BLOG TOUR with EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY: 'The Weekend Bucket List' by Mia Kerick
Title: The Weekend Bucket List
Author: Mia Kerick
Published: April 19, 2018
Publisher: Duet Books - Imprint of Interlude Press
Genre: Young Adult; Non-Explicit
Length: 226 Pages
Tags: Bisexual; Comfort/Hurt; Coming of Age; Family Drama; HEA; Second Chance; Tattoos/Piercings
About The Weekend Bucket List
High school seniors Cady LaBrie and Cooper Murphy have yet to set one toe out of line they've never stayed out all night or snuck into a movie, never gotten drunk or gone skinny-dipping. But they have each other, forty-eight hours before graduation, and a Weekend Bucket List.
There's a lot riding on this one weekend, especially since Cady and Cooper have yet to admit, much less resolve, their confounding feelings for one another feelings that prove even more difficult to discern when genial high school dropout Eli Stanley joins their epic adventure. But as the trio ticks through their bucket list, the questions they face shift toward something new: Must friendship play second fiddle to romance? Or can it be the ultimate prize?
At first, I’m not sure if I like “Elias, but most everybody calls me Eli.”
First of all, Cady’s looking at him like, OMG—he’s freaking gorgeous. And she’s drooling. Cady’s literally had to wipe the corners of her mouth with the back of her wrist twice in the past sixty seconds. I keep telling myself she’s consumed a bucket of seriously salty popcorn and not nearly enough water, but we both know why she can’t keep the saliva in her mouth.
Maybe the irritation—that fingernails on a chalkboard feeling—is because I’m jealous that Cady sees him as the perfect specimen of hotness, and I want her to see me that way. But I’m more convinced it’s from something else. I’m off my game since I see Eli that way too... because Oh. My. God. He is freaking gorgeous.
I plan to reserve judgment on “Elias, but most everybody calls me Eli” until I know him better.
After the movie is over, we follow him out the front door of the theater and across the parking lot toward the carnival. Cady glances my way and grins and then she mouths the words, “Number nine,” while she makes a check mark in the air with her finger. Suddenly I’m okay again.
I’ve got to believe that no matter how much one of us likes another guy’s physical appearance, it won’t mess up what we’ve built over the past four years. The problem is, I’m not sure. Lately I’ve been tortured by mental images of Cady entwined with young men more hairy, athletic, and muscular than me. For now, her college boyfriends are still just figments of my vivid imagination. But the truth is, I’ve never had competition for Cady’s attention before. High school boys are unable to appreciate her eclectic appeal the way I can; to them she’s just plain weird. I’m fairly certain guys will be more open-minded and observant at Vermont State University. She won’t pass by them unnoticed.
where she says:
"...The Weekend Bucket List is a 'can do' role model for teens who are confused about how to love without losing themselves, and how to discover what gives their lives meaning.... I plan to give it to a teenager struggling with her identity."
Meet the Author
Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—a daughter in law school, another in dance school, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son still in high school. 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 Dreamspinner Press and Harmony Ink Press 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 Award for Cultural Diversity, among other awards.
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 website for updates on what is going on in Mia’s world, rants, music, parties, and pictures, and maybe even a little bit of inspiration.
For more from Mia be sure and visit her website!
