About Deception
Alexis only believes in what can be proven – until strange things begin happening that have no explanation. It turns out that she’s been lied to all of her life and she runs into deception at every turn as she seeks the truth. Her world gets turned upside down when her worst nightmare becomes her new reality.
She finds herself against the very ones who attempted her kill her as a child. She must now discover her capabilities and accept her surprising new role so that she can defeat those who want her dead and protect the ones that she loves.
Early Reader Reviews
“I just finished!!!!!!!! THE ENDING RULED!!!!! I seriously could not stop reading until I got to the end, Stacy! When does the next book come out!?!?!?!?! THIS WAS AWESOME TO READ!!! THANK YOU!!!!” – Melanie A.
“I enjoyed the story very much, and I think you’re on to a winner!” -Grace R.
“This is just the type of genre that I like to read. If you only could see my Kindle library! I have to say you have a wonderful writing style! I looked forward to reading it and had a hard time putting it down, until my Kindle yelled at me that my battery was going dead.” -Angela K.
“Let me tell you how much I REALLY enjoyed the story.” – Steve R.
“Need. Book. 2. Lol! Just finished deception…..loved it! Can’t wait for the next!!” - Sarah W.
“Just finished reading ‘Deception’ authored by my niece-in-law, Stacy Claflin. It was a great read and I cannot wait to read the second book of this series in the new year. Although I have never been interested in this subject matter, I was drawn into each chapter by the story, its twists and turns and by the characters that Stacy has created. I recommend this book for teens as well as old folk like me. Great first book, Stacy.” – Karen H.
Excerpts
Excerpt #1
The next day at lunch, I ducked into a small study room to get away from all of the attention.
I was worn out from all of the interaction, and I actually missed being invisible.
Tanner was sitting at one of the two tables studying from a notebook.
“Alexis!” he said, surprised. “I didn’t think that you were into studying anymore.”
I almost smiled. “Believe me Tanner, I have no intention of letting my grades drop in the slightest. It was not my idea to have all of this attention thrown upon me.”
He looked me up and down, and with half of his mouth in a smile he said, “You don’t seem to be resisting it much.”
“The clothes were a gift,” I told him.
“I bet they were. You are going to pass your sister on the ladder of popularity soon,” he said. “How do you think that she’s going to like that?”
“I’m not trying to compete with Natalie,” I told him. “What’s it to you, anyway?”
“I pay attention to things, that’s all,” he said. “I pay very close attention.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“What I mean is that I know what you are, Alexis,” he said, looking me directly in the eyes.
The blood drained from my face. “What is it that you think that I am?”
Excerpt #2
I closed my eyes and enjoyed the warm sun beating down on me and the sounds of the lake lapping up on the shore. It was so calming.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I heard a strange whirring noise. I tried to ignore it, hoping that it would go away.
It only got louder and gave me a creepy feeling, so I opened my eyes.
I was so startled by the sight of over a hundred crows flying in a massive circle directly above where I was sitting that I jumped off the bench.
They were all going around and around in a circle. As soon as one made eye contact with me, it began to caw. The rest followed suit and dozens of crows were orbiting around and around right over me, and all of them were shrieking at me.
I grabbed my purse and inched away from the bench without breathing. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them, and I noticed that as I inched along, the whole circle inched right along with me in the air above me. I stopped for a moment and finally took a breath.
As soon as I began to breathe again, every single creepy bird in the circling, cawing flock turned its eyes toward me. Each one was looking down at me while whirling above my head.
To make sure that I wasn’t losing my mind, I slowly walked about two feet. Each one kept its eyes fixed on me. They circled, cawing, and they stayed directly above me. Exactly as I moved, the circle moved.
I made a split second decision and ran to my car as fast as I could without looking up or back. Once I was safely locked in my car, I looked outside to see if they had followed me. I didn’t see them, so I inched myself forward so that I could see above the car without getting out.
There they were, flying right above my car in their massive whirl.
Interview with Alexis
I am interviewing Alexis Ferguson, who is the main character in the upcoming novel Deception, book one of the The Transformed.
Hi, Alexis. Thank you for joining us today.
Thanks for inviting me. I always appreciate the chance to get away from my life for a while.
Your life gets to be a bit much for you?
It sure does. I can’t wait to get away from my family and this small town. It’s suffocating.
What bothers you the most about your family?
My parents blatantly favor my little sister. They throw it in my face all the time and even though I’m a calm and rational person, I have a growing anger inside of me. I find myself getting closer and closer to losing my self-control.
Do you know why your parents favor your sister over you?
Natalie is my mom’s mini-me. She’s beautiful, popular, and one of the stars of our school volleyball team. My friends and I have a hard time understanding it. I’m the one who gets straight A’s in my honors-only classes and I win all kinds of academic awards. I even went to the White House after winning a national science contest and I’m the first junior to be president of the honors club in our school.
She hits a ball and is the family hero. They don’t care about any of my academic achievements, they just tell me that I should be more like her.
You sound like every parent’s dream. Do you think there are deeper reasons for the favoritism?
I have reasons to believe that I was adopted, but my parents deny it with a passion. There are undeniable facts that point to me being adopted and they still refuse to admit that I was adopted.
There are no pictures of me before I was three and they have the lamest excuse for that. They have all of Natalie’s pictures and I wasn’t in any of those before I turned three, either. Have you ever heard of parents not taking any pictures of their children together? Something is definitely up.
It sounds like it! I hear that strange things are happening to you and around you. Is that true?
Is it ever! I’ve been trying to ignore the fact that I seem to be the cause of most of them. The last thing that I need is more drama in my life. I just want to focus on keeping my grades up so that I can get into an Ivy League college. Maybe if I ignore all of the strange things going on, they’ll go away.
Do you really believe that?
I suppose not, but one can hope. If I keep myself busy then at least I don’t have to think about it.
Do you have any love interests?
No, no, and no. It drives my friends crazy that I am so disinterested in boys, but I see no reason to get all worked up over them. They would only distract me from my school work.
One friend has actually set me up on a blind date with her cousin for the upcoming Homecoming dance. She has this crazy idea that we’re going to hit it off. She says that he’s gorgeous and that she can dress me up so much that all the girls will be jealous of me. I’ll believe that when I see it.
That sound like it will be interesting! Is there anything else that you’d like to share before we close?
If you could find a way to get the crows to stop following me and chasing me, I would appreciate that! They’re really creepy and ever since I read that they’ve been known to represent death, I’ve been freaking out.
I wish I could help you with that. Maybe your blind date can help you with them. Hang in there! Thanks for joining us today.
My pleasure. I’ll see you in Deception!
Deception is Available: Kindle & Paperback
