Review
"Invigorating, engaging and a must read. The characters in The Gripped Series diligently tackle the essence of forces that can limit greatness within." - LaTonya Pinkard (Ms. P) from Netflix's Emmy Winning Docuseries "Last Chance U"
"Stacy Padula's masterful control of a bifurcated storyline keeps the reader intrigued in two chronologies of events. The characters grow richer with each passing novel, as the depth of relationships between them approaches reality." - Mackenzie Wells, University of Georgia
"This book is perfect for teens and their parents as it offers unique perspectives on complex issues that teens face today. Teens and parents can learn from this book as it offers insight into the difficulties one may find navigating through high school or parenting a teen through high school. Overall, Gripped 4 was a fascinating read that leaves so much to be answered in Gripped 5. I would give this book a 10/10 and would encourage all teens and their parents to pick up this book along with the entire Gripped series." - Michael Farinacci, University of Notre Dame
"This novel is an engaging and meaningful read, ideal for high school freshmen, while also being very applicable to adults wanting to know more about teenage drug abuse. Gripped Part 4 displays the many drawbacks of taking drugs, including losing friends, girlfriends, and your thoughts on your own life. As a result, Padula effectively shows the extreme efforts needed to begin overcoming an addiction in order to begin a new life; this is shown to be very hard to complete. This would hopefully influence all young adults to avoid using drugs in order to prevent going through this troublesome process, and to avoid losing the trust and relationships with loved ones and friends." - Kyle Banker, University of Miami
About the Author
Author and entrepreneur, Stacy A. Padula from Plymouth, Massachusetts has accrued years of experience working with adolescents as a college counselor, mentor, life coach, and youth group leader. In 2019 and 2020 respectively, the International Association of Top Professionals (New York, NY) named her "Top Educational Consultant of the Year" and "Empowered Woman of the Year." She is the CEO and founder of both South Shore College Consulting & Tutoring and Briley & Baxter Publications--a publishing company that donates a portion of its proceeds to animal rescues each month. She is the author of the Gripped and the Montgomery Lake High young-adult book series. Her first novel, The Right Person, was published in 2010, followed by When Darkness Tries to Hide, The Aftermath, The Battle for Innocence, and The Forces Within. Throughout 2019 and 2020, she released a new series titled Gripped, which takes place in the same world as Montgomery Lake High but focuses on different main characters. Multiple Gripped books became #1 New Releases in their genre on Amazon. In 2019, she also wrote her first screenplay, an adaptation of her novel The Aftermath and worked on a pilot script for Gripped, which has been embraced by Hollywood producers. Learn more at stacyapadula.com.
![Gripped Part 4: Smoke & Mirrors by [Stacy Padula]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51N3sLT39UL._SY346_.jpg)
