Ten After Closing

"Reading this YA heist-gone-wrong thriller was like being strapped to the front of a Ferrari doing 120MPH. . . .This book is one. Wild. Ride. " —Matthew Landis, author of League of American Traitors and The Not-So-Boring Letters of Private Nobody

Scott and Winny went to the Café Flores wanting to escape their normal teen troubles; now, held hostage at gunpoint, they just want to leave alive. Perfect for fans of This is Where It Ends and Party.

10PM: Closing time at Café Flores. The door should be locked, but it isn't. Scott Bradley and Winsome Sommervil are about to become hostages.

TEN MINUTES BEFORE CLOSING: Scott's girlfriend breaks up with him in the café's basement storeroom because he's late picking her up for the big end-of-the-year party. Now he can't go to the party, but he can't go home, either—not knowing his dad will still be in a drunken rage. Meanwhile, Winny wanted one night to let loose, away from her mother's crushing expectations. Instead, she's stranded at the café after her best friend ditches her in a misguided attempt at matchmaking.

TEN MINUTES AFTER CLOSING: The first gunshot is fired. Someone's dead. And if Winny, Scott, and the rest of the hostages don't come up with a plan soon, they may not live to see morning.

Told from both Winny and Scott's perspectives, and alternating between the events leading up to and following the hold-up, Ten After Closing is an explosive story of teens wrestling with their own challenges, thrown into circumstances that will test their very limits.

Jessica Bayliss is an author with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology who loves all things reading and writing. Her work crosses genres including romance, urban fantasy, and horror. Because one cannot live on writing alone, Jessica also spends a great deal of time with friends and family. She is a lover of all animals especially one very special Havanese and one extremely ornery cockatiel. She lives in Connecticut. Ten After Closing is her first young adult novel.

"Both touching and terrifying. Be careful! You may actually burn your fingers reading Ten After Closing. What starts as a spark turns into a raging inferno that you won't be able to put down. Wonderful characters + nail-biting tension = one fantastic book." —Billy Taylor, author of Thieving Weasels

"Ten After Closing sinks teeth into you from page one and never lets go. Reading this YA heist-gone-wrong thriller was like being strapped to the front of a Ferrari doing 120MPH. Set two alarm clocks—Bayliss has crafted an instant page turner that will have you up way past ten. This book is one. Wild. Ride. " —Matthew Landis, author of League of American Traitors and The Not-So-Boring Letters of Private Nobody

"When you start Ten After Closing, you will ignore friends, family, and everyone else until you've read the last page." —Shaun Harris, author of The Hemingway Thief

"This fast-paced thriller grabs on from the first page and doesn't let go. I felt an urgent need to read Scott and Winny out of danger, yet feared every new page for all the twists and turns. Ten After Closing does not disappoint, culminating in a heart-pounding finale that left me feeling breathless." —Kristina McBride, author of The Bakersville Dozen and A Million Times Goodnight

"Told in alternating perspectives and timelines, this is one unnerving thriller that’s destined to make its mark. " —Dahlia Adler, for BN Teen Blog