Monday, March 13, 2017

Incense and Peppermints Blog Blitz





Good Monday morning, everyone! I have a special treat for you today. A gorgeous cover and intense coming-of-age tale set against the turbulence of the 1960s. Check it out:



Incense and Peppermints
Cathrina Constantine
Publication date: March 10th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Peace demonstrations, sit-ins, and burning the U.S. flag following the escalation of the Vietnam War are leading to a catalyst known to the world as the Sixties, and a musical revolution, flower power, hippies, marijuana, and drugs are carrying the generations—young and old—into a new decade. All the while sixteen-year-old Mary Monroe is caught between being an innocent good girl and an autumn of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

When her brother offers a solution to her dilemma in the form of a little pill, Mary ignores the rumba in her brain and takes a walk on the wild side. Plunged into popularity and a life she’s only imagined, she meets Michael Covington, the hot newcomer, and she’s instantly drawn in by his less than flawless exterior and bad boy sex appeal. Caught up in the danger and excitement as they drift from party to party, into underground fight clubs, and through a series of drug and alcohol fueled adventures, Mary follows her new crush into a world where young girls are never truly safe from the predators lurking in the shadows and young men are hiding from the harsh reality of war.

Feeling buzzed and as if her life is spinning out of control, Mary is assaulted by an unknown man at a party, and she’s left questioning if the enigmatic Michael is truly her hero or if he is the face behind the terrible attack. With every piece of information Mary learns about Michael, her doubts grow deeper, but with every minute she spends in his presence, so does her love.

With the war and her fear threatening to separate Mary and Michael forever, only the death of a friend, a crushing confession, and her own sensibilities can carry her over the threshold between adolescence and adulthood.


EXCERPT:
September 1969

The corners of my bedroom had dulled to a muddy gray by the time my brother leaned on, or rather wobbled against, my door. His glassy eyes floated in their sockets. Stoned, again.

“Whatcha doing, Sis?” Stevie, my older brother slurred.

My gaze slipped over his pasty chest, sprinkled with wiry hair, and past his jockeys to his stick-like legs. Did he realize he was only wearing saggy underwear? Normally, I’d say gross and mock him, but only because he normally treated me like a speck of toe scum.

“Nothing much.” I slipped my diary into my sock drawer, away from prying eyes. Our parents weren’t home, and our little sister was asleep in her crib on the other side of my room.

“You need to grow up,” he said. “Here, it’s party time.” Pinched between his thumb and finger, he revealed an ordinary aspirin as if he’d procured the magic solution.

“Uh… I don’t have a headache.”

“Hey, turd. It’s not an aspirin. Stop the nerd act and get with the program. Grow up.”

Our sibling behavior toppled into the belittling and ridiculing stage. Though I figured it was his way of helping me. Yet, staring at the pill, I was interested, but a hootenanny of cymbals clashed inside my head and my sensible side screamed.

You’ll puke! I hate puking. Wasn’t it only last week Stevie was tripping and heaving guts like a water hose?

Shaking my head, I declined his kind and strange offer and tried using simple logic to get rid of him. “Not tonight. Mom and Dad will be home any minute. Go to bed. It’s late.”

“They’ll be so-o plastered. I can’t stand them like that.” Dejected, his shoulders slouched, and his body seemed to deflate. Until he tossed the pill, saying, “Catch.”







Author Bio:
Cathrina Constantine is the Best Selling author of Don’t Forget To Breathe. Her book won Readers’ Favorite International Book Award for 2015 and The Literary Classics Seal of Approval and Literary Classics Gold Award. Her Paranormal Fantasy, Wickedly They Come has been awarded the 5 Star Seal from Reader’s Favorite. Tallas from her dystopian series received Literary Classics Silver Award and Literary Classics Seal of Approval.
Cathrina resides in Western New York with her husband, five children, two Labrador Retrievers and her cat, Bones. Author @chbbpublishing. Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly. When not attached to her computer, she likes to take long walks in the woods with her dogs, drink way too much coffee, and is an avid movie watcher. She loves music and doesn’t need a dance floor to shake a leg.



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What were you like as a teen? Would you take the pill or refuse? Anyone else think of the movie poster for Almost Famous when they saw the Incense and Peppermints cover?

16 comments:

  1. I really love the title of this. It's makes you want to read the book. Congrats to Cathrina!

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  2. See this is one theme that always invades my nightmares! I bet I would LOVE to read this book :)

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  3. A big congrats to Cathrina on her book.

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  4. This is my era! So many memories though in East Tennessee the movement was a bit more subdued than other parts of the country. Sounds like a great read that would take me back to my youth (or do I want to go back?).

    All the best to Cathrina!

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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  5. Sounds like a fun and interesting read. It always boggles my mind how summaries and excerpts of books read so well, making it feel like books are easy to write, yet, so much work and thought goes into them! Congrats, Cathrina for creating an exciting to read end-product! :-)

    Not sure what I would have done as a teen, since I was quite rebellious, but I do remember backpacking with a group of youngsters when I was 24 and being the only one not to try "magic mushrooms" in Indonesia. The next day, I made up a story of how everyone behaved under the influence of the mushrooms and nobody could remember whether that story actually happened or not, so they had to believe me. :-)

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  6. I recently got this book and I am looking forward to reading it. Awesome giveaway too! :) Congrats to Cathrina
    ~Jess

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  7. Congratulations, Cathrina! I remember seeing the cover reveal for this book on someone's blog. It looked intriguing then and still does!

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  8. I'm so excited. Can't wait to read this one!!!

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  9. One little magic pill is all it takes sometimes, isn't it? Sounds like a great read!

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  10. I'm late to my own party!!!! Thank you Tamara for having me on your blog!!!! It looks fantastic!!! :)

    And thanks to everyone!!!

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I will do everything in my power to visit commenter's blogs unless I've been abducted by aliens or my children get sick. (If my children get abducted by aliens, I will be very busy, of course, catching up on my sleep.)