The Loop Blog Tour

Today we're happy to be a part of the blog tour to promote Shandy Lawson's debut novel, The Loop. 

 

Keep reading for an excerpt from The Loop:

“Maggie?”

“Mmm.”

“I’m sixteen years old. I don’t want to die in a Walgreens.”

She smiles, sad and sweet. “It won’t be the first time, Ben. And hey”—she lets go of my arm and takes my hand— “maybe this is the one. Maybe we get it right this time around.”

“Maybe.” But I don’t believe it.

The squeal of a rusty hinge splits the silence of the stock­room, and Maggie’s eyes widen, panic spreading from her face to mine. “Here we go,” she says, her voice unsteady.

She stuffs the envelope into the waist of her jeans and drops to her knees. Reaching under a crate topped with cases of bottled water, she emerges with a two-by-four that has three rusty nails sticking out of one end. Though it’s only a few feet long, it makes for one gruesome weapon.

Maggie hands it to me, then reaches under a nearby shelf, coming up with a long steel hook—the kind used by ware­house workers to drag heavy pallets around.

I turn to slip behind a low shelf, and Maggie grabs my arm. “Not there,” she says. “You get shot in the face there.”

I shudder and find us a spot behind cases of air freshener. Crouching low, I realize that my breathing is heavy, and I try to muffle it with my hand. Every little movement, every heart­beat sounds a hundred times louder now, and I’m afraid that all the noise will give us away.

I try to slow my breathing. I try to calm my heart, but it just beats that much faster.

And in walks Roy.

I hear him before I see him, his shoes echoing across the concrete floor. I feel cold all over, my skin turning clammy and my fingers trembling. He stops within spitting distance. His voice is deep, reverberant in the expansive stockroom. “You know it’s over, you little bastards.”

His shoe makes a soft shhh as it pivots on the cement; he turns toward us, homing in.

Before I can stop her, Maggie springs, swinging the hook at his chest. She misses by inches as Roy takes a neat step back, watching as Maggie falls to the floor. One quick jog forward, and his shoe is on her neck. He fakes a yawn, nod­ding in my direction. “Your turn, junior.”

I rise slowly, legs weak, everything numb. He points to my board with its twisted nails. “Drop your little club, Benjamin.” I nod, but before letting the two-by-four slip from my hand, I twist my whole body, wind it up like a corkscrew, and swing with everything I have. Roy barely has time to react as one of the nails tears through his cheek and draws blood.

Then, in one smooth movement, his right hand sweeps forward, and I see the gun. Small, black—almost anticlimactic.

The muzzle flashes bright white, and the sound of the shot rebounds off every surface in the stockroom.

My chest is on fire. I land hard on the concrete, head turned toward Maggie. Her eyes are filled with terror as Roy lifts his shoe from her neck, bending to take the envelope of cash from her jeans.

She pulls in a deep breath and whispers, “I love you,” a moment before he presses the muzzle to her temple and fires a second time.

That’s the last thing I see. My right arm grows warm as my own blood pools around it—everything else feels cold. I suck in one last stuttering breath before it all turns to black.

And I die.

Excerpted from THE LOOP © 2013 by Shandy Lawson. Excerpted with permission from the publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Sound interesting?

Here's the summary for The Loop:

Ben and Maggie have met, fallen in love, and died together countless times. Over the course of two pivotal days—both the best and worst of their lives—they struggle again and again to resist the pull of fate and the force of time itself. With each failure, they return to the beginning of their end, a wild road trip that brings them to the scene of their own murders and into the hands of the man who is destined to kill them.

As time circles back on itself, events become more deeply ingrained, more inescapable for the two kids trapped inside the loop. The closer they come to breaking out, the tighter fate's clutches seem to grip them. They devise a desperate plan to break free and survive the days ahead, but what if Ben and Maggie's only shot at not dying is surviving apart?

A fascinating, high-concept premise with hints of Inception and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Loop is a fast-paced and action-packed story that will keep readers guessing.

More information about Shandy Lawson and The Loop:

Shandy Lawson's website

Goodreads

Amazon