Link to tour
Title: Not Pretty Enough
Author: Jaimie Admans
Date of Publication: August 1, 2013
Genre: contemporary YA comedy
Blurb:
“New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Lloyd Layton will know I exist. He once said three whole words to me, so this is obviously progress. If I don’t get a proper conversation out of him soon, then I’ll take my top off and streak through the cafeteria, because nobody could fail to notice these boobs.
2. I will not get expelled for streaking through the cafeteria.”
Those are the words that begin her mission.
Chessie is fourteen, not pretty enough, and very much in love. Lloyd Layton is hot, popular, and unaware of Chessie’s existence.
Her goal is clear: to get Lloyd to love her as much as she loves him, and she has exactly one year to do it.
As Chessie’s obsession with Lloyd reaches boiling point and she starts to spin a web of lies that spiral out of control, Lloyd turns out to be not quite the prince she thought he was. Can Chessie avoid the gathering storm before things go too far?
-- -- -- -- --
Not Pretty Enough is a contemporary young adult comedy suitable for ages thirteen and over.
Book two in the series will be released early 2014.
Goodreads link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18142578-not-pretty-enough
Purchase links: Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Not-Pretty-Enough-ebook/dp/B00DP3Y3NY
There’s a common misconception that everyone wants big boobs. Let me tell you something: they don’t. If they’re fourteen and have a chest bigger than most of their school, including the teachers, they don’t. I’m a DD cup. People pay thousands of pounds to have their boobs enlarged to be smaller than mine. I can’t remember the last time I passed for a half fare on the bus. Or the last time a bus driver asked my face and not my chest for the fare. Everyone notices boobs when you’re my age. In fact, the only human in the world who doesn’t notice them is the one person I would quite like to notice them.
Lloyd Layton.
I’d quite like him to notice my personality too, but at this point just noticing my mere existence will do. If I have to use my boobs to lure him in, then so be it. The thing is, Lloyd Layton is hot, popular, and really, really tall. Taller than everyone else in our year. Taller than the teachers. Occasionally taller than the doorways. He knows what it’s like to be picked on for a physical attribute you can’t control. He’s different too. He knows what it’s like to be an outsider. Okay, when it comes to Lloyd Layton, he’s not really an outsider, because he’s absolutely gorgeous and loads of people like him, and I doubt anyone would dare to pick on him for anything because he could knock them flying with one swoop of his gigantic hands. But still. He’s taller than everyone and I have bigger boobs than everyone. We’re clearly a match made in heaven. It’s just a shame that he can’t see it yet.
But I’m sure he will one day soon.
I’m actually moving closer to that goal because he said one sentence to me back in December.
One sentence. Three small words. Not the three words I would like to hear him say, but I’ll take what I can get.
It was the last lesson of the last day of term before the Christmas holidays. Double technology. Not usually something to get excited about, but we came to the conclusion that the Christmas spirit had gone to Mr Vale’s head because he let us watch a movie in class instead of doing any work.
The Princess Bride.
We were allowed to pull chairs in around the TV and sit and watch a movie for two hours. Guess who pulled his chair in not that far away from mine?
Lloyd Layton.
I don’t know what happened next. I can’t explain it. It was like having an out of body experience. I’ll never understand how I had the courage to do it, but halfway through the film, I leaned over and said, “This is a good movie.” To Lloyd Layton. Better than that, he actually replied. He said, “Yes, it is.”
Three whole words.
It got even better than that again because after it was over and we were putting the chairs up on the desks, he smiled at me. A real smile. And it wasn’t at the person behind me because I was next to a wall. He smiled at me.
About Jaimie Admans
Jaimie is a 28-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, drinking tea and watching horror movies. She hates spiders and cheese & onion crisps. She has been writing for years but has never before plucked up the courage to tell people. Afterlife Academy is her third novel and she hopes you enjoy it. There are plenty more on the way!
Links
Website: http://www.jaimieadmans.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/be_the_spark
Facebook: http://facebook.com/jaimieadmansbooks
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/oDXZj
TOPIC: JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER
I know they say don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but it’s impossible not to. Everyone does. The fact is that if a book looks attractive, you are more likely to pick it up and read the blurb, whether you’re browsing on Amazon or walking around the supermarket. I do it all the time – I ignore books that don’t look appealing and pick up the ones that do.
A good cover is absolutely critical to a book being successful. If the book looks rubbish at first glance, anyone’s initial thought is that chances are the writing inside will be a bit rubbish too. Of course, this is not always the case, but books with sloppy covers will have a much harder time getting attention than those with eye-catching covers.
Cover design has become a bit of an unexpected side effect of self-publishing for me. It was an unexpected find to discover I actually enjoyed doing my first book cover. I really enjoyed it. I decided to do my own for my first book, despite advice to hire a professional, I had seen some horrendous covers from these so-called professionals who charged £300+ for them. It seemed ridiculous when I had a little bit of graphics experience and a better idea of what I wanted the cover to look like and convey than someone else would have. I loved doing it, from the overall deciding what would feature on it to the miniscule tweaks that go on forever. Since then I’ve done my first four book covers and spent a lot of my spare time designing covers for books that aren’t written yet or are nowhere near ready to be released. I’ve found myself studying the design of everything from books to cereal boxes, getting ideas of what works and what doesn’t. I analyse the designs of everything I come across.
My book covers are usually very simple. They are far from complicated and flashy, and far from being the best book covers out there, but they are always the kind of image that would make me pick the book up myself.
My fifth book will be a Christmas YA romantic comedy, and for the first time I have used a cover designer. I have to admit I’m absolutely thrilled with the cover she has designed for me, it’s completely different to what I had pictured, but it fits the book so well and works so much better than my own ideas would have, that I don’t know how she managed to pull it off!
Thank you so much for hosting me as part of the tour today! I really enjoyed writing that post!
ReplyDelete