BOBBY SKY: BOY BAND OR DIE

At fourteen, Robert "Hutch" Hutchinson is out of luck. His charm and singing voice and penchant for bursting into song at all the wrong times can't keep him out of trouble anymore. When he's arrested (again), he's given a choice: die in juvie or become a Shadow, the fearless, unstoppable and top-secret guardian of a Future Important Person, or FIP.

With nothing to lose, Hutch accepts. After two grueling years at the Future Affairs Training and Education (FATE) Center, Hutch can barely remember the boy he once was. His entire existence has been erased. Ready for anything, he expects to be plunged into a battle zone. Instead he learns that his FIP is someone named Ryo Enomoto. Yes, the Ryo Enomoto: front man of world-famous boy-band International. Worse, Hutch has to put his old talents to use. He must join the band and change his name to Bobby Sky. Is this for real? Has he really turned himself into a lethal killing machine.only to become a teen pop sensation?

Joe Shine grew up in Austin, Texas, (the greatest city ever) and is a graduate of Texas A&M University. He has a MFA from the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California, and after brief stints in Los Angeles and Washington DC Joe returned home to Austin (repeat: the greatest city ever). Joe has a normal human job like most everyone else but hopes to become a full-time writer one day, and this is where you, the reader, must do him a really big solid. I Become Shadow was his debut novel.