Hey everyone! I’m really excited to have Jodie Andrefski, author of The Society (May 3, 2016 – Entangled: Teen) here for an interview! Plus, don’t forget to enter the insanely epic contest that Jodie has going on here!

Before we get into the interview, here’s more about the book:

What starts as a simple revenge plot turns deadly inside Trinity Academy’s gold-plated secret society, and seventeen-year-old Sam Evans must decide if vengeance is worth the price.

Trinity Academy’s gold-plated secret society is about to be turned upside down. Seventeen-year-old Sam Evans plots revenge on her ex-bestie, Jessica, who happens to perch at the top of the Society’s social ladder–and helped put Sam’s dad in jail. Sam may no longer be cool enough to be invited to rush the Society, but she’s tech-savvy enough to know how to use it in her plan.

Sam fake taps three “initiates” to do her dirty work, each none the wiser that they’re merely puppets in a quest to dethrone Jessica. Convinced Sam is losing it, her best friend Jeremy distances himself, which just fuels Sam’s manic personality. But after Sam meets a hot stranger in a coffee shop, she’s sure the gods might finally be taking pity on her. Everything seems to be coming together-revenge, romance, respect-until she’s confused by her growing attraction to Jeremy and her plotting starts to derail.

Get-backs can be a bitch, and things nosedive when Sam realizes her plan isn’t as flawless as she thinks-and if she’s not careful she could be joining her dad behind bars. With one girl hospitalized and another student in a coma, Sam is forced to re-examine her motives and decide who and what she’s willing to sacrifice in the name of vengeance.

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Kobo | IndieBound

And now for the interview! Enjoy!

Question: Congrats! The Society will be out in the world soon! What are you most looking forward to in the coming weeks/months?
Answer: Thank you! =) I think what I am most looking forward to is actually holding The Society in my hands after all the months and months of hard work, as well as seeing it in a bookstore. Plus, I love to hear reader reactions on the book.

Question: With the release of The Girlfriend Request in January and The Society in May, you only have 4 months between the two releases. What has your schedule been like? Has it been difficult juggling two books at once?
Answer: Short answer, YES, lol. There was a point before their releases where I was working on edits for both at the same time, but I am super lucky to have a fantastic editor and team behind me at Entangled. It was kind of like, okay, here is the second round of edits due for TGR and we need the first round of edits due for The Society. Plus my publicist at Entangled, Melissa, is wonderful. She keeps me sane. I’m also lucky that my daughter is so fond of ordering pizza for dinner when things get too crazy. =)

Question: Describe The Society in ten words or less. Go!
Answer: A revenge plot against The Society goes very wrong.

Question: The Society deals with a deadly revenge plot and hacking, among other things. What inspired this story?
Answer: I’ve always loved any stories dealing with secret societies, whether in film or books. I wanted to take that interest and combine it with the very real issue of bullying going on in schools, and examine what can happen as a result. As humans, sometimes we feel we just want to get back at the person hurting us, and this desire can drive us in an unhealthy manner as it did with Sam in the book. She turned into someone she didn’t really like, and made a lot of bad choices and things really snowballed from there.

Question: If you were invited to join a secret society, would you? Would you make it through the initiation?
Answer: You know, depending on what kind of secret society it was, and how old I was when I was invited, I might be tempted. The concept is just sort of alluring to me. But no, I doubt I’d ever make it through initiation, I don’t think I’m daring enough to do most of the tasks they would probably require.

Question: In what way – if at all – has your Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling aided your writing?
Answer: I think it has helped me to add depth to some of the character’s motivations. Even when they are acting out in an unhealthy way, I hope for it to be realistic for a teenager. Sometimes as adults reading YA, we think, “Oh that’s not smart.” And the reality is…no it probably isn’t. But the teenage version of ourselves probably did a lot of not so well thought out things, at least I know I did. As teens, it is so easy for emotions to take over and rule our actions…that is a teen’s physical makeup. Their brains are literally incapable of fully processing long term consequences until the age of 19. And if a teen is dealing with something like depression, or anxiety, or in Sam’s case, bi-polar disorder—this can manifest in all kinds of ways when left untreated. Mood swings, poor decision making, etc. She had the loss of both adult figures in her life, then a best friend. She had a strong need to be accepted and was willing to do just about anything to feel accepted, to feel like she mattered. Even if that meant taking actions that if she was just able to stop, step back and think objectively…she might not have done.

Question: Craziest thing you’ve had to Google for a work in progress?
Answer: An all-natural drug able to knock someone out without killing them

Question: What books would you recommend to a reader who loved yours, and wants to read something similar?
Answer: Get Even (Don’t Get Mad) by Gretchen McNeil

Question: What are three must-have items when you sit down to write?
Answer: Coffee, quiet, more coffee

Question: What book are you currently reading?
Answer: Forget Tomorrow by Pintip Dunn

Question: Are you working on anything new?
Answer: I am actually working on two. Both are YA. One is a psychological thriller(ish) and the other is a about a teenage girl who goes back in time to try to figure out who murdered a local boy in an effort to prevent his murder.

And now for the excerpt! Enjoy!

If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
—William Shakespeare

I pushed through the heavy oak doors leading into Trinity Academy, ignoring the groups of students milling around the wide steps of the ornate brick building. Not like it mattered. They were all busy talking, laughing, and fist-bumping each other, mostly jocks and their adoring fans, none of whom I had the time or interest to speak with.

“Out of my way.”

Bren Fessler—bedazzled toady to my ex-best friend Jessica—shoved past, leaving me gagging from lingering fumes of eau de bitch. I rolled my eyes, hacked through the last of the stench, and headed toward my locker.

Trinity was founded like a hundred years ago, and if buildings really do have a personality, this one had the snooty air of old money. I mean, it was a beautiful campus; it just sucked that I couldn’t stand the majority of the kids who went there anymore. But since Trinity had a stellar academic program that looked great on college applications, I’d remained, even after everything that happened. Besides, my creative writing teacher, Ms. Kemper, had pretty much assured me a shining recommendation to Columbia, her alma mater. I think she felt sorry for me. So I stayed. I wasn’t about to blow my chance at getting into my dream school even if everything around me sucked.

As I neared my locker, five or six members of the golden crew sashayed in a little blond bubble across from me, confident toothy smiles all over their faces. Since it was the start of Rush week, they were probably all certain they’d find a typed note covertly slipped through one of the vents in their locker, an invitation to rush our high school’s hallowed cloak-and-dagger Musterian Society.

Even the name sounded decayed, like a musty blanket you’d find rotting in your grandmother’s attic. I’d looked it up once. Musterian. Turns out it’s Greek for “a mystery confided only to the initiated and not to ordinary mortals.”

There would obviously be no note in my locker. I was way too ordinary, and mortal was putting it mildly. My hair wasn’t blond and shiny enough. I didn’t prance around in a cutesy little uniform with TA emblazoned across my not-quite-big-enough boobs.

The cheerleaders seemed to miss what just about everyone else recognized. The irony in the fact that our school’s initials also stood for a completely different phrase. Then again, they’d probably be just as proud to wear the label, Tits and Ass. Yet these Einsteins were usually the ones chosen to pledge, at least to meet the female initiates quota.

Just about every kid at school dreamed of being invited to rush. Invitation to the Society wasn’t only a guaranteed boost to your social standing, although that was a given. No, being in the Society offered even more tangible, life-changing perks. It pretty much guaranteed acceptance to the college of your choice—past members served on the admissions boards of some of the best schools in the country. Dream jobs tended to follow. The Society members helped their own.

We weren’t supposed to know all that, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out when you saw school acceptance letters roll in. The Society was a who’s who of the in crowd, guaranteeing a life we all fantasize about.

They didn’t ask people like me to join. I wasn’t cool enough, at least not anymore.

Steps away from my locker, the golden crew parted like the Red Sea. Whispers and giggles engulfed me—dark as smoke, and just as acrid.

“Oh my God, it’s perfect.”

“…her expression.”

I tried to ignore them, just another day in Trinity paradise.

Until I saw it. Jessica. She’d gone too far this time.

And now for the giveaway! One lucky winner will win a signed ARC of The Society by Jodie Andrefski!

With that being said, I wish you luck! May the odds be ever in your favor!

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About the Author:
 
Jodie Andrefski lives in a tiny town in PA that no one has ever heard of with her teenage daughter. She received her BS in Secondary English Education from Penn State, then taught a few years before changing focus and going back to school for her Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling.

Andrefski always loved both reading and writing., and wrote for several websites and magazines before deciding to write novels. She writes YA Contemporary, most of which involves at least some kissing. The Girlfriend Request is her debut novel through Entangled Crush, and The Society will be releasing through Entangled Teen in May 2016.

She is a firm believer that just about anything can be cured with chocolate or by watching an episode or two of Supernatural. (There’s a lot to be said for the pretty boys.) =)

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