Blog Tour: Nerve

NERVE is an exciting new YA release from Penguin and I am SUPER excited to be able to share with you an excerpt of the book to give you an idea of whether you'd like it before you buy it, AND a special giveaway!

There are also a number of stops on the tour, and there are a total of 7 excerpts - make sure to check them all out to learn more about NERVE! Find the full schedule for the tour here.

About NERVE:

A high-stakes online game of dares turns deadly.
When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. At first it's exhilarating--Vee and Ian's fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they're directed to a secret location with five other players for the Grand Prize round. Suddenly they're playing all or nothing, with their lives on the line. Just how far will Vee go before she loses NERVE?
Debut author Jeanne Ryan delivers an un-putdownable suspense thriller.

You can also find out more on Jeanne's website.

Excerpt:

From chapter two, fallout from the first dare, which didn’t go as planned...

John and Max give me weird smirks. Is it my imagination? I’m being paranoid, right? Those guys are always smirking. Without making further eye contact, I put everything away, then head out to the fire escape, which fortunately is empty, thanks to Seattle’s strict public smoking laws. I pull out my phone and click to the NERVE site. There are a hundred and fifty comments linked to my video. Do I dare read them? Part of me feels mortified, yet a tiny part feels flattered to get so much attention. Not flattered enough to actually read the comments just yet, so I click over to my favorite shopping site and drag some high-end hair care products onto my wish list, even though what I really need is a good cut. Shivering, I wish I didn’t have to go inside for the intermission curtain. What if I just left it for someone else? But of course, I don’t do that. I’m the responsible one, despite what my parents currently believe. With a deep breath, I enter and scurry to the wings. As soon as the act is over and the drape drawn, I run back toward the fire escape, but Sydney catches up to me. “We need to talk.” Uh-oh. I keep going, but she follows me outside, tugging at my arm. “Matthew just whispered something about you playing NERVE. What’s he talking about?” My lungs deflate. I lean against the rough brick wall. “Okay, don’t get mad. It’s just that I was bummed about not being able to go to Ashley’s party last night. So I did a tiny little prelim dare.” Her body seems to rise off of the ground. “You what?” “I know. It was stupid. And it kind of went wrong. I had to dump water over my head, but then it made my shirt all see-through and, oh God, it’s such a mess.” I put my head in my hands. She makes a pursing sound with her lips. “Stop. It’s probably not a total disaster. We’ll take care of this. Where’s your phone?” I use my elbow to gesture toward my pocket, not wanting to take my face from my hands. She pulls it out and I hear clicking. Of course she knows exactly where to look online, being a NERVE wannabe. For a second, I feel a moment of satisfaction that I’ve actually done something that Syd had her eyes on before she was able to. But that feeling is soon squashed when I realize that she never would’ve been dumb enough for things to end up the way they had. “So which dare did you do?” she asks. “Coffeehouse,” I say through my fingers. More clicking. Then, “Oh, I see.” I lower my hands. “Told you.” Her face is serious. “Well, okay, let’s stop and think.” In addition to being blond and beautiful, Syd maintains an A average. “No further thinking required. I want to go home.” “Uh-uh, running away is only going to make things look worse. Besides, it’s not like the video shows that much. You weren’t naked. Maybe we can turn this around. Tons of celebrities got their start with leaked sex tapes.” “Um, my career goal doesn’t include reality TV.” “Okay, but the way those girls got through it was by holding their heads high. So, number one, don’t apologize. Just smile when people mention it and shrug, like aw gee, it could’ve happened to anyone.” I take the phone back from her and start scrolling through the comments. Sure enough, there’s one from Matthew that says, “Little Vee, I didn’t know you had it in you!” I close the link to the site and check my messages, finding a few from my friends with WTF subject lines and a few from acquaintances with lots of exclamation points and question marks. There’s one from a girl I’ve never heard of with a subject line that says SLUT. How did she get my address? I delete it before turning off the phone. Syd’s at the door. “You ready?” “I guess.” I try to keep my head up as we march inside toward the girls’ dressing room. In my peripheral vision, faces turn my way. When we enter the room, Sydney announces, “My best friend had the balls to do a NERVE dare!”

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Good luck! :)