Now that The Naughty List is out in the world, I wanted to share a couple of blurbs and maybe... an excerpt!
First, I got these from a few awesome YA Book Bloggers! :-)
www.bookchicclub.blogspot.com : "Suzanne Young's The Naughty List is a fast, original, and fun romp that fans of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series will surely enjoy! Tessa is a wonderful, relatable character full of depth, quirks, and heart. A sure-fire hit!"
www.thestorysiren.com : “Espionage, lively cheerleaders, and very naughty boys... equal one debut that I found unputdownable!”
www.sharonlovesbooksandcats.com : “Holy cannoli! The Naughty List is one of the most adorable books I have ever read. Seriously people this book is just dripping in cuteness.”
Yay! And now for the excerpt. I hope you like it!!
CHEATER INCIDENT REPORT
CASE: 042
CLIENT: Natalie Snyder
SUBJECT: Dwayne Brooks
FINDINGS: At approximately 9:15 p.m. on January 27th, Mr. Brooks was observed engaging in a make-out session with a girl other than the client. The incident took place in the back row of the Regal Cinemas, theater 2. The movie was an ultra-lame romantic comedy.
Enclosed are the photos documenting the incident. There are three photos of Mr. Brooks in a lip-lock, one at the concession stand, where he bought his female companion Twizzlers, and two others, which were taken while the pair were parked in front of the female’s house. Note that the final photo confirms third base.
We trust that this report will remain confidential as some of the information contained within could compromise our top-secret status.
SOS is sorry for your loss, and we offer our deepest sympathies. We hope that we will not have to assist you again in the future, but please keep us in mind for referrals.
Keep smiling,
SOS
###
Kira had calmed down by the time we reached my car. She wasn’t very good at handling stress sometimes. She suffered from post-traumatic SOS disorder. In fact, after our last mission at the Regal Cinemas, Kira had a panic attack and nearly choked on a Twizzler.
“Oh,” she said as she buckled her seat belt. “At practice Leona wants to talk about a name change. Everyone is still calling us the Sex Kittens, and she thinks it’s demeaning.” Kira breathed on the passenger window and then traced K ♥ D into it.
I sighed. We’d had this conversation before. “I understand, but just because we’ve agreed to stop using the name doesn’t mean the rival schools will. We cheer for the Wildcats, K. It makes sense that with our good looks, they’d come up with Sex Kittens. I give them credit for being clever.”
Truth was, I did think the name was offensive, which was why I took it upon myself to call us the Smitten Kittens whenever possible. It had a much better connotation. And besides, it rhymed!
Still, most of the boys at school called us the Sex Kittens, including my boyfriend. Technically, our name was the Society of Smitten Kittens (SOS), only . . . without the K. Acronyms were ridiculously hard! Plus SOS sounded way more official than SOSK.
“You’re right,” Kira said, adjusting the aim on the heater vents. “And honestly, I don’t mind being a Sex Kitten. It’s way better than being a Cougar, right?” We both laughed. The rival squad at Templeton High was totally lame.
Even though we occasionally helped out the girls at other schools, we tried not to go too far out of our district. It was harder to get accurate information, and it made carpooling difficult. But we prided ourselves on being an equal opportunity operation.
When my car heated up, I shifted into gear and began driving toward Kira’s apartment complex. She lived in the Marshall District—an older section of town on the other side of the freeway. It was mostly duplexes and mom-and-pop shops, but it was closer to the mall, which Kira was stoked about. Especially since she didn’t have a car.
“Just remember,” I said as I stopped at a red light. “If we act like the name bothers us, they’ll only use it more. What’s the Smitten Kitten motto?”
“Never let them see you sweat,” she announced, looking proud to have remembered this time.
“Exactly. Because Kittens. Don’t. Sweat.”
I bit on my lip as the light changed to green. I wanted to believe those words, but sometimes in this business, perspiration was unavoidable. I’d known back when we’d first started that SOS would be a hard gig. Harder than a double-flip basket catch.
It was two years ago when our cheerleading captain, Mary Rudick, had been cheated on. Her boyfriend, Kyle, had been the Wildcats’ power forward and an all-around nice guy, or so we’d thought. Turns out he’d been running a screen.
At a playoff game, a girl showed up—obviously from a rival school because she seriously lacked school spirit—and stomped down the bleachers in heels during halftime. We were all waiting on the sidelines for our signal to go out and cheer when the girl came over, not even dressed in our colors. She asked Mary if she was still dating Kyle, and Mary, always polite, said that she was indeed his girlfriend.
But instead of congratulating her, the girl laughed right in Mary’s face! She said that for the past year, Kyle had been seeing her and that Mary needed to back off. Turns out, Kyle had been sleeping with both of them!
As the girl spoke, Mary had just stood there, completely silent. I felt like I had to do something to stop the self-esteem assault, so with emergency captain authority, I’d told the girl to leave. Very sternly. She gave a little smirk before shoulder bumping me and exiting the gymnasium.
The buzzer had sounded, signaling time for our halftime cheer, but Mary didn’t move. Her pom-poms dropped to the wood floor with a double thwack. My heart broke. And then my adrenaline kicked in.
I marched out onto center court, soon followed by the others. I cheered my stuffing out. The power was amazing as the crowd reacted to my every word. I remember watching the sidelines as Mary stumbled back a few steps and sat in a folding chair, staring straight ahead, her dark eyes glassy with tears. I cheered louder.
By the end of the game, I had nearly lost my voice and Mary wasn’t speaking. She left before Kyle could find her, but I saw that he knew. He offered me his signature crooked smile, but I just turned and stormed out.
The next day, Mary pulled all the squad into a meeting and discussed starting a club—one that caught cheaters. After careful observation, we noticed that our school had an abnormally high cheater-to-girlfriend ratio. I theorized that maybe it had something to do with the rainy weather.
So with the help of the internet, some spy books, and a few James Bond flicks, we set out on our first mission. It took us a while to get the right balance between investigating and cheering, but after a few false starts, we got it to stick. Mary drafted the official handbook, and ever since then, all Smitten Kittens doubled as official cheater catchers.
After she graduated, Mary deemed that I had more spirit than anyone she’d ever encountered, so she turned SOS over to me. I took my role as leader very seriously. I’d never let another girl suffer because of her boyfriend’s extracurricular activities. There’d never be another Mary Rudick.
I smiled to myself. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about Aiden cheating. He was my perfect guy, practically a life-size boyfriend trophy. Oh, so cute and—
The Naughty List is
available now!!!
