"Confessions of a Fat Girl" by Holly Dae

EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY

Confessions of a Fat Girl

by Holly Dae

Holly Dae's Confessions of a Fat Girl is currently on tour with Itching for Books. Also available: Cracks (FREE).

The tour stops here today for an excerpt and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.

For another book by this author, please check out my blog post on Confessions of a Teenage Rape Survivor.

Description

Love doesn't always heal. Sometimes, it reopens the wound and makes new ones.

Smart and ambitious Season Minett was homeschooled, got accepted into college at 16, graduated with a B.A. in English at 20, got a job at a prestigious magazine at 21, and isn’t afraid to go after what she wants. Twenty-two-year-old Season has it made and everyone knows it. Except Season herself.

People can gush over her all day long, but Season knows they’re just being nice. In reality, she’s accomplished nothing. She doesn’t work hard enough, can’t get her book published, and worst of all at 5’6, 180 pounds with a thirty-two inch waist, a forty-four inch hip, and arms too big for her body, she’s fat and ugly. She's such a disappointment that after her mother divorced Season's dad, she went to live with her new, younger boyfriend and left Season to mother the rest of her siblings. So Season is quite bewildered when the guy she sees every weekend at the bookstore shows serious interest in her. And she ends up liking him. A lot.

Season's not naive enough to think love will solve all her problems though. In fact, love seems to be making everything worse because her food obsession is growing more and more out of her control. But that's impossible. There's nothing wrong with counting calories and wanting to be thin. There's nothing wrong with trying to be as perfect as everyone thinks she is. A fat girl can't develop an eating disorder, let alone have one. Right?

Excerpt

Praise for the Book

"I loved the names that Ms. Dae came up with. I give her kudos for going ahead and writing a book that deals with a lot of issues young people and older people deal with. She deals with an eating disorder, drugs, sex, and a messed up family situation. So, bravo Ms. Dae I commend you on dealing with those issues!" ~ Tammy

"This was an interesting book. It centers around a young woman, Season, who is overweight and type A personality. [...] Season also has an undiagnosed eating disorder. [...] This book had a lot of twists and turns (and a few other unique names) and Victor ... can I just say that he rocks? Season tries to push him away and he won't be pushed away. I believe his love for her is what saves her, really. He makes her realize that what she's doing is wrong, and the impact it's having on her life - on everyone's lives. This wakes her up and she makes some great, positive decisions that make her life better." ~ Erin C.

About the Author

Stuck in the transition between graduating from college and starting a life called no job, Holly Dae spends most of her free time writing raw and edgy Young Adult and New Adult contemporary novels that deal with rape, drugs, sex, and general psychological ills. When she isn't doing that, she's writing fanfiction for fun and obsessively playing Mario Kart Eight and Pokemon Games.

Giveaway

Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Links

Add to Goodreads

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Kobo

Amazon US author page

Amazon UK author page

Barnes & Noble author page

Blog

Goodreads

Twitter @Holly_Dae_

Website

"Confessions of a Teenage Rape Survivor" by Holly Dae

EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY

Confessions of a Teenage Rape Survivor

by Holly Dae

This book blitz and giveaway for Confessions of a Teenage Rape Survivor is brought to you by Itching for Books. Please be sure to visit the other participating blogs as well.

Description

Before she was raped, almost sixteen-year-old Allison Sommer knew exactly what she wanted and was in total control of her life. Get through high school, go to college to appease her dad, somehow stay fit, lithe, and athletic through all the stress and become a professional cheerleader. Normal teenage stuff. Simple. At least it was simple before she was raped.

Now Allison's whole life is out of her control. She can't trust in her own choices, can't rationalize anything anymore, so she just goes through the motions, hoping that eventually she'll go back to normal, can stop pretending. That doesn't happen, especially when she's forced to reveal what happened to her family and closest friends.

On the MTV commercials and reality shows that emphasize that she has nothing to be ashamed of and guide viewers to some website like don't-be-a-victim.com and a support hotline, no one warns her that the aftermath is more difficult than the rape itself, that her family's efforts to be supportive make her feel more alone and confused.

And being raped has more devastating consequences than Allison ever imagined, forcing her to make one of the most difficult decisions she's ever had to make. It should be a no-brainer, everyone says, but being raped makes Allison question everything and everyone she thought she could trust.

Either way, Allison won't let anyone force her to do anything again, not like her rapists did, even if it makes her already difficult enough circumstance more difficult. Uncensored and unflinchingly honest, these are the confessions of a teenage rape survivor.

Excerpt

"Are those your brother's sleeping pills?" Gene asked.

Allison nodded. No use denying that.

Gene looked at her again, then at the pills, and then at Allison again. His eyes widened.

"Were you going to take all of those?" Gene asked in an incredulous tone. He didn't wait for an answer, already having assumed the worst. "How many have you taken already?"

Allison opened her mouth to reply, forgetting that one of the pills was sitting under her tongue. Gene saw it as she started to try to explain.

"Oh shit! Spit that out!"

Gene reached across the counter to squeeze her cheeks and force the pill out her mouth causing Allison to have two instantaneous reactions. First, she spit out the pill. Second, she punched Gene straight in the jaw, which caused Gene to let go of her and grab his face.

"What the—"

Allison gasped as she shook her hand out. She shouldn't have done that. She didn't mean to do that. Gene wasn't a rapist. Well, she hoped he wasn't. The guy who asked her for directions to distract her didn't look like a rapist either. Either way when Gene grabbed her so suddenly, she couldn't help it.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly.

"Are you insane? What is wrong with you?"

"I didn't mean to punch you. It was an accident. I swear."

Gene rolled his eyes, stilling rubbing his jaw. "Not the punch. I probably deserved that for scaring the hell out of you, grabbing you like that. I'm talking about those sleeping pills. That many of those things at once can kill you."

Allison blinked. He thought…

"I wasn't trying to commit suicide!"

"Could have fooled me," Gene said sliding the pills off the counter and into his hand. He threw them down the garbage disposer.

"But I wasn't," Allison said, heart racing in panic. If Gene thought she was trying to kill herself, he'd tell her brother, and her brother would tell their dad, and she'd never be left alone, and she'd have to tell the truth. Then they'd make a big deal out of it and want her to report it to the police, and the police would want a description and account of what happened, and then she'd never be able to forget. "I just wasn't thinking."

"The hell you weren't," Gene snapped as he snatched the bottle with the remaining pills off the counter and put them in his pocket.

"I was just so tired and the bottle said one pill was mild and good for four hours of sleep, so I decided to take enough to knock me out for a day," Allison tried to explain.

"Six pills would have knocked you out all right," Gene said as he began to dial a number into his phone.

"What are you doing?" she asked apprehensively.

"Calling your brother," Gene said and then cursed. "Damn it. I have his phone in my pocket. Do I have your dad's number in my phone?"

Allison lunged for the phone. In all likelihood, he probably didn't have her dad's number, but she didn't want to chance it.

"You can't call tell them," Allison said grabbing onto the phone.

Gene tried to pull it out her grasp as he said, "Sure. Not telling your brother and father that you're suicidal is a great idea."

"I'm not suicidal."

"Says the girl who was about to take six sleeping pills," Gene said getting the phone out of Allison's grip and holding it out of her reach.

Allison all but tackled him into the counter.

"I told you!" Allison screamed, exploding in anger. "I'm tired! I just wanted to go to sleep without the nightmares! You can't… You can't tell them," Allison finished, all her anger dissolving as a sob escaped her throat. She hadn't even noticed she started crying.

She stopped trying to get the phone then, falling onto the floor as her body shook with sobs of fear at what Gene would do and anger at herself. When did she get so weak?

Featured Review

By Teresa Kander

Easily my favorite book of this year so far! The emotions of the main character were so raw and believable, as were the reactions of all those around her - before they knew she had been raped and afterwards, as they all had their own opinions about the decisions she was making.

At times I was so wrapped up in the emotion of the story, it was more like reading a memoir than a novel. I cried for the main character more than once, and just wanted to reach out and hug her SO many times -while at the same time wanting to smack a few of the other characters for their treatment of her.

I would highly recommend this to teens and parents alike.

About the Author

Holly Dae is a recent college grad with a B.A. in English who, instead of putting on a suit to work at a desk 9-5 for five figures and a lifetime of misery and crushed dreams, decided to write YA novels about the taboos concerning contemporary issues like rape, abortion, drugs, teen pregnancy, and sometimes sex with the hopes that someone will pat her on the back and say she touched their life.

Giveaway

Enter the blitz-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Links

Add to Goodreads

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Kobo

Amazon US author page

Amazon UK author page

Barnes & Noble author page

Blog

Goodreads

Twitter @Holly_Dae_

Website