{"product_id":"the-party-isbn-9780593704080","title":"The Party","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER • #1 bestselling author Natasha Preston is back with another pulse-pounding, twisty read!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAre you invited?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the heart of the English countryside, Bessie and her closest friends gather at a remote castle for a secret party destined to make this the best spring break ever. But when the first of them dies, the party takes a lethal turn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs the body count continues to rise, Bessie and her friends must contend with a deadly storm and growing internal suspicion, all while trapped inside with a killer. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSet against the backdrop of a sprawling English estate, Natasha Preston's latest thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat until the party’s over…Natasha Preston is the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author whose thrillers have scared readers around the world. She lives in England with her family.1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Have you seen the size of this castle?” I ask my best friend, Kashvi, angling my phone screen toward her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She rolls over on her bed in our dorm room, the warm light above her head reflecting in her dark eyes. She has tan skin, black hair that reaches her butt, and the brightest smile I have ever seen in my life. Kash has been my best friend since we met on our first day at St. Mary’s Grammar School when we were four.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e We share the same love for Taylor Swift, rom-­com movies, and sneaking out to parties. We’ve roomed together for the past seven years, both of us absolutely refusing to share with anyone else. I’ve heard that a lot of the girls snore, and I would definitely end up committing murder if I was stuck in a room with one of them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Allegra said her dad renovated the outside and that’s why it doesn’t look derelict,” Kash says. “Don’t get too excited, because the inside is a different story. We’re camping in a cold, empty castle.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Fun. That makes me feel so much better about lying to the dean and my parents so we can stay there over spring break,” I say dryly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Kash smiles. “You’re \u003ci\u003enot\u003c\/i\u003e bailing on this trip, Bessie. Do you know how difficult it was to get my parents to let me go to ‘Allegra’s house’ instead of New Delhi? They really wanted me to visit relatives I’ve only met about two or three time in my life.” She does air quotes with her fingers because we’ve all told a little lie to our parents. An abandoned castle isn’t somewhere my parents would want me spending a long weekend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I vividly remember the crying and begging, Kash.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She sits up on her yellow tie-­dye bedding, pointing a pink-­tipped finger at me. “I did \u003ci\u003enot\u003c\/i\u003e beg.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Whatever. Look at this! It has a \u003ci\u003emoat.\u003c\/i\u003e Think the water is safe to swim in?” I ask her. “It looks okay. And didn’t Fergus say there’s a generator, so we’ll have heating and electricity? I’m sure he told me that.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I asked Allegra the same thing about the moat. She said, and I quote, ‘If you want to catch ten different plagues, go ahead,’ so I’m thinking no. But yes to the generator.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Well, what does she know? The weather is uncharacteristically hot for English springtime. I’m packing my bikini just in case,” I tell her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She shrugs, looking at me like she thinks I’m the one who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. “You know there’s a big storm the first two days, right?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I can swim on Sunday,” I say rather pathetically, since I can already tell it’s a bust.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The weather looks awful for this afternoon and Saturday, but after that I see only sunshine on my app. Party for two days, swim for two days. There’s a \u003ci\u003echance.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “It’s your funeral,” she replies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Someone will come in with me.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I can’t believe we’ve managed to keep this a secret. One massive, weekend-­long party in a remote castle in the country and no one has said a word. It’s a miracle when you think about it. Jia and Odette are both enormous gossips.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Odette, not in our year, has been invited because she’s friends with Hugo—­a total heartthrob who would never look twice at any of us because we’re younger than him. Allegra tried getting with him and then went for Shen, the hottie who moved from China to the UK to board at the same time as Jia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Hugo is also our friend Raif’s brother, but Raif doesn’t want anything to do with us anymore.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “We haven’t managed to leave campus yet. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I tell her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sure, we’ve sneaked off campus before, but it was always for just a few hours. We’d be tucked back in bed when Mrs. Evans, our dorm’s houseparent, did her morning rounds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This time we’re leaving for spring break alone, not with an adult as mandated by school policy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She waves my worry away in true Kash style. When it comes to planning, she is the queen. She knows every single aspect of what we’re about to do. She’s been through it in her head hundreds of times, from the destination to the accommodations, and I’m not sure that’s much of an exaggeration.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The planning part of our weekend adventure is the easy part.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Zeke is driving, and he’s supposed to be taking me to my parents’, since our families live twenty minutes apart. I emailed the school from my mom’s account, giving me permission to leave school grounds without being collected by a parent. I’ve had access to her email for years, since she never changes her password.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Kash, Shen, and Jia are getting a taxi to the station. They’re meant to be taking a train to the airport, where Kash will in theory board a plane to New Delhi and Shen and Jia will fly to Beijing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e However, Zeke and I will pick Kash up. Allegra will get the others.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Allegra and her twin brother, Fergus, both drive too, so they’re taking their cars.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “We’ll be fine. This isn’t the first time we’ve lied to every adult we know,” Kash says, studying a printout of the castle’s plans. Before we go away anywhere, Kash has to do her research. She doesn’t like being surprised. The red folder containing property and location information from Allegra has curled at the edges, she’s opened it so many times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “No, it’s just the first time we’ve lied in order to head to an abandoned castle.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e No adults, no one other than us, knowing where we are. It’s exciting, the most anticipated party of the year.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Cool, isn’t it?” she says, wiggling her dark brows.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I drop my phone on the bed and smile. “I can’t wait.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The castle is gorgeous, and it’s in a pretty countryside village, miles from anything or anyone else, in the middle of a huge forest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “You commit the layout to memory yet?” I ask, only half joking, because she probably has. Maybe she’s being extra diligent this time because there will be no adults.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Unless you count Hugo, who’s eighteen, but after watching him snort ice cream through his nose I certainly do not.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She holds up the paper. “I think I have it.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eOf course you do.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The castle has been in Allegra and Fergus Beaufort’s family for generations, and their parents are now trying to develop the area since they own about a hundred acres of land surrounding it. Apparently it’s the last chance we have for a weekend there, and we’re not passing it up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The seven of us, a friend group forged during Getting to Know You Week at the start of senior year—­though I knew most of them already—­will go tomorrow morning to set up. Allegra has a trunk full of party supplies to decorate the ballroom, where we’ll spend most of our time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Allegra is \u003ci\u003ebig\u003c\/i\u003e on aesthetics, her life one big Pinterest board. That’s the only reason we’re going early. We couldn’t possibly allow everyone to arrive at anything less than a perfect venue.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The rest come in the evening, and the party will last until we leave on Monday.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Allegra has given us a very specific route to the castle,” Kash says, holding up her phone next to show me a map. “It’s been bothering me for a while. Okay, look here—­there’s a more direct journey, but that goes through the village. Do you think she just doesn’t want to be seen?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “But why would she worry about people in town seeing us? No one there knows who we are.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I guess she wants to make sure word about the party doesn’t get back to our parents and the school.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e We’d be in \u003ci\u003eso\u003c\/i\u003e much trouble if we were caught, but could the school really expel nearly the entire class? It wouldn’t look good on the tours when there are no students left in the junior year.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Allegra’s route is the one I will be taking. We’ll be okay if no one knows we’re not where we’re supposed to be this weekend. We can be discreet when the stakes are this high.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Should we go over the plan again at breakfast?” I ask, checking the time on my phone. Fifteen minutes to go. I’m starving, my snacks depleted after last night’s movie. Kash and I hid under my covers with an iPad, her holding the bowl of our remaining candy, the volume low in case Mrs. Evans came by to do \u003ci\u003eanother\u003c\/i\u003e one of her lights-­out checks. She takes her job way too seriously.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “We can, but you know how Allegra is. She’s already been through it, and we don’t want her to think we don’t trust her. She’s thought of \u003ci\u003eeverything,\u003c\/i\u003e apparently. All we need to do is pack a bag and prepare for little to no sleep for the next three nights.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Kash isn’t wrong: Allegra can’t be questioned. Not ever. But to be fair to her, she does usually think of everything.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Okay. I mean, if anything changed or if something was wrong, Allegra and Fergus would tell us, right?”","brand":"Delacorte Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304914768101,"sku":"NP9780593704080","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593704080.jpg?v=1767740878","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-party-isbn-9780593704080","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}