian hackers have been monitoring Caitlyn and her suppressed research; Commander Kaleb Volkov, a legendary operative of the fearsome Spetsnaz special forces, and his team are to infiltrate Minnesota and bring Caitlyn to Moscow to brew up a cure. But Kaleb, masquerading as an American officer, has become infatuated with Caitlyn (whom he calls his “Viking princess”), as she turns out to be fierce, indomitable, and good with guns. But Caitlyn despises Kaleb, despite his declarations of devotion and protection, and she demands sanctuary in neutral Canada. This is high-octane plot material that’s bracing in its portrayal of both the United States and Russia as nests of evil and corruption. The novel may not satisfy a readership that may be hoping for epic-scale combat ops; instead, the work is closer to a thriller-romance with its genre-mainstay enemies-to-lovers arc. (Readers will likely visualize an Arnold Schwarzenegger type as the muscular Kaleb.) The book does feature some occasional violence, including torture, plus weighty themes of betrayal, guilt, Eastern European folklore, and fatalism, all of which add a kick to this killer-boy-meets-tough-girl dystopian series opener.