Death and the Girl Next Door
By Darynda Jones
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Darynda Jones has won numerous awards for her work including a prestigious Golden Heart®, a RITA®, and a Daphne du Maurier. As a born storyteller, she grew up spinning tales of dashing damsels and heroes in distress for any unfortunate soul who happened by, annoying man and beast alike. Darynda lives in the Land of Enchantment, also known as New Mexico, with her husband and two beautiful sons, the Mighty, Mighty Jones Boys.
First book in the Darklight series.
Release Date: October 2, 2012
From the author of The New York Times bestselling series that began with First Grave on the Right—a thrilling Young Adult novel garnering high praise and early buzz from major authors.
Ten years ago, Lorelei's parents disappeared without a trace. Raised by her grandparents and leaning on the support of her best friends, Lorelei is finally beginning to accept the fact that her parents are never coming home. For Lorelei, life goes on.
High school is not quite as painful as she thinks it will be, and things are as normal as they can be. Until the day the school's designated loner, Cameron Lusk, begins to stalk her, turning up where she least expects it, standing outside her house in the dark, night after night. Things get even more complicated when a new guy—terrifying, tough, sexy Jared Kovach—comes to school. Cameron and Jared instantly despise each other and Lorelei seems to be the reason for their animosity. What does Jared know about her parents? Why does Cameron tell Jared he can't have Lorelei? And what will any of them do when Death comes knocking for real?
Thrilling, sassy, sexy, and inventive, Darynda Jones's first foray into the world of teens will leave readers eager for the next installment.
"Unique, witty, and touching—I LOVED THIS BOOK!" —P.C. Cast, New York Times bestselling author of The House of Night Series
Here is a giveaway from Darynda Jones!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Here is a fantastic interview with the wonderful Darynda Jones
Welcome to my blog today Darynda! So,since I have you for the day, I am going to pick your brain...
First off I am dying to know, do you enjoy writing one character more than others or is one easier?
I absolutely LOVE writing Brooklyn, Lorelei’s best friend. She is so spunky and fun. Some of the hardest for me to write are the scenes between Lorelei and Jared, and yet they have the biggest payoff in the end. But Jared is tricky. I’m always worried I will do something or say something that goes completely against his character. I have to be super careful.
I loved reading the interaction between Brooklyn, Glitch, and Lorelei it was hilarious! Kudos for the Jared/Lorelei writing, they are wow!
Next for those of us out there who enjoy writing, if/when you ever have writers block, what do you do?
I'm not sure it’s really writer’s block, per se, but if I get stuck, I have done one of two things wrong. Either I have messed with my writing “process,” i.e. I haven’t outlined fully or thought through a scene completely, or I have messed up the story somehow. That could mean there is something wrong with the story itself—it just isn’t working—or there is something wrong with one of my characters. Perhaps her motivation is not clear or it’s just wrong, or his behavior goes against the character that I initially set up.
The only thing to do in those situations is to take a step back and try to figure out what I’ve done wrong, what is not quite right with the story. If I’m really lucky, it will be easy to see and to fix. Odds are against that, however. It usually takes several attempts to fix it and to get to the core of the real problem.
Thanks for the tip and I know that will help us writers when we feel like we are stuck in a rough spot!
Now since there is much talk of ghosts in DATGND, have you ever seen a ghost, if yes what did you do?
While my logical mind likes to believe I have never seen a ghost, I have to admit, I’ve been privy some pretty strange occurrences. One of my favorite stories happened when my family moved into a new house. My best friend was staying the night. We were in the living room watching TV when she freaked out. She said she saw a little blond boy in a yellow T-shirt run down the hall. So, naturally, I freaked out too. We ran outside and stayed there until my mom got home.
A few weeks later, I was looking in the mirror brushing my hair when I saw a little blond boy looking up at me from underneath my bed. I was so stunned, I stood there a long moment, watching him watch me. When I turned around, he was gone. When I turned back to the mirror, he was gone.
But wait! There’s more!
So, a couple years later, I started hanging out more with another friend. We were talking about where we lived. Oddly enough, my family almost bought the house she was living in. Even more oddly enough, she lived in our house before her family moved into the one we almost bought. We were talking about that odd coincidence when she looked at me in all seriousness and asked, “Since you are living in our old house, have you seen the little blond boy yet?”
Wow that is totally creepy! I am totally afraid to even watch ghost-like movies, so that story is totally creeptastic! Okay, before I need to check under the bed lets move on...
When you decided to write a YA novel, was it harder to get in the right mind set?
Actually, no. I’ve been writing YA way longer than anything else, so it comes quite naturally to me. And I write with a rather young voice in my adult stuff too.
I think you have a great gift with your writing, and I personally thought the 'voice' in DATGND was perfect, Lorelei was fabulous. I love Charley also and her 'voice' is great also!
Do you have an idea how many books will be in your DGND series?
I know exactly how many. Death and the Girl Next Door is the first in the Darklight Trilogy, so there will only be three.
Thank you so much for having me!!!
~D~
Thank you Darynda for your time on my blog today, and for the fantastic books you have written, I look forward to reading more of your books in the future!
*~*Links to Buy Death and the Girl next door*~*
Here is a special excerpt of
Death and the Girl Next Door
by Darynda Jones:
I laughed to myself and headed toward the back of our favorite and pretty much only hangout. It sat a mere block from our alma mater, Riley High, and we practically lived in our corner booth. I ducked past the snack counter and into a very dark back hall. Judging by the boxes lining the narrow passage, I’d be taking my life into my hands if I risked a journey to the little senorita’s room without illumination, so I ran my hand along a paneled wall. Where would I be if I were a light switch? Just as the tips of my fingers found the switch, a silhouette stepped out of the shadows and brushed past me. I startled with a gasp.
“Excuse me,” I said, placing a hand over my heart.
“Sorry.” The guy paused slightly before continuing on his way, and in that instant, I saw the makings of utter perfection: a long arm with shadowy curves that dipped around the fluid lines of muscle; a tall, wide shoulder; dark hair that curled playfully over an ear and led to a strong, masculine jaw. Something inside me lurched, craving a closer look at his face, but he walked by too fast and the hall was too dark for me to catch anything else.
After a couple of seconds, I realized my hand had brushed against his arm. It was enough to send a vision crashing into me, like the flash of a nuclear bomb, bright and unforgiving. Tamping down my surprise— I hadn’t had a vision in a very long time— I pressed shaking fingers to my forehead to wait out the familiar storm, to see what treasures would wash ashore in the aftermath.
Yet the things I saw were unreal, impossible, and certainly not of this world: A desolate landscape lay before me with scorched clouds and a roiling, violet sky. The air was stagnant and so impossibly thick, breathing it took effort. Then I heard the clanging of metal. I turned to watch in horror as a being, a boy of no more than sixteen or seventeen, fierce and somehow not quite human, struggled with a dark, monstrous beast. The boy’s arms corded as tendon and muscle strained against the weight of the sword he wielded. He slashed again and again, but the monster was fast, with razorlike talons and sharp, gleaming teeth, and the boy knew what those teeth felt like when they sank into flesh, knew the blinding pain that accompanied defeat. But he also knew the power he himself wielded, the raw strength that saturated every molecule of his body.
Another herculean effort landed a thrust in the monster’s shoulder and continued through its thick chest. The monster sank under the boy’s sword with a guttural scream. The boy looked on while the beast writhed in pain, watched it grow still as the life drained out of it, and somewhere in the back of the boy’s mind, he allowed himself to register the burning of his lungs as he struggled to fill them with air.
Blood trickled between his fingers, down the length of his blade, and dripped to the powdery earth beneath his feet. I followed the trail of blood up to three huge gashes across his chest. Evidently three of the monster’s claws had met their mark, laying the flesh of its enemy open. I gasped and covered my mouth with both hands as the boy spun toward me, sword at the ready. Squinting against the low sun, I could almost make out his features, but the vision evaporated before I got the chance. A heartbeat later, I was back in the dark hallway, gasping for air, one palm pressed against my temple, the other against the wall for balance.
I squeezed my eyes shut, fought the memory of the vision, the fear that summoned the taste of bile in the back of my throat, the feel of blood dripping down the boy’s arm.
Books in the Darklight Trilogy are as follows:
#1 Death and the Girl Next Door- Available Now
#2 Death, Doom and Detention- March 5, 2013
#3 Death and Other Distractions- Coming in 2013
~My Review~
I absolutely love this first book in Darynda's new YA Darklight Trilogy. I was hooked in the first chapter and by page 40 I was in tears from laughing so hard! Truly, and it happened more than once! :) I love the characters Darynda has made and each one brings something to the book to love. Darynda's writing sucks you in to the world in the book, and won't let you go even at the end, you still feel as if everything was real, and you need more! I like the wit and sarcasm, as well as the seriousness of everything that was happening to Lorelei. I love how the YA aspect brings out the feelings in this book and how everything is intense and life changing. Just how high school was. The story line is fantastic, and not once did I want to put the book down and come back to it later, I held on and powered through thinking the whole time, I want more. I recommend this to all readers!
I give this 5 huge shiny sparkling stars!
Here is a giveaway from Darynda Jones because I'm a Grimlet Blogger!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
If you haven't read Darynda's other series, here are the book covers:
First Grave on the Right
For I have Sinned (Novella)
Second Grave on the Left
Third Grave Dead Ahead
Fourth Grave Beneath my Feet
Victoria was born in Scarborough, Ontario,
Canada, to an Austrian immigrant mother, and a Dutch immigrant father. She now
lives in Western Washington with her husband, Russ and their three children,
Toby, Kristina, and William. Her other family members are a Chihuahua, named
Pipsy and two cats, named Frodo and Fritz. Besides being an author, Victoria is
a home-schooling mother of twelve years and an elementary school art teacher of
eleven years. In her spare time, Victoria enjoys managing her two older children's
Celtic band. She also loves writing, reading, painting watercolors, hiking,
good movies, and just simply hanging out with her family and friends. 
