Hi there!
Nicole O’Dell here. I am so excited to bring you London Confidential, a great new series of books by Sandra Byrd and Tyndale House. You should check out the trailer—how often do you get to listen to a teenager with a British accent?

Bestselling author Sandra Byrd has a new fiction series for teen and tween girls out called London Confidential. This is a four-book series that follows 15-year-old Savannah Smith around as her family moves to London from the United States, showing how “Savvy” deals with the pressures of trying to fit in, make friends, and live out her faith.

Savvy is the perfect fifteen-year-old character to captivate the hearts of the targeted 9-12 year-old reader. She’s interesting and compelling, but real. Savvy struggles with the same things every tween and teen struggles with, and the age-old battle of trying to fit in as the new girl in school is ramped up when Savvy is dropped into a completely different culture.

I loved the quick, witty writing style and the unique approach to a YA series. The idea of living overseas is interesting to everyone, so tweens and teens will enjoy learning how it works out for Savvy. My ten-year-old daughter, Emily, dove right into the first book as soon as I received them. She gave it a huge thumbs up and has already started the second one. She wanted to know what it would take to be an exchange student or move to London.

I actually had the privilege of interviewing Sandra on Teen Talk Radio this past Thursday night. We had a blast chatting about teens and why we do what we do. She’s an exciting and vibrant person doing some awesome things! You should check out the show–Sandra is on for the entire first half. Visit www.choicesradio.com to see a list of all available podcasts, or click HERE to go right to Sandra’s.

Here are a few words from Sandra Byrd just for you…

What was your inspiration for this series?
God is good, all the time. If something that seems bad happens, pray, and wait. Work through it, and promise yourself that you will look back on it in a few hours or days or months and you’ll see it from a different perspective. A lot of times we beg God to let things turn out the way we want, or to tell us how they are going to be. But if he did, every time, we’d never need faith. And scripture tells us that our faith is what is pleasant to him, in fact, it says, without faith, we cannot please him. So he’s not going to rearrange everything so that you never need faith, or he’d be rearranging things so he’d never be pleased with you. Build your faith muscle little by little, with heavier and heavier circumstances, and you’ll be totally buff. The Bible says that kind of faith is what is required to bring hope. And we all want hope, right? These books are about having fun and having hope while you wait for everything to turn out okay.

Have you ever lived overseas?
I did move a lot as a child, but not overseas. I did stay in Europe for two short periods during high school, though, as an exchange student: once in Germany when I was 15, and once in France when I was 17. I’ve been back to France in the past couple of years and spent two weeks in London this year. So I get there regularly, though not as often as I’d like!

Is Savannah much like you?
Savvy is some like me, in that she likes to write and has some self confidence crises, and some like my daughter in that she’s fashion-conscious and bold. I think there are little bits of me in every character I write – even Aunt Maude! – but I’ve never consciously modeled one of my characters after myself.

Other than Savvy, which character stands out to you the most?
Oh, definitely Aunt Maude. I wish she lived next door! But then I’d have to move to London. Hmmm ….

I’m pleased to announce that in generous Tyndale House fashion, we’re able to give one very blessed reader a FULL set of the four London Confidential books.

Just leave a comment to enter to win these books, and, while you’re commenting, we’d love to know if you’ve ever been overseas. If not, where would you love to go?

About Ariel Lawhon

Ariel Lawhon is the co-founder of She Reads, novelist, blogger, storyteller, and life-long reader. She lives in Texas with her husband and four young sons (aka The Wild Rumpus). Ariel believes that Story is the shortest distance to the human heart.

• 
• 
• 
• 
•