Book excerpt: Lexylia Beckford, a policewoman with the NYPD, is perplexed when her three closest friends try to persuade her to enter a beauty contest. But Lexy has no interest because if she was lucky enough to win, she would have to travel to the faraway planet of Drapnor Two. Against all her earlier misgivings, keeping her mother’s huge medical costs in mind and their insurmountable debt, Lexy decides to enter. She figures she has a very slim chance to even make it to the final five on Earth but fills out the entry form anyway. The entry steps shock her, but she shrugs it off and forges ahead. If she had known she had just committed a life-altering act, would she have clicked the send button?