I am thrilled to be able to host these lovely ladies and am always excited when I get to give a boost to talented writers with amazing stories. Perfect Glass is on my TBR list for sure! But having already read Raj's debut I thought I'd preface this post with my personal recommendation. :)
This is not your typical light, summer peruse but Swimming Through Clouds is a spell-binding and somewhat terrifying story about a young girl tiptoeing around her father's abuse, trapped in a world where small mistakes have devastating consequences. Though an intense read, Paulus weaves a beautiful and charming tale about kindness and love covering even our deepest scars.This heart-rending YA novel for all, will suck you in, bond you irrevocably with the incredibly resilient Talia and the boy, Lagan, a Christ-like hero, whose patient friendship coaxes her out of her misery and into a world of hope with something as simple as post-it notes. A wonderful reminder that even the smallest pebble of grace can create a ripple strong enough to change someone's life. Even save it.
Don't miss out!
Throughout the tour, you’ve learned a lot about Rajdeep
Paulus and her debut novel, Swimming
Through Clouds, and Laura Anderson Kurk, and her new novel, Perfect Glass.
Let’s get started with Laura Anderson
Kurk’s “Behind the Scenes” for today---
Tennyson’s Closet
I love friends who invite me into
their closets and tell me to wear whatever I want. Especially the ones who walk
away while I linger and shop, giving me a gift with their detached acceptance
and privacy.
In college, borrowing friends’
clothes was equal parts delirium and fear. My mother frowned on the age-old
girl habit of loaning and borrowing clothes. It was kind of a sticking point at
our house.
So when a friend would ask to
borrow a specific shirt or dress, I would have a psychic war going on upstairs,
finally handing over the item, but laying on the guilt. “Do NOT get anything on
it!”
And when I worked up the nerve to
ask a friend if I could borrow something, I would pick, say, a shirt, quickly
and then spend the next twenty-four hours obsessing about protecting it.
This could be why, in Perfect Glass, Tennyson became a
character who shares her funky clothes freely. Her mother is a bit of an
out-of-control shopper, so Tennyson’s closet is stuffed with formal dresses,
quirky outfits, and rack after rack of shoes. And she WANTS Meg to enter her
magical world and spend hours finding perfect dresses. Nothing gives Tennyson
more joy, to be honest.
For Meg, introverted and private,
with a thirty-foot buffer of personal space, this is new territory. I like how
this sharing between two friends, represents their friendship at-large.
Tennyson is an open closet herself—as giving with her clothes as she is with
her advice and her loyalty. Meg is the girl who must be coaxed inside and plied
with pretty, shiny things to keep her from dashing away.
Are you the open closet loaner or
the reluctant borrower?
Have you been keeping up with the Secret
Letter of the Day for Perfect Glass? Here’s today’s letter:
Perfect
Glass Back Cover:
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.
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.
Find Laura here—
Fun Fact from Rajdeep:
On Rain...
Rain
is an ongoing metaphor in Swimming Through Clouds, often in reference to
Talia’s tears or the weeping willow. I actually love the rain, the smell of the
earth after a rainfall, and I remember this one summer rain on Northwestern’s
campus when a bunch of us ran outdoors in front of Hinman Dorms and spun in
circles. Till we were crazy dizzy. In the rain. Good times.
Random
side note: When I was a freshman at NW, I had a friend shave the Swahili word
“Mbura” under my hair at the back of her head. It took quite some time to etch
the word, but my artsy BFF met the task with scissors in one hand and
enthusiasm in the other. Hours later, her hidden masterpiece was finished, only
ever seen by the few I trusted with the secret. Mbura means “rain.” :)
Have you
been keeping up with the Post-It note reveal for Swimming Through Clouds? Here’s today’s reveal:
Swimming
Through Clouds Back Cover:
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 a
sticky 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, revealing her 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.
Come Hang
out with Rajdeep Paulus on:
