A very fast-paced near sci-fi whirlwind of a novel. I'm betting the elevator pitch was "The Hunger Games meets Ready Player One". Emika Chen is a bounty hunter, living two steps above homeless in New York City when she tries her hand at hacking into a major online tournament of the most popular virtual reality game, Warcross. Her glitch ends up catching the attention of Hideo Tanaka, the game's genius young founder. He swiftly pays off all her debts and flies her to Japan, to a new life as a professional Warcross player. But there's a lot more going on just under the surface- an international plot, assassination attempts, and a simmering romance. I was vaguely disappointed by the very end when I realized this book is the first of a series- I think it would have been stronger as a stand-alone. The plot carried a single novel well, but I'm uncertain if it can be stretched to more than one.