April 25, 2014

Pasadena Teen Book Festival Blog Tour: Spotlight on Lissa Price

at 4/25/2014 03:00:00 AM
Ahoy there peeps! I am so happy to be a part of this tour. Can't wait to meet everyone at tomorrow's event!


When: Saturday, April 26, 2014 from 12pm-4pm

Where: Pasadena Public Library, 285 E Walnut St, Pasadena, CA 91101

You can follow the Pasadena TBF on a various number of web platforms to keep updated on all the 411 for the event: 

The most IMPORTANT thing you need though is the link to get your free tickets! You can do that by clicking HERE. Don’t forget the best part: its FREE!
Like I said before, I am very fortunate to be a part of this tour, and to be a part of it twice! That’s very exciting. But more importantly, there are a ton of amazing bloggers out there, sharing spotlights on the various authors that are guests at the festival. 

Check out the tour list!

Fri April 4 - What a Nerd Girl Says - Spotlight on Andrew Smith
Mon April 7 – What a Nerd Girl Says – Spotlight on Margaret Stohl
Tue April 8 - Adventures of a Book Junkie - Spotlight on Amy Tintera
Thu April 10 - The Consummate Reader - Bridge to Books Guest Post
Mon April 14 - Nite Lite Book Reviews - Spotlight on Sarah Skilton
Tue April 15 - Nite Lite Book Reviews - Spotlight on Allen Zadoff
Wed April 16 - The Reader’s Antidote - Spotlight on Elizabeth Ross
Fri April 18 - A Bookish Escape - Spotlight on Ann Redisch Stampler
Tue April 22 - The Book Twins - Spotlight on Carrie Arcos
Thu April 24 - Birth of a New Witch - Spotlight on Katherine Ewell
Fri April 25 - The Consummate Reader (that's me!) - Spotlight on Lissa Price


Spotlight On Lissa Price


Photo Credit: Yolanda White





You can’t get them out of your head. . . . 

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie.
Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter.
Callie soon discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than she could ever have imagined. . . .



Someone is after Starters like Callie and Michael—teens with chips in their brains. They want to experiment on anyone left over from Prime Destinations—Starters who can be controlled and manipulated. With the body bank destroyed, Callie no longer has to rent herself out to creepy Enders. But Enders can still get inside her mind and make her do things she doesn't want to do. Like hurt someone she loves. Having the chip removed could save her life—but it could also silence the voice in her head that might belong to her father. Callie has flashes of her ex-renter Helena's memories, too . . . and the Old Man is back, filling her with fear. Who is real and who is masquerading in a teen body?

No one is ever who they appear to be, not even the Old Man. Determined to find out who he really is and grasping at the hope of a normal life for herself and her younger brother, Callie is ready to fight for the truth. Even if it kills her.


Interview with Lissa!

CR: For anyone who has yet to read Starters how would you describe the main storyline?

LP: In a future Los Angeles, desperate teens rent out their bodies to seniors so they can be young temporarily. But one senior plans to do more than party; she plans to murder someone.

Told from the point of view of 16 year-old Callie, a girl trying to survive and protect her younger brother by renting out her body to a company called Prime Destinations. But she wakes up early, in the life of her rich renter, with a voice in her head warning her not to return to Prime – “It’s dangerous.”

The grandson of a senator comes to take Callie on a date that her renter had set up. Callie soon discovers it is his grandfather who her renter plans to use her body to kill.

Callie does all she can to prevent this assassination, while trying to discover why the chip implanted in her head is different from the others.  She soon finds out that she can trust no one and that no one is who they seem to be.

CR: How did you come up with the idea of teenage orphans renting themselves out as vessels?

LP: On my site I tell the story how I went to Costco to get a flu vaccine and there wasn’t enough because some of the batches had been spoiled at the lab. The government set up a triage system where only the very young and the very old got the vaccine because they are the most vulnerable. I thought, what is the logic in that, because if this happened to be a killer disease, then the only people left alive would be the very young and the very old – the most vulnerable members of society. What kind of world would that be? What if we were attacked then by an enemy country?

Once I had that world, I looked for conflict, for ways where the seniors, called Enders, would take advantage of the teens, called Starters. Stories without conflict are boring. I took what I saw in our world and made it bigger. Seniors today look at the teens and say, “Youth is wasted on the young,” meaning they don’t realize how lucky they are to have healthy, strong bodies. So since this is in the future, I thought to push that, the seniors would find a way to “borrow” their bodies for a while. The Starters are paid a lot of money for their time, so that’s why they’re willing to do this. It is the central concept, the premise that sets the stage for the entire story, and I use it as a vehicle to make some comments about our world today and how you can’t really judge someone by their exterior form.


CR: What are your plans for the Starters series?

LP: It was always meant to be a duology. Enders, the sequel, answers the questions and brings the story to a conclusion. However it does open up a door to new possibilities, and readers in the US and abroad have been asking me daily for a spin-off. There is more that I want to say about these characters.

CR: Who/What are some of your greatest inspirations?

LP: I love the work of the director Chris Nolan and I drew from Inception as well as other films like The Great Escape and The Matrix. I’m a fan of Shakespeare, fairy tales, fables and of course books like The Hunger Games.

CR: What is the first thing you would do if the Zombie Apocalypse came to pass?  

LP: Go find a sword – I’ve seen Walking Dead!

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