Check out my stop on the blog tour for Selected by Barb Han from Entangled Teen!
by Barb Han
Genre: YA
Release Date: February 2020
Entangled Teen
Summary:
After a polarized nation was broken by the threat of civil war, States have now become countries. And in New Maine, things have gotten worse.
Giving my family a better life is everything. And my selection to attend an elite prep school suddenly offers my family a dramatically different life—food on the table, a roof over their heads, and a fighting chance at a future.
Everything is going great until some of my friends begin ghosting me, and then disappear. Soon it becomes clear this “chance of a lifetime” isn’t the Holy Grail I was promised. And the attention from one of Easton’s elite has me questioning why a boy with a golden future wants to risk it by being seen with me.
But when I find out why I’m really at this school, I may have to trust him if I want to live.
About the Author
BARB HAN is a USA TODAY, Publisher's Weekly, and Amazon Bestselling Author. Reviewers have called her books "heartfelt" and "exciting."
She lives in Texas--her true north--with her adventurous family, a poodle mix and a spunky rescue who is often referred to as a hot mess. She is the proud owner of too many books (if there is such a thing). When not writing, she can be found exploring Manhattan, on a mountain either hiking or skiing depending on the season, or swimming in her own backyard.
Sign up for Barb's newsletter or to receive a postcard for her new releases at www.BarbHan.com.
Excerpt:
Adalynn tugs me away from the crowd
and then spins around to face me. To her credit, she’s not bothered by the
grades anymore. She never holds mine against me. “Okay, don’t look,
but he’s standing at two o’clock and
staring right at you. This is like the gazillionth time this semester.”
“No way. He is not.” My heart trills
in my chest anyway, and my cheeks burn with embarrassment. I risk
a glance as he snaps the rubber band around his wrist. He’s done it before when
he’s been nervous,
but it happens so fast that I doubt anyone else ever notices. A flicker of
emotion—uncertainty?—passes across his features before he regains his casual
demeanor.
I blame test grades. I tug down the
sleeve of my sweater, the last gift from my brother, over the burn mark
covering my left forearm. No matter how hot the weather, I always wear long
sleeves. The couple who sponsors me almost canceled their application when they
saw my arm. I guess they thought it was some kind of deformity,
but it’s just a burn. Like I said, people freak
out over the smallest imperfections.
This whole Sponsored
program is new.
I’m part of the initial group of five who started together freshman year. Our
numbers have grown to fourteen. Thirteen, now that Lillian is gone.
“Oh, crap, he’s walking over here,”
Adalynn says with huge blue eyes that look like a bug’s on steroids. “Told you
he likes you.”
“Whatever you do, don’t leave me.” I
turn to glance down the hall to see if she’s playing some kind of twisted joke.
I swear I can feel my heart pounding in my throat when
I see him making
a beeline in my direction. His eyes lock onto mine.
I might throw up.
His hair parts to one side,
and it feathers effortlessly. His hair is a little longer than the school dress
code allows, but his family has plenty of money to smooth
over that little road bump. For most people, the prep school is strict. Not so
much for Legacies. And especially not for Caius Fitch. He’s different.
If rich had a galaxy, his family would
be a comet soaring far above it. But it’s more than that. He’s the only Legacy who ever
smiles at me in the hallway. We had English together last year. He didn’t speak
up much, but his answers were always thoughtful when he did, not like the
others who were more interested in getting a laugh than in paying attention. I
was a
teacher’s assistant, and t here were a few times he hung around after
class like he was waiting to talk to me after I finished erasing the
chalkboards and tidying up the room, but he never did.
He’s been early to pick up his younger
sister for the past few weeks, and I’ve seen him in the halls of the dance
building. If he’s coming this way, he must want something. Maybe he saw my
grade and wants to hire me for tutoring. I get requests like that all the time.
I half expect him to duck into a
hallway before he reaches me. He doesn’t. And now I panic. At least my friend
is still here.
“Adal—” I stop mid-word. She’s gone.
My Review:
The United States is no longer The United States as it has
been torn apart by the threat of civil war. The threat has caused each state to
split off from each other and have each became their own country. Selected is
set in the future in what is now known as New Maine formerly known as the state
of Maine.
Selected tells the story of kids attending an elite school
with different groups of students. There are five groups at Easton the most
competitive high school in the country. The five groups are the Cerebrals,
Athletes, Tech Nerds, Legacy Kids and the Sponsored. Everyone who attends
Easton compete against one another for the best or highest score so they can
get into college.
Selected tells the story of Victoria Faith Aldridge known to
her friends as Tori who is one of the Sponsored students meaning she was
selected to attend Easton because of her special talent, dancing. As a
Sponsored student Tori’s family will get fed and housed for as long as she attends
school at Easton. She has a very strict set of rules that she must follow or
she will lose her status and her family will no long reap of the benefits.
Tori is trying very hard to follow all the rules in order to
keep her family fed and taken care of and so she can go to college. It’s not
long before Tori starts to notice that something is not quite right at Easton.
Some of the students are disappearing. Where have all the students gone? What
has happened to them?
Tori has no idea but she sure plans on finding out with the
help of her new boyfriend Caius Fitch a Legacy Kid. Caius and Tori start
slipping out at night so they can be together but if they are caught they could
be thrown out of school and Tori’s family would lose everything.
Selected is a very engrossing read with wonderful characters
and an engaging plot. I really hope to see more of the world created for
Selected in future books. I would love to see more of how the system in
Selected works and how it came to be. I would also like to see how this system
works in the outside world or what kind of regime the outside world has to
follow. I would also like to get to know more about Tori’s brother Trevor.
I highly recommend Selected to all dystopian fans.
BARB HAN is a USA TODAY, Publisher's Weekly, and Amazon Bestselling Author. Reviewers have called her books "heartfelt" and "exciting."
She lives in Texas--her true north--with her adventurous family, a poodle mix and a spunky rescue who is often referred to as a hot mess. She is the proud owner of too many books (if there is such a thing). When not writing, she can be found exploring Manhattan, on a mountain either hiking or skiing depending on the season, or swimming in her own backyard.
Sign up for Barb's newsletter or to receive a postcard for her new releases at www.BarbHan.com.
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