DEAR
CASSIE official Blurb:
What
if the last place you should fall in love is the first place that you do?
You’d think getting sent to Turning Pines Wilderness Camp
for a month-long rehabilitation “retreat” and being forced to re-live it in
this journal would be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.
You’d be wrong.
There’s the reason I was sent to Turning Pines in the first
place: I got arrested. On prom night. With my two best friends, who I haven’t talked
to since and probably never will again. And then there’s the real reason I was sent here. The thing I
can’t talk about with the guy I can’t even think about.
What
if the moment you’ve closed yourself off is the moment you start to break open?
But there’s this guy here. Ben. And the more I swear he
won’t—he can’t—the deeper under my
skin he’s getting. After the thing that happened, I promised I’d never fall for
another boy’s lies.
DEAR
CASSIE excerpt:
We kept walking on the
lake trail, the bullfrogs croaking. There was also a humming in my ears from
the nicotine.
It could only be from the nicotine. It had
nothing to do with being outside, at night, alone with Ben. It had nothing to
do with Ben coming to the cabin and taking me instead of Nez and it definitely
had nothing to do with the stars above us shining like they were the sky’s
tiara.
I stopped on the trail
and looked up, taking them in, when all of a sudden bright colored lights
exploded in the sky—fireworks, one after another, on top of each other, huge
kaleidoscopes of light, like sparkling rainbow spiders.
“How did you know?” I
asked, my voice going softer, like if I talked too loudly they would stop. It
was so beautiful, after weeks of so much ugly.
Ben turned to look at
me, the colored lights in the sky turning his skin pink, blue, green. “I’m
magic.” He shrugged.
I geared up to tell him
to fuck off, because that was some corny-ass shit, but then I realized that he
really kind of was. In that moment he was able to actually make me forget being
me.
“I would try to kiss you,” he said, “but I’m
afraid you’d kick me in the balls.”
“I probably would.” I
laughed, the sky filling with noisy color like paint launching from a giant
popcorn popper. “But like I said, it wouldn’t be about you.”
“I guess I’ll have to
figure out how to make it about me,” he said, taking off his boots and socks
and standing. “Come on.”
“There is no way I am
getting near that water again,” I said.
“I’ll make sure nothing
happens to you,” he said, holding his hand out to help me up.
I
looked at his palm, open, waiting, just wanting to hold mine. For once, I
didn’t think about anything except that there was a cute, sweet, smart-ass boy
standing in front of me with his hand out.
I pulled off my boots
and socks and took it.
We stood at the
lakeshore, our hands still clasped, the water licking our feet, fireworks
decorating the sky.
I turned to him. He was
looking up, his mouth open in wonder like he was trying to swallow the moment.
It was definitely one
worth keeping.
In addition to the DEAR CASSIE cover reveal, Lisa
is hosting an EPIC CONTEST to celebrate DEAR CASSIE’ s cover
reveal. Lisa wants you guys to share
diary entries of your favorite fictional characters with her. That’s right,
choose ANY character from books, TV, movies, a cereal box and write a 500-750
length diary entry from their point of view.
We will choose the top 5 and then let the masses vote on
their favorite. The favorite will be published in the final version of DEAR
CASSIE. You read that right, published with the author’s name! The
additional four will win $20 book buying gift cards.
So get diary-ing! Send you entries to prettyamystories@yahoo.com by
January 1st!
Voting for the top 5 will begin January 7th, with the
winner being announced January 14th!
DEAR
CASSIE pre-buy links:
The Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Dear-Cassie-Lisa-Burstein/9781620612545
PRETTY
AMY Links:
The Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Pretty-Amy-Lisa-Burstein/9781620611197
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pretty-amy-lisa-burstein/1108930786
Additional links to Lisa’s pages:
Website: http://www.lisaburstein.com
Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Fiction from the Inland
Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University. She lives
in Portland, OR, with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two
cats. Dear Cassie is her second novel.
Very nice cover and really enjoyed the excerpt. Sassy girl :-) Love it!
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