Title: Twisted
By: N.L. Greene
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Release Date: September 13th, 2013
Blurb
Growing up isn’t always easy. But for most teenage girls, they can rely on
their best friend to help them get through the process. A BFF is something that is truly treasured and
completely irreplaceable. You share all
of your secrets, and are loyal and honest with each other, even when you’re
acting just a little bit crazy. You have
each other’s backs no matter what and you form a bond that is virtually
unbreakable.
At least that’s what normal teenage girls experience.
Nat and Mel have been bestie’s since childhood and Nat has
followed her blindly ever since. But as
Nat’s friendship with Mel begins to lead her down the wrong path, she starts to
question the sincerity of their relationship.
Nat starts to see Mel’s manipulative, deceitful ways become more focused
on her. Will Natalie hold on tight to
the friendship she’s had her entire life, no matter what it cost her? Or will she let her heart lead her to a
relationship that’s not so twisted.
Excerpt
My problem isn’t one of the normal problems that teens come
to their parents with or seek advice from a counselor for. I’m not failing school or worried about
ending up in jail. I don’t have a drug
or drinking problem. I’m not pregnant
and there’s not an STD scare I need them to help me with.
No, it’s not that simple for me. Simple?
What’s
so simple about teen pregnancy or substance abuse in teens, you ask? Why am I brushing aside the gravity of
becoming a juvenile delinquent or contracting an STD? Especially since any person with a lick of
common sense can see that these things are no laughing matter. These problems keep parents up at night
worrying about their children and thinking of ways to prevent them from falling
victim to these exact things. They keep
the police out patrolling the streets at all hours of night hoping to catch the
evil culprits, or hoping to save maybe just one kid.
I say my problem isn’t that simple, because my problem is my
best friend.
That makes even less sense, doesn’t it? I mean, how can anyone call their best friend
a problem and then compare that to the problems I just listed? The statement alone is like an oxymoron or
something, right? Best friends are those
special people that you love almost more than yourself. They’re like sisters but better, because you
actually want to be around them as much as possible. They’re that person you can never get enough
of, who you share your deepest, darkest secrets with, and who you plan your
entire future around. Who cares that the
guy you marry one day won’t want a double wedding, complete with matching
dresses and saying his vows to you at the exact same time as the couple
standing right next to you at the altar?
Does it really matter if he wants
to live next door to that same couple, and spend every vacation and holiday for
the rest of your lives together with his wife’s best friend? No!
Because this person is your other half; the one person you know you can
depend on no matter what, and therefore you plan for them to be a part of every
aspect of your life for the rest of your
life.
These are things that besties do. Well, they are if your best friend is all of
those great, wonderful things. But the
relationship with my BFF is a bit different; a bit twisted. My best friend is the meanest, most
manipulative girl I have ever met. She
treats everyone like shit, and thinks the world owes her big time. She takes what she wants, no matter who she hurts
in the process… and she does it often.
Even to me.
But, I ask you - what sucks even more than having this sort
of best friend? Not even knowing it.
My severe case of being oblivious started when I was in the
fourth grade.
I don’t really remember a lot from that time period, but I
do remember that life was pretty normal and less complicated. More importantly, I definitely remember the
day I met my best friend. It was about
midway through the school year when we got a new student. Her family had just moved here from another
state. I don’t know where they moved
from or why they moved, and still don’t to this day. But when you’re ten years old, those aren’t
really questions you ask anyway. The
burning questions at the age of ten are… Is it a boy or a girl? Where will they sit? The girls all say, “Yay! Our new student is a girl, so now there are
more girls than boys!” That’s critical
at this age, really.
And luckily, she got to sit by me. Our desks were arranged in small sections;
four desks put together to make four separate table-like areas in the
classroom. The only empty seat in the
class was at my area, right across from me.
And thank goodness, because I had been forced to sit with two other boys
since Charlotte had left the month before.
For that reason alone, I already loved the new girl and decided that she
would be one of my best friends. It’s
easy like that when you’re so young. You
just ask if they want to be best friends, and BAM! Instant best friends.
That’s pretty much how it worked for me and Melanie, and we
soon became inseparable. My parents even
started giving her a ride to school in the mornings, even though she lived
around the corner and not on our street.
I wasn’t really at the age to start having sleepovers or anything like
that yet, and my parents were kind of over-protective, so I never asked. But Melanie (who by the end of the school
year had been dubbed ‘Mel’ and I became ‘Nat’) and I still spent as much time
together as we could. We ate lunch
together and played on the playground together, which were the sort of things
that were critical when you’re in elementary school. Then fifth grade came and suddenly we were in
different classes. We still said we were
BFF’s and hung out on the playground together, but that was it. From what I can remember, the year was pretty
uneventful. What can I say - I was like,
eleven? What really happens when you’re that age, other than the occasional new
kid coming into your class?
Toward the end of our fifth grade year things began to pick
up a little. Excitement and nervousness
began to build, due to the fact that we would be going to middle school the
next year. Mel was still going to be at
the same school as me, and we were even going to be riding on the same school
bus. Our parents let us hang out more
over that summer between, and now that we were older, we could ride our bikes
to each other’s houses and Mel even came over sometimes to go swimming in our
pool. We talked about how awesome middle
school was going to be, and made plans to be best friends forever - no matter
what.
Can you share your idea of the perfect soundtrack to
‘Twisted’ with us?
This was really hard for me.
The songs I listened to while writing the book didn’t necessarily match
the mood of the book. So here a some
that I think best describes how the book flows and the mood of the
characters.
1. Unwritten by
Natasha Bedingfield
2. Cornflake Girl by
Tori Amos
3. Imagine Dragons -
Radioactive
4. Breakeven - Script
5. We Can’t Stop -
Miley Cyrus
6. Brass Monkey -
Beastie Boys (I know I’m totally showing
my age here, but I cannot imagine a high school party without the Beastie
Boys!)
7. Blurred Lines -
Rob Thicke
8. Friend of Mine by
Lily Allen
9. Little Lady by Ed
Sheeran
10. Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Ray
11. Roar by Katy Perry
About the Author
N.L. Greene, who is 1/2 of the author duo Riana Lucas, has
decided to venture outside of the Fantasy world that she and her best friend
created with Poppy and The Deadly Flowers Series to write a few books on her
own. While she loves working with her
best friend, writing solo has allowed her to explore interest that had solely
been her own. She spends a lot of time
reading her favorite authors which range all over the place and in every genre,
but spends just as much time with her husband and two daughters, traveling,
shopping, and playing video games.
Nichole was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Florida, where she and
her high school sweetheart live with their two children.
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