by: Pintip Dunn
Series: Forget Tomorrow
Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Dystopian
Release Date: October 3, 2017
Publisher: Entangled Teen
The third book in the New York Times bestselling and RITA®-award-winning Forget Tomorrow series is a thrilling conclusion to an epic trilogy.
Seventeen-year-old Olivia Dresden is a precognitive. Since different versions of people’s futures flicker before her eyes, she doesn’t have to believe in human decency. She can see the way for everyone to be their best self-if only they would make the right decisions. No one is more conflicted than her mother, and Olivia can only watch as Chairwoman Dresden chooses the dark, destructive course every time. Yet Olivia remains fiercely loyal to the woman her mother could be.
But when the chairwoman captures Ryder Russell, the striking and strong-willed boy from the rebel Underground, Olivia sees a vision of her own imminent death…at Ryder’s hand. Despite her bleak fate, she rescues Ryder and flees with him, drawing her mother’s fury and sparking a romance as doomed as Olivia herself. As the full extent of Chairwoman Dresden’s gruesome plan is revealed, Olivia must find the courage to live in the present-and stop her mother before she destroys the world.
Pintip Dunn’s words wisdom to her teenage self:
Oh, wow! I absolutely love this topic, precisely because this is how the Forget Tomorrow series came about! I had been lamenting my copious amount of rejections to an editor-friend of mine, and she said, "I wish I had a crystal ball. Then I could tell you that five years from now, you would be a publisher author, and then you wouldn't waste so much time worrying about it!"
The next day, I was thinking about her words and wishing my future self could send me a memory of how my life would look. My next thought was: "Hey, that would make a pretty cool idea for a book!" And presto! The Forget Tomorrow series was born.
So, here are the ten statements of wisdom I would give my teenage self.
1. Be patient. I know you feel like you don't belong anywhere now, but you won't always feel this way. The world is a large place. With enough looking, you'll find your place.
2. Surround yourself by people who make you feel good about yourself. Rid yourself of the toxic "friends" who would tear you down to make themselves feel better. Life is too short to waste a single moment on these people.
3. This goes double (triple! quadruple!) for romantic relationships. Love is not based on you feeling like the worst version of who you are. Rather, you will know your true love when he (or she) makes you the best version of yourself.
4. Do not listen to anyone who says that you can't do it. They may mean well. You may doubt your own abilities. Doesn't matter. If you know what is in your heart, you owe it to yourself to pursue that dream. Who cares how many people try to dissuade you? Prove them ALL wrong.
5. You may travel down several forks before you stumble onto the right path. That's okay. Life is not a straight line. You can gain something from each journey, if you stay open to learning its lessons.
6. Make exercise and physical activity a regular part of your life -- and go outside as much as you can! Your body -- as well as your mental state and emotional well-being -- will thank you for it. Good health is integral to a good life.
7. Be grateful, for the big things and the small. Appreciate your life and the people in it. Focus your energies -- in your thoughts and your conversations -- on the positive rather than the negative. Simple actions such as these can completely turn around your perspective.
8. Persevere. Some dreams don't come easily, but if it is the passion of your heart and soul, then don't give up. It may take fifteen years, it may take six books, it may take 150 rejections, but you'll be glad you stayed the course.
9. Live in the moment. You can't predict the future, and you’re not able to change the past. The only thing you can control is who you are, how you'll react, what you'll do at this precise moment. So seize today. Don't worry about the tomorrow, and forget about yesterday.
10. Happiness is a state of mind, not a circumstance. Don't rely on external situations to make you content. Rather, look inside yourself to find your joy -- and be gentle. Most of the time, you are your own harshest critic. Find a way to love yourself, and everything will flow from there.
"Are you sifting through my possible pathways?" he asks, his voice husky.
I freeze. But if I'm a block of ice, his fingers do their job, tracing my lips again and again until I melt. "How…how do you know?"
"Your eyes," he says. "They dilate when you're reaching into the future. I'm starting to learn when you're not here."
I blink. Nobody's ever told me that before.
"You…noticed?" I ask.
"I notice everything about you," he says easily. "So, tell me. What did you see in our possible futures?" His voice is low and liquid, and it reaches inside me and caresses parts I didn't know existed. "What did I do? More importantly, what did you like?"
Heat floods my face. "What, exactly, are we talking about?"
"I don't know." His eyes gleam wickedly. "What do you think we're talking about?"
"Future pathways," I snap. If I have to electro-whip my attention back on track, I'll do it, damn the Fates. "I see everything from me slapping you to…" I trail off, and my cheeks flame even hotter. Oh my. I can't possibly put into words the images flying through my head like a hailstorm.
"Now I'm really intrigued." He moves his hand to my hair, tugging slightly. I feel the tension all the way to my toes. "Are you really not going to tell me? Because, you know, then I'll have to guess."
"I'm not going to tell you," I whisper.
His lips curve in a mischievous grin that makes me want to tuck him in my pocket and keep him forever. And then, while I'm still reeling from his cuteness, he leans in.
I'm not ready. My mouth is partway open, and I'm in the middle of a breath. He kisses me anyway. I shut my mouth in a hurry. Lips, so soft. His back and shoulders, so hard. Holy Fates, that was his tongue. His tongue, slipping between my teeth. Sparks. So many sparks, igniting in the air around us.
"How's this?" he whispers against my mouth. "Did you see this in our future?"
I nod helplessly.
He moves closer, scooping me up and shifting me on the mattress so that he can lie next to me. Our foreheads touch; so do our knees. "And this? Was this in some of our pathways?"
I nod again, but that doesn't seem to satisfy him anymore. His eyes intent on mine, he catches my lower lip between his teeth. "Do you like it?"
Do I like it? What kind of question is that?
I've tasted every emotion in our world. I know the sorrow a mother feels when she clasps her deceased baby to her chest. I know the pride of a gold-star athlete when he stands on a podium and accepts North Amerie's highest honor. I know the rage that silences the heart of a murderer as he cuts short another's life.
I even know kisses—hot, frenzied, passionate, fumbling, sweet, aching, innocent kisses. I've seen them all in other people’s futures, thousands of kisses, millions of kisses, as varied as the pathways themselves.
And yet…and yet…I've felt nothing like kissing Ryder. Even the vision of this moment itself.
So, yeah, I like it. It scares me how much I like it.
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Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of YA fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the YALE LAW JOURNAL. Pintip's debut novel, FORGET TOMORROW, won the RWA RITA® for Best First Book. In addition, it is a finalist for the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, the Japanese Sakura Medal, and the MASL Truman Award. THE DARKEST LIE was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her other books include REMEMBER YESTERDAY, the novella BEFORE TOMORROW, and GIRL ON THE VERGE. She lives with her husband and children in Maryland.
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Really enjoyed the description and excerpt of the book. Adding to my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. Be sure to read the other books in the series first. I haven't read them, but I think they're all connected.
DeleteReally enjoyed the description and excerpt of the book. Adding to my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book that would be difficult to put down. The cover is intriguing.
ReplyDeleteHi Julie,
DeleteMy teen LOVES this series. She hasn't had the opportunity to read this book, yet. But in the past, once she started reading the books, we didn't see her for hours.