NOTE: THE GIRL FROM LONG GUYLAND WILL BE ON
SALE AT
AMAZON FOR 99 CENTS ON DECEMBER 7.
Blurb ~
Laila Levin
enjoys a successful marriage and a thriving career as an I.T. executive in
Austin, Texas, but she can't quite shake her lifelong sense of not truly
belonging anywhere.
When her company
announces a major layoff, Laila finds herself caught between an unscrupulous
CEO and her promiscuous boss. Then news of her college roommate's suicide stirs
up a dark secret involving three devious friends from her past. One has
betrayed a vow, another wants to rekindle their romance, and the third is out
for revenge.
Suddenly for
Laila, it's 1969 again. She's only seventeen, and she's left her sheltered home
in Long Island for college in Connecticut. Amid protests of the Vietnam War,
she's tempted by the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll that rule her generation.
Laila gets swept up in a deceptive love triangle with two older locals and
initiated into their unethical hippie family. Too late she realizes her search
to belong has led to tragedy.
Laila must now
juggle the demands of her perplexed husband and her baby boomer past forcing
her to make choices that endanger her survival and challenge her conscience.
She learns that
the lines between right and wrong are often blurred, and sometimes you have to
risk everything to be true to yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
Lost in Texas
Austin, Texas, 2012
A couple dozen stars and the
eye of a yellow moon pierce light through a sky filled with smoke. I look out
the broken window to the ground below. Crumpled in the weeds is a lifeless body
with red-flecked eyes, a bushy mustache, and sweet smile.
Vapor seeps into the room. I
can barely breathe. Ben wraps his arms around me as I weep. Denise lies in a
catatonic state perched on the bed. Why is she only wearing her bra and panties?
Chris stumbles inside the
room. His eyes glow like diamonds. He cranes his head out the window. “We gotta
do something, man.”
“I’ll call for an
ambulance,” I say.
Ben gulps, “That’s not a
good idea.”
“We have to,” I insist. “For
Godsakes.”
He’s dead, Laila,” Chris
says.
Tears sting my eyes.
WITH A JOLT, I awake
whimpering. The nightmare has infested my dreams for years. It may be time to
see a shrink.
The anxiety subsides when my
husband Eduardo arrives with a cappuccino and the morning paper. “Are you okay?
It sounded like you were crying.”
I clear my throat. “No, no,
I’m fine. Just a dream, I guess.” I’ve never discussed these recurring
nightmares with him. Eduardo’s got his own problems. He was recently laid off
in a corporate downsize and refuses to talk about it. There’s lots of tension
in our home right now. Maybe we should both see a shrink.
~ Buy Links ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Lara Reznik grew up on Long
Island but escaped to New Mexico in 1970 in a Karmann Ghia that she and her
boyfriend jump-started cross-country. As an English major at the University of
New Mexico, Lara studied under esteemed authors Rudolfo Anaya and the late Tony
Hillerman. She also attended a summer program at the prestigious Iowa Writers
Workshop.
Ambidextrous from birth,
Lara preferred her right-brained creative side, but discovered she could make a
better living with her left-brain skills, so entered the I.T. field in 1985.
Lara published her first
novel, The Girl From Long Guyland in November 2012. The novel ranked #1 during
its recent Amazon Kindle promotion and has over 115,000 Kindle downloads. In
addition to her novels, Lara has written and optioned three screenplays that
have garnered semifinalist and finalist wins in the Austin Heart of Film,
Southwest Writers, TV Writer, Chesterfield and Writer's Digest contests.
Currently, Lara is working on a new novel based on her screenplay, The M&M
Boys.
Giveaway ~
What a beautiful author photo! Thanks for the giveaway as well! Happy Holidays!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chance to win!
natasha_donohoo_8 at hotmail dot com