by Joy Preble
“I’ve got you,” Max says, holding my waist.
And then we begin our descent.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Finding Paris is fiction, but girls like Leo and Paris are not. I’ve known many of them in the classroom, girls whose home lives aren’t safe, who may have no way to leave the situation, who struggle to tell their truths, and in part I wrote this book to help give them a voice. As Leo says near the end, “Not everyone gets a different life from the one they have.” I think Leo would also say that we all have secrets and pain and things we hide—that we all have a Paris to find. From that place came this novel—part sibling story, part mystery, part road trip, part romance, part exploration of the lengths we go for the people we love.
And now to the thank-yous:
I am forever in the debt of my phenomenal editor, Alessandra Balzer, for loving this story as much as I do, and for her firm direction and endless patience in allowing me the time and encouragement to get it right.
And to the rest of the team at Balzer and Bray, including Kelsey Murphy and copy editors Alexei Esikoff and Veronica Ambrose, kudos for your eagle eyes and endless references to the cruel taskmaster known as the Chicago Manual of Style! Leo and Paris and Max encounter a lot of weird stuff in Vegas and beyond (Eiffel Towers! Giant thermometers!) and they looked up every bit of it to make sure I was getting it right. Which mostly I was.
Although she has moved on to her own new publishing journey since we began this project, hugs to editor Sara Sargent for her early love of the book!
Bravo and cheers to Sarah Kaufman for an amazing and perfect book jacket. Every element is exactly right and when I first saw the cover, I wanted to clutch it to my chest and dance around the room.
I am very, very lucky to be represented by the tireless and brilliant Jennifer Rofé, who fought for this book to find the best of homes and who has been my business partner and cheerleader and friend through the crazy adventure known as publishing. She is one tough cookie, and her Starbucks ordering habits are a frightening thing of beauty. She is also an all-service agent, who even drove one of Max and Leo’s road trips and took pictures. Yeah. She’s that kind of girl.
The hugest of thanks to my compadres at the Lodge of Death, who heard the earliest snippets of this book when I outlined it one hot Texas summer weekend, surrounded by nature and terrifyingly excessive taxidermy. In particular, my deepest gratitude to Kari Anne Holt, Nikki Loftin, Salima Alikhan, PJ Hoover, Stephanie Pellegrin, Jenny Moss, Cory Oakes, Jo Whittemore, and Jessica Lee Anderson, who believed in this story from the beginning and insisted that this was “the one.”
And to Bethany Hegedus and everyone (including my road trip buddy Christina Mandelski) at the Writing Barn workshop on emotional pacing taught by the very gifted Sara Zarr—thank you for your thoughtful and tough critiques. You helped make this book shine, and I am forever grateful.
To my Houston writing community, critique partners, SCBWI folk, writing partners, and fellow YA Houston members (YAHOO!), thank you for your endless support and for listening when I needed someone to listen. I am infinitely fortunate that there are too many of you to name, but I hope you know who you are and I owe you many plates of gooey Empire Café cake.
And to the Texas bloggers and librarians and booksellers who continue to support me and my career, including but not limited to the staffs of Blue Willow Bookshop, Murder by the Book, and Book Spot, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Finally, to Rick (who vetted every poker scene!) and Jake and Kellie—I love you bunches and bunches and bunches.
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epicreads.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOY PREBLE is a Texas girl who grew up in Chicago and a former high school teacher who now writes full-time, which means she gets paid for making up stuff. No one has ever left her mysterious notes. She is, however, a fan of cross-country road trips. Joy is also the author of the Dreaming Anastasia series and the Sweet Dead Life series. You can find her online at www.joypreble.com.
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CREDITS
Cover photograph © 2015 by Trigger Image/Glasshouse Images
Las Vegas sign © 2015 iStockphoto LP/Getty Images (US), Inc.
Cover design by Sarah Nichole Kaufman
COPYRIGHT
Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
FINDING PARIS
Copyright © 2015 by Joy Preble
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Preble, Joy.
Finding Paris / Joy Preble. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: “When Leo’s sister Paris goes missing, she and her new friend Max must follow Paris’s secret notes and clues to find her”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-06-232130-5 (hardback)
EPub Edition © March 2015 ISBN: 9780062321329
[1. Runaways—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Cyphers—Fiction. 4. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 5. Secrets—Fiction. 6. Stepfathers—Fiction. 7. Las Vegas (Nev.)—Fiction. 8. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Title.
PZ7.P90518Fin 2015 2014027513
[Fic]—dc23 CIP
AC
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15 16 17 18 19 PC/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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