Trust Me, I'm Trouble (Trust Me #2)
by Mary Elizabeth Summer
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: October 13th 2015
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller, Fiction
Synopsis:
The sequel to TRUST ME, I’M LYING
Staying out of trouble isn’t possible for Julep Dupree. She has managed not to get kicked out of her private school, even though everyone knows she’s responsible for taking down a human-trafficking mob boss—and getting St. Agatha’s golden-boy Tyler killed in the process. Running cons holds her guilty conscience at bay, but unfortunately, someone wants Julep to pay for her mistakes . . . with her life.
Against her better judgment, Julep takes a shady case that requires her to infiltrate a secretive organization that her long-gone mother and the enigmatic blue fairy may be connected to. Her best friend, Sam, isn’t around to stop her, and Dani, her one true confidante, happens to be a nineteen-year-old mob enforcer whose moral compass is as questionable as Julep’s. But there’s not much time to worry about right and wrong—or to save your falling heart—when there’s a contract on your head.
Murders, heists, secrets and lies, hit men and hidden identities . . . If Julep doesn’t watch her back, it’s her funeral. No lie.
Hello Mary Elizabeth! Welcome Back! We are super excited to have you in our FFBC tours again!
Thanks!! Super excited to be here.J
Sure! Trust Me, I’m Trouble starts with a job that Murphy and Julep are pulling to flush out a potential insurance scammer. It’s just before the last week of school of their sophomore year at St. Agatha’s, and seven months since the events of Trust Me, I’m Lying (two months since the events of Down to the Liar). Julep’s not over what happened seven months ago, let alone two months ago, so she’s functioning on the surface, but kind of a mess underneath. She hides it well, of course—she’s a grifter, after all. But she feels a ton of guilt about what happened, despite all the good that came out of it. Luckily, she still has her friends to pull her through. Murphy, Dani, Mike, Bryn, and yes, Sam, all play big roles in this book.
That is a bit harder to say without giving too much away. Many scenes were a joy to write, but the most fun were the ones where Julep was caught flat-footed. She’s not perfect by a long-shot. Her blind spots are big enough to drive semi-trucks through. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t get her own back in the end. She’s a smart cookie and can roll with a lot of punches.
Yes, definitely. Or at least I do. Mostly when I need to corroborate some minute detail, like a name or place or timing. Timing is a pain in the neck to keep straight. Also, I quote a lot from the first book (and the novella) in the second book. That’s partly to help catch readers up to speed, but also because, as I mentioned before, Julep’s not over all the stuff that happened in the first book. She flashes back to bits of it where it makes sense for the story.
All the time. The biggest piece that still surprises me—though it shouldn’t by now—is how much of the story is written by the characters themselves. If you create interesting characters with complicated histories in the first place, then all you have to do is keep throwing them under the bus and see how they react. That’s where voice comes from—not from dialect or using a thesaurus or lists of dialogue beats or any of the other tools authors use to tweak voice. Voice originates from an interesting character reacting to stimulus as that character, and only that character, would react.
Not at all, and that’s because I have to scrounge for writing time wherever I can get it. If I’m standing in line at the grocery store, I’m writing on my phone. If I’m waiting for my boss to review something at work, I’m writing in a 2-inch by 2-inch window, so no one can read over my shoulder, on my work computer (in fact, that is exactly what I’m doing right now). If I’m driving alone in the car, I’m coming up with dialogue for a scene in my head, or brainstorming the story arc with my mother on the phone. I frankly don’t have the luxury of relying on a routine. I have to write desperately, like my life depends on it. Because there’s no time to waste, and because it does.
Yes! An actual teenage fan emailed me about how much she loved the first book, and then came to a reading I was giving at a Barnes & Noble store. It was so awesome to get to meet someone who loved the book that much who wasn’t me or my mom.
Neither. Both the first line and the last are easy and organic and thrilling to write. It’s all the lines in between that are hard.
So many! Let’s see… Emily Lloyd-Jones, April Henry, Fonda Lee, Eliza Crewe, Jennifer Bosworth, Marie Langager, Elissa Sussman, Dahlia Adler, Robin Herrera, Miriam Forster, and a few of my beloved CPs who aren’t totally published yet (but don’t worry—I’ll be telling everyone all about them once they are). I’m probably forgetting a ton of authors I worship, but these are a few off the top of my head.
ZEROBOXER by Fonda Lee. I’m not even super into sports stories, but this one killed me. I wept at the end. And the writing was superlative. I also adored THE KILLING JAR by Jennifer Bosworth, but that book doesn’t technically come out until 2016.
Again, so many! My current favorites are Teen Wolf, The 100 (why do I have to wait till 2016 for the new season—WHY), How to Get Away with Murder, Blackish, and Empire. Also, Sherlock (the brief dribbles of it we get every few years or so), So You Think You Can Dance, and The Voice. We’ve also started watching Rosewood. I like it so far, but it’s too soon to tell if it’s a fave.
Thank you for participating in our FFBC Tours again Mary Elizabeth!
Thanks for having me! I love hanging out with you all. *hugs*
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Mary Elizabeth Summer is an instructional designer, a mom, a champion of the serial comma, and a pie junkie. Oh, and she sometimes writes books about teenage delinquents saving the day. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her daughter, her partner, and her evil overlor–er, cat. TRUST ME, I'M LYING, a YA mystery, will be released by Delacorte in Fall 2014.
