#hot mean girl with hidden depths and parental trauma???

[rosewvlf]

Happy Death Day is so dipcifica coded

[sabaku-no-livna]

Is your oc a Mary Sue ?

Okay I created this test back in 2016 on the french fandom, for the french fandom but its still so funny so if you want to try that test, please do. Don’t take it bad if your oc has several points doesn't make her Mary Sue and again these are only the clichés I noted, doesn't mean I got the absolute science on how to make a good OC and that my OCs does not correspond to these clichés or arn’t Mary Sues. Beware this test is full of sarcasm and second degree. Anyways ! Enjoy !

I. The design  of the OC  For your OC to be shitty, appearance is primordial. Therefor, I made you a list of clichés that you can try to cumulate to create a perfect Mary Sue. Are you ready ? At the end we’ll count the M.S points of our own Oc.  ღ Spiky hair, must be long, more likely black, red, yellow, with two colors that MUST be extra saturated ! You can take your favorite color if you want, it will work. Why thinking further ? xD  If you put two colors, make sure they clash with each other. Your hair style must be edgy, emo, so 2012 fashion with some bangs in front of the eye, nothing original please. Its weird to be original. AND WE DON’T WANT THAT. 

ღ  Piercings and tattoos are SWAG. But not any piercings or tattoo ! The labret is swag, the septum is swag, the eyebrow is swag, the belly button is swag but NEVER on the nostril its’s a golden rule of swag. Sorry. Have you ever seen an oc with a piercing in the nostril ? Nope, then don’t do that. Don’t try to invent new things. Originality is weird. 

ღ  About the body type, you got to stick to the canons : Huge breasts, large hips and butt, narrow waist (so narrow you don’t know how she can possibly bear her own weight). 

ღ If you REALLY don’t have any design ideas it doesn't matter. Make a gender-bend of Naruto or Sasuke. IT WORKS. 

II. The back story of your OC

For your OC to fit in the story like some shit falling on top of carbonara pastas, your backstory must be as CHEATED as possible. It must affect the main manager plot a maximum, just to enhance your oc. NEVER FORGET IT : Your OC is the center of the world. 

ღ Lets start by the beginning. For the name of your OC take some name that sounds Japanese. You can even invent one, as long as it sounds Japanese its perfect. To do so, insert some “ki” “ko” “su” “shi” “mi” et you got a name ! 

ღ Here is one of the supreme principle : Your OC is the most gorgeous, intelligent and strong. Its legit ALL THE MEN IN THE PLANET are desperately in love with her. 

ღ Your OC must be paired, or have had an affair, with at least one of the canon characters (better if its a main one) of the anime. Leave Shoji and and all the other Rock Lees for the ugly ones, YOU got Sasuke and Naruto waiting for you in your bed. So here’s a list of decent crush for a Goddess like your OC : 

Sasuke, Itachi, Naruto, Kakashi, Neji, Gaara, Madara, Deidara. Others are for the ugly ones. Don’t touch it, may have diseases ... :/ 

ღ  As your OC is the strongest, she must have super badass jutsus and have a chakra of ALL TYPES AT A TIME, she must master ALL the technics, and the must is her having an demon within. If possible a demon with tails (we don’t know why it wasn't mentioned in the manga but WHO CARES ?) that would be stronger than all the canon demons combined ! OR she can cumulate all the demons. Another SWAG thing is to have special pupils. If you don’t have the creativity to invent some, just use the sharingan/byakugan, or directly the rinnegan. OR you can cumulate them. Do like Sasuke ! This guys was clever. He knows the secret of success. 

ღ  Your OC must FUCK the game, so don’t hesitate to make her a princess, a vampire, a Rage, or even a Goddess. SHE IS TOO HOT TO BE HUMAN. Regular shinnobis are for people with no ambitions. 

ღ When you have to describe her personality always indicate this : “sweet, shy, friendly, cold, mysterious, choleric, courageous.” How is it totally paradoxal ? WHO CARES ? It doesn't have to be accurate in your character in her story anyways, that’s just for the presentations. For your OC to be really obnoxious she has to have a shitty personality. She has to clash every canon characters, be a burden for everyone else, OR, the opposite, a fuckin’ Deus Ex Machina ! Your girl she would have kicked Madara’s emo ass in a sec ! 

ღ  Her relationships with the canon characters are VERY IMPORTANT. Try the hidden blood binding. It’s SOOO original. Incest is not to provide, we all love what’s forbidden by the law and morals ! But always use main characters first, and don’t hesitate to put your character in a canon team, even if you have to kick off Sakura to do so (after all who cares for her ?). And for secondary but popular characters such as Itachi, Gaara and Neji ... Well as long as they are canons and popular ! Its better if they are in the Akatsuki or Kages though ! The best thing would be to be the hidden maleficent twin of Sasuke and have an affair with him OR Naruto’s genderbend paired with Itachi. The really SWAG clans you can put your OC into if you got no creativity to create an over powered shitty clan are : Uchiha, Uzumaki, Namikaze and Otsutsuki, and Hyuga only if there is no more room in the previous I quoted. 

ღ  Your OC must have a tragical backstory, horrible and complicated, incoherent or completely empty and lacking of depth cumulating all the best clichés of the fandom. 

In the first case your OC is broken by her past traumatic experiences, which gives her a dark side, a madness within, an emo vibe. She must be complaining all the time about her misunderstood pain. 

In the second case, your OC must be cheesy, always smiling and enthusiastic for no reason, and be a little stupid. Okay VERY stupid. But well ! She has big tits at least ! So its fine. Her biggest trauma must not exceed in terms of violence her little brother finishing the Nutella. 

ღ  Or, you can also try having a SUPER weak OC. Because with Mary Sues you are either TOO strong or TOO weak. No nuance please. It would make your character too credible. AND WE DON’T WANT THAT. Your OC must be rejected by everyone, hated and underrated (#victimlol) only her One True Love will see the light behind her shaggy hair. 

ღ If you are a bit CrAzY you can invent a country where she’ll be on top, but the best is for her to come from Konoha. Stay on the right track. 

I think I gave you all the best tips I had to make an OC perfectly obnoxious. ♥ To illustrate my own sayings, let me introduce you, my own Mary Sue : 

Suskiki Uchiha ! 

Name : Suskiki Uchiha

Age : Immortal 

Team : 7 (who cares about Sakura anyways ? Lol) Family : parents : Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha / big brother : Itachi / twin brother : Sasuke / cousin : Naruto (yes its possible) Personality : Has big boobs Love interests : Sasuke, Naruto, Itachi, Gaara, Deidara, Suigetsu, Kakashi, Peter Pan, Edward Cullen and Jon Snow Story : Suskiki is the hidden sister of Sasuke. Not so hidden bc she is in team 7.  For real she is the princess vampire of and has the power of emo. Her childhood was so terrible you cant imagine. What was it ? Idk you cant imagine i said ! She supports Naruto since childhood bc they were both rejected. Why ? Bc she was too beautiful duh ! She has in her the demon Nyan cat dragon of darkness the most powerful of all ! She has both sharingan and byakugan for no reason (maybe her mom had an affair ?).  NOW LETS TRY THIS QUIZZ : 

Does your OC have : 

1)  Spiky or flashy hair ? 2)  Piercings/tattoos ? 3) Big breasts ?  4) Is she the female equivalent (physically) of a canon character ? 5) Was her name picked randomly because it sounded Japanese  ? 6) Are several canon characters into her ? (3 and more is yes).  7) Is she paired with one of the decent canons quoted before ?  8) Has she got a demon ? 9) Has she got special pupils ? Is she from a SWAG clan ? (if not you suck) 10) Does she have a special statut ? (princess, vampire, kage ...) 11) Is she “ “sweet, shy, friendly, cold, mysterious, choleric, courageous.”  at the same time ?  12) Does she have any blood binding with one of the canon characters ? Marriage doesn’t work.  13) Incestuous with one of the canons ? 14) Is she part of one of the main teams of the Naruto gen ? 15) Has she got a tragic back story ? 16) Is she bad at everything/super powerful ? 17) Was she rejected ?   18) Does she come from Konoha ? 19) Does she look like the  character she is paired with ?  20) Was she part of the Akatsuki or did she join Orochimaru ? 

So now you can count your points and it will give you a grade over 20. The closer you are to 20 the most Mary Suish your OC is. I personally tested it on Yukiko she got : 6 points. And you what is your score ? ;)

[free-falling-grenade]

part 4 rayaari thoughts please never shut up i love u and your thoughts on ratld <///3

A lil late but part 4 LESGO. 👀👀 Part one. Part two. Part three. Part five.  Part six.

Exhibit K:

Okok so I missed some important things after the spine scene smh. I only remember them after I made the post so here.

Here’s more of #worriedpotentialgf as Virana tells her that its none of her concern now.

I think that a heavy part of Namaari knows exactly what she’s gonna do and what she’s capable of doing but she asks anyway hoping to hear the opposite from her mother dearest. Those deeply concerned eyes and the way her face pinches as thoughts flash in her head. (This one isnt particularly Rayaari but it's worth the mention coz I love Namaari) I'd like to acknowledge Namaari's body language here after consulting her mother about helping Sisu bring everyone back

God, this scene is quite something. We see badass Fang princess here shrinking into herself as Virana turns to her with a lot of intensity. And I just think that this adds so much depth into Namaari's character. How complex she really is in terms of her relationships with everyone around her and how her behaviour and personality is rooted around that.  We see how her shoulders close up and her head coming inwards, almost like a turtle retreating back to its shell. And her downward gaze after. Body language is so important coz it says alot about a character. And here we see the fear that actually is present when her mother disapproves, or she does something that she doesn’t like.

I have a hate love relationship with Virana but during this scene I definitely didn’t like her. I’m all for hot, powerful milfs but 👁👄👁 I dont appreciate you screamin at my girl Namaari like that.

We see how Namaari has always done everything to please her mother, her decisions for Fang and to make sure not to disappoint her only parent. So this could be rooted through traumatizing fear and the high heavy expectations of her own tribe on her shoulders. She cant seem to catch a break when for once she considers the actual good side of things and potentially team up with Raya. Yet she always zeroes back in to her mother and Fang.

She’s still quite young and we seem to forget that by how hardened she had become so it's hard to know if you would see this behavior as cowardly when in reality it could just be from the childhood trauma she had growing up.

Exhibit L:

L STANDS FOR LOVE THIS DAMN SCENE.

OKAY let's go back to that part when Namaari offers the gem!! I missed some things again.

*AHEM*.

Namaari's lowkey surprised bewildered look. That amused huff. That tiny GENUINE smile. That SOFT look.

Raya's expectant look. That SOFT and studying gaze. That awkward and shy grin.

The LAYERS of this scene was *chef's kiss* it was the calm before the storm. But there was that raw genuineness of it all. 

Did yall feel the crazy tension too and was everyone else at the edge of their seats biting their nails in anticipation? Who else let out a feral scream?

Anywya, yes. I think this is probably the first time we saw them with their guards lowered temporarily and actually not hostile against each other. There’s no bitter banter here, no pushing off buttons, no scowls and frowns. Just pure surprise and soft smiles. This is them being honest for once.

Even if there’s Namaari's hidden intention, I feel like she forgets it for a moment when she sees the pendant and how Raya explained that she took care of it all these years. And I'm sure that made Namaari feel somethin inside her. Probably made her heart swell happily but she didn’t know the actual meaning of it all just yet.

You see how SOFT her eyes are while looking at Raya. And there's Raya studying Namaari's reaction nervously, the way she waits, probably slightly afraid and kinda embarrassed of what she might think after knowing she took care of her GIFT after all these years and after all she's done and what they've been through.

I bet Namaari's thoughts filled with a flood of why’s? but she can't help the little smile that tugs on her lips that she kept the only thing that connected them. The day she gave the gift, the day it all went wrong, but with no malice in mind, just the young girl with soft honey eyes invaded her senses, her body moved by itself offering her necklace. To think she kept it all these years.

I'm fine.

Exhibit M:

Phewww. Let's talk about that intense and most sapphic fight, shall we?

Besides the obvious Raya on kill mode and each strike of her blade literally had pure intention to end her potential gf.

Let's skip to the end of the fight ish!

Ok besides the lowkey hilarity of this screenshot. How ominously Raya stands behind, I cant help but laugh. In all seriousness tho, we see Namaari looking at the pendant that fell of her pocket.

Then here's Namaari grabbing the pendant with her beefy arms and clutching it to her heart like it's the most dearest thing in the world, which we all know it is.

I think this part is quite important. Because we see her at her most vulnerable here. Stripped from her weapons and hardened armor with completely nothing else to lose as her tribe and the whole world collapses around her. She's here about to probably let Raya slaughter her so she offers her last words.

We all have that part memorized or is it just me, "I've never meant for any of this to happen"

What she says about Sisu's death also being Raya's fault, is honestly her last try to somehow get into the other girl's skin, a last strike but without her blades. She knows it's the truth, and nothing hurts more like the truth. I think she didn’t really have time to properly formulate her last few sentences besides it bring rooted from desperation and pure resignation.

But the way Namaari says "that's why we're here" I think is a poor attempt to fully blame Raya for what happened. I know maybe in this context she meant them shooting Sisu but I feel like it's even more that that. I think a heavy part of her knows it's all her fault too but can’t help herself from throwing and extending the blame further to someone else. It's basically how they've both been and functioned anyway. Accusations, anger and resentment.

And Raya who held a strong hate for Namaari but a stronger hate for herself as she carried the heavy blame of trusting the Fang girl in the first place, took what she said personally. Like she knew it, a very harsh painful truth and a burden Raya probably has carried for years.

Which leads us to the important realization after that. Raya backtracks and considers her actions. How her expression shifts from realization back to anger maybe hesitating thinking Namaari was just playing with her again but then resigning to the disgusting reality of what she was about to do, on the verge of tears as she stared at her reflection on the ridiculously shiny af sword of what she had become. That Namaari was right. This wasn't just the Fang princess' fault, it was also hers. 

Maybe she also realizes her selfishness for not trusting Sisu in the first place. How impatient she was that she contributed to her death. She was the one who didn't give Namaari a chance. And it's a bitter truth to face. And here she was about to brutally slash the other princess out, her judgement completely clouded with rage.

Are we doing ok here guys?

Coz I'm not. Aha.

I'd like to add this bonus because of it's pure aesthetic feels.

Can we talk about Raya's ability to fuckin disappear like the wind took her?? Like girl, SHEEEEESH.

Anyway besides that, we see the genuine shock Namaari wears here realizing that the princess didn’t pull through with killing her. A realization that probably confused her a bit coz a part of her maybe feels like she deserved to die. She was ready for it anyway.

Also how pretty is that sky and clouds in Fang while the sun shines through those archways. The art is terrifically breathtaking.

-×-

GUYYS I DIDN’T KNOW THERES A 10 PICTURE LIMIT.

Guess I'll see yall in part 5? 🤡

[reminiscingdreamer]

Thoughts on The Final Problem

This seems like a very popular topic here wow! When I went to explore Tumblr after watching the last episode of season 4, things were on fire; people were crying, rocking themselves, and/or mumbling logic/denial to themselves in the corner; and above, shining dimly, a phantasmal salvation hovered over people’s heads, created by the feverish dreams of thousands of disappointed fans. Wow, it’s amazing! I personally could only see the shadow of this salvation (aka the 4th episode), but some people seem to believe in it wholeheartedly. 

It appears the most popular theory for TFP is that it’s John’s nightmare sequence as he’s dying. Well, besides the fact that I don’t know why, if that was the case, John would imagine himself as a little girl, there’s also the fact that I don’t know why the producers would want to waste essentially an hour of viewers’ time if it served no purpose other than a deeper glimpse into John’s mind. TAB was different because it was meant as an aside and it’s clearly an aside. This is in the storyline proper. It’s meant to be canon.

I’m not looking to bash the episode or the people here, however. I just want a place to put down my thoughts about why I didn’t like TFP personally. Some people liked it and that’s fine. Some (maybe a lot) of people hated it and that’s fine too. Some people will read this and hate it/love it/meh it. Fine. Some people will ignore it and that’s fine too. It’s all… fine.

So where to begin? I’ll start with

General impressions

First thing I felt while watching was that TFP didn’t feel like Sherlock to me.  TFP felt more like the game, Amnesia: Justine with a hint of GLaDOs. If Sherlock was a straight line of film reel, TFP would be the tangled mess at the end. Of course, even before this, series 4 felt progressively stranger and stranger. TST still felt like Sherlock if a bit different somehow and TLD was kind of starting to push it a bit, but it was still okay. TFP blew up. 

When they mentioned a third sibling and Sherrinford, my first thought was that “someone’s been through AO3!” and when the episode ended, my first thought was, “someone’s been through AO3 and Tumblr and was desperately trying to avoid everything already predicted there in a desperate bid for a surprise ‘clever’ reveal!”

What made up the components of such detonation? Well first, 

Eurus

Kudos to this post for being the first, and only post, to come the closest about the hidden sister and even about the part where she’s rarely visited, although the proof for it felt like it stretched a bit. With that said, Eurus still felt like she came out of nowhere and her character is like the shock of being dunked in ice water, partly because while her existence might have been hinted at (and not even all that much and with a lot more evidence against her existence) what she’s like wasn’t.

Eurus is the big-fish-eater, the one smarter than even Mycroft. Now, the question is, did they put Eurus there because it made sense for her to be there and she really has been there all along working behind the scenes or did they run out of viable antagonists and so put her up so that she’d seem like the biggest threat by being someone even Mycroft fears? If there was going to be such a desperate grab for a new series antagonist to pit Sherlock against, they should’ve just kept Moriarty alive. It’d be a lot easier than whatever convoluted mess this turned out to be, but they missed the last road sign when instead of the pearl out of Thatcher’s bust, they had the AGRA stick instead.

Anyway, her existence aside, the part where Eurus could brainwash people so thoroughly was unbelievable, but her character itself was interesting. In the beginning, I got the sense she was the true psychopath dictated by pure logic that neither brother could be, try as they might. By the end of it, she’s shed in a sympathetic light.

… Look, I did feel something for Eurus, but why did they go and do that? She was just fine as she was. It was like a little jolt out of whatever immersive experience I had left for the show. It was like a last-second gambit to evoke pity on her and to forgive her and it was an abrupt bump in the road. The whole of the episode was dedicated to showing me how disturbed Eurus was and to serve as contrast against the Holmes brothers, which was what made her so fascinating. But no, she was just a misunderstood little girl trapped inside who killed people for some love and affection from Sherlock to make her manipulative and killing tendencies go away. Haaaa. 

By the end, the Holmes parents aren’t going to insist on taking their daughter, who they thought was dead, back home with them because obviously, shutting her away again is going to solve things.

They’re not going to try to teach her that it was wrong of her to have killed Victor and all those other people and to put her brothers and perfectly innocent men through such traumatic experiences; that it’s wrong of her to play with people like dolls just to get Sherlock’s attention.

And they’re not even going to discuss what happened, what Eurus did, Eurus herself, Sherlock’s past, and the consequences. Sherlock, Mycroft, and John weren’t scarred by the experience of having indirectly killed so many people, especially with their morality which was what made the whole thing harrowing in the first place, and Sherlock almost being forced to kill one of the people he cared about in an impossible situation. Trauma? What trauma? Everyone’s happy. Everything’s wrapped in ribbons, which leads to the next point.

The ending

I got the feeling that the show pushed waaay too hard for the happily ever after to the point it was almost bizarre. Why does it have to be happily ever after anyway? If happily ever after means so many things would be left open-ended rather than a, “You’ll see next season” then I don’t want a happy ending.

The trauma induced by Eurus I mentioned.

The thing about Sherlock’s confession to Molly was left unaddressed. She appears for a glimpse smiling at the doorway like everything’s alright. So is everything alright? Are they in a relationship now? Or was there heartbreak that Sherlock had to apologize for? Was there a lot of screaming, slapping, crying? Or was there discussion? It’s left completely in the air and it disoriented me.

Despite seeing John go through his ordeal after Mary dies, I never really got to see Sherlock go through any form of grief even though Mary was just as important to him as she was to John. Maybe part of how he coped was through the drugs but that felt like it was more over John than Mary so that problem was steamrolled over.

Mycroft

So this is the first time Mycroft played a visible and prominent role in the story and it was the chance to showcase his character. Now, I’m not saying this man can’t be human or deny he has emotions, but all along, I’m always told that Mycroft was the smart one between the brothers. Told, not really shown. I thought that this would’ve been a good opportunity to demonstrate Mycroft’s intellect and his status as warm-blooded-after-all by noticing the things Sherlock failed to (like with the non-existent explosives under Molly’s house) and being the one who would help John and Sherlock escape through this seemingly impossible situation. Or demonstrate what the trio could do by teaming up together. Or to see Mycroft and Sherlock reach an understanding. I would’ve liked to see Mycroft’s colder, more practical approach to the situation but showing he had a heart by making decisions that would’ve been out of his Iceman character. I'd like to see him try to go up against Eurus to not only demonstrate his own intellect, but Eurus's supposedly superior mind outside her bullshit brainwashing.

Instead I got to see Mycroft as a hot mess who didn’t really contribute to anything and he just breaks under the pressure. If he could run governments, I’d think he’d have ways to deal with stress and keeping calm. I know he cares a whole lot about Sherlock and the idea of him put in danger makes him panic and the whole situation he’s put in would make anyone panic really, especially if this is his first time in “field work”, but I feel like they missed a defining moment in his characterization if only he could pull himself together enough to think of a solution to at least get Sherlock out. Even a failed attempt would be fine! Eurus is supposed to be the big-fish-eater, but it’s a missed chance at illustrating Mycroft in a more in-depth way as someone other than a man defined only by his relationship with Sherlock. Disappointment.

Sherlock’s memory

Sherlock’s memory, which would’ve been a great gateway into slowly introducing aspects of Eurus and Eurus herself before her appearance to make it feel less like being thrown into a winter lake, was rewritten. 

These rewritten memories feel like some kind of fantasy. I know this show did incredible things with logic, asking me to kind of hang myself with my suspension of disbelief, but this cut the rope entirely. The memories felt too… big to have been simply forgotten and rewritten. I understand traumatic things could be repressed, but the thing is that repression or amnesia requires a certain amount of shock from a sudden, concentrated event like a natural disaster, or at least, that’s how I understand it. With Sherlock’s childhood, I don’t see it? I’m not saying Sherlock wouldn’t be scarred by this I mean, even if he’s considered the dullard of the siblings, I think he’d still be smart enough to know that his sister had murdered his best friend. But I mean, I don’t see how Sherlock could’ve been traumatized by it to the point of, not only amnesia, but rewriting his own memories, since this was over the course of a period of time.

And then they wanted to add how Mycroft had key words to check on Sherlock’s state of mind like some kind of directory? No. Way too unbelievable. And even if his memories were altered, reality wasn’t. So the Holmes parents should still have pictures with Eurus but a dog conspicuously missing from any of them, they should have some kind of grave or item of remembrance, and if Sherlock kept mentioning a dog, should get weird stares along with a host of other things an rewritten memories would bring. Point is, Sherlock’s altered memories would’ve been torn open like a hole in wet paper before he even reached teenage and smart and powerful as Mycroft is, there’s no way he could account for them short of burning all photos and altering his parents’ memories too, which he clearly did not.  

Sherlock

Sherlock has come a long way from the very first episode, ASiP. He’s gained an understanding of the people around him and of himself and watching him going through that character development while still keeping to who he was is amazing.

Come season 4 and it started to feel less like development and more like being slapped in the face with a fish, especially with the little bookend at the end with Lestrade telling that one guy that Sherlock was a good man, not just a great one, to which I rolled my eyes because at that point, it just felt plain corny as opposed to the weight of Lestrade saying the reverse in the first episode. Too heavyhanded. I know without needing this episode to tell me that Sherlock has standards and that he has a heart. I get it. No need to focus so much on it. Why not explore Mycroft instead? Y’know, the one other character without development? Or start wrapping up threads?

I probably still have more complaints about this episode, but it boils down to these things, pretty much. It was disappointing and disheartening. This isn’t even to mention all the thousands of little plotholes and inconsistencies. I’d gladly skip over the details if the story and characters were great. Too bad  it just so happens that TFP had neither.

[cathygeha]

Release alert for THE SURVIVING GIRLS!

Don’t miss this intense, and suspenseful crime novel by Katee Robert!

  “This is a must read summer read!” —Book Him Danno

 “Robert takes the story to an unexpected revelation of who the real killer is and the trip there is highly entertaining in a hang on to your chair kind of way. Every Robert book I’ve read has been filled with well defined, gritty characters and a well-paced plot. The women aren’t Cinderallas and the Princes Charming have an edge to them. Just the way I like it.” —Jeep Diva

 Download THE SURVIVING GIRLS or add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads! Then keep reading to get a sneak peek and your chance to enter the giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card or books from Katee Robert!

  Title: The Surviving Girls

Author: Katee Robert

Series: Hidden Sins #3

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release Date: May 29, 2018

Publisher: Montlake Romance

Print Length:  282 pages

Format: Digital and Paperback

ISBN: 978-1503902442

  Synopsis:

 A fierce survivor and a fearless FBI agent battle a copycat serial killer in a gripping thriller from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katee Robert.

 Twelve years ago, Lei Zhang and her friend Emma Nilsson miraculously lived through the notorious Sorority Row Murders that left twenty-one of their sisters dead. Still wrestling with the trauma but finally out of the limelight, Lei and Emma are now devoted to helping other victims find closure. But most disturbing for Lei—beyond the gut-wrenching survivor guilt—is that the killer was her boyfriend. He’s behind bars, but she’ll never lower her guard again.

 When a copycat killer targets Lei and Emma, FBI Agent Dante Young is put in charge of anticipating the sociopath’s every move. But what he doesn’t expect is his immediate and overpowering attraction to Lei. The closer they get to each other, the more desperate and terrifying the questions become: Who wants to finish what the killer started—and why?

 Now Agent Young vows to protect Lei at all costs. If they have any chance of a future together, first they have to stay alive…

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  The Surviving Girls Excerpt

Copyright © 2018 Katee Robert

 Lei couldn’t breathe. Her chest closed painfully as if she’d been knocked flat on her back, and her lungs burned with the need for oxygen. Somewhere in the tiny rational corner of her mind, she knew there was nothing really wrong with her, but rational thought had no place in the midst of her panic.

He’s back. Emma was right all along and he’s coming for us.

Stop.

You’re spiraling.

Travis Berkley is still in jail. This is a copycat, and no matter how bad a copycat is, he can’t be worse than Travis. You survived before. You will this time, too.

A whine cut through her thoughts, and then Saul was there, nudging her hand with his cool nose. She inhaled sharply, suddenly aware that everyone in the room was staring at her. The Feds had the blank-slate expression she’d come to associate with cops when they were in a difficult situation. Emma looked at her as if she was on the verge of her own panic attack.

Lei stroked her hand over Saul’s head, forming a wall of indisputable facts in her mind to keep the fear at bay. She wasn’t twenty-one anymore, only a couple of years out of the stifling family home she’d grown up on, still drunk on freedom and the realization that she could do anything she wanted to with her future.

She’d been an idiot. A child who was playing dress-up without realizing the pitfalls of adulthood.

Though most pitfalls don’t come attached to a knife.

Lei wasn’t that girl anymore. She’d seen the worst Travis Berkley could offer and had the scars to show for it. She could shoot. She could fight. She’d worked with enough cops over the course of her career as a trainer and search team that she had an inside view to how their minds worked.

She would not lose herself to terror.

Another stroke to Saul’s head and she was able to speak. “How close to the original murders are the details?”

Agent Young exchanged a glance with his partner and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. His big hands dangled between his legs, and she distantly noted that he had really firm thighs beneath the expensive slacks. He spoke slowly, as if gauging her response. “We haven’t had a chance to check the original case files, but the big details are almost identical. The murders were performed in the same way—girls kept in a main room and taken out individually. We think he snuck in through a window, because their condo was on the second floor and he used a knife from the kitchen.”

She could almost hear Travis’s voice in her head, even after all these years. Let me in, Lei-Lei. I have a surprise for you. Stupid. She’d been so incredibly stupid, swayed by a pretty face and a boy her parents would approve of who made her feel. Smart, athletic, the right dollar amount in his family’s bank account. Someone bright and colorful and checking all the right boxes.

Since she couldn’t bring herself to ask if one of the girls let him in, she focused on the rest. “If this is a fan, he must have been in contact with Travis at some point.” She put her hand on Emma’s leg when her friend flinched at his name. The Feds didn’t react, which made her sigh. “But you already knew that. You don’t need me telling you how to do your job. What is it you need?”

Another loaded look between them. They’d obviously been partners for a long time, because they managed to convey an entire conversation’s worth of talking in a single look.

Again, it was Agent Young who took the lead. “We can find the details of the case easily enough, along with your accounts, but what I’d like to know is your take on Travis.”

“Because I dated him.” She stated it baldly, as if the fact she’d slept with a murderer was something she’d dealt with and moved on from. As if the fact didn’t still keep her up at night, moving beneath her skin until she wanted to take a wire brush to her body. There weren’t enough hot showers and bleach baths in the world to change the fact she’d willingly been with him. She could never take that back.

“Because you—both of you—have known him longer than anyone.”

“Agent Young—”

“Dante.”

She stopped short. Dante. It fit him somehow—strong and a little bit intense. He masked it well, but there was fire lurking in the depths of his dark eyes, in the way he clenched his fists as they spoke about Travis. She shouldn’t be forming personal opinions about any man, let alone one connected with the case. Lei’s track record had more than proven that fact.

While she was still trying to process her strange and seriously inconvenient reaction to him, Emma had found her voice. She spoke softly, her southern accent giving her breathy tone a pretty lilt. She had a Dolly Parton thing going for her—at least before Dolly got a little crazy for plastic surgery—and Emma wasn’t above playing up the sweet-southern-belle thing when it suited her. “Travis Berkley is a sociopath with a healthy dose of narcissistic personality disorder—which you already know because you read the file. Everything is in the file. We have been doing our best to get past what he did to us—to our sisters—and that means forgetting as much as possible.”

Maybe for Emma. Lei couldn’t afford to forget. It had been her mistake that tipped the first domino that destroyed so many lives. While it was possible Travis could have gotten into the house on his own, she’d been the fool who let him in her window.

The knowledge made her hands shake. Emma might want to do everything to avoid that gory walk down memory lane, but Lei didn’t have that option. Guilt wrapped around her throat, tightening, ever tightening. “You have something specific you’re here for.”

Agent Rowan leaned forward, a clear indication that she’d take it from there. As much as Lei wanted the calming force Dante—Agent Young—seemed to emanate, she turned almost gratefully to the redhead. She eyed her as if Lei was a particularly interesting bug. “We’re theorizing this fucker—”

“Clarke.”

She didn’t look at him. “These women have seen enough, Dante. You know as well as I do that a few choice curse words aren’t going to have them scrambling for their sniffing salts.”

Lei understood now why Britton had paired these two together. Clarke was the blunt force designed to set a person back on their heels so they were too busy reacting to her foul mouth to stop and think that there might be a shrewd mind behind those deceptively big blue eyes. Dante on the other hand, was a cool summer mist, unruffling feathers and putting everyone in the room at ease with his calm presence. Both agents would be underestimated in different ways, which was only to their benefit.

Clever.

She eyed the dogs on the floor. Neither of them seemed overly concerned with the Feds in the room. Good. Lei had more than proven she could be fooled, but Saul couldn’t. Every time he reacted poorly to a person, she paid attention—and most of the time something eventually came to light to prove her dog’s instincts correct.

Clarke followed her gaze and then refocused on Lei and then Emma. “A lot of sociopaths think they’re smarter than everyone else in the room—some of them are even right—and Travis sure as hell falls into the latter category. His IQ is 167, and from all accounts, prison hasn’t broken him. What we need to know is if he’d encourage a fan to take these steps.”

“Of course he would. He’s a fucking psycho,” Emma snarled.

“What do you think?” Clarke was looking at Lei.

Because why not? Even now, cops thought Lei had some kind of inside track to the way Travis’s mind worked. She’d dated him for months, had slept with him countless times, and so she must have some insider knowledge to explain how the golden boy went so very, very wrong.

She hadn’t been able to give them a satisfactory answer then. She didn’t have one now, either. But she could try.

 Praise for The Hidden Sins Series

 “…a captivating read, made all the more rewarding when good triumphs.” —Washington Post on The Devil’s Daughter

 “Robert shows off her impressive versatility in this fast-paced and inventive new Hidden Sins series. The small-town setting is a masterful blend of quaint and oppressive, which ratchets the menace and thrill factor. The protagonists carry the full weight of their pasts with them, making their growing relationship as compelling as the mystery element in The Devil’s Daughter. With plenty of twists and betrayals, this is a book that is sure to earn Robert a wealth of new fans.” —RT Book Reviews on The Devil’s Daughter

 "Katee Robert has definitely picked up the romantic suspense genre and made it her bitch. I can’t wait to see what we get next. Given some of the books I see she’s been using for research, I know it’s going to be frightening and amazing at the same time." —Goodreads Review

“Every bit as complex as book one but with a totally different storyline, The Hunting Grounds once again proved Katee Robert is more than capable of spinning a thrilling romantic suspense tale that will keep readers on their toes.” —Harlequin Junkie on The Hunting Grounds (recommended read)

 “Filled with suspense and lot of unpredictable twists and turns…Gripping.” —Life at 17on The Hunting Grounds

  Other Books in the Hidden Sin Series

 THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER

Get more information at:  Goodreads  | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 THE HUNTING GROUNDS

Get more information at: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

  About Katee Robert

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Katee Robert learned to tell her stories at her grandpa’s knee. Her 2015 title, The Marriage Contract, was a RITA finalist, and RT Book Reviews named it 'a compulsively readable book with just the right amount of suspense and tension."  When not writing sexy contemporary and romantic suspense, she spends her time playing imaginary games with her children, driving her husband batty with what-if questions, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. 

Connect with Katee at: Website | Facebook | Twitter| GoodReads | Instagram

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