Thursday, October 3, 2013

Xpresso Presents The Road to You by Marilyn Brant Book Blitz


Praises For The Road To Discovery.........

Sometimes the only road to the truth...is one you’ve never taken.

Until I found Gideon’s journal in the tool shed—locked in the cedar box where I’d once hidden my old diary—I’d been led to believe my brother was dead. But the contents of his journal changed all that.

The Road to Discovery...

Two years ago, Aurora Gray’s world turned upside down when her big brother Gideon and his best friend Jeremy disappeared. Now, during the summer of her 18th birthday, she unexpectedly finds her brother’s journal and sees that it’s been written in again. Recently. By him. 

The Road to Danger...

There are secret messages coded within the journal’s pages. Aurora, who’s unusually perceptive and a natural puzzle solver, is hell bent on following where they lead, no matter what the cost. She confides in the only person she feels can help her interpret the clues: Donovan McCafferty, Jeremy’s older brother and a guy she’s always been drawn to—even against her better judgment. 

The Road to You...

Reluctantly, Donovan agrees to go with her and, together, they set out on a road trip of discovery and danger, hoping to find their lost brothers and the answers to questions they’ve never dared to ask aloud.

In that expectant space between silence and melody, our trip began...


The Road to You by Marilyn Brant
Publication date: October 3rd 2013
Genres: Mystery, New Adult, Romance

Synopsis:

Sometimes the only road to the truth...is one you’ve never taken.

Until I found Gideon’s journal in the tool shed — locked in the cedar box where I’d once hidden my old diary — I’d been led to believe my brother was dead. But the contents of his journal changed all that.

The Road to Discovery...

Two years ago, Aurora Gray’s world turned upside down when her big brother Gideon and his best friend Jeremy disappeared. Now, during the summer of her 18th birthday, she unexpectedly finds her brother’s journal and sees that it’s been written in again. Recently. By him.

The Road to Danger...

There are secret messages coded within the journal’s pages. Aurora, who’s unusually perceptive and a natural puzzle solver, is hell bent on following where they lead, no matter what the cost. She confides in the only person she feels can help her interpret the clues: Donovan McCafferty, Jeremy’s older brother and a guy she’s always been drawn to — even against her better judgment.

The Road to You...

Reluctantly, Donovan agrees to go with her and, together, they set out on a road trip of discovery and danger, hoping to find their lost brothers and the answers to questions they’ve never dared to ask aloud.

In that expectant space between silence and melody, our trip began...

Goodreads:

Excerpt:

We emerged into the dazzling sunlight of a hot summer Sunday and got settled in Donovan’s car. He pulled out his road atlas and plopped it into my lap. “You get to

navigate on this one.”

I flipped it open in surprise. Considering his ingrained aversion to asking anyone for directions, this was a sign of great progress.

He started the engine. “If we get lost, it’s on your head, Nancy Drew.”

I glared at him. “Stop calling me that.”

“Nancy, Nancy, Nancy,” he mocked.

Oh, you’re real mature,” I said, but he continued with his mockery. I knew he needed an outlet, a little levity, something—especially after all the grave, life-changing information we’d just gotten. I was beginning to learn his patterns. He would need to munch on something, and he

wouldn’t be able to discuss anything seriously for a couple of hours at least. Good thing we had snacks in the car and a five-hour drive ahead of us.

“Fine. Be that way.” I told him the first few turns, taking us past the big Sears on Irving Park Road and following the signs so we could merge onto Interstate 90/94. Eventually, since I wasn’t afraid to read a map—unlike some people—I knew we’d meet up with 55 South, which would take us all the way to Missouri.

But, as soon as Donovan looked comfortable with the roads, I dug through my purse for the cassette I’d been saving for just such an occasion, and I popped it in. As the opening strains of the Bee Gees’s hit “Stayin’ Alive” came on, I had the satisfaction of seeing Donovan make a disgusted face and reach to turn it off.

I batted his hand away from the cassette deck. “Do you really think disco is a fad?” I said, mimicking Vicky from St. Cloud. Then I started singing along with the song’s chorus. I’d heard the lyrics about, oh, sixty thousand times since the movie came out. I knew every word.

“Uh! God, stop that!” he said, half laughing.

“What’s my name?” I asked him sweetly during an instrumental moment.

He shot me a dirty look. “Just cut it out.”

I sang along with the entire second verse. Loudly.

“Hell, Aurora. Stop.”

“What did you just say my name was?” I asked. Then, more threateningly, “You do realize that ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ is coming up next, right?”

He made a gagging sound that I took as a precursor to his inevitable surrender. I was right.

“Your name is Aurora, but I will strangle you with the long threads of tape that I’m going to yank out of my deck in about ten seconds if you don’t do it first.”

I snapped the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack out of the player.

“If you call me Nancy Drew again, you can expect a full hour of disco hits,” I threatened. “I can sing ‘If I Can’t Have You’ and ‘You Should Be Dancing’ and more. All of them a cappella. And, yeah, that’s a warning. Be scared.”

The look he gave me was nothing short of scathing but, a few minutes later, when I was studying the Illinois map in the middle of the atlas, I caught him glancing at me and smothering a laugh. 

“What?” I said

He grinned. “Who knew you’d grow up to be such a weirdo…Aurora.”

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AUTHOR BIO:

Marilyn Brant is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction. She wrote the new adult/humorous paranormal novel ACCORDING TO JANE (2009), the women’s fiction relationship drama FRIDAY MORNINGS AT NINE (2010), and the romantic travel adventure A SUMMER IN EUROPE (2011), all published by Kensington Books. She's also a #1 Kindle and #1 Nook bestseller and has written a series of fun and flirty romantic comedies, including ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE (2011) and PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND THE PERFECT MATCH (2013). Her coming-of-age romantic mystery, THE ROAD TO YOU, will be available in October 2013.

Marilyn is a lifelong music lover and a travel junkie. She’s visited 46 states and over 30 countries (so far—she's not done yet!), but she now lives in the Chicago suburbs with her family. When she isn't rereading Jane Austen's books or enjoying the latest releases by her writer friends, she's working on her next novel, eating chocolate indiscriminately and hiding from the laundry.

Author Links:
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Goodreads:

Q: Tell us about the main characters in this story. Who are Aurora and Donovan?

A: At the start of the novel, Aurora Gray has just graduated from high school and is one month from turning 18. This isn’t a paranormal story—she’s not psychic or telepathic—but she is unusually perceptive, particularly for her age. She’s kind of a natural “mentalist,” who’s used to reading people’s reactions and has a history of being pretty accurate. So when she finds the journal of her missing brother, she’s able to make some connections that those around her would never think to make. It gives her both a determined and a stubborn streak when it comes to thinking she might actually figure out what happened that summer two years ago. Donovan McCafferty, on the other hand, is extremely practical, realistic and not especially bookish. He’s 23, has an Army background and is brilliant with mechanical things. He’s also very loyal, very protective of those he cares about and not remotely inclined to take flying leaps of intuition like Aurora. To use a character parallel from “The X-Files,” Aurora would be a bit like Mulder (“I Want to Believe/The Truth is Out There”), but without that whole alien thing, LOL, and Donovan would be the more skeptical Scully type. 

Q: Did you draw your characters from real people in your life? 

A: Some of my characters have a smattering of qualities and personality traits drawn from people I know, but I do a LOT of blending. It’s incredibly important to me to make my characters unique. To do that, I feel I need to give them a range of quirks and some very distinctive behavior/thought/speaking patterns. The real people in my life are certainly interesting, but none of us (myself included) are entirely “fiction-worthy.” And, boy, am I glad! I wouldn’t want to be a real-life character. I wouldn’t want to be oddly specific enough for fiction. And I sure wouldn’t want those closest to me to be riddled with the stresses and insecurities prominently featured in the characters I’ve created. So, while I’ll happily pluck a trait or two from someone I know to add to the character mix I’m making, I have to do much more to any character to make him/her novel-ready than merely copy someone from my everyday life.

Q: What other art form inspires you as much as writing?

A: Music, hands down. Playing and listening to music remains one of my most enjoyable and inspirational pastimes. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Music is the favorite passion of my soul,” and I agree with him.

Q: Do you listen to music while you write?

A: No. I wish I could. I adore music, but it’s wildly distracting to me while I’m writing. (Probably because I love it so much and am too often inspired to sing along—however badly!) I reference songs quite a bit, though, in the narrative itself, so I listen to a lot of music while I’m working on a story—just not when I’m actually sitting at the computer doing the typing. One of my favorite activities is to go on walks with my iPod and think about scenes, testing out different songs to see if they provide the right musical subtext. For The Road to You I used road-trip music and the classic songs of the 1970s. For According to Jane, I have an entire soundtrack of ‘80s tunes amassed. And for A Summer in Europe, I referenced musicals, especially those of Andrew Lloyd Webber. (I have a “Soundtrack” link for each of my novels on the “Books” page of my website.)

Giveaway:
Grand prize giveaway
Prizes (open internationally):
One signed trade paperback copy of According to Jane
One signed trade paperback copy of On Any Given Sundae
One A Summer in Europe t-shirt
One Marilyn Brant canvas tote bag
And one The Road to You luggage tag
a Rafflecopter giveaway 

1 comment:

Marilyn Brant said...

Thanks so much for being part of my book blitz this week!! :)