As part
of her tour, Lara will be awarding a $50 Amazon gift card to one randomly
drawn commenter. If you’d like to be entered for a chance to win, leave a
comment below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit other tour stops and leave comments there, too.
Blurb:
Laila Levin enjoys a successful marriage and a thriving career as
an I.T. executive in Austin, Texas, but she can't quite shake her lifelong
sense of not truly belonging anywhere.
When her company announces a major layoff, Laila finds herself
caught between an unscrupulous CEO and her promiscuous boss. Then news of her
college roommate's suicide stirs up a dark secret involving three devious
friends from her past. One has betrayed a vow, another wants to rekindle their
romance, and the third is out for revenge.
Suddenly for Laila, it's 1969 again. She's only seventeen, and
she's left her sheltered home in Long Island for college in Connecticut. Amid
protests of the Vietnam War, she's tempted by the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll
that rule her generation. Laila gets swept up in a deceptive love triangle with
two older locals and initiated into their unethical hippie family. Too late she
realizes her search to belong has led to tragedy.
Laila must now juggle the demands of her perplexed husband and her
baby boomer past forcing her to make choices that endanger her survival and
challenge her conscience.
She learns that the lines between right and wrong are often
blurred, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.
Excerpt:
Austin, TX 2012
We both rise and hug. The cigarettes
and beer on his breath jet me back in time to Bridgeport. I want to scream at
him but suppress my anger. I remind myself it’s important I stay calm and
collected.
“Ben was right. You look awesome,”
he says.
He’s definitely changed a lot. The
cute blonde guy I remember has vanished. His face has the bloated look of an
alcoholic with his veiny red nose and blanched skin. In comparison, Ben looks
much better for the wear.
He gestures to the waitress who
drops off menus and a Budweiser for him. I order a glass of Chardonnay.
“So, tell me about yourself, Laila,” he says.
Should I commence with what a creep
I think he was for deserting Katie and me thousands of miles away from home? Or
how furious I am that he broke the pact and deflected Juanita Bonita’s
investigation from him to me?
No, best to let the past go and mine
as much information as I can about his conversations with Juanita. If it means
acting friendly, then so be it. I’m a lot older and wiser now and can play his
game. While I don’t like it one bit, I’ll do what it takes to survive.
I provide a brief synopsis about Ed,
the boys, and my I.T. career, ending with the recent visit from our new board
member. The part about Ivy is a test to see how he responds.
Lara
Reznik grew up on Long Island but escaped to New Mexico in 1970 in a Karmann
Ghia that she and her boyfriend jump-started cross-country. As an English major
at the University of New Mexico, Lara studied under esteemed authors Rudolfo
Anaya and the late Tony Hillerman. She also attended a summer program at the
prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop.
Ambidextrous
from birth, Lara preferred her right-brained creative side, but discovered she
could make a better living with her left-brain skills, so entered the I.T.
field in 1985.
Lara
published her first novel, The Girl From Long Guyland in November 2012. The
novel ranked #1 during its recent Amazon Kindle promotion and has over 115,000
Kindle downloads. In addition to her novels, Lara has written and optioned
three screenplays that have garnered semifinalist and finalist wins in the
Austin Heart of Film, Southwest Writers, TV Writer, Chesterfield and Writer's
Digest contests. Currently, Lara is working on a new novel based on her
screenplay, The M&M Boys.
Links
Special note for you, Readers: The Girl from Long Guyland is on sale tomorrow,
December 7, for 99 cents.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThe story sounds very intense. I can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteKit3247(at)aol(dot)com
Nice excerpt
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com
Thanks for the excerpt and the chance to win!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read!!
natasha_donohoo_8 at hotmail dot com