The Impossible Dream

Aleck Morganson just wants to live an ordinary life: helping out on her family's farm, attending high school, and making friends. The only problem is that she's a cyborg forged as the ultimate weapon against a savage invading race bent on the destruction of humanity. In her debut novel, Joy Yakovlev tells the galaxy-spanning story of a girl with immense physical power whose biggest dream is to just be like everyone else.

A warrior from the age of eight, most of Aleck's life has consisted of one horror piled upon the next. But during a rare lull in the fighting, she is given leave to live with her aunt and uncle. Desperately attempting to overcome her mental scars, she attends high school, and there she forms a circle of friends with three other students: tech-genius Ben, the observant Odette, and Jareth, disgraced high prince of the planet Rillia. Though close to them all, her bond with Jareth is much deeper, and the two discover that they have a unique telepathic connection that gives them great power when they need it.

But the war still rages, and Aleck must travel to the stars to fight once again. This time, however, she has the help of her friends, and her developing love for Jareth, to help her through the horrors she must face. In the end, she will need every bit of their strengths and talents to defeat the powerful forces she faces and return to the common realities of the small-town world that she truly loves.