Title: Life, Love
& Lemons
Author: Magan
Vernon
Publisher: Beautifully
Broken Books
Publication Date: August
20, 2013
Genre: YA,
Contemporary
Hosted by: Xpresso
Book Tours
SUMMARY
When life hands you lemons, sometimes you have
to say screw the lemons and bail.
Seventeen-year-old Bentley Evans had it all. Then her Dad got laid off.
Now she has to move across town to a small apartment and leave her life of luxury for public school and a job at the local burger place. Just when her world seems like it's crumbling she finds solace in the unlikely punk boy next door, Kai Stone. But as their relationship blossoms, a jealous ex-girlfriend and a secret to tell that threatens to bring disaster back into Bentley’s life.
Seventeen-year-old Bentley Evans had it all. Then her Dad got laid off.
Now she has to move across town to a small apartment and leave her life of luxury for public school and a job at the local burger place. Just when her world seems like it's crumbling she finds solace in the unlikely punk boy next door, Kai Stone. But as their relationship blossoms, a jealous ex-girlfriend and a secret to tell that threatens to bring disaster back into Bentley’s life.
EXCERPT
From Monday to Friday it was like everything
had changed. Instead of walking through the halls alone with my head down, Kai
was always by my side. This, of course, led to some very interesting stares and
nicknames from people. I think my favorites were Bonnie and Hyde or Sid and
Nancy Drew. Anything people could think of to come up with a couple name for
the punk kid and the preppy girl. There were others, but the East High kids
could get pretty raunchy when they came up with some of these nicknames.
“Do you still want to go watch Grant and
Brody’s band play on Saturday?”
It was that lull after I had fourth period
gym class and before lunch. I was leaning against my locker, and Kai pressed
his palm against the other locker and faced me.
I still wasn’t sure what to think of Grant
and Brody. They were nice and all, but I always felt like they were gawking at
me like I was some sort of a zoo exhibit.
“I don’t know, maybe.”
The
truth was that I already asked my parents about the concert. Mom just rolled
her eyes and couldn’t believe that her daughter wanted to go to some crummy
warehouse to sweat with a bunch of teenagers, but Dad was a little more
interested. Just by asking about the concert hosted a whole slew of questions
about the bands and who I was going with. I especially got nervous when he
started asking questions about Kai.
“What do you mean maybe?” He asked as he ran
his tongue over his lip ring. We still hadn’t kissed. I was pretty adamant
about the whole not kissing until he was my boyfriend thing. But I couldn’t
deny how much I thought about his lip ring.
“I mean, maybe I’m busy or something." I
twirled a strand of hair around my fingertip.
“What? Are you going out with one of your
other boyfriends or something that night?" He leaned in closer. A couple
of jocks walked by and yelled some disgusting comment, but I pretended like I
didn’t hear them.
“I don’t have any boyfriends at all, so I
really wouldn’t be going out with any of them, now would I?" I batted my
eyelashes.
“Why don’t you be my girlfriend then?” He
traced his free hand down my arm, full-on putting on the charm.
“Maybe," I answered very quickly, almost
too quickly, since he blinked really hard.
“What do you mean, maybe?” He tilted his head
to the side and he reached down to grab my hand.
“Ew, get a room." A very tall girl with
fiery red hair and cat’s eye glasses yelled and then walked over to us.
“Teegan, if you think that hand holding is
bad, then you really need to get out more,” Kai quipped, quickly looking from
me to Teegan.
“Oh, I saw plenty of that with you and
Brynne. Remember I’m her band mate,” Teegan snarled and walked closer. “But
when it’s with little Miss Sandra Dee, it’s kind of disgusting.” She giggled
and headed over to a group of girls a few lockers away. Once I caught sight of
the group I immediately saw Brynne’s big green eyes glaring in my direction.
“Do you really want to have to keep dealing
with that every day? The weird vampire girls and jocks talking about us?
Because that’s what you’re going to get,” I said, looking up at him. My cheeks
were still hot after Teegan’s comment and I hoped I didn’t look too
embarrassed.
He laced our fingers together. “I wouldn’t be
still standing here if I didn’t want to be with you." He looked from our
hands and back down to me. “Now what do you say, will you be my girlfriend?”
“Maybe." I smiled again.
He started to roll his eyes when I got up on
my tippy toes placing my hands on the back of his neck. I slowly pulled him
closer as our lips met for the first time. I couldn’t believe how warm and
rough his lips were in contrast to the cold and smoothness of his lip ring. Nor
could I believe all the people that were cheering as he pulled me closer to
fully envelope himself in the kiss. I didn’t want it to end and swear I
literally almost melted in his arms when I felt his tongue on my bottom lip.
A large hand thrusted between us, knocking
our bodies apart. I got off of my tippy toes and quickly let go of Kai as I
turned to see my gym teacher, Mr. Brown, with his large and quite furry hand
placed firmly in the middle of me and Kai. He faced Kai with his spit-stained
mustache.
“Handshake, Mr. Stone." He took Kai’s
hand from mind and shook it senseless. “Handshake!”
PURCHASE LINKS
ABOUT the AUTHOR
Magan Vernon is a Young Adult and New
Adult writer who lives with her family in the
insurance capital of the world. She is in a very
serious, fake relationship with Adam Lambert and constantly
asks her husband to wear guyliner. He still refuses. She also
believes her husband is secretly an alien, disguised as a
southern gentleman.
No comments:
Post a Comment