Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! I’m Annie Sullivan, author of A Touch of Gold (about the cursed daughter of King Midas who has deadly gold powers and faces pirates and thieves on her quest to retrieve her father’s stolen gold) and the forthcoming Tiger Queen (about a desert princess who has to fight in an arena against suitors to win her right to rule).
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! On 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 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 120 hours!
Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are SIX contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the RED TEAM –but there is also a blue team, a gold team, a green team, and a purple team, team for a chance to win a whole different set of 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.
SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE
Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the red 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 April 7th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
Exclusive Content!
As part of the YA Scavenger Hunt, I am hosting Marsha Black on my website! Marsha is a mother of 2, avid reader, and a lover of anything and everything paranormal/supernatural. She enjoys reading, watching TV, and hanging out with her kids. She hopes that through her written books, readers can escape from reality, as many books did that for her. She writes clean YA/NA, with some toe-dipping in other genres. She loves reading reviews and interacting with new readers/fans, so don’t be afraid to befriend and/or get in touch with her.
Find out more information by checking out the author website or find more about the author’s book here!
First Chapter Sneak Peek!
About The Triplet’s Curse:
When the moon is full
High above the Earth
Three daughters shall be born
On their 16th birthday, their destiny will begin
One daughter born to endure pain and heartache before being reborn
Destiny awakens in the Hospital, after knocking at deaths door, struggles with everything that happened to her and has happened to her family. Never expecting turning 16 would be so life changing, nothing will deter her from doing what must be done. Fate has additional plans for Destiny and Blake.
Blake has a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Everest and rejects what fate has in store for him where Destiny’s concerned. Wanting to get the prophecy over with and get on with his life, a life away from the Scylanthica’s control, he tries to keep everyone at arm’s length.
Throughout their time training and fate’s pull on them, they must learn to work together and accept one another in order for Destiny to come into her full ability. If she doesn’t, and isn’t able to learn to control it…will she be able to defeat the evil she is to fight? Or will she doom humanity, letting evil take over the world?
The door bangs open to Destiny’s room, startling Hope and me. Heart racing, I glance at the doorway and catch sight of Mom and Dad with murderous looks on their faces. I gulp loudly, knowing that we are in so much trouble.
Their features soften slightly at the sight of Destiny once again in a hospital bed before their glares are drawn back to Hope and me. We shoot one another a sidelong glance and let out a sigh in preparation of their disapproval.
“What were you girls thinking?!” Dad grounds out.
I open my mouth to answer, but shut it quickly at the glare Mom shoots me.
“What happened to keeping us in the loop in the going-on with this curse thing you all are part of? We don’t find out about any of this until we wind up back here at the hospital with one of you girls back in its rooms!” Mom cries out, voice wavering as emotions overwhelm her.
As mom sobs, Hope and I stand in silence.
“Well? Do you girls have anything to say for yourselves?” Dad questions us in a tight voice as he tries to comfort Mom.
“Geez, could an injured girl get some quiet to rest and recover over here?” Destiny lightly teases, gauging the mood of all the room’s occupants.
Mom walks quickly over to the bed and hovers around Destiny looking her over for any injuries that might’ve been missed.
“We’ve really got to stop meeting this way,” Mom teases, voice still thick with worry.
“Mom, we won. I beat the evil I had to go up against, so any pain I’m going through now is worth it,” Destiny advises, pride coating her voice even as a grimace if pain seethes out between her teeth as she moves her injured shoulder.
“Get some rest honey, your father, sisters, and I will be out in the waiting room, so we can talk without disturbing you,” Mom advises while shooting us a stern look and emphasizing the word talk.
We quietly walk out of the room; heads bowed as we make our way to the waiting room, allowing our parent’s free rein to scold us. Now, I don’t really blame them, after all seeing your children in the hospital will make any parent unreasonable. Adding a topping to that whopper of not keeping the parental units informed of the goings on with the curse, and we’re doomed to be lectured at a minimum.
“Spill it,” Dad orders as soon as Hope and I are seated.
Seeing exhaustion weigh heavily on my sister, I pull up my big girl panties and try to explain.
“Well, in all honesty, I suppose we just forgot to keep you informed,” I advise.
“You just forgot to keep us informed?” Mom repeats, voice rising with each word.
“It wasn’t just you guys; even the guy’s dads were kept out of the loop for most of it,” I quickly say, hoping that if they know they weren’t left out of much where the adults were concerned, it might help to buffer their feelings.
“Excuse me?!” Mom and Dad both yell.
“Um…” I break off and look towards Hope for help. With a sigh and shake of her head, she stands and walks up to our parents, wrapping them both in a hug.
Seeing this action silence our parents, and realizing how much I actually would like the physical comfort of a hug, I stand to do the same. As my arms’ wrap around the group, I take in a big sigh, breathing in the floral scent of Mom’s perfume, and the slightly musky scent that Dad wears. Tears fill my eyes as I’m once again hit by the realization that things could’ve gone so very wrong, and that with my battle coming up, they still might.
Mom and Dad pull away, taking a seat as they let out a shaky breath before saying, “Catch us up on everything.”
“Actually…the guys and their dads are on their way here. Can we hold off on the explanations until they get here, so we only have to go over it once?” I request in my best ‘I’m a good girl’ tone.
I hold back a grin at Hope’s sigh of exasperation as my parents give me one of their ‘I know what you’re doing’ looks, even as they nod in agreement of my request.
“Goody. Now that that’s squared away, I’m gonna catch some zzz’s. Wake me when they guys get here,” I squirm into a chair getting as comfortable as possible and wave my parents and sibling away. I hear Hope mumbling to herself; I’m sure to complain about the way I’m acting, even as I hear their footsteps move away from me. I didn’t really expect my parents to get up and walk off, but I appreciate it, nonetheless. There’s no way I can get any sleep as worry over my task overwhelms me. How in the world did Hope and Destiny stay sane during all of this?!
Before I know it, I’m being shaken. I grip the arm rests of the chair I fell asleep in as the overwhelming urge of falling out of it sends panic throughout my body. As the shaking slows and then stops, I take in some deep breaths, trying to calm myself.
“Sorry, sis,” Hope says in a less than apologetic tone.
My heart rate slows and my breathing becomes less rapid, giving me the time to realize Hope, and I aren’t alone. Embarrassment pinkens my cheeks, making my voice come out shyly as I ask how Destiny is doing.
“Destiny is doing much better and the doctors are getting her release paperwork ready,” Dad answers.
“Good, I’m glad she’s coming home soon,” I admit.
My mom looks around at us all, Hope, me, dad, Bryce, Blake, Mr. Straynor and Mr.Rances. I watch as a small smile tilts her lips and am curious as to what’s going through her mind. Seeing me notice her reaction, she surprises me even more by shooting me a wink. My jaw drops, what the what now?!
“Everyone. I just want to thank you all, for all you’ve done for my girls. Without you, we’d probably have lost one if not all the girls. I’d be inconsolable if we had to spend our time in the morgue, rather than the hospital, mourning our daughters,” she takes a deep breath as emotions fight their way through her speech.
My dad grasps mom’s hand in encouragement as he continues from where she left off.
“We would like for you all to join us for dinner tonight. Our treat, just please be at our house by 6:30 pm. We’d like to get to know you all better, especially since our daughters and your sons apparently will have a future together, whether I think they’re too young for that or not.”
“We would love to join your family for dinner, and I agree that it would be nice to get to know one another. It’ll be good to keep tabs on the things going on, as well as the fact that we’re basically family now,” Mr. Straynor agrees.
“Hey, what am I?! Chopped liver?! I don’t have a guy yet,” I pout, lower lip out; arms crossed as I sulk.
Laughter erupts all around me, and I gasp in offense, before realizing how ridiculous I sounded. If everything goes as guessed, my trainer will be my destined as well.
The Straynors and Rances head out while mom and dad head back to Destiny’s room. I let out a weary sigh as I think about when and who will be doing my training, and if my defensive ability ever kicks in. Worse though, is the thought that my decisions will be what determines if we survive…What if I make the wrong choices?
And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me, Marsha Black, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 16. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the red team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
Annie Sullivan 