How can one day go so very wrong? One minute Meara Quinn is making plans for how she will spend the Summer before her senior year and the next she’s finding out that her mother’s cancer has returned and they are moving away from the only home she’s ever known.
Now every day is a struggle as Meara is trying to cope with her mother’s illness, being forced to move to another country to live with grandparents—whom she thought disowned her mother—and having weird visions of a father who was absent her entire life. Top it all off with one whopping secret that everyone seems bent on keeping from her, and Meara has the perfect ingredients for a major melt down.
The only things keeping her from coming unglued are some new friends and Evan—the son of her mother’s childhood friend—who seems to know Meara almost better than she knows herself.
Together with Evan and her friends, Meara embarks on a new journey to unlock the secrets that will not only tell Meara who she is, but what she is.
Excerpt:
The sun was hot on my back, but it felt good. I always soaked it up in the summer, knowing that I would be wishing for some of its warmth in the dead of winter.
Icy cold dripped on my shoulder and made me jump. I looked up to the source and saw Evan holding out a water bottle. “Sorry for startling you,” he said. “I thought you might be thirsty.”
“Thanks.” I opened the cap and downed half the bottle. I didn’t realize how thirsty I had gotten. “Did you get the paint?”
Evan held up one gallon of paint and two brushes in response. “Is the sanding done?”
“Almost.” I pointed to the last board. “I just have that one to finish.”
“Okay.” Evan set the paint supplies down near the boards I’d already sanded. “I’ll get started then, and you can join me when you’re done.”
I finished sanding as fast as I could, and then went over by Evan. He smiled and handed me a paintbrush. “You’ve painted before, right?”
“A little.” Mom and I had painted the kitchen in our old house. I didn’t tell him about the mess we made in the process. We were covered in paint, but laughing when we were done.
“Why’d you come here today?” Evan asked.
I shrugged and dipped my brush in the paint.
“Just a little,” Evan cautioned as he watched me.
“I just wanted to hang with my grandfather a bit, I guess.”
“Is it hard?”
“What?”
“Getting to know them?”
“No… yes… I don’t know. It’s weird. I don’t understand why we never visited them or why they didn’t come see us.”
“Yeah. That’s a little strange, although I can guess why they didn’t come see you.”
I looked at Evan and waited for his answer. His eyes took in the boats surrounding us before he gestured with his paintbrush. “This takes year round dedication. Your grandfather can’t leave.”
“Sounds hard,” I said. Evan returned his brush to the paint bucket. In his haste, droplets of paint flew, and one landed on my nose. Evan started laughing before brushing it off with the sleeve of his shirt.
“Sorry about that.” He grinned at me, but it soon faltered. Once again, I was locked in his gaze. We leaned toward each other. He brushed a strand of hair back from my face and tucked it behind my ear. “Meara?”
“Yes?”
“Do you want to go to dinner?”
“Tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“With you?” I asked, realizing that was an incredibly stupid thing to ask.
Evan grinned again. “Yeah. That would be the general idea.”
“Okay.”
About the Author:
Kelly Risser knew at a young age what she wanted to be when she grew up. Unfortunately, Fairytale Princess was not a lucrative career. Leaving the castle and wand behind, she entered the world of creative business writing where she worked in advertising, marketing, and training at various companies.
She’s often found lamenting, “It’s hard to write when there’s so many good books to read!” So, when she’s not immersed in the middle of someone else’s fantasy world, she’s busy creating one of her own. This world is introduced in her first novel, Never Forgotten. Never Forgotten, a YA/NA Fantasy, will be released by Clean Teen Publishing in the Summer of 2014.
Kelly lives in Wisconsin with her husband and two children. They share their home with Clyde the Whoodle and a school of fish.
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Giveaway Details:
There is an international tour wide giveaway. Prizes include the following:
- Reader's choice of Clean Teen Publishing eBook and bookmark swag pack.
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