Hush Money by Susan Bischoff
As an Indie Author, I’m always anxious to read fellow YA Indie’s and see if I can find some talented writers to support and follow (or possibly stalk online). My most awesome find lately is HUSH MONEY by Susan Bischoff. Doesn’t the cover just grab you right from the start? It did me, so after admiring it for a while, I purchased the book for my Kindle and got started reading.
And I didn’t stop.
The book was amazing! Here is the product description from amazon’s site:
They call their abilities Talents, and that’s what they call themselves as well. Talents are people born with supernatural powers, feared by the population at large. Possession of an “unregistered ability” has become illegal, and those who are discovered are forcibly removed to government-run research facilities. They do not return. And so the Talents try, as best they can, to keep their abilities secret-some more successfully than others. For some, keeping that secret begins to define who they are. That’s where Hush Money begins… Be normal, invisible. Don’t get close to anyone. Those are the rules to live by for seventeen-year-old Joss. She spent years as an outsider, hoping to hide what she is, until the new girl, Kat, decides she’s friend material. Kat doesn’t realize her mistake when she stands up for Joss against Marco, a guy who’s been giving Joss a hard time since freshman year. Joss is horrified when these heroics lead to the reveal of Kat’s Talent. Now she has an unasked-for best friend, who is the victim of an extortion plot by the school bully, who used to like Joss. And if that wasn’t all complicated enough, Dylan, Joss’s long-time crush, is finally starting to talk to her. But as Marco’s best friend, can Dylan be trusted at all? Can Joss keep her secret and still save her friend? And what’s more important, staying safe or doing what’s right?
Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Kind of a Young Adult Heroes-in-hiding. (Don’t even get me started on them canceling that show. OMG.) Well, the book does not disappoint. Told from the points-of-view of both Joss and Dylan, the book explores what it must be like for a teenager to keep such a dangerous secret. I couldn’t put it down, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to read YA Fantasy / Paranormal books.
It always makes me so happy to read an Indie Author who is truly talented. It makes us all look good. It proves that there are some self-published authors who absolutely could have been published through traditional means if we wanted to be – but with all the choices available these days, have chosen a different route. HUSH MONEY is one of those books for me. It would easily fit in on the shelves at the bookstore with all the great YA books from traditional publishing houses.
This is the first book in The Talent Chronicles series, and I am anxiously awaiting the second book. From now on, Susan Bischoff is on my must-buy list.