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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Saving the one who once saved me. - The Art of Hero Worship by Mia Kerick

"I thoroughly enjoyed the book. There was a TON of action and suspense and the book grabbed me from the very first sentence and didn't let go. I loved these two guys and how Liam especially accepted what's happening between them. 
I liked it and definitely recommend it." - Christi, Goodreads

Description:

Release Date: October 29th, 2018

Saving the one who once saved me.

College junior Liam Norcross is a hero. He willingly, even eagerly, risks his life to save a stranger as a murderous, deranged shooter moves methodically through the darkened theater on the Batcheldor College campus, randomly killing innocent men, women, and children.

The stranger he saves is college freshman Jason Tripp. Jase loses everything in the shooting: his girlfriend, who dies on the floor beside him, and his grip on emotional security. He struggles to regain a sense of safety in the world, finally leaving college to seek refuge in his hometown.

An inexplicable bond forms between the two men in the chaos and horror of the theater, and Liam fights to bring Jase back to the world he ran away from. When Jase returns to school, they’re drawn together as soulmates, and soon Liam and Jase fall into a turbulent romantic relationship. However, the rocky path to love cannot be smoothed until Jase rescues his hero in return by delving into his shady past and solving the mystery of Liam’s compulsion to be everybody’s savior.

EXCERPT

IT’S CERTAINLY AN unusual feeling to have your bloody clothes carefully removed by a burly, male stranger. And once I’m stark naked, to have him stand right beside the shower with his hands on my waist, while I do my best to clean the blood off my body—well, this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day. At least not to me. I hang my head and watch as the bloody water swirls around and is swallowed by the drain, and I don’t freak out, mainly because I don’t think there’s any “freak out” left in me. As soon as my head is clean, the guy pulls me out of the shower and forces me to bend at an odd angle so he can examine whatever made my head bleed so much. He studies my scalp for a long time, until I start to shiver and need the spray of hot water to warm me. 

When he lets me go, he says, “I think a bullet grazed the top left side of your head. There’s a two-inch scrape there, and it’s kind of deep. The bleeding’s stopped, but you probably ought to get it checked out by a doctor in the morning. It’s pretty nasty.” His large palm finds its way back to my hip. “But dude, I’d say that, overall, you’re pretty lucky, know what I mean?” 

Not feeling particularly lucky, I again nod and return to my place beneath the stream of water, wishing I could wash away everything that happened tonight. What’s weird is the deep scrape on my head doesn’t hurt...nothing does; I’m physically numb. I decide at this moment I’m not going to think about the stuff that hurts my mind until we leave this bathroom...or better yet, until we leave this apartment, which represents a short reprieve between the hell of the shooting and the hell of accepting that it was real. 

About the author:
Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—a daughter in law school, another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son off to Syracuse. She writes LGBTQ romance when not editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing English papers. Her husband of twenty-four years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it is a sensitive subject.

Mia focuses her stories on emotional growth in turbulent relationships. As she has a great affinity for the tortured hero, there is, at minimum, one in each book. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of said tortured heroes (most of whom happened to strongly resemble lead vocalists of 1980s big-hair bands) and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to her wonderful publishers for providing alternate places to stash her stories.

Her books have won a Best YA Lesbian Rainbow Award, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly First Place Award for Cultural Diversity, a Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly First Place Award for YA Fiction, among others.

Mia is a Progressive, a little bit too obsessed by politics, and cheers for each and every victory in the name of human rights. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology.

Contact Mia at miakerick@gmail.com. Visit her at www.miakerickYA.com for updates on what is going on in Mia’s world, rants, music, parties, and pictures, and maybe even a little bit of inspiration. 

Author's Giveaway

6 comments:

Dale Wilken said...

Sounds really great.

Rita Wray said...

Sounds like a good read.

Calvin F. said...

This is nice! Lovely theme hardworking characters

ShirleyAnn said...

Congratulations on your new release Mia, the cover is really great and the books on my wish list.

Linda Romer said...

The Art of hero Worship sounds like a good read. Thank you

Anna Josefin Bergman said...

Sounds good.