New Release
Synopsis
Quinn is
looking forward to her senior year. She has big plans to hang out with her best
friend Mandy, flirt with cute boy-genius Rashid, party at her favorite dive
bar, and figure out what she’s going to do after graduation with her
not-so-useful art major degree. But that is before she meets Luke, a hot townie
who moves back home to help take care of his dying sister. And it is before the
weird epidemic that starts sweeping campus in which people’s eyes mysteriously
turn purple. Is it an odd side effect from a new party drug? Is it a rogue
bacteria that was developed in a campus lab? Whatever it is, tensions are
heating up as the town starts blaming the university, and the student religious
group is convinced that it’s the mark of the devil. Quinn and Luke are caught
in the middle, especially when Quinn learns that Luke isn’t just a
happy-go-lucky, redneck boy-next-door—he is a detective—a fact that triggers
Quinn’s phobia of guns and memories of her deceased uncle. In spite of herself
and her desire to remain unattached and independent, Quinn finds herself
falling for him. But when town and gown relations heat up even further, and
Quinn’s friend Danny mysteriously falls to his death, Quinn vows to discover
the truth behind the epidemic. As she searches for the people responsible, she
realizes that sometimes to gain your independence, you have to be willing to
give a little bit of it up.
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Excerpt
“Did you
go to college?”
His jaw is
tight. “Yes.”
“Do you
think I could guess your major?” I ask.
“Probably
not,” he says.
I don’t
like that I don’t even get a hint at what he did before or what he studied. I
shrug, start on my second hotdog and then lean back, really aiming for a glint
in my eye, if that’s possible to control. I’ll make this a game. “Well, do you
think you can guess mine?”
He smiles.
“Do I get something if I guess right?”
I hop up
onto a stool and let the tip of my toe brush against his knee. When I make
contact, he starts, before leaning in. “What do you want?”
“I want a
lot of things…” He stares at me. “But for now, I’d settle for a second date.”
“Okay, if
you can guess my major, on the first try—” I emphasize that bit with a pointed
finger, “—then I’ll reluctantly agree to go out with you again.”
“I don’t
like the reluctant part, but I’ll take what I can get. Now, let’s see…” He rubs
his chin as though he’s an old-timey detective. He’s ready to pace back and
forth across the room with a pipe and a deerstalker hat. “You like
photography.”
Shit, he
does know that. I start to hum the Jeopardy! theme song. Maybe if
time is running out he’ll be more likely to guess quickly and get it wrong? Do
I want him to get it wrong?
“Okay, I
got it.” He rubs his hands together. “You’re an art major.” His cheeks swell
with the weight of his smile.
“You got
that just because I take pictures?” I rub my forehead.
“I know
more than that.”
“Someone
told you,” I say. “If this bet was rigged, it doesn’t count.”
He jerks
back and shakes his head, frowning. “No, I wouldn’t do that,” he says. “I
noticed you had some pottery on your coffee table, with initials on it, a Q.
B.?”
I nod.
He’s talking about the bowl I made last year. Initials usually go on the
bottom, but I painted them big and proud in the middle. And the bowl is empty.
Mandy and I haven’t decided what to put in it. We narrowed it down to fake
fruit (lame), M&M’S (which we would devour) or Micro Machines. Clearly,
we’re leaning toward Micro Machines.
Luke takes
my hand. I think he’s trying to convey his earnestness, his respectability and
seriousness of not tricking me into a bet. The pads of my fingers brush against
his rough palms and I suppress a sigh. His thumb runs along my pointer finger,
sliding to the fingernail. “You also have paint under your nails.” His
victorious, smug smile is in full bloom.
I pull my
hand away, embarrassed. “Yeah, it’s hard to get all the paint off.”
“I’m
sure,” he says.
About the Author
Caitlin Sinead is
represented by Andrea Somberg at Harvey Klinger, Inc. and her
debut novel, Heartsick,
will be published by Carina
Press in 2015. Her writing has earned accolades from Alfred
Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Glimmer
Train, and Writers & Artists, and her stories have appeared in
multiple publications, including The Alarmist, The Binnacle, Crunchable, Jersey Devil Press, and Northern Virginia Magazine. She
earned a master's degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University.
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