Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Scarred, a LGBTQ Contemporary Romance by Mia Kerick (first published 1 March 2017, this mew edition 31 December 2018, NineStar Press, 231 pages). 
Check out our 2017 interview with author Mia Kerick where she spoke to us about Scarred, and shared her playlist with us.PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and our exclusive excerpt below.
Author Mia Kerick will be awarding a $10 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 exclusive Excerpts (☀).
|| Synopsis || Teaser: Exclusive Excerpt || Author Q&A || About the Author || Giveaway & Tour Stops ||
Synopsis
ONE tropical island.Placida Island’s gentle ocean breezes and rolling surf beckon to those who wish to reside in remote tropical serenity.
TWO men living in self-imposed exile.
Wearing twisted ropes of mutilated skin on his back and carrying devastating damage in his soul from severe childhood abuse, Matthew North lives alone in a rustic cabin on the shore, avoiding human contact.
Gender fluidity his perceived “crime” against family and friends, Vedie Wilson flees his childhood home so he can freely express his identity.
THREE persecutors seeking their warped view of justice.
Vedie’s past refuses to stay in the faraway city he left behind when family members, intent on forcing him to change, threaten the precious peace he’s found.
TOO MANY scars to count.
Their beautiful faces masking deeply scarred souls, Matt and Vedie live in hiding from the world and each other.
Can they unite and embrace each other’s painful pasts, leaving the scars behind, to find love?
Teaser: Exclusive Excerpt
MattI stumble my way to the beach where the flames on the tiki torches have been doused and it’s completely dark, aside from the few remaining lights reflecting off the distant bar. I have no plan in mind, no clever scheme as to how I’m going to find him. I rush back and forth on the sand without rhyme or reason, the small stream of light from my cell phone barely illuminating the way.
And then I hear it.
A moan, deep and throaty. Human. I head toward it, which happens to be down by the water.
“Is that you, Vedie?” No answer. Not even another dull groan to lead me to him.
After forcing myself to stand still and listen for a full minute, I finally hear another sound, like a gift from some distant God who never before has acknowledged my prayers. This time, the moan is a word.
“Nooooo…”
“I’m coming!” I move toward the haunted sound, and within a few seconds, I’m standing in the surf. This can’t be good, I think, but I continue to search until I come upon a wet lump of human being, half-submerged in water.
Thank God his head is on the sand and not in the water.
I honestly don’t think I can handle this.
Is all this wetness on his head salt water…or is some of it something else…something more vital to his life?
I scoop Vedie into my arms, carry him to dry sand, and set him down gently. Then I shine the light from my phone onto his face and gasp with relief when I see no blood. But from firsthand experience, I know better than to think he’s unharmed—there are many ways to hurt someone that don’t require bloodshed.
His eyes flutter open. “I’m…I’m leaving this island.” He turns his head to the side and vomits mostly water. “There’s no place safe for a person like me.”
About the Author
Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—one in law school, another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and the baby finally off to college. (Yes, the nest is empty.) She publishes LGBTQ fiction and 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-five 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 the emotional growth of young people who are challenged by the circumstances of their lives and relationships. She has a great affinity for the tortured hero in literature, and as a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of tortured heroes and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She has NineStar Press to thank for providing an alternate place to stash her stories.
Her books have been featured in Kirkus Reviews magazine and have won Rainbow Awards for Best Transgender Contemporary Romance and Best YA Lesbian Fiction, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, a First Place Royal Dragonfly Award for Cultural Diversity, a First Place Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly Award for YA Fiction, among others.
Mia Kerick is a social liberal and cheers for each and every victory made 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.
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Giveaway and Tour Stops
Enter to win a $10 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveawayRemember to comment to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Follow Scarred's tour at:
Dec 31: Romance Novel GiveawaysJan 1: Mythical Books
Jan 2: Edgar's Books
Jan 3: Notes From a Romantic's Heart
Jan 4: The Reading Addict
Jan 4: Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews
Jan 7: Sharing Links and Wisdom
Jan 7: Fabulous and Brunette
Jan 8: BooksChatter
Jan 9: T's Stuff
Jan 10: Stormy Nights Reviewing and Bloggin'
Jan 11: Readeropolis
Jan 11: Long and Short Reviews
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteDo you have any books that you plan to release in 2019? Congrats on the release. Bernie Wallace BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteHi Joseph.
DeleteOn January 22nd a book I'm really excited about, The Princess of Baker Street, releases from Harmony Ink Press. Here is the blurb: When she was a child, Joey Kinkaid, assigned as a boy at birth—wearing Mom’s purple sundress and an imaginary crown—ruled the Baker Street neighborhood with a flair and imagination that kept the other kids captivated. Day after day, she led them on fantastic after-school adventures, but those innocent childhood days are over, and the magic is gone. The princess is alone.
Even Eric Sinclair, the Prince Eric to Joey’s Princess Ariel, has turned his back on his former friend, watching in silence as Joey is tormented at school. Eric isn’t proud of it, but their enchanted youth is over, and they’ve been thrust into a dog-eat-dog world where those who conform survive and those who don’t… well, they don’t. Eric has enough to deal with at home, where his mother has abandoned him to live in isolation and poverty.
But Eric can’t stay on the sidelines forever. When Joey finally accepts her female gender and comes to school wearing lip gloss, leggings, and a silky pink scarf, the bullies readily take the opportunity she hands them, driving Joey to attempt suicide and leaving Eric at a crossroads—one that will influence both their lives in not just the present, but the future.
Is there a chance the two teens can be friends again, and maybe even more?
Hello! Thanks for hosting me today for my rerelease of Scarred and in 2017 for its original release. (I have a new publisher.) :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rita!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post. yamanivacation
ReplyDelete