Starlight
by Chelsea Campbell
Book Description:
Adrienne Speck is the biggest loser in her high school, so she can hardly believe it when a magical boy falls from the heavens to grant her three wishes. He is cool, confident, and definitely popular-crowd material—everything Adrienne's not. With his help, she has a chance to get everything she's ever wanted: get kissed, get popular, and get a date for the upcoming dance.
But Adrienne discovers magic isn't all it's cracked up to be, and the road to popularity is paved with humiliation. To make her dreams come true, not only will she have to get the lead in the school play, ask out the most popular guy in school, and stand up to the current queen of popularity, but also keep her personal genie from trashing her room, dressing like a nerd, and revealing to her mom that he's living in their attic. For someone who's supposed to be helping her, he couldn't be making her life any worse. That is, until she starts to fall for him.
Buy Links:
Excerpt from Starlight
Saiph closes himself up in
the closet just as Mom comes in. "I
heard shouting. Is something going
on?" She surveys my room, taking in
all the wreckage. She makes tutting
noises and marches over to the heap of clothes, picking them up and heading for
the closet. "Adrienne, what were
you—"
"It's for the school play!" I run in front of her, pulling the clothes
out of her arms. "I'm
practicing."
"The play?"
She forgets about cleaning. She
stares at me like I just said I was abducted by aliens. Then her whole face lights up. She clasps her hands together. "You got a part in the play? Is it a big part?"
"Oh, yeah. I
got the lead role." I say this
completely sarcastically, complete with an eye roll, but she must not catch
that part because her face lights up even more.
She sucks in her breath, holding a hand to her chest.
"The lead,” she breathes, and I can practically see
the gears working in her brain as she realizes that means I finally beat
Nichole at something. “Oh, honey, I'm so proud of you!" She grabs me in a huge hug and squeezes.
"Mom!"
"I have to tell Grandma. And Joanne and Tina and everyone from the old
neighborhood. They'll want to know. Oh, and don't forget your great aunt Clara, she'll
get such a kick out of this."
"But, Mom..."
"Don't let me stop you. You just keep practicing!" She's so happy, she's shaking. She reminds me of an excited little dog. I don't know if she's going to bite someone
or piddle on the floor.
She hurries out of the room, her cell phone already in
her hand. I lean against the door to
close it, taking a deep breath.
Saiph slides the closet open.
"That was close," I say. I'm done yelling at him, but I haven't
forgiven him yet. A pang of guilt wells
up in my chest. That, and fear. I don't know how I'm going to tell my mom the
truth.
"At least someone in this house took their
happy pills today," he says, nodding towards the hall. He leans against the door with me and smiles,
as if he hadn't spent all day destroying my room and trying to blackmail me
into letting him come to school.
"I know. It's
going to suck having to disappoint her.
She's going to be so mad when she finds out I lied." I wince, picturing her having to call up all
our friends and relatives and tell them how it was all a big misunderstanding,
just like they suspected, and her daughter's still just a nobody. I hope Nichole's mom isn't first on her list
of bragging phone calls.
"Well, there's one way to fix all that, you
know."
“Fake my own death?
Move to Europe? Become a nun?”
Saiph licks his lips and sighs, as if dealing with me is
exhausting. He's probably just worn out
from trashing my room. “You're going to
be in that play, Adrienne. You're going
to be the lead.”
My eyes go wide.
“You can really make that happen?”
“No, but you can.”
About the Author
Chelsea M. Campbell grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where it rains a lot. And then rains some more. She finished her first novel when she was twelve, sent it out, and promptly got rejected. Since then she's written many more novels, earned a degree in Latin and Ancient Greek, become an obsessive knitter and fiber artist, and started a collection of glass grapes. Besides writing, studying ancient languages, and collecting useless objects, Chelsea is a pop-culture fangirl at heart and can often be found rewatching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Parks and Recreation, or dying a lot in Dark Souls.
Author links:
***GIVEAWAY***
$10 Amazon Gift Card (INT).
I enjoyed the excerpt, thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting a tour stop!
ReplyDeleteThis book looks really cute. I love YA and this one looks fun!
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt! My family would love this book!
ReplyDeletei really love the cover! - regnod(at)yahoo(d0t)com
ReplyDelete