Pretty Wanted (Pretty Crooked #3)by Elisa Ludwig
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: March 17th 2015
Synopsis:
Willa’s string of good-hearted but ill-conceived thefts at her former high school catapulted her into a life she hardly knows. She became a cult hero, but soon afterward, her mom disappeared, leaving only a cryptic message. When Willa hit the California highway to find her, she discovered a dark family secret: Joanne Fox is not who she says she is-and neither is Willa. Now, Willa and fellow trouble-maker Aidan must race to St. Louis, Missouri, Willa’s birthplace. There, they hope to find answers about Willa’s past. But uncovering the truth requires solving a decades-old murder case.
Unfortunately, the perps are still out there . . . and willing to do whatever it takes to keep the case cold. With Willa’s face on the nightly news and the police hot on her trail, it might not matter that Aidan and her friend Tre are there to help. Willa’s only hope is to find the truth before it finds her first.
Pretty Crooked
Willa's Arc
I have written widely about the
fact that Pretty Crooked and its protagonist Willa Fox were inspired by Colton
Harris-Moore, the teen outlaw known as the Barefoot Bandit who did some wild
things like stealing planes and leading FBI on a chase before he was famously
apprehended in the Bahamas. So from the outset of conceiving this series, I
knew my protagonist was always going to have some serious criminal/sleuthing
skills but I also wanted her to have more of a benevolent dimension so the stealing
wasn’t just for her own thrills. Thus, the Robin Hood scheme Willa creates to
help the bullied girls at her school.
That’s all Book One. But as I
started to write the next two books, something surprising happened for both me
and Willa. The cool, snarky girl with the vintage gear and the desire to help
people grows up.
As Willa’s fun if ill-conceived
plan ultimately backfires, she’s faced with some serious consequences,
including remorse. At the same time the entire foundation of her identity is
rocked by unexpected revelations that force her to question everything and look
for more answers. Though she holds on to her fierce sense of justice, she
slowly becomes more aware of some hard truths. That includes a much bigger
scale version of Valley Prep’s social inequity but also the growing realization
that people she loves have made mistakes just as she has. In ways she couldn’t
have ever realized, people who came before her have set her on this course but
now it is up to her to determine where it will all go.
You
can plan and plan a series with every single plot twist, but you can’t
completely predict how your characters will evolve. That’s kind of the fun of
the whole thing. The Willa you meet in the beginning of the series gives way to
someone more grounded, more tuned in to the real world, and ultimately much
wiser. I have to admit, I’m very proud
of Willa and I hope my readers are, too!
AUTHOR BIO:
My debut young adult novel PRETTY CROOKED (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins) was released in March 2012, and the sequel, PRETTY SLY, is out in March 2014. COIN HEIST, a YA thriller, is out in June 2014 (Adaptive Studios). I live in Philadelphia with my husband and son.
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