{"id":1427,"date":"2014-01-20T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/?p=1427"},"modified":"2014-01-20T06:00:41","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T14:00:41","slug":"before-they-find-us-by-michelle-a-hansen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2014\/01\/20\/before-they-find-us-by-michelle-a-hansen\/","title":{"rendered":"Before They Find Us by Michelle A. Hansen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BTFU<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’re looking for a young adult thriller, check out Michelle A. Hansen’s\u00a0Before They Find Us<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to make you wish you were dead.<\/em><\/p>\n

Just a text. Seventeen-year-old Rebecca Hales tries not to worry. Probably a wrong number. Not really meant for her, and definitely not related to the crime she witnessed six years ago. Right?<\/p>\n

Then two states away, a bomb goes off in her best friend’s locker. Soon Ryan is labeled a terrorist and runs to the safest place he knows\u2014Rebecca\u2019s house in small-town Wyoming. It doesn\u2019t take long for the FBI to show up asking questions. Rebecca lies, of course, and says she hasn\u2019t seen him.<\/p>\n

Now she’s neck-deep in it with him, whatever “it” is. The only way out is to return to Vegas, where Ryan is a wanted man. The city of lies and illusion tests Rebecca\u2019s wits as she struggles to find the person who framed Ryan and why.<\/p>\n

Is Rebecca\u2019s text linked to the bombing? And what does it have to do with a six year old murder? Rebecca needs to find out before she loses Ryan\u2014and her own life.<\/p>\n

Download Before They Find Us<\/a><\/em>\u00a0at\u00a0Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Excerpt<\/h4>\n

For a lot of girls, comfort food was chocolate. For me it was thirty-two ounces of lemonade mixed with Sprite on tap at Skip\u2019s Mini Mart. I tugged on Bullet\u2019s leash and led him out of the park. Three blocks later, I tied Bullet to the post of what used to be a phone booth. Now it was a hideous blue and white box with nothing but graffiti inside. Bullet lay down on the sidewalk and set his head on his paws while I went inside.<\/p>\n

Full cup in hand, I approached the counter. The cashier was used to seeing me late at night. He was used to Bullet waiting outside looking bored to death. I set exact change on the counter before he rang up my drink.<\/p>\n

Bright lights swept into the parking lot and came to rest outside the front door. The lights were tall, definitely a truck. The driver hopped out, but didn\u2019t come inside. Instead, he went over to Bullet. I didn\u2019t think anything of it until I stepped outside. It looked just like the truck that slowed in front of my house this afternoon.<\/p>\n

The guy who knelt on the sidewalk in front of Bullet had shoulder-length, blond hair and a goatee. He didn\u2019t look very old\u2014early-twenties maybe\u2014but it was a hard-lived twenty. This guy, he had all the rough edges. He balanced a cigarette between his lips while he scratched Bullet\u2019s ears.<\/p>\n

Happy for the attention, Bullet licked the guy\u2019s wrist. I tried not to cringe. Stupid dog. That guy could be a hundred kinds of trouble, but Bullet didn\u2019t care as long as his ears got scratched.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlue tick?\u201d He ran his hand down Bullet\u2019s back, and the dog nudged closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d If I hadn\u2019t just dreamed of Kyle, if I hadn\u2019t just stood on the ground where Darla died, if I\u2019d met this guy in daylight, I would have reached down, untied the dog and walked away. As it was, I sipped my Sprite and kept two yards between us.<\/p>\n

\u201cBet he\u2019s a good hunter.\u201d The guy looked up. His smile was too friendly, his manner too casual for a stranger. A shot of fear pulsed in my blood.<\/p>\n

I really wished Bullet was more of a guard dog. \u201cHe treed a hundred and fifty pound mountain lion a couple years ago.\u201d Okay, it was an exaggeration. It was more like a ninety pound lion, and it was young, but Bullet wasn\u2019t helping me at all by rubbing his head on this guy\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a good boy.\u201d He rubbed Bullet\u2019s fur. Seeing that I wasn\u2019t getting any closer, the guy untied the leash and stood. Other than his truck, the parking lot was completely empty, and so was the street. \u201cKind of late for a girl to be walking around alone, don\u2019t you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t let myself back away as he approached. I stood my ground and shrugged like it was the middle of the afternoon. \u201cI have Bullet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd\u2014he\u2019s vicious.\u201d His sarcasm fell short of amusing. Bullet drooled on the guy\u2019s cowboy boot. He offered me the leash. \u201cYou want a ride?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, right. I might be mental, but I\u2019m not totally gullible. \u201cNo, we\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWant me to walk you?\u201d His eyes scanned the streets, the wide trees offering long stretches of shadows. The breeze lifted the hair from his shoulder and sent cold gusts through the fabric of my sweatshirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not far\u2014\u201d I tried not to stammer. I\u2019d sneaked out without a phone. How stupid was that? Going into the park. Coming here at night. Dr. Kipla would have a heyday with this one, not that I would ever tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cStick to the streetlights.\u201d He took a long drag on the cigarette then dropped it on the sidewalk and smothered the ashes under his boot. \u201cYou never know what\u2019s lurking in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download the rest of the novel at Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Find more from Michelle on her website<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re looking for a young adult thriller, check out Michelle A. Hansen’s\u00a0Before They Find Us.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to make you wish you were dead. Just a text. Seventeen-year-old Rebecca Hales tries not to worry. Probably a wrong number. Not really meant for her, and definitely not related to the crime she witnessed six years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[161,162,595],"tags":[713,730],"class_list":["post-1427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excerpt","category-excerpts","category-young-adult","tag-thriller","tag-ya"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}