Kat Spears has worked as a bartender, museum director, housekeeper, park ranger, business manager, and painter (not the artistic kind). She holds an M.A. in anthropology, which has helped to advance her bartending career. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her three freeloading kids. Sway is her debut novel.

Jesse erledigt alles - für Geld! Drogen verticken, Prüfungen fälschen, Losern zu einem Date verhelfen, alles kein Problem. Der Rest ist irrelevant. Denn Jesses Mutter ist tot, sein Vater eine Null und die Welt ein Ort, an dem man sich besser nicht zu viele Gedanken macht. Als der Footballkapitän und ausgemachte Idiot Ken Jesse 200 Dollar bietet, damit er ihn mit der engelsgleichen Bridget verkuppelt, stimmt also der Preis. Doch der Auftrag ist heikel: Jesse muss sich ins Altersheim schmuggeln, einen Opa "borgen" und sich auch noch mit Bridgets behindertem Bruder Pete anfreunden, um einen Blick hinter die perfekte Fassade dieses Mädchens zu erhaschen. Was dabei herauskommt? Bridget ist tatsächlich perfekt und Jesse hoffnungslos in sie verliebt ...

A YALSA 2015 Best Fiction for Young Adults PickIn Kat Spears's hilarious and often poignant debut, high school senior Jesse Alderman, or "Sway," as he's known, could sell hell to a bishop. He also specializes in getting things people want---term papers, a date with the prom queen, fake IDs. He has few close friends and he never EVER lets emotions get in the way. For Jesse, life is simply a series of business transactions. But when Ken Foster, captain of the football team, leading candidate for homecoming king, and all-around jerk, hires Jesse to help him win the heart of the angelic Bridget Smalley, Jesse finds himself feeling all sorts of things. While following Bridget and learning the intimate details of her life, he falls helplessly in love for the very first time. He also finds himself in an accidental friendship with Bridget's belligerent and self-pitying younger brother who has cerebral palsy. Suddenly, Jesse is visiting old folks at a nursing home in order to run into Bridget, and offering his time to help the less fortunate, all the while developing a bond with this young man who idolizes him. Could the tin man really have a heart after all?A Cyrano de Bergerac story with a modern twist, Sway is told from Jesse's point of view with unapologetic truth and biting humor, his observations about the world around him untempered by empathy or compassion---until Bridget's presence in his life forces him to confront his quiet devastation over a life-changing event a year earlier and maybe, just maybe, feel something again.