Title: Neverland Academy
Author: Daelynn Quinn
Genre: YA
It was the worst day of Daphne’s life. Not only had her parents moved her from Atlanta to the middle of nowhere, but her boyfriend broke up with her in the middle of a crowded club and her parents grounded her for a month for sneaking out and stealing the BMW. All in one night! If she were back home in Atlanta it would be no problem. She could always find ways of getting around her punishments. But this was rural Georgia. And there was nowhere to go but woods and farmland. That is, until Finn showed up at her window.
Finn was the invincible mascot of Neverland Academy where Daphne’s brothers attended. For the five years since he’d been expelled from the all-boys boarding school, he lived in the old slave tunnels under the former antebellum plantation home. He and his band of outcast boys lived for pulling pranks on the school’s professors, and especially the headmaster, Byron Trappe, who had a personal vendetta against Finn.
Daphne grew to love life under the academy. But there was one problem. She was falling for Finn. Hard. She knew he didn’t want a relationship or anything that resembled growing up. But when the wall she built between them begins to crumble before her eyes, will she stay at the academy and face impending heartbreak? Or will she leave her heart behind and escape the dangers of criminal life, including a perilous encounter with the vengeful headmaster?
Author Bio
Daelynn Quinn was born and raised in southern Maryland where she spent her youth exploring and falling in love with nature in the woods behind her house. She graduated the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in dietetics, which she promptly abandoned to pursue writing. Daelynn’s writing is fast-paced and laced with current issues that concern her. Her first dystopian trilogy, Fall of Venus, focused on climate change and the role we as humans play in it. Her YA novel, Neverland Academy, delves into child abuse and negligence. Daelynn is excited to be commencing a new series, which will tear into the animal exploitation industries. While she is not reading or writing, Daelynn enjoys brainstorming while mowing her lawn, cooking healthy meals her kids refuse to eat, and watching old episodes of Mr. Bean with her three boys.
Links
www.daelynnquinn.com
daelynnquinn.wordpress.com
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Book Excerpts
#1
“You’re not a student here,” a voice drifted from behind her as if a breeze carried it through a drafty window.
Daphne jumped nearly two inches off her seat and her heart thumped wildly against her chest. Quickly she hit “Send” and stood, guarding the computer screen. She was shocked to meet face to face with a boy who looked not much older than she. Judging by his stature, tall and athletic, he looked like he couldn’t possibly be young enough to attend, but his boyish face complete with deep-set dimples defied that thought. His hair, black as coal was spiked up in that “just got out of bed” look and he was dressed in a black V-neck tee shirt and jeans, which had worn holes in the knees. She was well familiar with the style, being in the crowd she was in, but this didn’t exactly look like a fashion statement. Especially not with bare feet that looked like they’d been through a few mud puddles since his last shower. It certainly didn’t meet the dress code for Neverland Academy.
“Apparently neither are you,” Daphne retorted, letting her gaze scan him from head to toe, but she refused to meet his eyes. There was something intimidating about this boy. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but there was something about him that made her incredibly nervous.
The boy smiled, showing off a perfect set of teeth.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, leaning back against the bookcase and crossing his arms in a cocky manner.
Daphne twitched nervously. Surely this guy wasn’t old enough to be a professor, was he? “I was just sending an email. See, my parents haven’t set up the Internet at our house yet and I just needed to get in touch with some old friends from—”
“No not here, in the library. I mean what are you doing at the academy? Don’t tell me Professor Pervpot has changed the rules to allow girls in.”
“Professor who?”
The boy rolled his eyes and sighed. “Trappe?”
“No!” Daphne laughed. “My brothers are starting school here. We came to help them move in and do the tour and stuff, which was incredibly boring, I might add. And speaking of Trappe, is it just me or is he a really creepy guy?”
“Don’t I know it.”
For the first time Daphne met his eyes and did not look away. She was dazzled by the clarity of them. It was like somebody sliced a lime in half and stuck the two halves in his eyeballs, with the flesh facing out. She’d never seen green eyes that looked so bright and clear. She struggled to look away, but couldn’t. His gaze remained on her, audacious and enraptured.
#2
“But you’re practically an adult already, aren’t you? How old are you?”
“I’m seventeen for three more months. And it doesn’t matter how old I am anyway. Being an adult means being responsible, paying bills, working.” Finn’s voice took on an intonation that sounded like he was about to vomit.
“But you can’t just stop aging. You’re going to be an adult eventually, whether you like it or not. It’s nature.”
“In the physical sense, yes. But I’ll never be an adult as society sees it. Not as long as I stay at the academy.”
“I don’t understand. What does the academy have anything to do with it?”
“At Neverland Academy, we do what we want, when we want. It means never having to never having to follow rules or do what you’re told. Never doing homework or stupid book reports. Never being punished for having fun. Never falling in love and having your heart broken. Never having any responsibility. Never growing up.”
“But you can’t stay there forever, can you?”
“Why not? They’ve got everything we need. As long as we stay hidden and out of sight, we can keep partying like it’s 1999 until we’re old and gray.”
Daphne’s ears perked. Though her rational side kept trying to tell her that this was wrong, she was too tempted by the seductive nature of Neverland Academy. She didn’t want to have her heart broken again, like Rocks had done to her. She didn’t want to get a job or be responsible. She wanted to have fun and live life her own way, by her own rules, where nobody would tell her what to do or how to do it. She wanted to be free.
“Okay, let’s keep going.”
#3
“What’s going on? What happened?” Daphne asked, kneeling down in front of him. He raised his vivid eyes to look at her. She was right—his mischief was gone. There was no trace of the boy who wanted nothing of grown up life. This boy was well beyond his physical years. The severity in his eyes cut through her like a razor slicing through a tomato.
“He got her,” Finn responded. “Trappe got Lily.”
“What do you mean, he got her?”
Finn fell back, slamming his back into the wall behind him. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But I could hear them talking and Lily shouted a warning at me, telling me to run.”
“So, she’s in pretty big trouble then?”
An acerbic grunt escaped Finn’s lips. “You could say that. The question is, how deep is she in?”
“Surely it can’t be that bad,” Daphne assured, not quite believing herself. “I mean, her mom lives and works here. The punishment would have to be reasonable. Maybe he’ll just let her mom take care of it.”
Finn shook his head. “If it were just about the party, you’d probably be right. But it’s more than that. She got caught because of me. For helping me. To Trappe, that’s like aiding and abetting a terrorist.”
Daphne didn’t know what to say. She reached out for his hand and he allowed her to hold it, gently stroking the back of it with her thumb.
Finn shrugged. “There’s not much we can do tonight. Trappe would have informed the others by now. They’ll be on high alert. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to do anything.”
Finn stretched out across the pad on his side, sinking his head into Daphne’s pillow, while she watched, bewildered.
“You’re sleeping here tonight?”
Finn reached up and pulled her down so that she was lying in front of him and touched his forehead to hers. His arms wrapped around her waist snuggly, as a child holding a teddy bear. “If I don’t I’ll be up all night thinking about what to do. I’m too on edge right now. You bring me comfort Daffy. There’s something about having you here. It’s almost like . . . like that feeling that if something goes wrong you’ll be here to take care of me.”
“Like having a mother?” Daphne grinned.
“I guess. To be honest I wouldn’t know.” Finn brought his lips to hers, soft and delicate. When he pulled away his eyes remained closed. “Get some sleep Daffy. I have a feeling tomorrow will be a big day.”
“What do you mean?” Daphne whispered, allowing her own eyes to fall shut.
“The plan. Tomorrow we move forward.”
Thank you for hosting Neverland Academy!