Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. And to make it even easier here is a special “how to hunt” Link.

There are SIX contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GREEN TEAM–but there is also a red team, a gold team, an orange team, a red team, and an indie team for a chance to win a whole different set of signed books!

If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the GREEN TEAM, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).

Entry Form: Once you’ve added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by October 5th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

Today, I am hosting the lovely and talented Bree Despain for the YA Scavenger Hunt!

Bree Despain is the author of the Dark Divine trilogy and the Into The Dark trilogy.  Bree rediscovered her childhood love for creating stories when she took a semester off college to write and direct plays for at-risk, inner-city teens from Philadelphia and New York. She currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband, two young sons, and her beloved TiVo.

Find out more information by checking out the Bree’s  website or find more about Bree’s book here!

So, Ms. Bree, what are we going to be looking at, here?

Awesomeness!  Let’s take a looksee!

            Her scent was everywhere, circling Haden as he stood in her room.  It was a sweet smell, but not too sweet, like fresh fruit just on the verge of being ripe.  There was another scent also, much more bitter and distasteful to him. The roommate, he thought and shut and locked the bedroom door, afraid of being interrupted before he got what he came for.

            He bypassed the bitter smelling bed and the track trophies and went straight to the side of the room that smelled the most like her.  Her walls were bare, her drawers held nothing but clothes.  Her bed was covered in the plain green bedspread provided by the school rather than something brought from home.  He was hoping her belongings—pictures, posters, letters, anything—might give him clues about her.  Help him know her.  But her lack of belongings told him more than any picture could.  She was alone, lonely.  She didn’t belong here—just like him.

Her rumpled blankets were permeated with her scent.  Haden crouched down to breath her in, letting the tantalizing taste roll over his tongue.  His hands grew hot, his fingers burned red.  He stepped back.  He shouldn’t be here. How could he even think of inviting such pain and danger into her life?  He was about to leave when he saw something that made him pause.  A black case stuck out from under her bed.  He pulled it out and placed it on top of her blankets.  He popped the locks, sensing her hands had recently been in the same place.  He pulled out the instrument he’d seen her playing.  It had had a voice almost as beautiful as hers.  He held it in his arms the way he had seen her do it and placed his fingers on the strings.  The cool metal felt soothing to his scorched fingertips—that is until he tried to strum them the way she had.  The metal stung his burned fingers and the pain radiated up his arm and pierced his shoulder.  He almost dropped the instrument but caught it in his arms, cradling it because he knew it was important to her.  Determined, he tried to play it again.  He ignored the pain and strummed the strings and tried to pick out the song he had heard her play.  Frustrated he tried again and again.  He cursed when the notes came out sour, nothing like her music.

Most things came easy to Haden—it was his gift.  Like how it only took one turn around the campus with Dax to learn how to drive a car or how he mastered the English language in a matter of days when it took others months of practice.  But for some reason, mastering this instrument eluded him—just the way she eluded him.  He had to find a way to her. A way to make her trust him.

He heard voices in the hall.  That bitter scent wafted under the door.  Haden realized he had stayed longer than he had intended.  Classes were over now.  He carefully put the instrument away and went to the window.  As he climbed onto the sill, he saw something that could possibly help him sitting under the filmy green drapes.  Haden tucked it into his pocket and opened the window.  It was three stories down with thorny bushes directly underneath.  There was a jangling sound outside the bedroom door that sounded like keys.  Haden patted his pocket. With his prize secure he jumped lithely from the window.

And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Jennifer M. Eaton, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 5. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the GREEN TEAM and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!