Check out the latest look at the PERFECTED series and enter to win a hardcover copy of UNRAVELED!
Ella was once a pet, genetically engineered to be a docile companion to a wealthy family, but with the help of her former owner’s son, Penn, Ella exposed the cruel practices for NuPet, the company to whom she once belonged. She thought their battle was over. She was wrong.
NuPet may be promising to rehabilitate their “pets” and make amends while it in the public eye. But secretly, they have a new plan: To exterminate them.
Ella and Penn on the run once again. Not only is NuPet after them, but the authorities think they are the ones terrorizing the former pets.
In an exclusive excerpt, Ella and Peen get their first taste of trouble at the hands of NuPet. Take a look!
No one glanced up at us as we left. We were inconsequential, just two kids leaving a pizza place. And that’s exactly what we felt like—kids. Powerless. Weak. Alone.
The bell on the door jingled lightly once more, and we stepped back out into the night. Once again, the sound of jazz music drifted out of the bar next door. I paused, listening to the soulful cry of the saxophone. For a moment, I closed my eyes, focusing on the full, round tone.
And then, just as the last note of the song died away, the bomb went off.
One single note rang in my ears.
High pitched.
Whining.
The saxophone… It had just been playing, wasn’t it? I could remember the low, sweet crooning, but that wasn’t what this sound was.
I shook my head and tried to bring a hand up to my eyes, but something held it clamped down at my side. I tried to wiggle free, but there was something pressing my back, too, making it hard to breathe.
I coughed. My mouth was dry, thick with dust and the taste of metal.
“Penn,” I croaked. “Penn?”
I blinked, trying to turn my head.
In front of me the ground spread out like a battle field.
Red and blue lights blinked behind a cloud of dust. Dark forms moved left and right, up and down. Long limbs waved to one another.
My cheek pressed against something rough.
“Penn!”
“Here’s one,” someone said. They sounded far away, a voice inside a bubble floating somewhere high above my head.
The weight on my back lifted, and a hand slipped beneath me, lifting me from the ground. I choked in a deep gulp of air and balanced on my wobbly legs. Even with the world tipped vertically once more, I couldn’t make sense of it.
“Ella!”
I turned.
The dark outline of Penn stumbled toward me.
Behind him, the building crumbled in on itself. Brick and cement.Wire and steel.Here and there a tipped table, a smashed chair. Broken glass littered the ground, glittering with the orange light of flames that glowed inside the hole where a door had just been. A door. A door. The door that had just jingled shut behind me.
Unraveled (Perfected #3) is out tomorrow, April 3, 2018. If you love this series, you’re in luck! We’re giving the book to TWO lucky winners via the Rafflecopter widget below. It’s super easy to enter, so give it a go!
Per the publisher, this contest is open to US residents only.
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ABOUT THE BOOK
Ella isn’t anyone’s pet anymore, but she’s certainly not free.
After exposing the dark secrets about NuPet’s breeding program, forcing them to repeal the law that allowed genetically modified girls to be kept as pets, she thought girls like her would finally be free. She never dreamed that it would backfire. NuPet may have convinced the public of their intentions to assimilate pets back into society, but Ella knows it’s a lie.
They aren’t planning mass rehabilitation…they’re planning a mass extermination.
Now, with the help of a small group of rebels, Ella and Penn, the boy she’d give up her life for, set out to bring down NuPet for good. But when her group gets implicated in a string of bombings, no one is safe. If she can’t untangle the web of blackmail and lies that extends far beyond NuPet’s reach, she won’t just lose her chance at freedom, she’ll lose everyone she loves.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kate Jarvik Birch is a visual artist, author, playwright, daydreamer, and professional procrastinator. As a child, she wanted to grow up to be either a unicorn or mermaid. Luckily, being a writer turned out to be just as magical. Her essays and short stories have been published in literary journals including Indiana Review and Saint Ann’s Review. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and three kids.