Title: Heist
Genre: YA Psychological Thriller
Publication Date: August 11th 2013
Publisher: Redpoint Press
Synopsis
Can one decision change the past?
Jack Brodie has a sixth sense that someone has been watching him. Following him.
One night he travels back in time to one of the world’s largest art thefts, known as the Gardner Heist. Why that one moment in time? And what does it mean for Jack?
When he returns, his world is different. His best friend is rougher, meaner. His dad hasn’t been around in years. And then there’s Jetta. The girl who took over his heart the moment she stepped into his life. No one is safe.
Each time Jack goes back to the heist to fix his mistakes, he returns to face the fallout. Disaster strikes in the present until Jack must make a choice. His family and his own happiness. Or the girl he loves. Except, he learns that his sixth sense was right.
Someone has been watching him and wants him dead.
Excerpt
Jetta stops. The March breeze blows strands
of hair across her face, partially masking her eyes. People walking to work
flow around us. “How would you know about that?”
I stammer. How did I let that slip? The
answer comes immediately and I blurt, “A psychic used to live in the coffee
shop.”
Jetta crosses her arms, and her eyes narrow
in on me with a dangerous look. “And you picked up some tricks?”
“Just a few here and there.” The doubt in
her eyes forces me to scramble for a way out. A distraction. “Do you want me to
read your palm?”
She pulls me out of the flow of pedestrians
and holds out her hand, disbelief in her eyes. “Leave out the bad crap, ’kay?”
I wipe my sweaty palms off on my jeans then
grab hold of her wrist. The contact sends tiny bolts through me. My gaze
travels up to her face, her creamy skin, the lips that seem so kissable. I
gulp. “No prob.”
“Why is your hand trembling?” Jetta asks.
I puff out my chest and make my voice as
serious as possible. “It’s the psychic power getting ready to be unleashed.”
“Should I be scared?” Jetta whispers
mockingly, her voice breathless.
I wink. “You’re in the hands of a
professional.”
“What a cheesy line.” She rolls her eyes.
“Hope you can do better than that.”
“Don’t disturb the master while he’s at
work.” I raise my voice and manipulate my voice to sound like a gruff old man.
An elderly lady flashes me a strange look.
Jetta giggles, light radiating across her
face. Her eyes sparkle.
Slowly, I trace my finger down a line that
stretches across her palm. My fingers tingle. The overwhelming smell of peaches
comes to me. “You like peaches.”
“That’s my body spray.”
I clear my throat and try not to look at her
soft pink lips. I trace a line that runs diagonal opposite her thumb.
“Creativity flows through you like a mountain spring.”
“You already know I like art. Doesn’t
count.”
I throw her a stern look, which produces
another round of giggles. “Fine.” I search for the right words to save Jetta
from her grandmother. I’m the only one who can warn her. I wish I had that kind
of power in Dad’s life. In Stick’s life. “Stay away from art festivals
today.”
“Why would I go to an art festival? I just
moved into town. And that doesn’t count because that’s like saying, ‘Don’t
climb Mt. Everest during lunch break.’”
“You’re testing the powers of the Great
Fiasco.” I think hard about what to say next. This might be my only chance.
What simple fortune will protect her?
“Does my hand say anything about being late
to school on my first day?” she demands.
“Zippo. But wait,” I pull her hand closer,
“I see a silver Mercedes.”
Jetta’s breath catches in her throat. “And?”
“Stay close to your friends so trouble won’t
find you.”
She yanks her hand back as if I shocked her.
She smoothes her hair and fiddles with the bow. Her face pales as if she has
secrets in her life—reasons to be in trouble.
“This is silly,” she states and forges a
path down the sidewalk, ending the conversation. “Let’s go. I need time to pass
in my transfer records.”
I
follow, trying to not watch her hips sway with every step, and suppressing the
curious feelings beating with my heart.
The science behind time travel.
I’ve always loved stories or movies that
involve time travel. Not so much the science fiction aspect behind it, but how
it affects the characters and the storyline. But, that didn’t mean I could
ignore the science in my time travel novel.
At first, when Heist was going to be a humorous upper middle grade novel, there
was going to be a science lab, a failed experiment, an explosion - and voila -
time travel. That didn’t quite fit with the story that was coming out on the page.
After the first draft, while doing more in-depth research, I stumbled upon a
sickness called, the Stendhal
Syndrome. This is a psychosomatic disorder causing dizziness, fainting,
confusion, and even hallucinations,
when exposed to a large amount of art, and more particularly, beautiful art.
I had my answer. In Heist, Jack Brodie, the main character, has this experience. Copies
of the stolen art from the Gardner Museum Heist, bring him back to the night of
the crime, March 17, 1990. Also, this fit better with my realistic, gritty time
travel, then trying to have an actual futuristic time travel machine.
Laura Pauling writes young adult fiction. She lives the cover of suburban mom/author perfectly, from the minivan to the home-baked snickerdoodles, while hiding her secret missions and covert operations. But shh. Don't tell anyone!
Her YA Circle of Spies Series includes A SPY LIKE ME and HEART OF AN ASSASSIN. Book three, TWIST OF FATE will be released in the fall of 2013.
HEIST, a young adult, psychological thriller, will be released the summer of 2013.
Website/Goodreads/Facebook/Twitter
I think HEIST sounds very exciting. I do love the cover.
ReplyDeleteMe too! :)
DeleteThanks for participating in the book blitz!!!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading it! :)
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