GUEST POST and GIVEAWAY
Love Spell
by Mia Kerick
Love Spell by Mia Kerick is currently on tour with YA Bound Book Tours. The tour stops here today for a guest post by the author, an excerpt, and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
For more books by this author, please check out my blog post on The Weekend Bucket List and my blog post on My Crunchy Life.
Description
Chance César is fabulously gay, but his gender identity - or, as he phrases it, “being stuck in the gray area between girl and boy” - remains confusing. Nonetheless, he struts his stuff on the catwalk in black patent leather pumps and a snug-in-all-the-right (wrong)-places orange tuxedo as the winner of this year’s Miss (ter) Harvest Moon Festival. He rules supreme at the local Beans and Greens Farm’s annual fall celebration, serenaded by the enthusiastic catcalls of his BFF, Emily Benson.
Although he refuses to visually fade into the background of his rural New Hampshire town, Chance is socially invisible - except when being tormented by familiar bullies. But sparks fly when Chance, Pumpkin Pageant Queen, meets Jasper (Jazz) Donahue, winner of the Pumpkin Carving King contest. Chance wants to be noticed and admired and romantically embraced by Jazz, in all of his neon-orange-haired glory.
And so, at a sleepover, Chance and Emily conduct intense, late-night research, and find an online article: “Ten Scientifically Proven Ways to Make a Man Fall in Love With You.” Along with a bonus love spell thrown in for good measure, it becomes the basis of their strategy to capture Jazz’s heart.
But will this “no-fail” plan work? Can Chance and Jazz fall under the fickle spell of love?
Excerpt
“This carousel pumpkin,” nodding at the elegant pumpkin in front of us, I admit the truth before thinking it through, “…may be the best one here.”
This is when Jazz smiles broadly, and I decide his smile is the most honest smile I’ve ever seen. “I carved this pumpkin, Chance. I made it for my little sister.”
I gasp, as I hadn’t expected burly Jazzy to be the Michelangelo of pumpkin carving. “Well, your sister is a very lucky girl.” I smile at him, although I’m confident he’s the guy who is going to take the title of Beans and Greens Pumpkin Carving King away from me.
He grins again, and I fight the urge to pinch his adorbs cheek. I find it a difficult urge to battle. But I admit I have lost nothing this evening. Tonight is a win-win for Chance César. Cuz I met Jazz.
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]
Praise for the Book
“If you enjoy YA, overly dramatic, sarcastic and sassy, gender-confused and charming … or the quiet and shy, simple boy … Give this one a chance.” ~ Jenny Is My Name
“Chance's willingness to accept his faults and grow into the man that Jazz needed was incredible. The book reminded the reader to always be yourself and never give up hope that things will work out in the end.” ~ Teresa
“Chance is a funny and adorable character who I wish was my best friend in high school. Jazz is cute and sweet and the type of guy I'd totally fall for. Together they are great.” ~ Kathryn M
“This was amazing. It had so many complex and intriguing things going on for these characters. It made me smile. And made me sad. It was all around an amazing story and I loved it so much.” ~ Starwarslover
Guest Post by the Author
The language used in Love Spell is colorful. Which puts it mildly.
Chance calls his BFF Emily the Ms. Merriam-Webster of Improvised Language. In other words, well, she makes up words. After she creates words she uses them constantly and expects Chance to do the same. And he does. Believe me, he does!
And so, for today’s vocabulary lesson, let us focus on three of Emily’s finest words:
Let’s start with POOPATUDE. You know when you’re just not your cheerful self - you’re feeling mean and pissed-off, and maybe slightly sarcastic. Well, that’s because you’re displaying classic poopatude, a nasty attitude.
In a sentence: I’ve had enough of your poopatude, dude - do I have to tickle you to get you to smile? (I even added a rhyme for you.)
Next, let’s look at FRET-LIBERATO. Chance makes a guess at this new Emily-word when she introduces it to him, and he gets close but isn’t right on the nose. Fret-liberato is simply a creative term for relieved.
You’d like to hear it used in a sentence?
I can’t explain to you my fret-liberato when Mrs. Mansfield decided against giving us the pop quiz … I was so not prepared for it!
And finally, STUPI-BOGGLED. Chance finds himself feeling this way quite regularly. Stupi-boggled is a combination word - stupified combined with mind-boggled.
Kate was stupi-boggled to learn that her BFF was her Secret Santa - she’d never expected it!
Thanks for paying such close attention to today’s vocabulary lesson. I hope you’ll check out my re-release of this funny, crazy, sentimental story, Love Spell. You will laugh. You probably won’t cry, but there is remote chance of it. And you’ll be stupi-boggled by the lengths to which Chance goes to capture the heart of the boy of his dreams.
About the Author
Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children - a daughter in law school, another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son off to Syracuse. She writes LGBTQ romance when not editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing English papers. Her husband of twenty-four years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it is a sensitive subject.
Mia focuses her stories on emotional growth in turbulent relationships. As she has a great affinity for the tortured hero, there is, at minimum, one in each book. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of said tortured heroes (most of whom happened to strongly resemble lead vocalists of 1980s big-hair bands) and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to her wonderful publishers for providing alternate places to stash her stories.
Her books have won a Best YA Lesbian Rainbow Award, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly First Place Award for Cultural Diversity, a Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly First Place Award for YA Fiction, among others.
Mia is a Progressive, a little bit too obsessed by politics, and cheers for each and every victory in the name of human rights. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card.
Links
