BRB (Be Right Back)

Book excerpt: BRB [Be Right Back], Book #2 of the CUL8R Time Travel Mystery/Romance series. Change the past, Save the future. BRB won the Young Adult genre in the Readers' Favorite book competition for 2013. Four high school friends are able to do two things no one else on the planet can do . . . talk with dead people and time travel to the past. It’s early summer and boredom is setting in. They have just returned from an adventure where they travelled through time back to 1966 to solve a mystery and save a popular high school girl’s life. Kelly, Scott, Austin and Zoey gather in Scott’s lab, listening to the old radio that Thomas Edison had invented and called “The Telephone to the Dead”. As they slowly turn the dial they hear hundreds of sad, lonely voices of souls that have passed but apparently never moved on, pleading for help. When they first discovered the radio in Kelly’s aunt’s garage, they had been touched by the cries and pleas coming from its speakers, but they had no way to go back in time to help them. That is, until Scott reveals an invention of his own . . . a time travel app. They’ve tested it only once, but that first trip had been successful . . . if you ignore the fact that Zoey and Kelly had almost gotten killed by a serial killer. Even though they returned with a few scrapes and bruises, they are eager to go on a new adventure and help solve another mystery. A very young girl's voice comes through, saying that her whole family has been murdered on an island just off the east coast of Florida. The teens look the island up on Google Maps and see that it is completely deserted which contradicts the story they’re getting from the Spirit Radio. But it’s a beautiful island called Crystal Key with a stretch of beach that, unlike Ft. Myers Beach, is not crowded with tourists and kids. The teens decide to pop in, spend a nice day on the beach, check out the island to see if there is any truth to the girl’s story, then pop right back. It sounds like a great plan. From the very beginning, things go wrong when Scott miscalculates their landing and they end up splashing into the Atlantic Ocean. After swimming for their lives, they collapse on the beach that is, indeed, beautiful. But it isn’t deserted. They find the little girl, her family and a half dozen more people living in a sprawling Florida-style home owned by a menacing man named Manuel. He gives them no opportunity to escape and insists that they stay in the house. What they discover during their visit is enough to almost get them all killed. As they struggle to survive, Kelly tries to ignore her attraction to Austin, who clearly isn’t interested in a romance. Besides, just days before she went on her very first date . . . with Scott. How could she have such strong feelings for two boys? And then there is Zoey who is hot for Austin, but flirting shamelessly with Scott. Then people start dying and all they can think about is saving the families and themselves. Are they destined to be a madman’s latest victims? Their time travel adventure to a tropical paradise may turn out to be their last. It's difficult to investigate a crime that hasn't happened yet. Bonus chapters of OMG and BION included. Book #1, OMG [Oh My God], a time travel mystery/romance back to 1966 was awarded The Best Young Adult Indie Book in 2013 and was a Finalist in the Beverly Hills Book Awards for 2013. Book #3, BION [Believe It Or Not], a time travel mystery/romance back to 1927 where the teenagers join a travelling circus to help save the life of an attractive young man.