Title: Defending Taylor
Author: Miranda Kenneally
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: 5th July 2016
BLURB supplied by Sourcebooks
There
are no mistakes in love.
Captain of the soccer team, president of the
Debate Club, contender for valedictorian: Taylor’s always pushed herself to be
perfect. After all, that’s what is expected of a senator’s daughter. But one
impulsive decision—one lie to cover for her boyfriend—and Taylor’s kicked out
of private school. Everything she’s worked so hard for is gone, and now she’s
starting over at Hundred Oaks High.
Soccer has always been Taylor’s escape from the
pressures of school and family, but it’s hard to fit in and play on a team that
used to be her rival. The only person who seems to understand all that she’s
going through is her older brother’s best friend, Ezra. Taylor’s had a crush on
him for as long as she can remember. But it’s hard to trust after having been
betrayed. Will Taylor repeat her past mistakes or can she score a fresh start?
Buy Links
(The Defending Taylor e-book includes an exclusive bonus
story with Jordan and Henry from Catching Jordan!)
Amazon- http://ow.ly/a4Kw301nrLX
Apple- http://ow.ly/w51b301ns1v
Barnes&Noble- http://ow.ly/Gucq301nupz
BooksAMillion- http://ow.ly/NU4T301nuF1
!ndigo- http://ow.ly/adQj301nv8W
Indiebound- http://ow.ly/uXtK301nvtk
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Growing up in Tennessee, MIRANDA KENNEALLY dreamed of
becoming an Atlanta Brave, a country singer (cliché!), or a UN interpreter.
Instead she writes and works for the State Department in Washington, D.C.,
where George W. Bush once used her shoulder as an armrest. Miranda loves
Twitter, Star Trek and her husband. Visit mirandakenneally.com
Social Media Links:
Website: http://mirandakenneally.com/
Twitter: @MirandaKennealy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mirandakenneally/
EXCERPT
I now understand culture
shock: it’s me experiencing Hundred Oaks High for the first time.
A lot of kids go here. Five hundred?
A thousand? There are so many I can’t tell. At St. Andrew’s, there were only
forty kids in my entire class. We lived on a calm, sprawling, green campus.
Walking down the halls of Hundred Oaks feels like last-minute Christmas
shopping at a crowded mall.
Two guys wearing football jerseys are
throwing a ball back and forth. It whizzes by my ear. A suspender-clad male
teacher is hanging a poster for the science fair, while a couple is making out
against the wall next to the fire alarm. If they move another inch, they’ll set
off the sprinklers. At St. Andrew’s, kissing in the hall was an über no-no. We
snuck under the staircase or went out into the woods. Ben and I did that all
the time.
Thinking
of him makes me stop moving. I shut my eyes. Dating Ben was stupid. Going into
the woods with him was stupid. Thinking about what happened makes me so mad, I
want to rip that newly hung science fair poster off the wall and tear it apart.
A boy shoves past me, slamming my arm
with his backpack. That’s what I get for loitering in the middle of the hallway
with my eyes closed. He looks me up and down. “You coming to Rutledge Falls
this afternoon?”
“What?”
“Paul Simmons challenged Nolan Chase
to a fight. Rutledge Falls. Three o’clock. Don’t tell the cops.”
A
fight? Where the hell am I? Westeros?
A girl bumps into my side. “Watch
it!” Flashing me a dirty look, she disappears into a classroom with a group of
friends, chattering away.
Seeing
those girls together reminds me of my best friends, Steph and Madison. Right
now, they’re probably gossiping before trig starts. I miss Steph’s cool British
accent and Madison’s cheerful laugh.
I take a
deep, rattled breath. And then another. I feel trapped, like the time I got
locked in my grandpa’s garage and no one found me for an hour and I banged on
the windows until my fists turned purple from bruises.
I can’t
believe I had to leave my school. My home.
All
because I made one stupid decision.
I
check my schedule. My first class is calculus 1, the most advanced math course
Hundred Oaks offers. Just a week ago, I was taking an advanced calculus quiz at
the University of the South. St. Andrew’s is one of the best prep schools in
the country, and they offer seniors the opportunity to take courses at the
university, which is up the road. Even though I was still in high school, the
professors treated me just like a college kid. I was only in the course for two
weeks, but still. It was insanely difficult. The truth is, unlike everybody
else in my family, I hate math. I have to work at it harder than anything else
in my life.
But if I
didn’t take college calc, there’s a good chance I wouldn’t get into an Ivy
League school. I need to go to a top-tier school because that’s what people in
my family do. My father attended Yale, and my sister Jenna is there now.
According to Dad, my brother Oliver—Jenna’s twin—is a traitor for going to
Princeton, but I think Dad respects him for having the balls to make his own
decision.
Me?
When Dad called me into his home office last
night, he barely looked at me as he pored over my new schedule. The silence was
killing me.
“I don’t know how Yale will still
consider me if I’m not taking all AP courses,” I said. “Hundred Oaks only
offers AP chemistry.”
Dad sighed, took off his glasses, and set
down my schedule. “I’m incredibly disappointed in you, Taylor.”
I looked him straight in the eyes. His quiet
restraint worried me. I’d never seen him so upset.
But I was upset too. He rarely had time to
call me when I was away at school, but he could spare a few minutes to comment
on my one screwup? After how hard I’ve always worked?
Over
the years, I’ve done hours of homework every night. I had a 4.2 GPA at St.
Andrew’s. A 1520 SAT score. I was on track to be valedictorian. I was captain
of the soccer team and on the debate team. I did everything I could to show
Yale that I worked hard. That I am a unique individual. Because that’s what
Yale wants.
But my one misstep has muddied my
glowing record.
Dad
ended our conversation with a death knell.
“Tee,
I gave you all the tools you needed to succeed,” he said. “I’ve paid for your
private school education since first grade, and you squandered it by getting
kicked out.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, my face burning. “I’m
going to keep working hard at Hundred Oaks though.”
“You’re damn right you will.”
My father had me so flustered, I wasn’t
thinking straight when I said, “Maybe Yale will still take me because of who I
am.”
“You mean because of who I am.” Dad rubbed his eyes. “I’ve always taught
you kids the importance of integrity, and the minute you got into trouble,
instead of owning it, you called me to bail you out. And now you’re doing it
again. Using my name to try to get ahead.”
I hung my head. “I’m sorry, Dad.”
“I love
you more than anything, but you have to take responsibility for what you did.
You’ll have to figure college out on your own.”
“What
does that mean?” I asked slowly.
“It means
I’m not lifting a finger. I won’t be calling the alumni association or the
school president to put in a good word for you.”
“But
didn’t you do that for Jenna and Oliver?” I blurted.
He put his glasses back on. “You need to own
up, Tee.”
So here I am, glancing around the
unfamiliar halls of Hundred Oaks. The school is neat and orderly, but it
doesn’t look completely clean, like no matter how hard you scrub, it still
looks old. At least it’s not juvie.
I
step into my math class, which is already filled with kids. I choose an empty
seat at a wobbly wooden desk and stare out the window at the sunny, seventy-degree
September day. I bet at St. Andrew’s, my world politics teacher is telling my
friends, “Gather your books. It’s a beautiful day out. Let’s have class in one
of the gardens.”
I
check out the problem set on the whiteboard. I could do this level of math
years ago…
My former guidance counselor told me
that colleges look for trends in our GPA and activities over four years of high
school. So that means when colleges see my application, they will see:
I’m
taking easier classes;
I’m no
longer doing debate;
I’ve
lost my soccer captainship this year; and
I was
expelled.
I have never simply given up when
calculus got a lot tougher or an opponent ran faster than me on the soccer
field. So I refuse to believe my entire future is over because of one mistake.
I just need to figure out how to move
forward.
***GIVEAWAY***
This is a US/Canada only Giveaway
It run's 1st July - 30th July
It run's 1st July - 30th July
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Praise for Defending
Taylor
“I can’t quite put my finger on what
is so enthralling about Kenneally’s newest novel, but it totally sucked me in.
I loved that Kenneally didn’t go with an easy, traditional happy-go-lucky
ending. I also enjoyed the flawed nature of the characters, which made them
feel more relatable. This is a great summer read and my favorite novel by
Kenneally so far!” –RT Book Reviews, 4 Stars
