In the After by Elisa Dane
Publication Date:
February 2, 2016
Publisher: Swoon
Romance
Sadie Reynolds is a liar with secrets. At school, she’s part
of the popular crowd known as AE, despite being broken inside. She hides it
well. She has to. The slightest bit of imperfection will land her in the same
shoes as her Geeky neighbor named Ian.
Ian and his only friend are the object of Sadie’s friends’
ridicule, ire, and entertainment. The AE rule the school with intimidation and
retribution against anyone who would dare question their supremacy.
Sadie steers clear of most of it, terrified someone will
find out her secret. She isn’t the least bit perfect. In fact, she suffers from
PTSD stemming from the murder of her mother right before her eyes when she was
a child. She can barely cope from day-to-day, hiding her truth and trying to
fit in. But she knows it’s only a matter of time.
Hayden is a “Waverly,” a kid with the misfortune of living
in the small farming town of Waverly that borders the very affluent Lexington
Parrish. The AE doesn’t mix with “Waverlies.” Ever.
Desperate to get away from her oppressive friends, Sadie
crashes into Hayden at a bonfire and the attraction that sparks between them is
nothing short of electric. But Hayden’s an outsider and when things heat up,
Sadie will be forced to choose between her friends and her new boyfriend.
Only Queen Bee Britt isn’t having it. She will not allow
Sadie to cross her. Sadie can either do what Britt wants her to do or she will
reveal Sadie for the PTSD freak that she is.
Sadie does some soul searching about who she is and who she
wants to be. She can’t live her life like this. Not any more. One fateful night
will help her see how much things have to change.
She’s determined to no longer allow the AE to rule her life.
She will be strong, stand up for Ian and love who she wants in Hayden.
Determined and invigorated, Sadie goes to school feeling hopeful for the first
time in forever.
But, the unthinkable happens.
Shooters attack dozens of students before the two eventually
take their own lives, leaving the school a decimated shadow of what it once
was.
Suddenly who lives where, wears what or loves whom seems
like the least of Lexington Parish’s problems as everyone and everything
changes forever in the after.
IN THE AFTER by Elisa
Dane is a hard-hitting and heart-warming story of tragedy, love, loss and
redemption. It is recommended for readers 14+.
Excerpt:
“I’m going to kick Dane in the nut sack. It looks like a
serial killer came at your face with a hacksaw.”
I watched the students milling up and down the school’s main
hallway toward their first period classes feeling as though I were encased in
some sort of bubble. Britt’s words cut deeper than the rose bush that marred my
face, but I didn’t let it show. I’d never give her the satisfaction of knowing
she’d hurt me in any way. So, I did what I always did—I readjusted my invisible
armor, reminded myself I’d put on my Big Girl panties that morning, and donned
a fake smile. “Please … The stupid jerk scared me to death! If anyone’s busting
his nuts, it’s gonna be me.”
Jenna closed her locker with a giggle and scooted in
alongside me while we waited for Britt to finish primping. Decked out in
Victoria’s Secret bling sweats, with her hair pulled into a stylish side braid,
Britt looked both comfortable and cute, which irritated the crap out of me. I’d
worn a similar pair of sweats to school three weeks before and was told I
looked like a frumpy hobo. Clearly Britt was the only person at Atwood who was
allowed to rock hobo chic.
She smoothed on a fresh layer of gloss and eyeballed us from
the mirror hanging inside her locker door. “Party at my house this Friday. Both
you bitches better be there,” She rolled her lips together, spreading her newly
applied gloss, then shut her locker door. Brow raised and lip quirked into a
devious smile, she hugged her folder between her arm and her body and faced me
full on. “About Dane … I know he wants to take things to the next level with
you, so maybe we should leave his balls intact.”
My eyebrows shot up into my hairline. “Next level?” My gaze
darted to Jenna, who was straining to keep a blank face, then back to Britt. “I
didn’t realize we’d reached any kind of level.” I didn’t bother to mention the
fact Dane made my skin crawl, or that I’d rather suck face with a pile driver
than experience any sort of “level” with him. My single status was safe where
he was concerned.
Britt rolled her eyes and blew out a frustrated breath.
“Jesus, Sadie. It’s like you were born without a brain, or something.” She
stepped forward and crossed her other arm over her chest, her body language revealing
her growing irritation with me. “Dane likes you. Like, really likes you. You’ve
been single long enough, and he’s a good match for you. Besides, it’s a couples
party.”
The bell rang out overhead, effectively saving me from
saying something that would surely get me in trouble. If Britt liked Dane so
much, why the hell didn’t she date him? I wasn’t interested, and I didn’t need
a plus one. The only person I was interested in was unavailable to me except
for a one-night stand per AE rules. I didn’t hook up like that, so I was
ass-out when it came to finding someone to pair up with.
Unease wormed its way through my gut as I thought about
Jenna’s date for the party. She’d dated Jason Weathers on and off for the past
two years, and though they were more off than on, she always took him back
regardless of the crappy way he treated her. A manwhore to the core, Jason was
a key member of the Atwood Elite and Jenna was expected to play his other half
and project a happy, perfect couple vibe. Those two were anything but and I
worried what dealing with his bullshit would do to her precarious mental state.
I needed my best friend healthy as well as happy.
We parted ways, the hall that had been bustling with
students just moments before thinning out as kids hauled butt to their first
period classes.
The library was quiet and empty, and I took a moment to bask
in its comforting ambience before storing my things behind the front desk. Mrs.
King’s familiar chicken-scratch handwriting scrawled across a sheet of notepaper
placed on the desk in front of my chair.
Taking another
conference call this morning. Please shelve the books on the cart, then go
through the returns.
I sucked in a shallow breath, blowing the air back out
slowly as I rounded the desk. The metal cart was overloaded with books, which
meant I’d spend a better part of the hour placing them back in their homes.
Eager to get the menial task over with, I pushed the squeaky cart into the
stacks, wishing I could get lost among the books and just spend my day reading.
I never felt as relaxed as I did when my nose was in a book, and I desperately
needed the escape after Britt’s party announcement.
Encyclopedia in hand, I rounded the corner into the
reference section, the familiar tingling I always felt when Hayden was near
suddenly inching across my skin like a hot flush. I peered down the aisle,
frowning when I saw it was empty. He wasn’t behind me either, much to my
dismay. Had I imagined his presence? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have
Hayden on the brain. I’d thought about him almost constantly since our brief
conversation at the diner. Jenna and I had gone back to Moe’s every day for the
rest of the week, but aside from a few sidelong glances and a handful of
beautiful smiles, we hadn’t spoken again. I was dying to get up close and
personal with him. To talk with him about things other than Ian, and Britt, and
all of the high school BS we dealt with on a daily basis.
I plucked another book off the cart, this one a biography of
Marilyn Monroe, and headed toward the rear of the stacks. I was just about to
place the book in its resting place when a large hand reached over my shoulder
and snagged the book out of my hand.
My skin tingled, my pulse hummed, and my knees felt as
though they might give out at any moment. I didn’t bother hiding my grin.
Hayden was behind me.
“Did you know Joe DiMaggio delivered half a dozen roses to
her crypt every week for twenty years?”
His warm breath tickled my ear, and sent my blood boiling
beneath my skin. I turned around, nice and slow, and glanced up at him through
my lashes with a shy smile. “Is that so?” I took a step back and leaned against
the tall shelves, thankful for their unwavering support. His crisp, clean
scent, and Bad Boy aura were sending my poor body into a full on snit. If I
didn’t get hold of myself I was likely to end up a boneless sack of flesh
marring the library floor. My palms began to sweat and my chest felt like it
had a billion hummingbirds flapping their wings inside of it. I quirked a brow.
“So, you’re an expert on Marilyn Monroe, then?”
Hayden leaned forward, his intoxicating scent captivating
every molecule in my being as he deftly slid the biography back onto the shelf
behind my head. His body hovered just centimeters from mine, the low-level buzz
I felt whenever he was near sparking like a downed wire—hot and dangerous. He
dropped his head, his lips a hairsbreadth from my ear. “I’m a fan of baseball,
and she was married to Joe DiMaggio.
My breathing felt stunted, the air my lungs had so
thanklessly taken for granted just moments ago, sparse and non-existent.
Something told me, some inner voice deep within me, that oxygen wasn’t
necessary when Hayden was around. Just being near him was enough to sustain me.
He gently brushed my hair away from my face, his eyes
darkening when he took in the angry scratch on my cheek. Taking care not to
touch the still-painful wound, he slid a calloused finger across the skin
beneath the cut and shook his head with a frown. “I heard about your execution
this morning.” His finger and thumb lingered on my chin for a moment before he
dropped his hand. “That’s twice now you’ve damaged your pretty skin because of
Dane Whittier.” The muscles in his jaw rippled, his flirtatious demeanor
quickly shifting to something dark and dangerous.
We’d had so little time together, I couldn’t bear the
thought of wasting whatever time we had now talking about Dane. I needed to
change the subject, and quick.
“Is your class in the library for research again?” My
question was stupid, but hopefully it would do the trick.
Hayden shook his head, the budding anger I’d seen in his
eyes washing away with the movement. He treated me to a heart-stopping grin,
but said nothing as I gazed up at him, with a renewed feeling of
breathlessness.
“Then, what are you doing here?” There was no power to my
voice. It had flown away and joined the hummingbirds swarming inside my chest. Please. Please say you’re here for me. Feel what I feel. Tell me this attraction
isn’t one-sided.
Hayden inched closer, lifted his left hand, and gently ran
the back of it down the length of my arm, eliciting a tremor and a horde of
goose-flesh that danced across my skin. His touch was magic. Just like his
smile. And his beautiful cerulean eyes.
He cocked his head to the side, his eyes filled with warmth,
his smile confident. “You came back to the diner after we talked last week.”
I bit my bottom lip, the action doing little to diminish the
ridiculously huge grin crossing my mouth. I huffed out a soft laugh. “That I
did.”
His calloused finger slid back up the length of my arm,
trailing up the same path it had just descended, and I silently bartered with
God, offering up my firstborn child and all the money in my father’s bank
account if He’d make it so Hayden would never stop touching me.
He leaned forward again, his warm, minty breath swirling
inside my head and chest like a powerful drug I couldn’t get enough of. “I
liked seeing you outside of school every day.” His magic fingers found my hair,
the gentle tug he gave the red strand as he played with the softly curled end
making me want to purr like a kitten. He carefully placed the curl back with
the rest of my hair and fixed his gaze onto mine once again. “Think we can
arrange for that to keep happening?”
I nodded once, unable to speak. Unable to do anything but
melt beneath his mesmerizing stare. High. I was literally high off his
presence. Having an out-of-body experience. My heart and mind floating on a
cloud somewhere, my feeble body and Hayden’s close proximity the only things
tethering me to the earth.
He felt it. The connection. The pull. I wanted to laugh. I
wanted to cry. I wanted to press my lips to his and lose myself in what would
surely be the most pleasurable experience I’d ever had. If a simple touch from
him could undo me like this, then a kiss would surely kill me.
I couldn’t think of a better way to die.
“Sadie?” Mrs. King’s one-word question floated through the
stacks, her normally pleasant voice a sour buzz-kill. I wasn’t ready for my
time with Hayden to be over yet.
“Just finishing up, Mrs. King!” I glanced down the long
aisle of books, then back up at Hayden, unable to hide the disappointment in my
eyes. “I, uh … better get back to work.”
He swiped his thumb across his mouth before jamming his
hands into his pockets. He stared down at me through his lashes, the
combination of his expectant smile and the hopefulness in his eyes a heady drug
I needed more of. “See you at Moe’s later?”
I breathed out a weak “yes” at which point he chuckled,
popped me on the nose with his pointer finger, then spun on his heels and
strode away.
I had no memory of the last fifteen minutes of first period.
My head, my every thought was on the dangerous hottie from the wrong side of
the tracks. One thing was certain: the rest of the books never got put away.
Link to Goodreads:
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Author's Favorite scene
and why
Hi Katie! Thank you so
much for having me on your blog today! You thought your readers might be
interested in knowing what my favorite scene is in my latest release, In The
After, so let’s get to it!
Sadie Reynolds is not
what she seems. Her friends at Atwood High see her as a pretty, outgoing member
of their elite group of friends. Little do they know, it’s all a sham, and
Sadie is secretly terrified her friends are going to find out what a messed up
head case she really is. Her mom was brutally murdered several years before in
front of her and she’s been suffering from PTSD ever since. If her perfect
friends found out she was afraid of the dark, of small spaces, and that she
secretly hated everything about them, her life would turn hellish in the blink
of an eye. If they knew she harbored feelings for Hayden Pope, the hot Waverly
boy from the wrong side of the tracks, she’d be an outcast, a pariah.
The cards are stacked
against Sadie on a number of levels, so when she chooses to open up to Hayden
in chapter six and reveal what happened to her mother and her struggles with
PTSD, it’s a real turning point for her character, making the scene one of my
favorites in the book. Sadie takes a huge leap of faith when she opens up to
Hayden. Not only does she make the choice to finally open her heart again and
let him in, she also provides Hayden with ammunition he could use against her
with the AE if he chose to. For several years, Sadie had only had herself and
her father to rely on. In sharing with Hayden, she learns how to trust and
become vulnerable again, which in turn, propels her relationship with him
forward and deepens their bond. The scene shows a lot of growth on Sadie’s part
and I think it’s crucial to the story.
Elisa Dane loves books, chocolate, reality television, her
family, and All Star Cheerleading. Not necessarily in that order! She writes
contemporary YA romance with cheerleaders. Yep. She writes what she knows, and
it’s her hope that her stories will not only take you on a romantic journey
that will warm your heart, but that you’ll find a new respect for the sport of
All Star Cheerleading you may not have had before. She’s represented by
Brittany Booker of the Booker/Albert Agency, and has published a NA paranormal
series under her real name, Lisa Sanchez.
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