Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and the first chapter of Helene Dunbar’s The Promise of Lost Things, which is out July 5th 2022!

Russ Griffin has always wanted to be a fantastic medium. Growing up in the town of St. Hilaire, where most residents make their living by speaking to the dead, means there’s a lot of competition, and he’s always held his own. But Russ knows the town he loves is corrupt, and he’s determined to save it before the sinister ruling body, The Guild, ruins all he’s ever wanted.

Willow Rodgers is St. Hilaire royalty. An orphan, raised by The Guild, she’s powerful and mysterious. But she has secrets that might change everyone’s fate. She’s done with St. Hilaire, done with helping desperate customers who think mediums work for them. She wants to end the cycle for good and rid the town of ghosts, even if that means destroying the only home she’s ever known.

Asher Mullen lost his sister, and his parents can’t get over her death. They sought answers in St. Hilaire and were left brokenhearted. Now they want to expose St. Hilaire as a fraud. Asher is tasked with infiltrating the town, and he does that by getting to know Russ. The only problem is, he might be falling for him, which will make betraying Russ that much harder.

Russ, Willow, and Asher all have their own agendas for St. Hilaire, but one thing’s for certain, no one will be resting in peace.

Chapter One
Russ

In St. Hilaire, New York, everyone talked to the dead.

If you were lucky or talented, or both, the dead might listen. Sometimes they talked back. Sometimes they made sense. Sometimes they were just a pain in the ass.

I knew it was odd to live in a town filled with mediums whose primary business involved séances, healing sessions, and ghost walks. It was odd to live behind a gate that only opened to visitors—for a price—during the summer when they’d converge on our town seeking answers, comfort, and forgiveness from those who had passed on.

And perhaps it was equally odd to embrace the idea that death wasn’t an end point. Even though, maybe, in most cases it should be.

But, odd as it was, I loved it. I loved the history of our town, which was founded by a group of talented mediums over a hundred-and-fifty years ago. I loved the weirdness of séances and fairy trails and people coming to walk the huge labyrinth on the other end of town. I loved feeling like I was part of something big, something that mattered, as well as the fact that I could bring hope and closure to the people who came here. And I really loved being chosen as leader of the Youth Corps, made up of all the high school seniors. The role put me on the path to an actual job with the town’s governing body, the Guild, assuming I survived high school and some extra training courses, first.

Today’s lesson started the way most spirit-related activities did, with a voice in my ear and a feeling I was being watched, a slight vibration under my chair and a chill in the air.

I shivered in my wool coat. The chill, which seemed to settle somewhere in my spine and radiate through my body like a spiderweb, was a reaction to ghosts that most mediums outgrew, but one I guess I was stuck with. I tightened the muscles in my shoulders, locked my knees in an effort to stay still, and hoped Willow Rogers didn’t notice, which was ridiculous because Willow Rogers noticed everything.

“Tell me, Russ,” she commanded. She sounded bored as if she’d rather be manning an off-season phone line or working the research desk at the town archives than mentoring me in conjuring the dead. More than that, she looked bored, her green eyes dismissive and clouded as if her thoughts were far away.

I tilted my head and searched the air around her. “There’s a woman,” I said. “Standing over your left shoulder.” I examined the ghost’s clothing: over a hundred years out of date. Her hair: a messy blond ponytail. This lesson was so easy; it was no wonder Willow was bored. The spirit could have walked out of my freshman-year textbook. “Melody Thorne,” I said, identifying one of our town’s founders and most frequent ghostly visitors.

Willow stared at me, perfectly still and unblinking, her lips red against her skin as she said, “Continue.”

I tried to tune out the sound of my heart beating in my ear. Narrowed my eyes to focus on the syllables formed by the ghost’s barely there mouth. “You have a”—I leaned forward to listen more closely to what the spirit of Melody Thorne was saying—“a class. No, a meeting. You have a meeting at four o’clock and she’s worried you’ll be late.”

There were no clocks in the room, so Willow glanced at her phone. Her face flashed with annoyance and then cleared before she stood and smoothed down her straight black skirt. “That’s all for today,” she said, which meant I hadn’t done anything she could find fault with. Willow was notoriously generous with her criticism.

I stood and stretched. The muscles in my neck were taut and sore. These weekly lessons were required to help me strengthen my skills as a medium, but they were dull, exhausting, and it was clear both of us were only here out of obligation. I could do this sort of thing in my sleep.

Willow walked to the door of the classroom, her high heels echoing on the parquet floor. Then she turned back abruptly, as if she were trying to catch me off guard. “I overheard Father talking…” she started, her face animated for the first time since she’d walked into the room. “Is it true that Ian Mackenzie speaks to you?”

I inhaled sharply. Willow and I never spoke directly about our lives. We’d talk about school or the Guild or general current events: the museum got a new collection of dowsing rods from the early 1920s, or did you hear Miranda had something strange happen during a reading she was conducting? But never anything more personal and for me, it didn’t get any more personal than Ian Mackenzie.

I didn’t talk about Ian with anyone. I hadn’t talked about him when he was alive and considered St. Hilaire’s hottest, young medium, even though we were friends with benefits. Or enemies with benefits. Or whatever you call it when you kind-of-sort-of like someone and kind-of-sort-of hate them at the same time and yet can’t seem to stay away.

I really didn’t talk about him now that he was dead and haunting me (and only me) and now that we actually did like each other. Maybe more than liked each other. When it came to Ian, the specifics were always hard to pin down.

I answered her question with a tentative nod and waited while she looked me up and down. She had a piercing stare, one I’d often emulated with some success. I knew she had to be irritated that Ian would talk to me and not her. After all, she and Ian had gone to school together and served on the Youth Corps together. And even though she was only a few years older than me, she was already a member of the Guild. More than that, she’d actually been raised by them as a type of collective adopted daughter. She even called Guild President Clive Rice “Father.”

And Ian? He was a Guild legend. That hadn’t changed just because he was dead.

I was only a high school senior. A senior who was currently student leader of the Guild’s Youth Corps, but still, that was nothing in comparison to either of them. She had to be pissed I had a line to St. Hilaire’s most elusive ghost.

“I suppose it makes sense,” she said, narrowing her eyes and letting contempt bleed into her voice. “Ian was always motivated more by what was in his pants than what was in his head.”

I winced. She wasn’t wrong, and despite my determination to stay in control, I felt myself flush. But it was one thing for everyone to know that the ghost of Ian Mackenzie, one of the best mediums St. Hilaire had ever seen, spoke to me. It was another for them to know…assume… Hell, I couldn’t define what my relationship with Ian had been when he was alive—much less what it was now—so there was certainly no way Willow and the rest of St. Hilaire could have a clue.

But Ian and Willow were more alike than either would have admitted, and the number one rule for dealing with both of them was the same: Don’t show fear.

I coughed, regrouped, and said, “I’m sure he’d want to send his best to Colin. How is your boyfriend, anyhow?” I had to restrain myself from putting air quotes around the word boyfriend. Colin was Ian’s younger brother. He and Ian had hated each other when Ian was alive, and Ian’s death hadn’t changed those feelings. Rumors about Colin and Willow had been swirling around for ages, though “boyfriend” was probably putting a pretty spin on it.

Willow’s eyes flashed, but when she turned back to the door, she didn’t answer. All she said was, “Be here the same time on Wednesday to continue your training.” Then she walked out.

***

When I got home, I booted up the brick of a laptop I’d been using for over five years despite numerous crashes, stuck keys, and burned-out pixels on the screen. My browser opened to the Buchanan Sentinel. Buchanan was the town that sat just outside St. Hilaire, and their big news usually involved some sort of high school sportsball or a debate on mailbox colors, but sometimes I needed to see what was going on in the rest of the world.

Today’s headline read: GHOST KILLERS TEAM TO RE-FORM AND AIR 2-HOUR SPECIAL ON ST. HILAIRE.

I vaguely remembered the show and its mission to visit supposedly haunted places and debunk them. It had been a hit for a while and had changed casts multiple times before it just seemed to stop, but I’d never watched it when it was on and hadn’t paid much attention to it ending.

I skimmed the article, most of which discussed St. Hilaire’s founding as a home for spiritualists and described how we opened for business to the public in the summer, offering to contact the dead relatives, lovers, friends, and coworkers of the often-desperate customers who came through the gates for a mere fifteen dollars a head. Stock photos showed the painted Victorians and the old-growth forests, the wishing rock and the bronzed statues of our founders.

A paragraph at the bottom touched on the always-contentious topic of how, since spiritualism was classified as a religion, St. Hilaire received tax breaks not offered to adjacent towns and how that had pissed people off in neighboring Buchanan who felt as if they were picking up our slack.

My father and I had never had enough money to worry about tax breaks. And it was hard to get worked up about Buchanan residents being irritated, since they always seemed bothered by something we were or weren’t doing.

There was little concrete information in the piece about the show. No air date or cast list or rationale other than that St. Hilaire was Ghost Killers’ next target and that it was a “breaking story.”

“Welcome to small-town America,” I muttered to myself. “But it didn’t even mention the Guild. How can you write an article about St. Hilaire without mentioning the Guild?”

“You know what they say about people who talk to themselves, right?” a voice behind me asked.

“That they have a captive audience?” I tossed back.

Ian Mackenzie choked out a laugh. No. The ghost of Ian Mackenzie choked out a laugh, but really, there was little difference between the two. Even as a ghost, Ian was bigger than…well, life.

He leaned over my shoulder to read, and I could feel a cold whisper of something like breath land deliberately on my neck. I shivered.

“Need I remind you they didn’t mention the Guild because the Guild is obsolete?” he asked. “Or at least it will be once we get through with them.” Then he pulled back and said, “Although they could have interviewed me. And maybe you, I guess.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Ian’s indignation. Aside from one conversation I’d facilitated with his youngest brother, Alex, Ian hadn’t spoken to a single living person aside from me since he’d died, and here he was, wondering why the press wasn’t calling and asking him to do the late-night talk-show circuit. Typical. “Good thing you don’t have an agenda.”

“No,” Ian corrected me. “We have an agenda.”

“Okay, fine.” I admitted. “Technically, he wasn’t wrong. The Guild had always been secretive and controlling. But Ian had told me about rumors of them actually killing people during the time he’d run the Corps. Plus, lately, they’d been doing ridiculous things like making all the houses put up Guild flags and running people out of town for refusing to follow some arbitrary rules. Something had to give, and we were going to make sure it did. We just didn’t know how we would do that yet.

“I thought my being chosen to lead the Youth Corps would give us inside information we could use against them, but so far most of my time has been sucked up with these.” I gestured to the piles of reports that threatened to take over the room.

And it was true. All high school seniors had to serve in the Guild’s Youth Corps. And most years, one student was chosen to lead the Corps and possibly jump straight into a Guild-shaped career. When I’d originally dreamed of being chosen student leader, I’d assumed the role would include many things: the chance to learn everything I could from the town’s most esteemed mediums, an opportunity to hone my talents, and a chance to prove I was Guild material.

I didn’t think it was going include trying to take down a corrupt organization.

Or communing with Ian who, through sheer willpower, was keeping himself tethered here instead of doing…well, whatever those who have passed on beyond the ghost state normally did.

Unfortunately, neither of us were getting very far. Not with that goal, anyhow. Aside from my weekly lessons with Willow, my three months as student leader had included one thing: paperwork. Stacks and stacks of reports the Guild expected me to read, verify, catalog, and input into their databases. My entire position was turning into nothing more than a hellish internship.

Ian picked up the top half of a mountain of séance reports, riffled through them, and then before I could stop him, he tossed them dramatically across the room. “Why not make them go away,” he said.

I watched the papers fall like snow, one after the other, the staples making tiny clicks as they hit the worn wooden floor.

Then I watched Ian watching the papers. He was more solid than most ghosts, smugger than, well, anything.

“Are you telling me they didn’t make you do the reports when you were leader?” I asked, already able to guess his answer.

Ian raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Wake up, Griffin. This is a waste of your time.” Ian crossed his well-defined arms loosely in front of him, relaxed and in control. As usual.

I considered asking how he’d gotten out of having to do the Guild’s grunt work but thought better of it. It was foolish to assume I’d be treated the same way Ian had been. And even if he told me his secrets, I was too sensible and not charming enough to resort to whatever tactics he’d used to bend the Guild to his will.

“I suppose you have a better idea?” I asked.

He cocked his head and smiled a smile full of innuendo. “I have many better ideas.”

If “Don’t show fear” was rule number one when dealing with Ian Mackenzie, rule number two was “Don’t take the bait.”

Even when part of me wanted to. Especially when I wanted to.

“No doubt,” I said and quickly began to distract myself by gathering the papers. “Weren’t we going to discuss you not bursting into my room anymore?”

“I’m dead. Where would you send the engraved invitations?”

I rolled my eyes and moved the now-ordered stack out of Ian’s grasp. Boundaries had never been his strong suit. “Can’t we just… I don’t know. Set up a time to meet?”

“Like a date? Do I need to bring flowers and make dinner reservations, too?” Ian leaned back against the bed and smirked. “Funny enough, my watch doesn’t exactly work in the great beyond. What’s your problem, anyhow?”

What was my problem? I didn’t know where to begin. Willow had gotten under my skin, and these days, Ian seemed to live there.

But most of all, I was struggling with the fact that I’d spent years working my ass off to prove myself to the Guild and now I was doing everything I could to find a way to destroy them. It was stressing me out.

“I don’t have a problem,” I said.

Ian ignored my bullshit answer as he wandered around the room and, from somewhere, sourced a marble. He rolled it back and forth on the desk.

The cat’s-eye rolled left, then right. I wasn’t sure where it had come from. I wasn’t sure why this act was worth Ian’s limited reserve of energy. I wasn’t sure why I cared. Except…

Ian Mackenzie was a complicated thing to be. He’d been the darling of St. Hilaire when he was alive. He was their darling now. Or would be if he’d agreed to speak to anyone other than me. But now that he was dead, there were times when I could see cracks in his characteristic cockiness, times when he seemed oddly anxious. And, despite my better judgment, I found that, in those times, I had an overwhelming desire to do something to relieve his anxiety.

When Ian rolled the marble toward me a fourth time, I bent over and grabbed it. As if it had been his plan all along, he leaned forward and kissed me. The marble was icy where it lay clenched in my fist. Ian, too, was cold. I always forgot Ian would be cold and therefore I was always surprised. But then Ian had always been unexpected. He was an open window where I was sure I’d shut it, a road out of town that didn’t exist on a map.

I pulled away to catch my breath and clear my head and remember my name. But Ian was a drug, and I couldn’t help but want more.

This time he placed one cold finger on my lips.

I waited. Waited. Waited. My breath came in fits and starts, my traitorous heart pounded, looking for escape. My focus was equally divided between the marble in my hand and the strip of icy flesh against my lips. I waited as if waiting were the only thing I knew how to do. And around Ian, that wasn’t far from the truth.

“Trust me,” he said, holding my gaze. I found it impossible to look away and equally impossible to remember what I was supposed to trust Ian with. I was still wrestling with this new understanding between us after I’d refused to speak to him the entire year before his mysterious death.

My phone buzzed and broke the spell. Grateful and annoyed in equal measure, I blinked, pulled away, and stared at an unfamiliar local number before letting the call go to voicemail.

Ian reached toward my cell phone, but I slapped his hand away. “You gave up things like phones when you…” I was going to say chose to die because that’s what everyone believed had happened. That Ian was too good of a medium, too good looking, too privileged and special to do anything as uncivilized as to just happen to die young. His death must have been a deliberate choice, everyone said, caused by Ian being wild and reckless and too consumed with being Ian to bother staying alive.

I’d bought into the story, too, at the time. But something about it had always unsettled me, and Ian always skirted around the subject like a spider. “Sorry. I didn’t mean…”

Ian didn’t look away.

“Sorry,” I said again, forcing myself to glance down.

I reached over and grabbed another stack of papers, aiming to line up the staples in the upper-left corner. As I did, something caught my eye. I sorted through the pile in my hand and then looked through the ones on the table. Then I looked again.

“Seventeen?” I asked Ian. “They held seventeen séances to try to reach you in a single season?”

I knew the Guild had been oddly obsessed with contacting Ian. But I hadn’t realized they had been this bent out of shape. In all that time, Ian had never thrown them a single bone.

“Never let it be said I don’t know how to play hard to get,” he said. “Give me those.” He reached over for the stacks and skimmed the forms, turning pages, and turning them back.

I studied him. Ian was so present, so focused, that I rarely had the chance to watch him without him watching me back. But now he was captivated by the reports and I had the chance to take in the straightness of his back, the way he distractedly narrowed his eyes as he considered what he was reading, and I had the chance to think about how much easier my life would be without this connection to him that I couldn’t seem to shake. And how much duller.

“Willow Rogers,” he said, looking up so quickly I felt as if I’d been caught watching porn in the library.

“What?”

“Willow Rogers was part of…” Ian thumbed through the reports. “Shit. Over half of these.”

“Okay. And?”

“I thought they kept trying to reach me because they were worried about marketing St. Hilaire to tourists and wanted me to be their poster boy. But now I wonder if the reason wasn’t something else.”

Ian’s expression was unusually distorted for someone who was always concerned about appearances. I would have loved to believe that this lapse in control, this letting down of his guard, was due to us spending more time together, but like everything with him, it was hard to know for sure.

“Something else like what?” I asked, but when he didn’t answer and didn’t meet my eyes and the room got perceptively colder, I felt my anger rise. “Ian?”

“Just keep your distance from her,” he said, still looking away.

“That’s gonna be a little difficult given that she’s mentoring me, don’t you think?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe you can ask for a new mentor?”

“Who did you have in mind since she’s pretty much the best here, now that you’re…” I paused when Ian narrowed his eyes. “Anyhow, stop being so…cagey,” I demanded, although I easily could have said, Stop being so…Ian. “There’s no point to us trying to get anything done if you aren’t going to be honest with me.”

Ian tilted his head at an odd angle, which was something he’d just started to do. It was a ghost thing, I guessed, and the awkwardness sent shivers racing up my spine. “You want to play that card? Really?” His voice had an edge that did nothing to put me at ease. I could bleed out from the sharpness of that tone alone. “Then let’s see your arm.”

“What?” I flinched against my shirtsleeves. Ian always had a special way of making me feel exposed.

He turned away.

“Ian…” I started, searching for a way to avoid an argument. Lately, I’d lost my taste for battle. I looked for loopholes in Ian’s argument, but we both knew I’d deliberately done the one thing I’d promised him I wouldn’t do—continue to mix up potentially lethal batches of potentially lethal herbs as directed by a crumbling old book of my grandmother’s, and inject them into my arm in order to have the ability to visit with ghosts without having to hold a proper séance.

There was no way of getting around the lie; that serum had been the only way I could talk to Ian in the beginning without the whole dog-and-pony show of an illegal formal séance, since I was technically under age for holding one on my own. I had a hard time believing he could hate it that much. “I don’t want to fight with you.”

“That isn’t a denial,” Ian observed, thankfully bringing his head back to a more normal angle.

“No,” I admitted. “No, it isn’t a denial. But it also has nothing to do with you.”

I could see Ian’s shoulders tense, feel the temperature drop in waves. Although he’d never done it, it was a fair bet he had enough energy or presence or whatever-the-hell it was to damage the house. It was amazing the amount of power a pissed-off ghost could harness.

Instead, Ian stuck his hands in the pockets of his painted-on dark jeans. “Right. It’s your life,” he said. “I’ll keep in mind that it has nothing to do with me.”

“Ian,” I said, but he was gone before I got the word out.

The passive-aggressive disappearing-in-the-middle-of-an-argument thing drove me nuts, and he knew it.

I sat down and tried to parse the silence. Ian was a black hole of sound and vision, noise and expectation. It always took a few minutes after he left for me to return to myself, not unlike waking up from a realistic dream. Sometimes it took a few minutes before I could tell what was real and what wasn’t.

My phone lit up with a reminder of the earlier voicemail. I played the message back and then played it again, oddly relieved.

The message had nothing to do with ghosts. Nothing even to do with St. Hilaire. The real world was calling, and for once, I was more than happy to answer.

The post Read The First Chapter of ‘The Promise of Lost Things’ by Helene Dunbar appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Before we jump into the exciting cover reveal, Helene has a few words to say: “I’m so thrilled to share this gorgeous, moody cover. THE PROMISE OF LOST THINGS is a companion to PRELUDE FOR LOST SOULS. It’s set in the same spiritualist town of St. Hilaire and there are some crossover characters but it has a story all it’s own. I can’t wait to share this with everyone.”

Russ Griffin has always wanted to be a professional medium. And in St. Hilaire—where most residents make their living by speaking to the dead–he’s always held his own. But Russ knows the town he loves has been corrupted by The Guild, its sinister ruling body, and he’s determined to save it before his dream is crushed.

Willow Rodgers is St. Hilaire royalty. An orphan raised by The Guild, she’s powerful and mysterious. But she has secrets that might change everyone’s fate. She’s done with the town, and the customers who visit with their sob stories about lost loved ones. She wants to rid St. Hilaire of ghosts for good, even if it means destroying the only home she’s ever known.

Asher Mullen lost his sister, and his parents can’t get over her death. They sought answers in St. Hilaire and received none. Now they want revenge. Asher is tasked with infiltrating the town by getting to know a medium, and he sets his sights on Russ. The only problem is, he might be falling for Russ, which will make betraying him that much harder.

Russ, Willow, and Asher all have their own agendas for St. Hilaire, but one thing’s for certain, no one in this town will be resting in peace.

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

CHAPTER ONE: Russ

In St. Hilaire, New York, everyone talked to the dead.

If you were lucky, or talented, or both, the dead might listen. Sometimes they talked back. Sometimes they made sense. Sometimes they were just a pain in the ass.

I knew it was odd to live in a town filled with mediums whose primary business involved séances, healing sessions, and ghost walks. It was odd to live behind a gate that only opened to visitors – for a price – during the summer when they’d converge on our town seeking answers, comfort, and forgiveness from those who had passed on.

And perhaps it was equally odd to embrace the idea that death wasn’t an end point. Even though, maybe, in most cases it should be.

But, odd as it was, I loved it. I loved the history of our town, which was founded by a group of talented mediums over a hundred-and-fifty years ago. I loved the weirdness of seances and fairy trails and people coming to walk the huge labyrinth on the other end of town. I loved feeling like I was part of something big, something that mattered as well as the fact that I could bring hope and closure to the people who came here. And I really loved being chosen as leader of the Youth Corps made up of all the high school seniors, which might lead to an actual job with the town’s governing body, the Guild, someday.

But first I had to survive high school and the extra training that came with my leadership role.

Today my lesson started the way most spirit-related activities did, with a voice in my ear and a feeling I was being watched, a slight vibration under my chair, and a chill in the air.

I shivered in my wool coat. The chill, which seemed to settle somewhere in my spine and radiate through my body like a spider web, was a reaction to ghosts that most mediums outgrew, but one I guess I was stuck with. I tightened the muscles in my shoulders, locked my knees in an effort to stay still, and hoped Willow Rogers didn’t notice, which was ridiculous because Willow Rogers noticed everything.

“Tell me, Russ” she commanded. She sounded bored as if she’d rather be manning an off-season phone line or working the research desk at the town archives than mentoring me in conjuring the dead. More than that, she looked bored, her dark eyes dismissive and clouded as if her thoughts were far away.

I tilted my head and searched the air around her. “There’s a woman,” I said. “Standing over your left shoulder.” I examined the ghost’s clothing: fifty years out of date. Her hair: a messy blond ponytail. This lesson was so easy; it was no wonder Willow was bored. The spirit could have walked out of my freshman-year textbook. “Melody Thorne,” I said, identifying one of our town’s founders and most frequent ghostly visitors.

Willow stared at me, perfectly still and unblinking, her lips red against her skin as she said, “Continue.”

I tried to tune out the sound of my heart beating in my ear. Narrowed my eyes to focus on the syllables formed by the ghost’s barely there mouth. “You have a…” I leaned forward to listen closer to what the spirit of Melody Thorne was saying. “…a class. No, a meeting. You have a meeting at four o’clock and she’s worried you’ll be late.”

There were no clocks in the room, so Willow glanced at her phone. Her face flashed with annoyance and then cleared before she stood and smoothed down her straight black skirt. “That’s all for today,” she said, which meant I hadn’t done anything she could find fault with. Willow was notoriously generous with her criticism.

I stood and stretched. The muscles in my neck were taut and sore. These weekly lessons were required to help me strengthen my skills as a medium, but they were dull, exhausting, and it was clear both of us were only here out of obligation. I could do this sort of thing in my sleep.

Willow walked to the door of the classroom, her high heels echoing on the parquet floor. Then she turned back abruptly, as if she were trying to catch me off guard. “I overheard Father talking…” she started, her face animated for the first time since she’d walked into the room. “Is it true that Ian Mackenzie speaks to you?”

I inhaled sharply. Willow and I never spoke directly about our lives. We’d talk about school or the Guild or general current events: the museum got a new collection of dowsing rods from the early 1920’s, or did you hear Miranda had something strange happen during a reading she was conducting? But never anything more personal and for me, it didn’t get any more personal than Ian Mackenzie.

I didn’t talk about Ian with anyone. I hadn’t talked about him when he was alive and considered St. Hilaire’s hottest, young medium, even though we were friends with benefits. Or enemies with benefits. Or whatever you call it when you kind-of, sort-of like someone and kind-of, sort-of hate them all at once and yet can’t seem to stay away.

I really didn’t talk about him now that he was dead and haunting me (and only me) and we actually did like each other. Maybe more-than-liked each other. When it came to Ian, those specifics were always hard to pin down.

I answered her question with a tentative nod and waited while she looked me up and down. She had a piercing stare; one I’d often emulated with some amount of success. I knew she had to be irritated that Ian would talk to me and not her. After all, she and Ian had gone to school together, and served on the Youth Corps together. And even though she was only a few years older than me, she was already a member the Guild. More than that, she’d actually been raised by them as a type of collective adopted daughter. She even called Guild President, Clive Rice, “father”.

And Ian? He was Guild royalty. That hadn’t changed just because he was dead.

I was only a high school senior. A senior who was currently student leader of the Guild’s Youth Corps, but still, that was nothing in comparison to either of them. She had to be pissed I had a line to St. Hilaire’s most elusive ghost.

“I suppose it makes sense,” she said narrowing her round green eyes and letting contempt bleed into her voice. “Ian was always motivated more by what was in his pants, than what was in his head.”

I winced. She wasn’t wrong, and despite my determination to stay in control, I felt myself flush. But it was one thing for everyone to know that the ghost of Ian Mackenzie, one of the best mediums St. Hilaire had ever seen, spoke to me. It was another for them to know …assume… Hell, I couldn’t even define what my relationship with Ian had been when he was alive – much less what it was now – there was certainly no way Willow and the rest of St. Hilaire could have a clue.

But Ian and Willow were more alike than either would have admitted and the number one rule for dealing with both of them was the same: Don’t show fear.

I coughed, regrouped, and said, “I’m sure he’d want to send his best to Colin. How is your boyfriend, anyhow?” I had to restrain myself from putting air quotes around the word, “boyfriend.” Colin was Ian’s younger brother. He and Ian had hated each other when Ian was alive and Ian’s death hadn’t changed those feelings. Rumors about Colin and Willow had been swirling around for ages, though “boyfriend” was probably putting a pretty spin on it.

Willow’s eyes flashed, but when she turned back to the door, she didn’t answer. All she said was, “Be here the same time on Wednesday to continue your training.” Then she walked out.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Helene Dunbar is the author of several novels for young adults including We Are Lost and Found, Prelude for Lost Souls, These Gentle Wounds, and Boomerang. She lives in Nashville with her husband and daughter. Visit her online at helenedunbar.com and find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post Exclusive Cover Reveal: The Promise of Lost Things by Helene Dunbar appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

You can find Helene on Twitter and Instagram, along with at her website.

Hi, Helene! So glad that you’re joining us once more! How are you? How have you been coping with the world’s current upheaval?

I’ve been pretty good, thank you. It’s been a little crazy with juggling my day job, distance schooling my daughter, writing, and my current jigsaw puzzle obsession, but I feel very fortunate to have all those things in my life. Also, I’m grateful to be an introvert because the isolation is probably bothering me less than it is most people.

Now, about Prelude for Lost Souls! Give us the elevator pitch!

Prelude is about a town where everyone talks to the dead and three teens whose lives are – for better or worse – changed by it.

I have to say, I was completely enamored by the setting of St. Hilaire! The way you described it was so atmospheric, I constantly felt like I’d been there before. What inspired St. Hilaire’s spooky vibe?

St. Hilaire is based on the concept of a real place, Lily Dale, NY. I love the idea of a town filled with people who can communicate with spirits to the extent that it’s really the town’s main industry. The funny thing is, aside from the ghosts, and the town leadership who are really heading down a bad path, St. Hilaire is kind of an idealized small American town, very much like where I grew up in Michigan. It had a certain quaintness to it, and I think that makes it creepier in a way. I’m thrilled to hear that it felt recognizable to you.

Speaking of spooky things, would you rather be able to communicate with ghosts or be one yourself in the afterlife and haunt people?

While there are certainly family members who have passed on that I would love to be able to talk to, I think I’d choose to be a ghost, not necessarily to haunt people, but because I really hate the idea of missing out on so much amazing music and stories. So maybe I’d haunt a bookstore?

I loved the dichotomy of Dec wanting nothing more than to leave St. Hilaire behind and Russ aiming to become part of the Guild to bring about change from the inside. Annie rolling into their lives certainly stirs up some trouble – what did the process of writing three different life trajectories look like for you? Was it difficult to intertwine their stories?

My writing style can be described as “chaotic” at the best of times. Add that to the fact that I love writing characters far more than I love writing plots and you can kind of guess at that answer, lol. Having three points of view both brought the pleasure of being able to develop these very different characters and the pain of having to intertwine so many plots. And it isn’t just the three point of view characters, but two secondary characters, Ian and Tristan, have some pretty involved backstories.

I enjoyed the push and pull of Dec and Russ’s opposing goals set against their deeply loyal friendship and I think those struggles pretty much dictated the rest of the book. Likewise the two very different couples in the book were interesting to write because those relationships are extremely opposed. One is a very gentle falling into like/love by two grieving teens who unexpectedly find themselves connected through a mysterious piece of music and the other is a pretty intense and dramatic rekindling of the relationship by two boys, one of whom happens to be a ghost.

Tristan and Ian were showstealers for me! We don’t get their whole life story for obvious reasons but could you share a few things about the both of them that readers might not learn from the book?

I don’t tend to leave a lot off the page, but I’ll say that, in my head, Tristan’s backstory is very complicated and was inspired by an NPR story I heard about the childhood of author, T.E. Lawrence who wrote Lawrence of Arabia. He wasn’t in the book until Dec said something about his “imaginary childhood friend” and then I just ran with it. Although it might not be evident on a first read, he shares a certain cockiness with Ian, it just manifests in a completely different way. I enjoyed playing with those sorts of opposites in this book.

As for Ian, he was one of my favorite characters to write. He’s all bluster only no one seems to understand that he just enjoys a good mind game. He’s genuinely true to himself and his goals, but no one ever takes him at face value, and he plays with that. Not sure I can say more than that since he plays a big part in book 2.

I have to admit, I was really rooting for Dec and Russ while reading Prelude for Lost Souls. Any chance some unresolved feelings will be explored in the sequel?

SPOILER ALERT: Well, Russ has A LOT on his plate in the sequel including Ian and a boy whose parents are trying to stir up a lot of trouble for St. Hilaire, and I think Dec and Annie are pretty well matched. Also, any feelings that go beyond friendship are really only Russ’s side and even then…Russ is able to open up to so few people that I think his feelings for Dec are much more a product of trust than of passion. He hasn’t quite learned that he can get both at the same time.

Also, sorry (not sorry) that you were rooting for them. But I truly believe that theirs is a friendship that will last a lifetime.

Annie becomes as obsessed with the Lost Prelude as her mentor was. What’s your Lost Prelude (the song you can’t get out of your mind no matter how hard you try)?

I pretty much listen to music in my head all day long, so it kind of depends on the day. But I’ll say that the songs that haunted me during the writing of Prelude were INXS’s By Your Side and Never Tear Us Apart. And honestly, that’s okay with me!

What was your favorite scene to write for Prelude of Lost Souls? Are there any that didn’t make it into the final draft that you had a hard time letting go?

I loved writing the Russ/Ian scenes. Russ is someone who is very much in control (to a fault) and at the top of his game. I wanted to introduce a character who could absolutely cut through that control. Ian was a very talented medium, but he was (is) kind larger than life. I watched a lot of INXS videos when writing PRELUDE because I really wanted that Michael Hutchence vibe for him. Ian is sexy and intense and confident and some people, like Dec, never saw more in him than that. But I’m super proud of the dynamic between him and Russ. I think there is really something strong and complicated and real there, despite the fact that one of them is a ghost.

There is a scene with the two of them that I loved writing because it’s such an emotional tug of war between them all the time and I loved discovering how Ian could cut through Russ’s defenses.

I don’t usually cut out full scenes. I do a LOT of revision while I’m writing, so it’s more massaging than deleting. But the book was initially written in first person – still three points of view – for a very long time and it was difficult to accept that it needed to change. I totally understand why it works better this way, but it somehow felt more eerie in first person.

The wait for the sequel to Prelude for Lost Souls is already nagging at my nonexistent patience so could you maybe share a few tidbits with us (spoiler-free, of course) of what readers can expect?

So few people have read it that I’m afraid to say too much, but at the moment, it is also three points on view. One is Russ’s, one is that of a super minor character in PRELUDE, and one is a boy from Buchanan whose parents are trying to destroy St. Hilaire for very personal reasons.

At the end of Prelude we already know that Russ is going to be student leader of the Guild and now he actually needs to do that job for better or worse and he and Ian also need to figure out the next steps in both their relationship and their plans to reform the Guild.

Last but not least, do you have any bookish (or otherwise nerdy) recommendations for our readers?

I’m currently reading a rare (for me) adult book, The Second Home: A Novel by Christina Clancy. Since I’m on deadline with Prelude #2, I don’t have a lot of reading time and when that happens, I tend to gravitate towards biographies or character-driven fiction and this book, about flawed and complicated characters and families really fits the bill.

Musically, I’m listening to a lot of Adam French, who is a singer/songwriter based in the UK. I’ve been a fan of his for years and his music has very much been the soundtrack to P2. He has a very unique voice and his songs are immensely emotionally vulnerable and evocative.

Will you be picking up Prelude For Lost Souls? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Helene Dunbar, Author of ‘Prelude For Lost Souls’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar
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This gorgeously imagined YA debut blends shades of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and a breathtaking landscape of Hindu mythology into a radiant contemporary fantasy.

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin
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In The Night Swim, a new thriller from Megan Goldin, author of the “gripping and unforgettable” (Harlen Coben) The Escape Room, a true crime podcast host covering a controversial trial finds herself drawn deep into a small town’s dark past and a brutal crime that took place there years before.

The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis
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Combining the social commentary of The Handmaid’s Tale with the white-knuckled thrills of Red Rising, this epic space opera follows a comfort woman as she claims her agency, a soldier questioning his allegiances, and a non-binary hero out to save the solar system.

Lobizona by Romina Garber
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“With vivid characters that take on a life of their own, beautiful details that peel back the curtain on Romina’s Argentinian heritage, and cutting prose Romina Garber crafts a timely tale of identity and adventure.”–Tomi Adeyemi New York Times bestselling author of Children of Blood and Bone

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
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Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to the sensational, USA today best-selling novel Gideon the Ninth, turns a galaxy inside out as one necromancer struggles to survive the wreckage of herself aboard the Emperor’s haunted space station.

Blood World by Chris Mooney
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A drug that makes the blood of carriers a fountain of youth, a psychopath who doesn’t care how many bodies he leaves in his wake, and an LAPD detective hopelessly compromised by a dark secret. Together, they’re an explosive mix that’s going to shatter the city of Los Angeles into a million corpuscles. 

Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May
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This first book in a feminist space opera duology follows seven resistance fighters who will free the galaxy from the ruthless Tholosian Empire–or die trying.

Prelude for Lost Souls by Helene Dunbar
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For readers of Nova Ren Suma, Maggie Steifvater, and Maureen Johnson comes a spellbinding tale about choosing your own path, the families we create for ourselves, and facing the ghosts of your past.

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
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When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella’s side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward’s version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.

The Hollow Ones by Guillermo del Toro
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From the authors who brought you The Strain Trilogy comes a strange, terrifying, and darkly wondrous world of suspense, mystery, and literary horror. THE HOLLOW ONES is a chilling, spell-binding tale, a hauntingly original new fable from Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro and bestselling author Chuck Hogan featuring their most fascinating character yet.

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
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The epic debut YA fantasy from an incredible new talent—perfect for fans of Tomi Adeyemi and Sabaa Tahir.

You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria
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RITA® Award Winning author Alexis Daria brings readers an unforgettable, hilarious rom-com set in the drama-filled world of telenovelas—perfect for fans of Jane the Virgin and The Kiss Quotient.

What August releases are you looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below!

The post August 2020 Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

With the help of Dec and his best friend Russ, a complicated but talented medium, Annie’s quest for the Prelude takes a turn as family secrets and shifty alliances are revealed until they have to reach out to an enigmatic ghost the entire town’s searching for. One thing Dec knows for sure – he can’t leave now…but will he ever be able to?

I think I touched upon this in my review of Dunbar’s previous release We Are Lost and Found, but this woman just excels at writing settings that make you feel you’ve been there before. This time around, Dunbar takes her readers on an exploration of a small town called St. Hilaire where mediums, ghosts, and tarot-reading teenagers are found at every street corner. And while reading the novel, I could picture everything, from Dec’s house to Annie arriving on the train. It brought with it the sense of dread and feeling lost that comes with living in a town entirely too focused on death, especially when tourist season brings a swing of people wanting to contact the gone and forgotten.

My favourite part, besides the atmospheric setting and general sense of impending doom that was threaded throughout the story, was the relationships that are explored within the book. Dec and Russ’s friendship was really nice to see on the page, but also to see that somewhat unrequited pining that isn’t ever really solved. Russ, overall, was my favourite character to read about. He has so many facets to him and though we learn a lot, I wanted to know everything about him – from his past with Ian, the evasive ghost that the entire town is trying to pin down, to his relationship with his grandmother who passed away but somehow left him the recipes to become a more powerful medium, leading him to a strange addiction. Not to mention his unresolved feelings for his best friend and his lacklustre relationship with his dad. Russ was just a cinnamon roll that I wanted to protect at all costs while also loving his snark and neverending love and support for Dec and Annie. Along that, the complicated bond between Dec and Tristan and how Tristan has simultaneously been a beacon of hope for Dec, but also a source of constant anxiety kept me on the edge of my seat as I flipped through the pages to find out why only Dec could see this ghost that wasn’t a ghost. Annie’s struggle to deal with the loss of her mentor and still having feelings for this boy that somehow understands her better than anyone else after years of being starved of real human interaction also melted my heart.

With that said, I’m going to be honest here and confess that the couple that derived from this story wasn’t who I was rooting for (what can I say, I’m a lover of the underdog). Still, the blossoming romance between Russ and his ghost and Annie’s and Dec’s budding romance were intriguing for very different reasons – you’ll still hear me playing The One That Got Away by Katy Perry though, wistfully watching as Dec and Russ dance around the unmentioned connection they share.

There’s a lot of mystery surrounding the Guild and though we do learn about the sinister things they do to keep the bloodlines of seers and mediums strong, I still don’t have a full grasp on their members or what it is they actually do but maybe that was the point, to keep the reader guessing as Dec tries to escape and Russ tries to change the system from within. I can see how that would be explored more in the sequel.

The only real complaint I had was that the characters could have been a bit more fleshed out. While we do get the POV from Annie, Russ and Dec, I felt that there was an imbalance to how much we get to know about the individual characters. Since this is only the start of a series, though, it made sense that some characters got more of a spotlight than others and I hope to learn more about those who haven’t gotten their time to shine yet in the sequel.

Mesmerising and haunting, Dunbar invites readers into a world of family secrets, anxious ghosts and a society’s ruthless grasp for power that will leave you wanting more.

Prelude for Lost Souls is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers. like your local bookstore, as of August 4th 2020.

Will you be picking up Prelude for Lost Souls? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

For readers of Nova Ren Suma, Maggie Steifvater, and Maureen Johnson comes a spellbinding tale about choosing your own path, the families we create for ourselves, and facing the ghosts of your past.

In the town of St. Hilaire, most make their living by talking to the dead. In the summer, the town gates open to tourists seeking answers while all activity is controlled by The Guild, a sinister ruling body that sees everything.

Dec Hampton has lived there his entire life, but ever since his parents died, he’s been done with it. He knows he has to leave before anyone has a chance to stop him.

His best friend Russ won’t be surprised when Dec leaves—but he will be heartbroken. Russ is a good medium, maybe even a great one. He’s made sacrifices for his gift and will do whatever he can to gain entry to The Guild, even embracing dark forces and contacting the most elusive ghost in town.

But when the train of Annie Krylova, the piano prodigy whose music has been Dec’s main source of solace, breaks down outside of town, it sets off an unexpected chain of events. And in St. Hilaire, there are no such things as coincidences.

The post Review: Prelude For Lost Souls by Helene Dunbar appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below if you have read any of them!

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White
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From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes a new fantasy series reimagining the Arthurian legend, set in the magical world of Camelot.

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho
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Eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung has a secret–she’s a gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who must devour the energy of men in order to survive.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
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In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
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Two sisters are torn apart by war and must fight their way back to each other in a futuristic, Black Panther–inspired Nigeria.

Color Outside the Lines by Sangu Mandanna
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This modern, groundbreaking YA anthology explores the complexity and beauty of interracial and LGBTQ+ relationships where differences are front and center from authors Anna-Marie McLemore, Elsie Chapman, Karuna Riazi, Lydia Kang, L.L. McKinney, Lauren Gibaldi, Tara Sim, Caroline Tung Richmond, Kelly Zekas, Tarun Shanker, Samira Ahmed, Adam Silvera, Eric Smith, Lori M. Lee, and Michelle Ruiz Keil.

Girls With Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young
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Westworld meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this start to a thrilling, subversive near future series from New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young about a girls-only private high school that is far more than it appears to be.

Across A Broken Shore by Amy Trueblood
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The last thing eighteen-year-old Wilhelmina “Willa” MacCarthy wants is to be a nun. It’s 1936, and as the only daughter amongst four sons, her Irish–Catholic family is counting on her to take her vows—but Willa’s found another calling. Each day she sneaks away to help Doctor Katherine Winston in her medical clinic in San Francisco’s Richmond District.

Spin The Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
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Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping YA fantasy about a young girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett
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In a community that isn’t always understanding, an HIV-positive teen must navigate fear, disclosure, and radical self-acceptance when she falls in love–and lust–for the first time. Powerful and uplifting, Full Disclosure will speak to fans of Angie Thomas and Nicola Yoon.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
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From the New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens comes an imaginative fantasy about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom.

Gravemaidens by Kelly Coon
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The start of a fierce fantasy duology about three maidens who are chosen for their land’s greatest honour…and one girl determined to save her sister from the grave.

We Are Lost and Found by Helene Dunbar
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A poignant, heartbreaking, and uplifting story in the tradition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower about three friends coming of age in the early 1980s as they struggle to forge their own paths in the face of fear of the unknown.

Frankly in Love by David Yoon
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In this moving novel, debut author David Yoon takes on the question of who am I? with a result that is humorous, heartfelt, and ultimately unforgettable.

Dark Shores by Danielle L. Jensen
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High seas adventure, blackmail, and meddling gods meet in Dark Shores, a thrilling first novel in a fast-paced new YA fantasy series by USA Today bestselling author Danielle L. Jensen.

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray comes a gripping, unforgettable portrait of love, silence, and secrets amidst a Spanish dictatorship.

The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh
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New York Times bestselling author Renée Ahdieh returns with a sumptuous, sultry and romantic new series set in 19th century New Orleans where vampires hide in plain sight.

Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan
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In this mesmerising sequel to the New York Times bestselling Girls of Paper and Fire, Lei and Wren have escaped their oppressive lives in the Hidden Palace, but soon learn that freedom comes with a terrible cost.

Swipe Right for Murder by Derek Milman
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An epic case of mistaken identity puts a teen looking for a hookup on the run from both the FBI and a murderous cult in this compulsively readable thriller.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power
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A feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school, and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears. This fresh, new debut is a mind-bending novel unlike anything you’ve read before.

The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen
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Debut author Margaret Owen crafts a powerful saga of vengeance, survival, and sacrifice–perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Kendare Blake–in The Merciful Crow.

Do you have any other 2019 YA favourites? Tell us in the comments below!

The post The Best YA Books of 2019 appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

First things first, Helene: tell our readers a bit about yourself!

I’m from Michigan, and live in Nashville, but my heart is in New York where I lived for 20 years. Paste Magazine called me the “queen of heartbreaking prose,” which I kind of want tattooed on my arm.

You have quite the impressive bio working as a drama critic, marketing manager and journalist in your past. Have those jobs influenced the way you go about writing novels?

All of my books have a kind of journalistic, “ripped from the headlines” type of background. It isn’t to sensationalize those stories, they’re just the ones that resonate from me and make me ask “what if?”

My time in theater (I minored in it in college but hate being on stage) definitely taught me how to write dialogue and certainly theater plays a large part in WE ARE LOST AND FOUND and in making up James’s character.

I was so excited to read the afterwords in We Are Lost and Found from queer activists! It must have been quite the feat to write a novel set in the 80s, just at the beginning of the AIDS crisis. What did your writing and research process look like?

I’m thrilled you called out these afterwords. Ron Goldberg’s essay on life as young gay man in NYC in the 80’s gives me the chills whenever I read it and I think that Jeremiah Johnson and Jason Walker did an amazing job of capturing both the history and current state of HIV/AIDS prevention and medication initiatives.

Honestly, this was the easiest book I’ve ever written because I was only a year older than my characters in 1983. If I made a list of everything in the book that came from my own life, I’d take up all of your space, but even down to things like Dial-a-daze and the pro/con article that Becky wrote on the Guardian Angels for her school paper are real. I wrote that article for my high school paper! And while we didn’t have a fear room, a friend and I used to go into the language rooms in our school’s library and listen to records until we got kicked out. I could keep going….

When it came to the history of the AIDS crisis, I was committed to getting it 100% accurate. I remember most of the AIDS-related news of the time. I followed it closely and then worked for a state government writing grant funding proposals to the CDC in the early 90’s. So my main challenge was making sure that everything I referenced was specific to 1983 and then writing Michael’s story around those historical facts that were date-specific.

The vignette style worked well for me because I could draft a vignette while in line at the grocery store. But really, I’ve been writing this book in my head all along, I just didn’t know it. These characters were ones I’ve been carrying with me since high school because they’re all parts of me and my friends at the time.

Once I had a full draft (note that I don’t really draft; I’m constantly revising) I was happy with, I sent it to Ron Goldberg. He has a vast historical knowledge and was a leading member of ACT UP at the time. He was able to provide historical context that I might not have known or that I didn’t come across in my own research. He also suggested some levity which I added into the book and was a great sounding board to bound ideas off.

Your novel We Are Lost and Found has been compared to Perks of Being a Wallflower – have you read Perks and if so, do you think Charlie and Michael would get along well?

Ha! That was my publisher. I read PERKS a long time ago, but don’t remember it well enough to weigh in sorry.

For me (and a lot of our readers!), characters are what make or break a story – how did you create such authentic, relatable characters like Michael, James and Becky? Perhaps you have some tips for fellow writers?

These characters were easy because they’re all a part of me. And also part my friends in high school and college. I was an English/Theater kid, so there was no challenge there.

The secondary characters are a different story. Connor, Michael’s brother, changed a lot once Ron and I began talking and his relationship to Michael changed a lot. Originally Michael was much more judgmental about Connor’s lifestyle which is very social, very out and proud, but then I realized that was Michael was actually upset about was that his brother was busy all the time and no longer had time for him. He felt replaced and also he was worried about him. That change of perspective allowed me to give more nuance to their relationship.

Gabriel, Michael’s love interest, was also a challenge. There were historical issues I wanted to get into with him, but I decided that this book wasn’t the correct place to do it. So instead, I turned him into someone who was torn between doing everything he could to support his family, and someone who had learned, when his father was shot and killed, that life is short and you need to use the time you have to be the person you want to be. One reader told me that they were amazed at how much “grace” Gabriel has and I absolutely loved that because he’s really quite a complex character and when it comes down to it, he choose honesty over what’s easy and I’m glad he’s noticed for that.

As for tips…my main characters are basically me. I have a hard time being in a character’s head and making them someone I can’t relate to. So draw upon every feeling and every experience you have. Be like a “method actor” and live those parts and think about how situations make you feel when you’re coming from the place your character comes from – that’s really the trick, asking yourself, “What has this character been through and how does that influence their responses to this set of circumstances?”

Fear plays a huge role in We Are Lost and Found – how do you deal with things that you fear?

I’m a wuss. I’m a living representation of those memes where someone burns their house down because there’s a spider in it.

I am trying to be better in terms of actually doing things that frighten me: long drives, those aerial climbing things where you have to cross thin wires while suspended in the trees, talking to people I’m intimidated by, etc…

Michael sets a list of goals he wants to achieve at the outset of the novel – if you had to pen a list like that right now, what would be on yours to accomplish in one year’s time? (of course, keeping in mind that goals can change )

Wow. That’s a great question and also a little scary.

• Finish my 2021 book (Prelude’s sequel).
• Announce the big secret news that I’m sitting on that I can’t announce yet.
• Figure out common core math so that I can help my daughter through 4^th
• Strengthen a number of relationships in my personal life.
• Find a way to arrange my schedule of child/day job/life to include at least some form of exercise.

I found this question in your discussion guide of We Are Lost and Found and I would love to know your answer! Do you believe that the lives of teens then were easier or more difficult compared to today?

This is so complex, but there are two main differences I always think about:

(1) Teens today have the internet and social media. My grades definitely would have been better had I been able to type out reports and papers without the typos I got marked down from on and it would have been amazing to have the answers to everything at your fingertips. (Also, email. If you knew how many hours I spent at home waiting for the mailman…) But social media has put a lot of pressure on teens that we didn’t have, so this is a plus/minus.

(2) We had a lot more freedom as teens and even as younger kids. I remember taking my bike and telling my parents I’d be home for dinner and just….going. I could never let my daughter do that and I think it’s horrible that safety concerns are determining how resilient kids are going to be as adults. I’m not sure that teens are allowed to make mistakes and then fix the issues as much as we were and fail and that’s a valuable skill set.

What do you hope readers take away from your books?

For WE ARE LOST AND FOUND, I want them to realize that while 16 year olds weren’t the demographic literally affected by HIV/AIDS in 1983, we were changed by what would come, the government’s inaction, and the vast loss of a generation.

But I also want them to feel hopeful when they finish the book. People didn’t stop falling in love. They didn’t give in. They fought. They still do. That’s why the afterwards are so important to me. I need teens to know that yes, science has come very far and changed so many lives, but this disease is still devastating some, mostly marginalized, communities and there is still a fight to join.

Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming project, Prelude for Lost Souls?

Sure!

Prelude is set in a gated community where everyone talks to the dead and, in the summer, tourists come and pay to get in, hoping to speak to someone who has passed. It’s the story of two best friends, Dec and Russ. Dec comes from a long line of mediums, but wants nothing to do with it anymore, and has to leave town before he gets drafted into The Guild, which is the sinister town leadership. Russ is talented, but feels like joining The Guild is his only hope for a future and he’ll do anything to get noticed, including embracing some dark and potentially life-threatening forces, and an enigmatic and manipulative ghost.

Then the train of Annie Krylova, the piano prodigy whose music has been Dec’s main source of solace, breaks down outside of town, and it sets off an unexpected chain of events. In St. Hilaire, there are no such things as coincidences and both boys know their lives will never be the same.

Lastly, do you have any recommendations for our readers – books or movies or tv shows?

I don’t have a ton of time to watch anything, but This Is Us is just so brilliant that I make a point of finding time. Ken Olin is one of the producers and he starred in 30Something which was also so meticulously written, that I’m in awe.

I’m currently rereading CARRY ON by Rainbow Rowell so that I can go straight to WAYWARD SON even though I hate road trip novels. And I have a ton of biographies on my TBR list: Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young, and one about the Kennedy Family.

The one recommendation I will make though is Rebecca Makkai’s THE GREAT BELIEVERS. It’s about the AIDS crisis in Chicago in 1985, which is a much more intense period in the disease’s history, than 1983 was,. I was living there when part of the book takes place and was active in the theatre community and this book just nails it and is so beautifully written. It deserves all the awards it’s won.

Will you be picking up We Are Lost and Found? Have you already? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Helene Dunbar, Author of ‘We Are Lost and Found’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below if you will be checking any of them out!

Darkdawn (The Nevernight Chronicle #3) by Jay Kristoff
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The epic conclusion of the internationally bestselling Nevernight Chronicle from New York Times bestselling author Jay Kristoff.

The Testaments (The Handmaid’s Tale #2) by Margaret Atwood
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Margaret Atwood’s sequel picks up the story fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

The Institute by Stephen King
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King’s gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good vs. evil in a world where the good guys don’t always win.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as necromantic skeletons. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Set in a world of powerful women, dark magic, and off-the-charts romance, book one of this stunning fantasy duology will leave readers burning for more.

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore
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A stunning debut for author Evie Dunmore and her Oxford Rebels, in which a fiercely independent vicar’s daughter takes on a powerful duke in a love story that threatens to upend the British social order.

Frankly in Love by David Yoon
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In this moving novel, debut author David Yoon takes on the question of who am I? with a result that is humorous, heartfelt, and ultimately unforgettable.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In the early 1900s, a young woman searches for her place in the world after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.

We Are Lost and Found by Helene Dunbar
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A poignant, heartbreaking, and uplifting story in the tradition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower about three friends coming of age in the early 1980s as they struggle to forge their own paths in the face of fear of the unknown.

No Judgments by Meg Cabot
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The storm of the century is about to hit Little Bridge Island, Florida—and it’s sending waves crashing through Sabrina “Bree” Beckham’s love life…

The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The Girl the Sea Gave Back is the new standalone novel set in the brutal, Viking inspired world of Sky in the Deep. It will follow the story of Halvard ten years after the battle for Hylli, his role in the evolution of the Aska and Riki clans, and the spinning of fate that brings his path to intersect with a new character who changes their world again.

The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Gothic, intoxicating, feminist, darkly provoking and deeply romantic – this is the breathtakingly imagined untold story of the brides of Dracula, by bestselling author Kiran Millwood Hargrave in her much-anticipated YA debut.

Will you be picking up any of these September releases? Tell us in the comments below!

The post September 2019 Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Silence is not the answer.

My heart is still breaking a little bit just thinking of this story.

The novel follows young Michael, a “lost” boy in 1983’s New York City who is happy to let his eccentric best friend James take center stage in life, dance away his troubles at his favourite club The Echo, and above all, scared to come out to his parents after they kicked out his older brother Connor for doing so a while back. Together with his best friends James and Becky, Michael wades his way through life, just waiting to find himself and be able to be that self out loud – without consequences.

The backdrop to this magical story is a city caught up in the beginning stages of the looming threat that AIDS is spreading – fast. Caught up in his own funk over his sexuality, Michael becomes ever more worried – how big of a threat is AIDS, really? Should he be scared? Should this fear detain him from falling in love? And how is he ever supposed to allow himself to fall in love if that love might end up killing him?

Helene Dunbar manages to create a raw, tense atmosphere that mirrors the era of her novel perfectly. Throughout the story, you feel the longing, the agony, the fear that LGBTQ+ people had to (and still) live with. Random gay bashings, the slurred homophobic comment, the quick glance you throw over your shoulder before holding your lover’s hand in public – all this paired with the constant fear of contracting something that might leave you abandoned by all your peers and family in fear of catching an illness no one really knows how to treat or vanquish entirely.

I confess, this book isn’t an easy one to read. For one, the story takes a while to gain momentum and when it does, it still is hard to stay engaged, though I credit that more to the tough issue than the writing. It’s difficult to keep on hoping that Michael will get everything that he wants when you want to also throttle his homophobic father and passive mother, his friend who won’t tell him the truth about the sudden disappearance of an old roommate, or Michael’s brother who’s just living life from one guy to another, not caring about the possibility of getting…

And there it is.

The moment of enlightenment.

It’s a certain type of magic that Helene Dunbar managed with this story because it draws the reader in and then makes them question all their prior knowledge about sexuality, family values, responsibility and history. Because as I read, I understood that this was – this is the reality for so many LGBTQ+ people. We are in the closet and we are scared to come out – not because we don’t want to be ourselves but because we are held back by fathers who might throw us out of the only homes we’ve ever known, mothers who are too scared to defend their children against their husbands they’ve come to love before we were even born, by people who might judge us for being sexually active or wanting to explore what it means to love and be loved, to dress the way we want to, to take part in theatrical plays debating the silence that is at once oppressive and yet still a safety blanket. Because coming out is about so much more than just uttering one sentence.

As we follow Michael falling in love and questioning what it means to be himself, what it means to live his truth and what he is willing to sacrifice for it, we learn that everyone has their own journey, their own obstacles to face in the fight for love.

We Are Lost and Found serves as a reminder that living a lie only to please other people was and is still a thing that’s happening when it really shouldn’t be. It’s a reminder that even though we have come a long way from the 80s, even though we are just entering an era in which the LGBTQ+ community can be who they are more openly, that we should not forget our roots, should not forget that this has been a long time coming, and that we have yet so much more to go until we are “found”. A hauntingly beautiful, yet scarring story that captures the struggles of figuring out who you are while facing the uncertainties of the world, a story that should be mandatory reading for all.

We Are Lost and Found is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of September 3rd 2019.

Will you be reading We Are Lost and Found? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

A poignant, heartbreaking, and uplifting story in the tradition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower about three friends coming of age in the early 1980s as they struggle to forge their own paths in the face of fear of the unknown.

Michael is content to live in the shadow of his best friends, James, an enigmatic teen performance artist who everyone wants and no one can have and Becky, who calls things as she sees them, while doing all she can to protect those she loves. His brother, Connor, has already been kicked out of the house for being gay and laying low seems to be his only chance to avoid the same fate.

To pass the time before graduation, Michael hangs out at The Echo where he can dance and forget about his father’s angry words, the pressures of school, and the looming threat of AIDS, a disease that everyone is talking about, but no one understands.

Then he meets Gabriel, a boy who actually sees him. A boy who, unlike seemingly everyone else in New York City, is interested in him and not James. And Michael has to decide what he’s willing to risk to be himself.

Michael is content to live in the shadow of his best friends, James, an enigmatic teen performance artist who everyone wants and no one can have and Becky, who calls things as she sees them, while doing all she can to protect those she loves. His brother, Connor, has already been kicked out of the house for being gay and laying low seems to be his only chance to avoid the same fate.

To pass the time before graduation, Michael hangs out at The Echo where he can dance and forget about his father’s angry words, the pressures of school, and the looming threat of AIDS, a disease that everyone is talking about, but no one understands.

Then he meets Gabriel, a boy who actually sees him. A boy who, unlike seemingly everyone else in New York City, is interested in him and not James. And Michael has to decide what he’s willing to risk to be himself.

The post Review: We Are Lost and Found by Helene Dunbar appeared first on The Nerd Daily.