Plymouth Author’s Young Adult Series Wins Two Medals in the 2026 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards

Gripped Part 4 earns Gold Medal in Young Adult Coming of Age; Gripped Part 6 earns Silver Medal in Young Adult Social Issues

PLYMOUTH, MA, UNITED STATES, September 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Massachusetts author Stacy Padula, who grew up in Pembroke and now resides in Plymouth, has earned two medals in the 2026 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards for her acclaimed young adult series Gripped. Gripped Part 4: Smoke & Mirrors won the Gold Medal in the Young Adult – Coming of Age category, and Gripped Part 6: The Dunkin Legacy won the Silver Medal in the Young Adult – Social Issues category. The dual honors recognize Padula’s realistic fiction about Massachusetts teen life—stories rooted in suburban high-school culture, football dreams, family loyalty, faith, and the hard truths of addiction, mental health, and redemption.

About the Awards
Readers’ Favorite is one of the largest book-review and award-contest platforms in the world and has served authors for nearly two decades. The International Book Award Contest draws thousands of entries from more than a dozen countries each year—from first-time independent authors to New York Times bestsellers and celebrity writers—as well as titles submitted by major houses including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster. Winners are selected at Gold, Silver, Bronze, Honorable Mention, and Finalist levels. Readers’ Favorite reviews and awards are also accepted into the Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database, extending winners’ visibility to libraries, schools, booksellers, and literary professionals.

The Winning Books
Gripped Part 4: Smoke & Mirrors (Gold Medal) follows former star quarterback Taylor Dunkin as one desperate deal, a trail of clues, and shattered illusions put his life and his family’s safety on the line in Montgomery, Massachusetts. Brothers Jordan and Marc must set aside a feud to search for him, while Cathy Kagelli risks everything to pull her boyfriend out of a hidden world of drugs. Readers’ Favorite awarded the novel five stars, noting that it “unfolds like a premium teen drama TV show featuring parallel compelling storylines, spellbinding cliffhangers, and everything about high school, college, and teenage life.”

Gripped Part 6: The Dunkin Legacy (Silver Medal) continues the multi-generational Dunkin family story of football, addiction, faith, and redemption set against the backdrop of New England high-school and college sports. The book features a foreword by New England Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson, who shares his own testimony of faith, mental-health struggles, and purpose. Henderson also joined Padula in a widely shared announcement video released with the book.

The Gripped Series and Screen Adaptation
Launched in 2019, Gripped serves as both prequel and sequel to Padula’s earlier Montgomery Lake High novels. Set in and around the fictional town of Montgomery Lake, Massachusetts, the series chronicles a close-knit group of teens—Cathy Kagelli, Jason Davids, the Dunkin brothers, and their friends—as football glory, first love, family pressure, addiction, and mental-health battles collide. Readers and reviewers consistently describe the books as some of the most realistic YA they have encountered: authentic Massachusetts teen life written with suspense, heart, and hope.

The series is being developed for television by Emmy Award-winning producer Mark Blutman. Blutman is writing the pilot and serving as executive producer, with the project developed through BLE Pictures. He has described the adaptation as having “a Friday Night Lights meets Euphoria vibe,” adding: “I’ve always looked for ways to affect young adults with a positive message in my work and so the opportunity to take the world Stacy created, a world showing how good kids can easily fall into life-threatening drug addiction and eventually put the pieces of their lives back together, was an opportunity and challenge I was excited to bring to the small screen.”

Henderson’s partnership on Gripped Part 6 brings an active NFL voice to the same themes. “I recommend this book to teens and young adults because there are so many of us who may be lost and struggling, and we’re looking for hope, but in the wrong places,” Henderson has said. Padula noted, “While my books are fiction, TreVeyon’s story is real—it’s powerful and life-changing.”

About the Author
Stacy A. Padula is a multi-award-winning author, entrepreneur, and college counselor from Massachusetts. She grew up in Pembroke, attended Silver Lake Regional High School, and now lives in Plymouth. She began writing as a teenager to fill a gap for realistic YA fiction that treats social challenges, substance abuse, mental health, faith, and redemption with honesty. She is the author of seventeen books, including the Montgomery Lake High series and the Gripped series, and is co-creator of the faith-based children’s series On the Right Path with NBA coach Brett Gunning.

Availability and Media
The Gripped series is available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and stacyapadula.com. Review copies, cover art, author photos, and interview requests are available upon request. Official award listings appear at readersfavorite.com.

Stacy O’Halloran
Briley & Baxter Publications
+1 781-389-7299
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