Welcome to my stop on the excerpt tour for In Between Days by Anne Jamison. This tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Here on my stop, I have an exclusive excerpt for y'all as well as the tour-wide giveaway, which is for a chance to win a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Pretty cool, right? Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for more exclusive excerpts and opportunities to enter the giveaway. Have fun and enjoy!
In Between Days
Author: Anne Jamison
Publication: September 11, 2019
Length: 330 pages
Genre(s): Coming of Age, Young Adult
Chicago suburbs, 1985.
The high school. The mall. The blood-stained Mercedes. Misogyny. Homophobia.
Class warfare. Cocaine.
(And the first semester
isn’t even over yet.)
The Jocks with their
pastel Izods. The Barbies. The loser Burnouts.
High school in the
1980's had rules. Barbies and Jocks can mix. Barbie cheerleaders steer clear of
the losers. Punks want to burn it all down.
Samantha Ward doesn't
love the rules, but she plays to win. So when a snarky Burnout goes after her
in a face-off, of course, she fights back. Of course, she fights mean. She may
not get his sex joke, but she knows he made one. About her. In front of the
entire cafeteria. And what's worse, she feels a tingle when she looks at
bad-boy Jason.
How could she know her
mean girl put-down would launch a war? Or that the school she knows hides a
darker world she never even dreamed of?
In Between Days is a
pitch-perfect story of first love, friendship, and enemies; of loyalty,
betrayal, and the power of secrets. This darkly funny, suspenseful tale is
perfect for fans of The Outsiders and The Breakfast Club.
"GRIPPING AND
UNPUTDOWNABLE." --Christina Lauren, international bestselling authors of
Dating You/Hating You “THIS WAS a bittersweet tumble into eighties high school
nostalgia, with all the angst, sexual tension and emotional confusion involved
with first love, and so well done it was a non-stop read to the end.… (Oh, and
one of the best first kisses I have EVER read...),” says one reviewer
Author's Note:
This is a historical novel that contains period language
that is, and was then, and should be, offensive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPTS (Exclusive Excerpt):
Jason had his algebra book open to appease the detention
supervisor, but his mind wasn’t on algebra. It wasn’t even on lunch—which had
been all kinds of entertaining—or the hallway, which had been something, he
wasn’t sure what. Jason’s mind was on history class. More specifically, on what
bug specifically had crawled up Mr. Diangelo’s ass.
No one thought it was Jason's knife. Even JAP Barbie, the
friend of that Samantha girl who’d been turning up like a bad penny all day,
even she swore Jason hadn’t been anywhere near the desk when the knife had
shown up.
Stagnita, of course, had been pleased as hell to think it
was Jason’s knife from the second he got Diangelo’s panicked call. It had been
so good for him, he’d probably be having wet dreams on it for weeks. But even
Stagnita knew it was bullshit now, or Jason would have been suspended or
expelled instead of just in detention which was already like his second home.
Of course, the one person who knew for sure it wasn't
Jason's knife was Diangelo, who “found” it and threatened to call the teachers’
union if Jason was not removed from his class.
Diangelo had a high, nasally voice when he got nervous and a
thin mustache that made him look like some kind of old movie villain. The rest
of him, though, looked more like the hero. Smooth. Dark eyes. A haircut that
said how much it cared. Girls begged to be in his classes and hung on his every
word like they would like to be hanging on his lips and he looked them in the
eyes like he would like that too.
Jason despised John Diangelo.
Jason himself had certain standards. No middle-schoolers. No
freshmen for anything but kissing. No one desperate for him—because Jason
wasn’t desperate for any of them and desperation seemed like it really needed
to go both ways to be any fun at all.
Jason believed Diangelo did not share this code. He was
pretty sure Mr. Diangelo thought a dose of desperation wrapped up in the body
of a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girl was just what the doctor ordered. Jason
had no evidence, only warning flags that went off in his brain that said “bad
news.”
That sign had been flashing even before two weeks earlier when Jason walked in on the teacher in the bowling alley bathroom nervously
shaking hands with Artie Fisher. Jason didn’t hear much, but it clearly wasn’t
just a friendly urinal-side chat.
Artie Fisher was not a nice guy. He was not a chatty guy.
Artie was known as someone who could get his hands on and in all kinds of
things and people for different effects and for the right price. He wasn’t big
time. He was just . . . flexible. So while hanging out in the bowling alley
bathroom with Artie Fisher did not only mean one thing, the whole range of
things it could mean were not things a high school teacher wanted made public.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Anne Jamison is
the author of three critical books, including Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking
Over the World. She lives in Salt Lake City with her dogs, her son, and an
avant-garde poet. She is an English professor, but not the kind that corrects
your grammar (unless she is actively grading your paper). In Between Days is
her first novel.
Buy In Between
Days:
Anne Jamison will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteOh my pleasure. Thanks for dropping by!
DeleteGreat excerpt
ReplyDeletethank you :)
DeleteWhich of your characters was hardest to write for?
ReplyDeletethey all came pretty easily but Samantha was definitely the hardest at first as I wanted her *not* to be immediately likeable or relatable but not a villain (villains are easy).
DeleteGood morning! Thanks so much for hosting.
ReplyDeleteInteresting fact: My teen daughter helped a lot with this book and designed the cover. She basically told me the kind of story that she wanted, and I wrote it. I read it to her and her friends as I went along, and it led to some interesting conversations!
ReplyDeleteI've really enjoyed following the tour for In Between Days and I'm looking forward to reading it. Thanks for sharing all of the great posts along the way :)
ReplyDeleteaw, you've been such a great reader! If you want, you can like me on FB or sign up to my newsletter on my website. I'll be doing another giveaway soon. I give away books, music, movies, other 80s-related stuff as well as gift cards.
DeleteGosh I love all this chatter! Thanks Anne for coming by and for answering everyone's questions!
Delete