You guys are in for such a treat! Today I’m part of the Perfect Clouds Blog Tour featuring incredible authors Rajdeep “Raj” Paulus and Laura Anderson Kurk. I’m one of twenty-one blogs hosting these fab ladies, so at the bottom of the post, check out the other stops along the way!
Be sure to read to the end to enter the giveaway and get the next part of the secret code. If you don’t have the other parts of the code, be sure to visit the other sites (listed below)!
PERFECT CLOUDS BLOG TOUR
Swimming Through Clouds by Rajdeep Paulus
Synopsis:
I live in the in between. Between what if and what is. It’s how I manage. It’s the only way I know. Everyone has their way. This is mine.
When high school, cell phone disruption forces a classroom ban, the words on a Post-it note spark asticky romance between two unlikely friends. Transfer student Talia Vanderbilt has one goal at her new school: to blend in with the walls. Lagan Desai, basketball captain and mathlete, would do just about anything to befriend the new girl. One Post-it note at a time, Lagan persuades Talia to peel back her heart, revealingher treasure chest of pain—an absent mother, a bedridden brother, and an abusive father.
In a world where hurt is inevitable, the two teens search for a safe place to weather the storms of life.
Together.
Fun Facts about Swimming Through Clouds:
Rajdeep here: On Prom…
For the record, I do not shop at Forever 21. Well, not unless I’m shopping for my girls. But I often act like I’m forevah 19. In Canada, that’s the age to arrive at. And I regretfully never attended my own prom, but if I had, I would have chosen either a purple or red dress.
My hubs did take me to a Valentine’s Day Ball on Catalina Island years later, and the band played Beatles’ music all night. Really. After a slow dance to “Yesterday,” Sun and I escaped the rather hard-to-dance-to playlist to star gaze.
And nowadays, any chance I get to slow dance with my Sunshine, I just have to give him a look that prompts him to get up and ask, “Can I have this dance?” My response, “Yes to the yes!” 🙂
BIO:
Rajdeep decided to be a writer during her junior year in high school after her English teacher gave her an “F” but told her she had potential. She studied English Literature at Northwestern University, and she writes masala-marinated, Young Adult Fiction, blogging weekly at InSearchofWaterfalls dot com.
Come Hang out with Rajdeep Paulus on:
And our second fab author, Laura Anderson Kurk!!! Keep reading — the prizes and giveaway information is next!
PERFECT GLASS by Laura Anderson Kurk
Behind the Scenes
Female Friendships – Meg and Tennyson
When I was in the fourth grade, I started having long phone conversations with a girl named Brooke Garner. We could talk for hours and never get bored. We could have sleepovers and laugh until the sun came up. We held onto each other through some difficult times, like the divorce of her parents, her move to a new town, and health crises in my family.
This was the first relationship, outside of my family, in which I felt truly and deeply loved and appreciated. I knew Brooke had my best interests at heart. Always. And it taught me early in life to rely on other girls and women as friends to help me carry burdens and celebrate joys.
Later, there were best friends like Mara Schasteen, Raquel Hutchens, Laura Bishop, Shelly Brandon, Heidi Garner, and Laura Smith. And always these friendships made me, a reserved wallflower, comfortable enough to open up and be myself.
I gave Meg a friend in Tennyson, but their friendship is a little different from the ones I’ve always known. First of all, these girls are really complete opposites. Meg is sensitive, compassionate, and introverted. Tennyson is extroverted, blunt, and bossy.
What Meg finds is that Tennyson is incredibly protective and has Meg’s back in all situations. While she could probably use a better filter, she really does look for ways to be there for Meg, and she makes sure no one else takes advantage of her new friend.
Appreciate differences and find ways to stick by each other through life’s ups and downs.
“The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.” Proverbs 27:9 (NLT)
Book Blurb:
Things get messy when Meg Kavanagh gets involved—first with Jo Russell, the eccentric old artist, and then with Quinn O’Neill, the intriguing loner who can’t hide how he feels about Meg. Her senior year isn’t turning out like she planned it, but sometimes the best parts of life happen in the in-between moments. And Henry will be home soon, right?
He commits to one year in an orphanage that needs him more than he ever dreamed. Thousands of miles from Meg and the new punk who has fallen for her, and absent from the ranch that’s in his blood, Henry Whitmire finds out what it means to trust. When you’re so far from home, it’s terrifying to realize you’re not who you thought. But the perfect glass of calamity makes the best mirror.
An identity crisis, long distance love, new temptation, and growing pains teach Henry and Meg how to hang onto each other and to what really matters.
From YA author Laura Anderson Kurk comes the sequel to Glass Girl, a lyrical, multi-generational story about love that teaches, loss that haunts empty rooms, and reunions that feel like redemption.Author Bio:
Laura Anderson Kurk writes unconventional and bittersweet contemporary YA. Her debut novel, Glass Girl and its sequel, Perfect Glass, are available now from Playlist Young Adult Fiction. Laura lives in Texas with her husband and two children.
Buy the Book Links:
Author Social Media Links:
Every weekday until Thursday, June 27, there will be a blog stop on the Perfect Clouds Virtual Book Tour. You should follow the schedule below and hit every stop to increase your chances to win some amazing prizes — including t-shirts with book covers and quotes, iPhone cases with book covers, mugs, stickers, posters, hardcover copies of some classic books (Henry’s, Meg’s, Talia’s, and Lagan’s favorites), and lots of other stuff!
Here’s the cool part–Rajdeep and Laura have worked hard to create puzzle reveals for both books. At each stop on the tour, you will be given another clue to help you figure out something Lagan wants to say to Talia, and something Henry wants to say to Meg. For Perfect Glass you’ll see “Today’s Secret Letter” clues, and for Swimming Through Clouds, you’ll see pieces of a Post-It note that will come together on the last day of the tour.
Enter to win!!!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
PERFECT CLOUDS Tour Stops:
Saturday, June 1 – Laura Anderson Kurk
Sunday, June 2 – Rajdeep Paulus
Monday, June 3 – Melanie Brasher
Tuesday, June 4 – Tessa Emily Hall
Wednesday, June 5 – Melissa Tagg
Thursday, June 6 – ReganStar McBeigh
Friday, June 7 – April Hamrick
Monday, June 10 – Diana Garner
Tuesday, June11 – Stephanie Karfelt
Wednesday, June 12 – Bethany Baldwin
Thursday, June 13 – Kim Vandel
Friday, June 14 – Sarah Tipton
Monday, June 17 – Jennifer Watrous
Tuesday, June 18 – Marni Jarman
Wednesday, June 19 – Peggy Warren
Thursday, June 20 – Bethany Jett ⬅YOU ARE HERE!
Friday, June 21 – Cynthia Toney
Monday, June 24 – Summer Andrews
Tuesday, June 25 – Arlette Geuverink
Wednesday, June 26 – Jennifer Murgia
Thursday, June 27 – JoJo Sutis
Thanks for hosting today, Bethany! Hope you’re having a blast this week!
Yeah for Blog Swap!! So excited to share you with the teens in my life! And thanks so much for being a part of Perfect Clouds! hugs, raj
My first best friends were Jamie and Tine. They both moved into my neighborhood and school when I was in 5th grade and we were an instant trio. We walked to and from school, played endless hours of Monopoly, raised bunny rabbits and listened to the Beatles over and over and over again. There is something priceless about that first true friendship, when you open up a part of yourself to someone outside of your family. As I maneuver through life, I find there is something priceless about each true friendship. True friends help me be more myself than I knew I could be.
That’s it exactly. <3