YA Fresh

What's Fresh with Jennifer Banash's In Too Deep & a GIVEAWAY!!!

I have to tell you how intriguing it is to follow the lives of Casey, Madison, and Drew! I read THE ELITE and was blown away by Jennifer's descriptive voice and each character's deep and complicated issues. Writing multiple point of views is an awesome talent that Jennifer has pulled off with chic style. If you enjoy intrigue, gossip, and the lifestyle of the elite, check out this tantalizing series.

Hello Jennifer, it's great to have you back! Please tell us about your latest novel.

Jennifer: My latest novel, IN TOO DEEP, is the sequel to THE ELITE, and was just released last month from Berkley Jam! A little about IN TOO DEEP:

If you don’t belong here— you just don’t belong...

The Bramford building’s newest resident and small-town transplant Casey McCloy is adapting to life in the Big Apple and loving it. She’s got the look, the attitude, and a delish new boyfriend, Drew Van Allen. But she’s starting to have second thoughts as to whether the “New York” Casey is the real Casey. And she’s not so sure she likes herself much anymore. She’s not the only one.

Madison Macallister has always had her Manolo Blahniks firmly planted on the top rung of the social ladder—until that corn-fed cow Casey stole Drew away from her and made her look the fool. So what if Madison wasn’t exactly dating Drew at the time? She wanted him. And everyone knows that Madison gets what she wants, like Drew—and a little revenge.

Could you share a bit about the main characters of your book and what makes them unique?

IN TOO DEEP--like all of the books in THE ELITE series, switches off between characters, so there really is no "main" character in the series, which is what I think makes the series a bit unique. The story does revolve around Casey McCloy, who moves from Normal, Illinois to NYC to live with her grandmother for a year in the most lxurious apartment building on the Upper East Side, but all of the characters have their say!

So fun! How did the idea for this novel come about?

Jennifer: IN TOO DEEP is the latest novel in the ELITE series, and it picks up right where THE ELITE leaves off. Without telling you TOO much, all I can say is that the plot revolves around reality TV, and a fantastic sweet sixteen party that makes the ones featured on MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen look cheap :) I was obsessed with reality TV when I was structuring IN TOO DEEP, and since the girls eventually get their own reality show, I wanted to make the structure and plot of the book itself as much like a reality show as I could.

What do you hope readers will gain from reading this novel?

Jennifer: I hope it functions, first and foremost, as an escape! I know that escapism is half of the reason that I, personally, like to read! But the characters also have real problems--infidelity, cutting, adoption, etc, which I think makes the series interesting. My characters may look perfect on the outside, but their lives are far from it.

Thanks for sharing, Jennifer! Would you like to close with a novel you highly recommend and why?

Jennifer: I really love Megan Kelly Hall's SISTERS OF MISERY. It's the one novel I read last year that I wished I'd written myself! The characters Kelly Hall has created are simply masterful.  And it's scary!

Jennifer Banash grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and is the author of HOLLYWOODLAND: AN AMERICAN FAIRY TALE and The Elite series. She divides her time between Paris and the Midwest—where she lives with her vast designer shoe collection and her beagle puppy, Sigmund. Visit her website, www.theelitebooks.com/.

Jennifer is being totally awesome and giving away a copy of IN TOO DEEP! Leave a comment and be entered for a chance to win--winner will be posted Sunday--I mean Monday! (haha)