PHOENIX_ The story of teens who are part of a hidden super-race is the grand prize winner of the 2017 Great Southwest Book Festival, which honors the best books of the late winter/spring. Author Lauren Hudson’s “The Ascension” (Headline Books) explores the lives of Desdemona, Felix and Jinx, who learn on their 15th birthdays that nothing in their world is as it seems. Instead of being normal teens, they discover that their biological mother, Jane Anchor, is a member of the mysterious Asterian race. Now her children must decide whether they can stop her plot of terror and destruction and preserve the hidden community of guardian angels on earth. Hudson and other winners in the competition will be honored at a private ceremony later this month.
