OCD, The Dude, and Me Blog Tour & Review

OCD, The Dude, and Me
Author: Lauren Roedy Vaughn
Published: March 21, 2013

 Seventeen-year-old Danielle Levine is your typical high school teen-ager - if you count havingOCD and ADHD as typical.  

Danielle's "special" conditions lead her to a school for students with learning disabilities, and, even here, she struggles to fit in.

How Danielle navigates her status as a "learning-challenged" teen pariah is told, with equal parts pain and hilarity, in Lauren Roedy Vaughn's debut Young Adult novel, OCD, THE DUDE, AND ME, which Kirkus Review has hailed as a "must-read."

Told through a mélange of Danielle's class assignments, journal entries, emails, texts, and letters to the school psychiatrist, OCD, THE DUDE, AND ME chronicles Danielle's efforts to fit into a world that, to her, can be as alien as a distant planet. Yet, Danielle will be recognizable to her readers, with her body-image issues, her crush on an unattainable boy, and her feelings of insecurity over the rigid social code of high school life.

Just as things seemingly couldn't get worse for her, Danielle meets a new friend, Daniel, who turns her on to the Coen Brothers' classic cult film THE BIG LEBOWSKI and its indelible main character, the ever-cool, ever abiding Dude. Daniel and Danielle end up going to the prom together and to Lebowski Fest, an annual event celebrating the Dudeand his Buddha-like philosophy, which says that things will work out if you "abide."

Vaughn is especially equipped to write Danielle's story. She has been a special education teacher and a writer for nearly 20 years. She understands that each student with a learning challenge has a unique profile that requires specialized intervention strategies. Danielle benefits from the guidance of charismatic adults to learn how to socialize and accept herself. She is also able to leverage her affinities-reading and writing-in order to shift her perspective and grow.

Vaughn's students "live with the stigma" of being called "lazy" and "different," Vaughn explains. "It is my love for them, my understanding of their diversity that compelled me to write a fictionalized account of one of them and their world. I wanted them to see their value within the context of a story."

The major reason for the presence of THE BIG LEBOWSKI and theDude, Vaughn says, is that the Dude is "an iconic character who lived through a dramatic situation and kept abiding. He is a model for dealing with life's difficult situations. There are other 'dudes' in my story who also affect Danielle."

Vaughn herself says she is a "huge fan" of THE BIG LEBOWSKI. "When I was asking the story Gods to help me come up with what could help Danielle, that film popped into my mind. When Danielle witnesses the film, she realizes that life is unpredictable and often ridiculous ... abiding is a saner choice."

What critics are saying:

Publisher's Weekly:  Pick of the Week

Kirkus Review:  "A must-read." (Starred review)

Star Library Journal: "This one is sure to find an appreciative audience." (Starred review)

Seventeen magazine online:  "The book's fun format of traditional long-form, texts, letters, and emails make this book easy and fun to read."

OCD, The Dude, and Me

Publisher:  Dial Books, March  21, 2013

234 pages,  ISBN-13: 978-0803738430, Amazon Kindle edition, ISBN:  0803738439

Available at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and book stores nationwide

About the Author: 

Lauren Roedy Vaughn is an award-winning educator who has spent nearly 20 years teaching English to high school students with language-based learning disabilities. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles.

You can visit her website at www.laurenroedyvaughn.com. 

My Review

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started OCD, The Dude, and Me but I honestly wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. Written as a series of Essay's, journal entries, emails and letters OCD, The Dude, and Me chronicles Danielle's life through out her senior year. Danielle doesn't see herself as other people see her. She sees a fat, messed up "freak". She often wonders if her parents are sorry they adopted her thinking that they couldn't have possibly bargained for a daughter with so many problems. 

During Danielle's senior life she grows by leaps and bounds. She finds love, the real kind. Makes surprising new friends. Realizes a talent that she wasn't aware of and finally starts healing from a tragedy in her past. 

In the beginning of reading OCD, The Dude, and Me I was having a bit of trouble connecting with Danielle. Once I started figuring her out a little I really got into this story and have already started recommending it to my daughters and will definitely be telling others I know to give this one a try as well. Reading this makes me want to watch The Big Lebowski again, read more Shakespeare and Rumi, and once again start a journal and fill my fridge with my favorite quotes. A wonderful Young Adult read!

One of my favorite saying from the book, though I actually have many. 

"Little things, little things, are much more important than big things. Big things hit you in the face with their bigness and obscure the little, more important things that really define a life and provide it with delicacy. 

I don't usually reread book but I can see myself reading this one again and again. 

Never Too Far by Thomas Christopher (Book Blitz and Giveaway)

Never Too Far by Thomas Christopher

Genre: YA Dystopian 

Publication date: May 10th 2012

A harrowing story of love and survival.

In a future of scarce resources, where the possession of gas and diesel is punishable by death, a teenage boy and a pregnant girl must save their impoverished family. They risk their lives on a terrifying journey to sell stolen fuel on the black market.

Amazon

AUTHOR BIO

Thomas Christopher grew up in Iowa. He received his MFA from Western Michigan University. His short stories have appeared in The Louisville Review, The MacGuffin, Redivider, and Cooweescoowee. He was also awarded an Irving S. Gilmore Emerging Artist Grant and was a finalist for the Matthew Clark Prize in Fiction. He lives in Wisconsin with his wife and son.

LINKS:

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter 

Excerpt From Never To Far

Joe turned and ran back into the gully, but he didn’t get very far. A sudden blast of wind shoved him to the ground. Flat on his face, he heard the wind whistling and screeching past his ears. When he lifted his head, he couldn’t see the pregnant girl anymore. All the dust whirled and whipped into a blinding black blizzard. He thought for sure she’d gotten snatched up in the dust storm. The wind lashed at his face. He went to call out to her, but he didn’t know what to say because he didn’t know her name. And even if he did, his voice would’ve gotten lost in the snarling wind. Nevertheless, he had to find her.

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Book Blitz & Giveaway: Romancing The R.A. by Ashelyn Drake

Romancing the R.A. (Campus Romance #1)

by Ashelyn Drake

Release Date: 05/28/13

Summary from Goodreads:

Noelle Buckman is looking forward to making a fresh start in college, one that doesn’t involve immature high school boys. The second she steps on campus for freshman orientation, she can sense the possibilities. Especially when she spots Andy, a resident advisor who’s not just hot but also thoughtful enough to open doors for a girl. 

And Andy has his eye on Noelle. Even when her nerves take control and she thinks she comes off as a hillbilly with no direction, Andy can see what she’s really like and he’s more than a little interested.

But orientation is less than two full days and there’s an entire summer between Noelle and Andy. Will her attempt to romance the R.A. be as shortlived as college orientation?

 
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***Excerpt***

He’s stunned at first and doesn’t move. I start to pull away, thinking I’ve made a huge mistake, but then I feel Andy’s hand on my lower back, pulling me closer. His lips part, and he deepens the kiss.

Every inch of me is on fire. Andy’s an incredible kisser, but the position we’re in is awkward. I reach my hands up and bury my fingers in his hair, which prompts him to lift me onto his lap. Much better. Our bodies are pressed so close I can feel every inch of him. My lungs are screaming for air, but I’m not willing to give in to them. I’ve been dying to kiss Andy ever since he first smiled at me, and I’ll be damned if I’m backing away that quickly.

His hands move up my back to my hair, and he pulls my head back gently exposing my neck. His lips trail down my jaw and to the nape of my neck. I bite my lip to stifle a moan, but it manages to slip out anyway. Andy slowly eases off, opening his eyes to see my reaction. I debate pulling his lips back to mine, but for the moment I drape my arms around his shoulders and just stare into his baby blue eyes.

“Wow.”

He can say that again. “Yeah.”

“I can honestly say that’s the first time I didn’t have to make the first move.”

“And it’s the first time I ever made the first move.”

           

He smiles. “Then I’m honored.” He leans forward and places a single kiss on my neck. His hips rise under me, and I know exactly where he’s hoping this is going to lead. My body is screaming for his touch, but I don’t want to be that girl. The one who goes off to college and sleeps with the first guy she meets. As much as I want Andy, I can’t do this right now.

About the Author

Ashelyn Drake is a New Adult and Young Adult romance author represented by Lauren Hammond of ADA Management. Look for her debut New Adult romance, Romancing the R.A., from S.B. Addison Books!

*Author Links*

Website│Twitter│Goodreads│Facebook

***GIVEAWAY***
Signed Romancing the R.A. postcard and $10 gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble (INT)

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Eversea by Natasha Boyd Book Blitz and Giveaway

Eversea by Natasha Boyd

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance 

Publication date: June 10th 2013

• An orphaned small-town southern girl, burdened by responsibility and stuck in time.

• A Hollywood A-list mega-star, on the run from his latest scandal and with everything to lose.

• A chance encounter that leads to an unlikely arrangement and epic love affair that will change them both forever.

When his co-star and real-life girlfriend is caught cheating on him with her married and much older director, A-list hottie, Jack Eversea, finds himself in sleepy Butler Cove, South Carolina. Jack hopes the sultry southern heat in this tiny coastal Lowcountry town will hide him not only from the tabloids and his cheating girlfriend, but his increasingly vapid life and the people who run it.  He doesn’t count on meeting Keri Ann Butler. 

Keri Ann has relied on herself so long, dealing with her family’s death and the responsibilities of keeping up her family’s historic mansion, that boys and certainly the meager offering of eligible boys in Butler Cove, have never figured into her equation.  But fate has other plans.  Suddenly face to face with the man who played the movie role of her favorite fictional character, Jack has Keri Ann yearning for everything she has previously avoided ... and Jack must decide whether this funny, sassy girl is worth changing his life for, before his mistakes catch up to him.

Eversea is a FINALIST in the Winter Rose Unpublished Contest for 2013

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Teaser

Jack stepped toward me. If it was possible, he suddenly looked predatory.

Pressing my back further against the cool wall at his approach, I held my breath as he planted his palms flat against the wall behind me, his body hovering a scant inch from mine and his head ducking straight down to my neck.

“I’m glad we have our reasons laid out, Keri Ann,” he said quietly, breathing his words into my ear in a torrent of snapping electricity. “But that doesn’t mean it’s never going to happen.”

My stomach flipped over, and my breath whooshed out into a deep and embarrassing pant. Placing my hands against his hard chest, I pushed him away to arms length. “Wow, did anyone ever tell you how arrogant you are?”

“Not arrogant. Confident. There’s a difference.”

AUTHOR BIO

Natasha Boyd is a writer with a background in marketing and public relations. She lives in the coastal Carolina Lowcountry, complete with Spanish moss, alligators and mosquitoes the size of tiny birds.  She has a husband, two sons and a cat named Tuna.  Eversea is her first full-length novel. 

Author Links:

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter 

Blog Tour & Giveaway: How To Be Almost Famous In Ten Days by Kathleen S. Allen

How to Be Almost Famous in Ten Days  by Kathleen S. Allen

Publication date: March 15th 2013 

Genre: YA Contemporary

Seventeen-year-old Cassie Cee feels invisible because she's a double-digit size. She finds a book in a secondhand bookstore that she hopes will change her life. Her best friend's brother wants to make vlogs about how she is following the ten rules she found in the book, why she is doing it, and how she feels about being invisible for his school project. She agrees, but only if he promises no one but his college advisor will see the vlogs. He promises, but a friend of his posts them online and they go viral. When one of the "famous rules" puts her best friend, Rachel in a dangerous situation, Cassie makes one last vlog and Chuck posts it online. But emails begin arriving from other girls who have felt invisible, and she realizes she has to own up to being "the real Cassie Cee."

Amazon Barnes & Noble

My Thoughts

How To Be Almost Famous In Ten Days is a quick, fun, summer teen read that even young teens can enjoy. HTBAF is all about loving yourself for who you are and not being afraid to be yourself. 

As an adult I found this story to be a bit young for me. However, I was still able to enjoy it and can see how the younger crowd might really like it. Being a teen is hard and when your best friend is gorgeous beyond belief I can imagine how Cassie could feel invisible. I didn't always agree with or understand her reasoning behind using her gorgeous friend to become famous but I do remember how looks can mean everything when your young. 

HTBAF will hopefully leave it's readers feeling inspired to have fun and be themselves. 

AUTHOR BIO

Kathleen has been writing since she was eight years old when she self-published her first book. Okay, she hand-copied her poems onto plain white paper, paper punched three holes in the sides, made an orange and blue “book jacket” and threaded red ribbon through the holes that she tied with a bow. Ta Dah! Her first book! She’s been writing ever since. She writes in different genres but YA is her favorite. 

Links:

Website: http://kathleensallen.weebly.com/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6834871.Kathleen_S_Allen

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Witch-Hunter/142372955812353

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kathleea

Follow the rest of the How To Be Almost Famous In Ten Day tour at:

http://www.xpressobooktours.com/2013/03/tour-sign-up-how-to-be-almost-famous-in.html

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