Name: Camp Boyfriend #1
Author: J.K. Rock
Release Date: 07/02/13
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Summary from Goodreads:
The summer of her dreams is about to get a reality check.
They said it couldn't be done, but geeky sophomore Lauren Carlson transformed herself into a popular girl after moving to a new school halfway across the country. Amazing what losing her braces and going out for cheerleading will do. Only trouble is, the popular crowd is wearing on Lauren's nerves and she can't wait to return to summer camp where she's valued for her brain instead of her handsprings. She misses her old friends and most of all, her long time camp-only boyfriend, Seth. This year she intends to upgrade their relationship to year-round status once she's broken up with her new, jock boyfriend, Matt. He doesn't even begin to know the real her, a girl fascinated by the night sky who dreams of discovering new planets and galaxies.
But Matt isn't giving her up without a fight. As he makes his case to stay together, Lauren begins to realize his feelings run deeper than she ever would have guessed. What if the guy she thought she was meant to be with forever isn't really The One? Returning to Camp Juniper Point was supposed to ground her uprooted life, but she's more adrift than ever. Everything feels different and soon Lauren's friends are turning on her and both guys question what she really wants. As summer tensions escalate, Lauren wonders if she's changed more than she thought. Will her first big discovery be herself?
Author: J.K. Rock
Release Date: 07/02/13
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Summary from Goodreads:
The summer of her dreams is about to get a reality check.
They said it couldn't be done, but geeky sophomore Lauren Carlson transformed herself into a popular girl after moving to a new school halfway across the country. Amazing what losing her braces and going out for cheerleading will do. Only trouble is, the popular crowd is wearing on Lauren's nerves and she can't wait to return to summer camp where she's valued for her brain instead of her handsprings. She misses her old friends and most of all, her long time camp-only boyfriend, Seth. This year she intends to upgrade their relationship to year-round status once she's broken up with her new, jock boyfriend, Matt. He doesn't even begin to know the real her, a girl fascinated by the night sky who dreams of discovering new planets and galaxies.
But Matt isn't giving her up without a fight. As he makes his case to stay together, Lauren begins to realize his feelings run deeper than she ever would have guessed. What if the guy she thought she was meant to be with forever isn't really The One? Returning to Camp Juniper Point was supposed to ground her uprooted life, but she's more adrift than ever. Everything feels different and soon Lauren's friends are turning on her and both guys question what she really wants. As summer tensions escalate, Lauren wonders if she's changed more than she thought. Will her first big discovery be herself?
Excerpt from Camp Boyfriend:
“Can I ask you a
question?” I’d been dying to ask him this for years, but the old me had been
too afraid.
“Shoot.” He
wrapped his arms around his knees and locked a hand around his other wrist.
I gathered
my courage. “Why did you want to break up every year after camp?”
In the
quiet that followed, I traced the white stitching on the embroidery that
outlined Madison’s initial.
When Seth
finally answered, his voice was low.
“It’s
easier to end things on good terms than risk something going wrong during the
school year.”
“Why assume
the worst?” I’d never given him reason to doubt me.
“I saw what
my dad went through after my mom left us.” He reached for a stick to shove the
logs around in the dusty fireplace as I marveled that he’d finally admitted
what I’d suspected. When Seth’s mom
abandoned him, she’d left a huge hole. No wonder he had trust issues. Still, we
could have worked through that if he’d given me a chance. Opened up to me like
this before.
“I always figured I’d
wait to get serious with anyone until I was… really sure,” he continued.
“And you
were never sure of me?”
His crooked
grin made a surprise appearance, but his tone was dry. “I was hoping this would
be the year we’d be ready to take that step.”
Something
inside me collapsed. My chest felt so tight that for a minute I couldn’t
breathe. We’d been so close to developing something amazing.
“Instead, I
showed up with someone else.”
Outside,
the wind rubbed tree limbs against the cabin, making a squeaking scrape.
“It wasn’t just
that.” He put the stick down and looked at me. Really looked me. “You showed up
as someone else. Someone I didn’t
recognize with a new look, clothes, interests.”
I opened my mouth to
protest but stayed silent when I followed his gaze to my trendy sneakers.
“I didn’t know who
you were anymore,” Seth went on. “Since when did you prefer dancing to
stargazing, tanning to pursuing your Aerospace Scholar dreams? That wasn’t the
Lauren I knew. Loved.”
I flinched. Who knew a verb tense could cut as
deep as a knife? Seth no longer loved me because I’d changed.
How ironic that I’d
come back to camp to get back to the things I’d loved, especially Seth. But
Matt had stopped that chance and, suddenly, I was glad he had. What was so
wrong with liking dance and
astronomy? Cheering and the science club? The popular and the outsider cliques?
The problem was, I hadn’t realized I could do both, be both. If I’d gone back to Seth, I would never have learned that.
I looked over at my
drying wedge sandals by the fireplace. They were awesome, even if they had
slowed us down. And yeah, I was the girl who worried about weather-induced hair
frizz.
So maybe I had
changed. And Seth had a point about letting my dreams lapse. But why couldn’t
he see through the make-up and clothes to the person who still thrilled at the
site of a meteor shower and drew constellations on her notebook covers?
I laid back, tired of
justifying myself. “That girl’s gone, Seth. I’m different now.”
Seth stretched beside
me. His amber eyes searched mine in the shadows between us, a wistful smile
lifting the corners of his mouth.
“It’s not a
bad thing,” he agreed, his fingers toying with my curls. “I just miss the old
you sometimes.”
I closed my
eyes and enjoyed his touch, knowing it wasn’t going any further. After all, he
cared about someone else, someone I’d never be again.
“Sometimes…” I edged
a little closer to ease the empty ache inside. “…so do I.”
Available from:
"Fun, romantic and giddy, Camp Boyfriend brings
real romance to summer camp with grace, humor and passion." -
Carrie Jones, New York Times Best-selling Author of the NEED
series
About the Authors:
J. K. Rock is the writing partnership of sisters-in-law
Joanne & Karen Rock. Separately, they write adult romance. Together, they
dream up Young Adult books like CAMP BOYFRIEND, the first in a three-book
series. The summer camp stories continue with CAMP PAYBACK (4/14)
and CAMP FORGET-ME-NOT (8/14), plus bonus free novellas in between
stories. Visit http://campboyfriend.net to
learn more about the series and the free prequel novella, CAMP KISS,
which you can download here.
***Author Links***
Author
Website / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads / Karen's Twitter / Joanne's Twitter / Facebook
a Rafflecopter giveaway
***GIVEAWAY***
Grand prize - Signed copies Amanda Ink's SUN, Jennifer
Armentrout writing as J. Lynn's FRIGID and JK Rock's CAMP BOYFRIEND. Also
included, advance sneak peek copy Laurie Halse Anderson's THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE
OF MEMORY and Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian's FIRE WITH FIRE, plus an "I
<3 my Camp Boyfriend" tee shirt, friendship
bracelets, 'I <3 Camp' temporary tattoos, and a
bookmark with the download code for CAMP KISS.
Three other winners will receive $10 Amazon gift cards
Book Blitz Hosted by:
Thanks for writing in such an encouraging post. I had a glimpse of it and couldn’t stop reading till I finished. I have already bookmarked you.
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