Lost in Thought - excerpt from 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Entry

by Cara Bertrand

What if you could know how someone died—or was going to die—with only a touch? Would you believe it? Lainey Young doesn’t. She just thinks she’s going crazy, and at only sixteen it’s a little early to be worrying about her mental health. But after years of migraines and fainting, culminating in a shocking vision of her parents’ tragic deaths, Lainey’s doctors insist she is mentally exhausted and must settle in one place for her last two years of high school, abandoning her beloved lifestyle of constant travel with her aunt. An even bigger surprise is that there’s already a school awaiting her arrival.In only days, Lainey becomes a student at Northbrook Academy, an elite private school in Northwestern Massachusetts. And she’s not just any student, but a Legacy, with an anonymously funded full scholarship. Her father left instructions in his will for how, and when, to claim it, but nothing more. Lainey doesn’t understand the mystery of her placement, but she loves Northbrook, and especially Carter Penrose, the gorgeous graduate whose family owns the school bookstore. Even so, she immediately gets the impression that there’s something unusual about Carter and the other students. Soon she learns that she was right.A vision of another student’s impending death leads to the revelation that Lainey is one of the Sententia, a hidden society of the psychically gifted, as are most of the Academy students and staff. For the rest of the year, Lainey and Carter work to develop her unique gift and uncover the shocking truth about her heritage. Little do they know how much danger this will put Lainey in or how far she will have to go to save her own life.LOST IN THOUGHT is the first book in Lainey’s exciting story.

13 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 22, 2011

About the author

Cara is a former middle school literacy teacher who now lives in the woods outside Boston with: one awesome husband, two large dogs, one small daughter, and lots of words. LOST IN THOUGHT is her first novel and was one of three finalists for the 2011 Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award in the Young Adult category.

Visit her online at www.carabertrand.com or on Twitter @carabertrand