EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY
Gravity
by Juliann Rich
Gravity is currently on tour with Reading Addiction Book Tours. The tour stops here today for an excerpt and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
For more book by this author, please check out my blog post on Caught in the Crossfire and my blog post on Searching for Grace.
Description
Sometimes you fly. Sometimes you fall.
A dream at Olympic gold in ski jumping. It’s a dream that’s been the exclusive property of male Olympic athletes.
Until now.
For seventeen-year-old Ellie Engebretsen, the 2011 decision to include women’s ski jumping in the Olympics is a game changer. She’d love to bring home the gold for her father, a former Olympic hopeful whose dreams were blown along with his knees on an ill-timed landing. But can she defy the pull of gravity that draws her to Kate Moreau, her biggest competition and the girl of her dreams?
How can Ellie soar through the air when all she feels like doing is falling hard?
Book Video
Excerpt
Prologue
This is not a story about a girl who found the courage to come out as gay.
Wrong girl. Wrong book.
Sorry. (Not really.)
This is a story about a ski jumper—me. And an auburn-haired girl—Kate. And the biggest
jump of all.
Ask any ski jumper and they’ll tell you a truth that never airs on ESPN.
None of us jumps for the judges. Or the scores. Or to nail some fucking form.
We jump for those four, five, six seconds of airtime. Against the rush of the wind, despite
the hard ground beneath us, we jump.
And in the jumping, we fly free.
So no, this isn’t a story about a girl who found the courage to come out as gay.
Wrong girl. Wrong book.
Sorry. (Not really.)
This is a story about a girl who found the courage to jump, to fly, and—for a brief, precious time—to be free.
But here’s the thing.
All flights come to an end.
Ask any ski jumper and they’ll tell you that’s another truth that never airs on ESPN.
For better. For worse. Gravity always wins.
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]
Praise for the Book
"A spicy novel about two young women daring to fly free in life and love while accurately depicting the thrill of ski jumping!" ~ Sarah Hendrickson, Olympic Ski Jumper and Member of the US Women’s Ski Jumping Team
"Filled with vivid imagery - from describing the heat between the sheets to the cold of ski jump slopes - coupled with teen girls leaping deeply into love, betrayal, and the chasm between, Rich's frequently funny and sometime philosophical novel Gravity soars." ~ Patrick Jones, author of Chasing Tail Lights, Minnesota Book Award runner-up
"Juliann Rich has taken as much care in crafting Gravity as Ellie has taken in honing her sport of ski jumping and exacting revenge on her ex. Gravity is the intriguing tale of old love, new love, losses and gains. Rich executes an intense inrun, a brilliant take-off, a demanding freefall, and a graceful landing with this novel. If storytelling were an Olympic event, and I were a judge, I'd award Gravity a perfect 10." ~ Eva Indigo, author of Tilt-a-Whirl and Laughing Down the Moon
About the Author
Minnesota writer Juliann Rich spent her childhood in search of the perfect climbing tree. The taller, the better! A branch thirty feet off the ground and surrounded by leaves, caterpillars, birds, and squirrels was a good perch for a young girl to find herself. Seeking truth in nature and finding a unique point of view remain crucial elements in her life as well as her writing.
Juliann is the author of four young adult novels: Caught in the Crossfire, Searching for Grace, Taking the Stand, and Gravity. She writes character-driven books about young adults who are bound to discover their true selves and the courage to create an authentic life ... if the journey doesn’t break them.
Juliann is the 2014 recipient of the Emerging Writer Award from The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival and lives with her husband and an adorable but naughty dachshund named Bella in a 1920’s brownstone she is lovingly restoring to its original beauty.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win signed copies of the Crossfire Trilogy Series.
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