Get Even by Gretchen McNeil COVER REVEAL + GIVEAWAY

This is the official cover reveal for Gretchen McNeil's upcoming Get Even, the first in her new series! It hits the shelves on September 16, 2014 and is published by Balzer + Bray, so get pumped! I know I am! I absolutely loved her book Ten, so I'm sure I'll love this one as well!

And let me wish a special somebody—the author herself, Gretchen McNeil—a very happy birthday! I hope it's amazing and all your wishes come true! ♥

Here it is, guys...

Follows the secretive exploits of four high school juniors - Kitty, Olivia, Margot and Bree - at an exclusive Catholic prep school.

To all outward appearances, the girls barely know each other. At best, they don't move in the same social circles; at worst, they're overtly hostile.

Margot Mejia – academically ranked number two in her class, Margot is a focused overachiever bound for the Ivy League.

Kitty Li – captain of the California state and national champion varsity girls' volleyball team, she's been recruited by a dozen colleges and has dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal.

Olivia Hayes – popular star of the drama program, she's been voted "most eligible bachelorette" two years running in the high school yearbook and has an almost lethal combination of beauty and charm.

Bree Deringer – outcast, misfit and the kind of girl you don't want to meet in a dark alley, the stop sign red-haired punk is a constant thorn in the side of teachers and school administrators alike.

Different goals, different friends, different lives, but the girls share a secret no one would ever guess. They are members of Don't Get Mad, a society specializing in seeking revenge for fellow students who have been silently victimized by their peers. Each girl has her own reason for joining the group, her own set of demons to assuage by evening the score for someone else. And though school administration is desperate to find out who is behind the DGM "events", the girls have managed to keep their secret well hidden.

That is until one of their targets – a douchebag senior who took advantage of a drunk underclassman during a house party, videotaped it on his phone, and posted it on YouTube – turns up dead, and DGM is implicated in the murder.

Now the girls don't know who to trust, and as their tenuous alliance begins to crumble, the secrets they've hidden for so long might be their ultimate undoing.

Add Get Even to your Goodreads shelf now!

If you're super excited and already want a copy, pre-order links will be available soon! Keep an eye out on various pre-ordering retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, etc. (:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4's Code Monkeys and she currently sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. She is a founding member of vlog group the YARebels where she can be seen as "Monday," and she is an active member of both The Enchanted Inkpot, a group blog of YA and middle grade fantasy writers, and The Apocalypsies, a group blog of 2012 children's debut authors.

You can find Gretchen on Twitter, Facebook, and on her blog.

GIVEAWAY

One winner will win a signed ARC of Get Even, and another winner will win a 30 minute Skype chat with Gretchen McNeil herself! Good luck! (:

RULES:

• Must be 13+ years old to enter
• See restrictions in Terms & Conditions located at bottom of Rafflecopter Form

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tori's Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Ten by Gretchen McNeil
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Horror
Rating: ★★★★
Pages: 296
Published by Balzer + Bray on September 18, 2012
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

SHHHH! Don't spread the word! Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island. You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

Ten is about a group of ten teenagers that find themselves on a remote island with a killer in their midst. After watching a creepy video on the night of their arrival, teen after teen starts to get killed off in brutal and specific ways. After our protagonist, Meg, finds a journal of a dead girl, she realizes that the murders follow a pattern. After discovering the pattern, it's a race against time to rat out the murderer...before they're all dead and gone with no witnesses to find the killer.

This book was very suspensful. I read it on the way to my volleyball tournament, and it was definitely a way to get me on my toes...and to freak me out. The deaths aren't exactly graphics, but they're described enough to make my stomach churn. It sort of creeped me out how these teenagers (mostly Meg and T.J.) weren't really affected by all the death going on. It seemed as though their philosophy was, "Keep Calm and Carry On." I can't decide if I didn't like this about the book or if it was just something that I noticed.

As far as plot goes, this plot was amazing. I couldn't guess the killer. I really couldn't. Up until the very end, I thought I knew who it was, but I always changed the suspect. The fact that it was so hard for me to determine who the killer was shows that either (a) this was a good book or (b) I'm just stupid when it comes to this stuff. But regardless, there were so many twists and turns that I never suspected who it was by the end of the book. This is honestly the first mystery book that I've read that isn't paranormal that I haven't guessed the ending. Congrats, Ten.

Meg, at first, is super annoying, but as the book goes along I grow to like her more, and I want her to survive. Honestly, everyone else can go die. I was alright with Ben, and T.J. wasn't too terribly annoying, but I didn't like Minnie, and I didn't really have time to get to know the other characters in order to form an attachment to them. Hilariously, at first I thought Nathan was some super nerd, but turned out he was really popular? Goes to show how sucky I am at remembering character discriptions. I've just read so many of them. Anyway, Meg was really just a big pushover. The fact that Minnie basically ruled her life turned me off at first, but Meg grew on me. Minnie didn't.

I have to admit that the romance was a bit dry between Meg and T.J. T.J. was awesome and all and he seemed like a pretty solid dude, but I wasn't shipping them at the end. Honestly, I don't even know what makes a good romance, but I just know when I don't like a particular relationship. One good thing between the two of them though was the fact that T.J. came across as a real dude. Most guys in stories will be like "oh my god I've loved you forever I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you but I've realized the err of my ways now." Like yeah not buying that. I mean, T.J. was a bit sensitive, but it was reasonable. (Except the end when...you know. Yeah. I'm just saying I would've saved my own butt before a guy that rejected me.)

Ten really reminded me of Shark Night 3D except the book was actually scary. (Sorry, but the movie was just laughable. Utterly and positively laughable. I'm sorry if you loved it. The premise was just...kind of hilarious?) The basic plot of both the book and movie: teenagers go to island; teenagers have fun; teenagers die; two teenagers left; teenagers escape but now are in love. (I think they fall in love by the end of the movie. It's been three years.) But yeah. Pretty similar, right? I already heard that Ten was eerily similar to And Then There Were None. Considering I've never read this book (I plan on it), I didn't have a problem with Ten being so similar. I'm sure I'll have qualms once I read And Then There Were None though.

Reading this book has definitely encouraged me to read more thriller/horror books this year. I kind of like being scared, which is hilarious because I hate horror movies. I absolutely cannot stand them.

In conclusion, this was an interesting read. I'll definitely be checking out Gretchen McNeil's other books, because I liked this one a lot. I wouldn't go to say that I loved it because there were still faults, but I liked it enough to give it four stars! I think that this was a good book to read to break me into the YA horror/thriller genre. I'm really glad that I picked this up and decided to read it!

Oh yes and I love the cover. It's so simplistic and dark and just wow I love it.

"But the killer's still out there. He could have climbed out through one of the bedroom windows. She's not safe."

T.J. shrugged. "She's the one with the gun."