Thank you for joining us on the Release Week Celebrations for Under My Skin, a Young Adult Contemporary Romance by Laura Diamond (12 April 2016, Swoon Romance, 232 pages). 
Don't miss our interview with author Laura Diamond.PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first two chapters with Amazon Look Inside.
Author Laura Diamond is hosting three giveaways: two offer a $5 Amazon Gift Card and a digital copy of Under My Skin, and the other a $10 Amazon Gift card, and also a digital copy of her book. Four winners will be randomly drawn via Rafflecopter during the tour.
Synopsis | Teaser | Author Q&A | About the Author | Giveaway
Synopsis
Bookish Brit Adam Gibson is one wonky heartbeat away from a fatal arrhythmia. But staying alive requires Adam to become keenly focused on both his pulse and the many different daily medications he must take in exactly the right dosages. Adam's torn between wanting to live and knowing that someone else must die in order for him to do so. He needs a new heart.The pressure is getting to him. Adam stops talking to his friends back home, refuses to meet kids at his new school, and shuts his parents out entirely. His days are spent wondering if can cope with having a dead man's heart beating inside his chest, or if he should surrender to the thoughts of suicide swirling around in his head.
And then a donor is found…
Outspoken artist Darby Fox rarely lets anything stand in her way of achieving her goals . Whether it’s painting, ignoring her homework (dyslexia makes a mess out of words anyway), kissing a hot boy she doesn't even know, or taking the head cheerleader down a peg , no one has ever accused Darby of being a shy. She also happens to be the twin sister to a perfect brother with good looks, good grades, manners, and the approval of their parents - something Darby has never had.
Darby's always had bad timing . She picks the worst time to argue with her brother Daniel. In a car with bald tires, on an icy road in the freezing cold, the unthinkable happens. In a split-second, everything changes forever.
When life forces Adam and Darby together, undeniable sparks fly, and a deep connection is made. But the secret inside of Adam may be the thing that pushes them apart forever.
Teaser: Excerpt
from
Every moment I wait is another moment wasted, time lost to a life I shouldn’t be living while wishing for a healthy one I’ll probably never have.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
With a slow exhale, I press a palm to my chest. “Keep beating,” I whisper. “We’ll get through this together.”
My poor bum ticker is tired, too weakened by the marathon of keeping me alive to make it to the finish line. Unfortunately for me, I’m not sick enough to be prioritized on the transplant list, but I’m too ill to survive much longer on this cocktail of meds. I have to hover one beat away from a fatal arrhythmia before they’ll grant me the coveted Level 1 status. Then it’s a gamble if they’ll find a matching donor.
Odds are I’ll die before I graduate high school.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
A gust of wind slashes across my body, burrows up my nose, and yanks at my hair. I hook my fingers through the wire fence wrapped around the Empire State Building’s observation deck and toggle my lip piercing—two black hoops side by side—with my tongue. Spires top the fencing, curving inward far above everybody’s heads to prevent suicides. I wonder what it’d be like to leap off the building’s edge. Death would be surprised that I found him before he called on me.
I close my eyes, imagining falling, flying, letting go. The initial rush of it collapses into near panic. My stomach plummets, shooting down fast, and my wobbly heart races, alarmed. I grip the fence links tighter, clenching my jaw.
“Easy now, we’re okay,” I murmur. How cruel of me to test my heart like this. He can’t take it. I should know better.
I force my eyes open, reciting apologies in my head. Below, the city crowds its little island, holding millions of people within its streets, all oblivious to my suffering. Skyscrapers stab at the pale blue horizon and white clouds streak across the sky like scars.
NYC, Manhattan, The Big Apple … it’s so different from my London. Mum and Dad insisted on coming to the US “for the best care possible for their only son.” The little upstate New York town we three Brits invaded boasts having one of the most successful cardiothoracic surgeons in the world. It’s also stuffed with quaint New England-y type homes, thick clusters of trees eager to assault me with their pollen, and more cows than people.
That was months ago. Along with my heart’s steady decline, we’d crossed a bunch of things off my (my parents’) bucket list (for me). Mum and Dad call it progress. I call it pretending. I do my homework, excel at classes, and say “thanks, Doctor” at the end of every check up. Isn’t this all going swell?
Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing it for. Then I remind myself Mum and Dad gave up their whole world for me. Being The Good Son is the least I can do for them.
My heart, calmer than before, slows some, then pauses a little too long between beats. I count: one, one-thousand, two, one-thousand, thr—god, it’s too long.
I hold my breath for a second, willing my boggy ventricles to contract. They don’t.
Time slows. The edges of my vision darken. My chest tightens as if anticipating the stillness of death. A distinct pressure builds in my skull.
My legs weaken. Palm pressed to my breastbone, I drop to my knees and squeeze my eyes shut.
Chapter One
Adam
Waiting for someone to die so I can get their heart makes it hard to fake things like happiness, joy, and laughter. Anything my parents and I do—a spontaneous weekend trip to New York City (Mum says she needed a change of scenery), splurging on front row tickets for a concert (because I scored an A+ on the latest English essay), or celebrating yet another round of blood tests by clinking spoons over a hot fudge sundae (fudge is brilliant, there’s nothing else to say)—amounts to killing time. The goal of so many seconds’ and minutes’ silent deaths? A phone call from my heart surgeon saying they’ve a heart for me.Every moment I wait is another moment wasted, time lost to a life I shouldn’t be living while wishing for a healthy one I’ll probably never have.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
With a slow exhale, I press a palm to my chest. “Keep beating,” I whisper. “We’ll get through this together.”
My poor bum ticker is tired, too weakened by the marathon of keeping me alive to make it to the finish line. Unfortunately for me, I’m not sick enough to be prioritized on the transplant list, but I’m too ill to survive much longer on this cocktail of meds. I have to hover one beat away from a fatal arrhythmia before they’ll grant me the coveted Level 1 status. Then it’s a gamble if they’ll find a matching donor.
Odds are I’ll die before I graduate high school.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
A gust of wind slashes across my body, burrows up my nose, and yanks at my hair. I hook my fingers through the wire fence wrapped around the Empire State Building’s observation deck and toggle my lip piercing—two black hoops side by side—with my tongue. Spires top the fencing, curving inward far above everybody’s heads to prevent suicides. I wonder what it’d be like to leap off the building’s edge. Death would be surprised that I found him before he called on me.
I close my eyes, imagining falling, flying, letting go. The initial rush of it collapses into near panic. My stomach plummets, shooting down fast, and my wobbly heart races, alarmed. I grip the fence links tighter, clenching my jaw.
“Easy now, we’re okay,” I murmur. How cruel of me to test my heart like this. He can’t take it. I should know better.
I force my eyes open, reciting apologies in my head. Below, the city crowds its little island, holding millions of people within its streets, all oblivious to my suffering. Skyscrapers stab at the pale blue horizon and white clouds streak across the sky like scars.
NYC, Manhattan, The Big Apple … it’s so different from my London. Mum and Dad insisted on coming to the US “for the best care possible for their only son.” The little upstate New York town we three Brits invaded boasts having one of the most successful cardiothoracic surgeons in the world. It’s also stuffed with quaint New England-y type homes, thick clusters of trees eager to assault me with their pollen, and more cows than people.
That was months ago. Along with my heart’s steady decline, we’d crossed a bunch of things off my (my parents’) bucket list (for me). Mum and Dad call it progress. I call it pretending. I do my homework, excel at classes, and say “thanks, Doctor” at the end of every check up. Isn’t this all going swell?
Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing it for. Then I remind myself Mum and Dad gave up their whole world for me. Being The Good Son is the least I can do for them.
My heart, calmer than before, slows some, then pauses a little too long between beats. I count: one, one-thousand, two, one-thousand, thr—god, it’s too long.
I hold my breath for a second, willing my boggy ventricles to contract. They don’t.
Time slows. The edges of my vision darken. My chest tightens as if anticipating the stillness of death. A distinct pressure builds in my skull.
My legs weaken. Palm pressed to my breastbone, I drop to my knees and squeeze my eyes shut.
Under My Skin
Available NOW!
About the Author
Laura Diamond is a board certified psychiatrist currently specializing in emergency psychiatry. She is also an author of all things young adult—both contemporary and paranormal. An avid fan of sci-fi, fantasy, and anything magical, she thrives on quirk, her lucid dreams, and coffee.
When she’s not working or writing, she can be found sniffing books and drinking a latte at the bookstore or at home pondering renovations on her 225 year old fixer upper, all while obeying her feline overlords, of course.
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Giveaway
Enter to win a $5 Amazon Gift Card and a digital copy of Under My Skin by Laura Diamond (INT) (via Chapter by Chapter)a Rafflecopter giveaway Enter to win either a $10 Amazon gift card or eBook copy of Under My Skin (via Enchanged Book Promotions)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Enter to win a $5 Amazon Gift Card and a digital copy of Under My Skin by Laura Diamond (INT) (via Xpresso Book Tours)
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