I recently had the opportunity to read this fabulous book so I'm excited to be able to participate in the release day launch hosted by Jen Halligan PR!
My review.
My review.
ASPEN
by Rebekah Crane
One quiet night in Boulder, Colorado, Aspen Yellow-Sunrise
Taylor made a mistake.
In the next instant, her life changed forever.
Aspen doesn't want to remember the devastating car accident that
killed Katelyn Ryan, a sleek-haired popular soccer player. But forgetting is
hard-- because Katelyn may have died -- but she didn't leave. Her ghost is
following Aspen around, and heading into senior year, it's kind of a problem.
Especially when Katelyn's gorgeous former boyfriend Ben appears to be the only
person at school with a clue as to how Aspen feels.
Popularity, college, Homecoming Court, hot guys - none of these
things ever mattered to Aspen. She's been busy trying to rein in her giant mass
of blonde curls, keep her stoner mother Ninny away from Toaster, her mom's
awful bongo drumming boyfriend, and prevent her best friends Kim and Cass from
killing - or kissing - one another. But with Ben sitting next to her in Physics
looking all too gorgeous, Katelyn's spirit dogging her steps, and her obsessive
snow-globe collecting therapist begging her to remember all the things she
wants to forget, Aspen is thrust into a vivid, challenging world she can't
control … and doesn't want to.
A darkly funny, emotionally
gripping story of opening up, letting go, and moving on, ASPEN is about the
best-worst accident of your life ... and what comes next.
Rebekah
Crane fell in love with YA literature while studying Secondary English
Education at Ohio University. After having two kids, living in six different
cities, and finally settling down in the foothills of her beloved Rocky
Mountains, her first novel, PLAYING NICE, was published. ASPEN, her second YA
novel, set in Boulder, CO, is due to release in summer 2014 from In This
Together Media. She now spends her day carpooling kids or tucked behind a
laptop at 7,500 ft high in the Rockies, where the altitude only enhances the
experience.
EXCERPT
I swallow hard, trying to wet my dry mouth as someone takes the seat next to me. The bell needs to ring now to save me from further conversation. I scoot my chair over, the room and all its occupants slowly closing in on me—and then my neighbor’s head of messy black hair catches my eye. My stomach drops to the floor.
"Why
are you sitting next to me?" I snap.
It’s Ben Tyler. Katelyn’s Ben. His eyebrows
are pulled high on his forehead, his eyes wide.
"Taylor and Tyler. I guess Mr. Salmon did the
seating chart by last name." Ben says it like I'm interrogating him and
he's nervous he might give me the wrong answer.
"Oh."
Tingles flood my hands and I shake them out at my side. All around the room,
people are looking at me. My cheeks heat with embarrassment. I’d get up and ask
Mr. Salmon to change my seat, but then I’d get even more attention. People
would start to wonder why I don’t want to sit next to Ben Tyler. Hotty Ben. The
grieving, perfect boyfriend of the dead Katelyn Ryan. Me getting up is how
rumors start. Suzy tells Olivia who tells Sophia who tells Claire that I didn’t
want to sit next to Ben, and by the end of the week, everyone is talking about
it.
I
slink down in my seat, wishing I could disappear into the floor. “I hate
eyes," I whisper to myself.
“Don’t
sweat it. I get that a lot, too,” Ben whispers out of the corner of his mouth. Only
one side of his face curls into a smile, like he can’t force himself to pull
the other cheek any higher. I feel the same way most days.
Then
it hits me. People aren’t staring at me; they’re staring at us.
“I’m
sorry.” I force a two-cheek smile. “I’m an ass.”
Ben
huffs out a laugh. A scar runs through his right eyebrow, another across his
left cheek. But even with the imperfections on his face, he looks handsome. I
count all the colors in his eyes. Yellow, green, brown, flecks of blue.
"Aspen,"
Ben says. "You don't need to apologize to me."
I
saw him at the hospital that night. He was sitting in a chair, his head in his
hands, while Mr. and Mrs. Ryan talked to a doctor in purple scrubs with a
colorful sleeve tattoo down her right arm. The scrubs looked more like a
costume than a uniform. Mrs. Ryan had her hand on Ben's shoulder. Even with a
face full of tears, he was beautiful.
At
one point, he looked at me from across the emergency room. I was sitting in a
bed, waiting for Ninny. My head was bandaged, and my leg was in a splint. I was
even wearing one of those terrible gowns that open in the back so everyone can
see your ass. As Ben stared at me, I kept seeing him and Katelyn in the halls.
The whole school knew when they started dating sophomore year, because all of a
sudden Katelyn went from the girl who played soccer really well to the girl who
held Ben Tyler’s hand in the hallway.
We
stared at each other for so long that eventually it got awkward. I asked the
nurse to pull the curtain closed.
Ben
doesn't say anything else to me during class. Mr. Salmon goes over the syllabus
for the year and then says he’s retiring in the spring and plans to be sick a
lot.
"Nothing's new in physics anyway," Mr.
Salmon says. "Gravity is still gravity." He sits down behind his
desk, takes a swig of his coffee, and tells us to "read or something."
Maybe I won't fail after all.
When the class ends,
Ben walks out of the room without another look in my direction.
GIVEAWAYS
Release Day Launch Giveaway
One winner will receive a signed copy of ASPEN and $25 Amazon gift card (US/CA
only).
***Any
contestant that uses dummy or contest only accounts to enter will be
disqualified.***
Giveaway for Amazon Reviewers!
Purchase
and review ASPEN on Amazon by June 22, 2014
to enter to win 2 tie-dye scarves, 1 t-shirt from Moe's Broadway Bagel in
Boulder, Grateful Dead stickers, a signed copy of PLAYING NICE and a signed
annotated copy ASPEN, plus $25 Amazon gift card.
To enter to win this epic giveaway, you must 1) purchase a copy of ASPEN,
2) read it, 3) review it on Amazon, and 4) submit your entry by filling out this
form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1S1jgnrB0YBxpiJwtAcn6acqUL8-kPrZ7623XiElv-0c/viewform
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