☀ Leaving Shangrila - Isabelle Gecils

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Leaving Shangrila, a Memoir by Isabelle Gecils (29 March 2016, Morgan James Publishing, 330 pages).

Don't miss our interview with author Isabelle Gecils.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below.  Read the first four chapters with Amazon Look Inside.

Author Isabelle Gecils will be awarding a $30 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.  

Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀), interviews (ℚ), and guest blog posts (✉).

Synopsis | Teaser | Author Q&A | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

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Synopsis

Leaving Shangrila: The True Story of A Girl, Her Transformation and Her Eventual Escape by Isabelle Gecils, is the captivating memoir of a charmingly complex heroine.

Isabelle paints a colorful world as she tells the tale of how she forged her own path in the midst of turmoil. The story, set in Brazil where she grew up, is populated with fascinating characters, both good and bad. From a narcissistic mother to her perpetually flawed lovers to three resilient sisters, Leaving Shangrila’s motley crew make for an endlessly intriguing storyline.

Leaving Shangrila begins with young Isabelle, trapped in a hellish world. Surrounded by lies, manipulation, and abuse, Isabelle is desperate to escape the adversity of this place. Filled with tremendous strength and an unyielding drive to survive, she begins her journey toward freedom and self-realization. Through the trials and obstacles along the way, Isabelle goes back and forth to balance who she is with what she must do to survive.

With themes of perseverance, self-reliance, and the resilience of the human spirit, Leaving Shangrila: The True Story Of A Girl, Her Transformation and Her Eventual Escape highlights the important character traits one discovers on the path to finding their self. Truly empowering and inspirational, readers everywhere will relate to this coming of age story.

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Teaser: Excerpt

Chapter 1

NOT SONS

      My parents learned of our sex upon our birth. When Nathalie, my older sister, was born, she had the same translucent, green eyes that belonged to my mother.
      “Is it a boy?” was my mother’s first question upon the birth of her child.
      “She is a beautiful girl!” Grandmother Mathilda said.
      “She has eyes just as yours!” Grandfather Isidore exclaimed.
      “Oh,” my mother sighed, feeling disappointed.
      My mother had originally planned to raise her child on her own, without help. Yet, she soon hired a nanny to look after my sister and a maid to care for the house. She also called upon my grandparents for help, spending most of her days at their apartment in Rio de Janeiro and staying there whenever my father was traveling the world for his work.
      Within the same year, my mother got pregnant again.
      At the time of my birth, my mother posed the same question to her parents as they swiped the sweaty hair off her forehead and the doctor sutured her stomach from the C-section.
      “Is it a boy?” she asked, wanting to know my sex.
      “No, she is a girl,” my grandmother said cautiously. “She is beautiful and healthy!”
      “Another girl?” my mother asked, not hiding the disappointment that I was not a boy. As my mother later told me, she looked at me and commented, “At least she has green eyes,” as if the color of my eyes were compensation for the disappointment of my sex.
      “When you were born, Isa,” my mother said as she told me this story, “I asked my parents before I even saw you whether you were a boy. By the time your sister Catherine arrived, I did not even have to ask! Your Grandmother Mathilda knew better than to allow me to feel disappointed again, so she preempted my question by telling me Catherine was a girl. She even chose your baby sister’s name!”
      “Congratulations. Catherine is beautiful, and she has green eyes!” my grandmother said before my mother could ask about the sex of her third child or comment on the color of her eyes.

Leaving Shangrila
Available NOW!

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About the Author

Isabelle Gecils grew up in Shangrila, a remote farm in a lush jungle in Brazil. But who really knows where she hails from? Her immediate family hailed from 6 different countries: France (dad), Egypt (mom and grandma), Turkey (grandpa), Lithuania (grandpa) and Poland (grandma). There is a freedom in belonging nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

Leaving Shangrila is the story of Isabelle’s journey from a life others choose for her to one she created for herself. To support the writing of this memoir, Isabelle completed the Stanford Creative Nonfiction Writing certificate program.

She currently lives in Saratoga, California, with her husband, four sons and two territorial cats.

Follow Isabelle Gecils:

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Giveaway and Tour Stops

Enter to win a $30 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway
Remember to comment to win!
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Follow Leaving Shangrila's tour at:

Jun 6: Rogue's Angels
Jun 7: Room With Books
Jun 8: Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
Jun 9: The Reading Addict
Jun 10: HarmonyKent
Jun 13: Readeropolis
Jun 14: Deal Sharing Aunt
Jun 15: Writer Wonderland
Jun 16: Travel the Ages
Jun 17: The Avid Reader
Jun 20: BooksChatter
Jun 21: Straight from the Library
Jun 22: T's Stuff
Jun 23: Author C.A.Milson
Jun 24: It's Raining Books

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