Synopsis:
The earth has been reduced to a singular continent, governed by extra-terrestrials, collapsed by nuclear weapons residue and wracked with radiation sickness. Only one viable territory remains, and access there is restricted by a mysterious selection process. Everyone hopes to be chosen for transport. Everyone but Cass.
Seventeen year old Cassidy Hartinger has spent the past eleven years living in a government-maintained bunker. She should be thrilled when a handsome
transporter arrives to take her to the Reservation. So why does she feel like he's dragging her, kicking and screaming, straight into the anti-paradise?
Faced with gun-wielding survivalists and elemental catastrophes, will Cass make it more than two steps out of the bunker? Will her journey to peace and safety in the Reservation turn out to be the most perilous thing she's encountered so far?
Fast-paced action and a tumultuous teenage romance will keep readers begging for more installments of The Reservation Trilogy!
Ten Favorite Travel Spots
Growing up, I thought I’d be a lot of things, and a world-traveler was one of them. I’m twenty-seven now, and I can’t say I’ve done too much traveling in my time. But maybe that just means I’m still growing up. Maybe, in a small way, I can say I’m not an adult quite yet, if I have so much adulting left to do.
The few places I’ve been, I have loved. The mere act of traveling is a lovely thing, I think. So being on a plane, any plane, going anywhere, at any time of day (but especially at night or in the rain), is going to be my destination number one. I know it’s a bit of a cheat, it’s not really a “travel spot,” but I can’t deny how cozy I feel, sitting in an airport or sitting in the sky.
Number two has got to be New Orleans. I traveled there for the first time last year, and I’m not over it yet. I went with my husband’s family and we did all the touristy things, but we did a few hole-in-the-wall things too. We found a cozy breakfast nook, and a bar the size of a hotel bathroom, and I left those places with fantasies of writing great things, pressed into a corner with a cup of coffee or an IPA.
Number three is Lake Gaston, North Carolina. We go there every summer. Sitting on a dock in the dewy morning air, listening to the lap of the lake, is a paradise.
For my fourth pick, New York City. What sane person isn’t completely seduced by the smell of smog on the street, the busyness and the noise?
Washington, DC is my number five. I traveled there with my family several times as a child. We toured the White House, wandered through the art museums and admired all of the memorials. It’s just such a pretty city. It’s so clean and green and fresh. I envied its inhabitants, the artists selling their work on the streets and every woman in a jogging suit, whose regular route was so lush with flowering things.
Number six, Chicago. But only in the winter months. That city is something spectacular, lit up with lights, and I love the subway almost as much as I love a plane.
For my seventh pick, the open sea. A boat going anywhere or nowhere, with an ocean underneath. I’ve never seen a night so white with stars as I have from the deck of a cruise ship.
The Outer Banks is my number eight. I’d love to set a story in a seaside town with lighthouses to spare.
For my ninth destination, Bermuda, the most exotic place I’d ever been. (Yes, I know it’s not exotic at all). I love marine life and I love the ocean, and seeing it with such transparency was something I’ll keep in my memory forever.
And finally, my number ten is my childhood home in Raleigh, North Carolina. I grew up in the same city, on the same street, and never moved, and it’s such a special, familiar thing, to go home, to sleep in my childhood bed. If I ever do travel the world, if I see faraway lands, all of
Tolkien’s magical landscapes and Austen’s romantic countrysides, I won’t hold them an ounce as dear as this, the place where my family lived and still lives.
I could travel nowhere and be happy to have been in that home for so many years.
Jen Castleberry is a North Carolina native currently based in Virginia Beach, VA. She is a Communications graduate and proud ECU alum.
When she's not writing, Castleberry works full-time as a Veterinary Assistant at a local animal shelter.
Her affection for all critters, large and small, comes home with her at the end of each day. She frequently lends her house and heart to homeless animals in need of foster.
Her own clan of silly creatures include an Akita, a Basset Hound, a Maine Coon, and of course, her active-duty husband.
At twenty-seven, Castleberry hopes to soon realize a life-long dream of writing professionally.
The first installment of her YA debut series premiered in January of 2016.
A Wild and Unremarkable Thing
