It’s
release day time for YA contemporary romantic comedy “Not Pretty Enough” by
author Jamie Admans. Happy release day!
Read an
Excerpt
I stare at the back of Lloyd’s shaggy brown hair as I follow
him across the yard. He doesn’t know I’m following him, of course. I’m not even
following him, not really. Not this time, anyway. Debs and I are just casually
strolling across the yard towards the buses and he happens to be in front of
us.
“Chessie!” Debs shouts at me just
a second too late as I walk smack bang into the side of a bus.
Ouch.
Lloyd turns around at the sound
of the clattering thunk I make.
Usually I like the sound of
Lloyd’s laugh, but not today. Not when he’s laughing at me.
“You couldn’t have told me just a
second earlier?” I ask Debs.
“Sorry,” she says. “I was
talking to you and didn’t realise you weren’t listening until it was too late.”
Luckily the bus I’ve just walked
into happens to be our bus, and I throw myself onto it with such force that I
nearly come out the other side.
“You all right, love?” The
driver asks. I ignore him and heave myself down into my seat with a huff.
I am all right. My boobs are so
large they hit the bus before the rest of me did, otherwise I’d probably have a
bruised face as well as the bruised ego. Once, just once, couldn’t these things
happen to me when Lloyd isn’t watching? It’s not too
much to ask, is it?
“Maybe if you spent more time
watching where you were going and less time watching Lloyd, these things
wouldn’t happen in front of him,” Debs says.
I hadn’t meant to say that out
loud.
“But he’s just so… watchable.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s talkable
to as well, you know, if you tried.”
The thing is, I have tried.
Lloyd brings out the worst in me. He brings out the most nervous, clumsiest,
downright embarrassing side of me that doesn’t even exist unless he’s in the
immediate vicinity. Well, maybe it exists but it doesn’t show half as much if
Lloyd’s not there.
“Why don’t you?” Debs is saying.
“Just go and talk to him. You’re a great girl. He’d be lucky to have you.”
“Oh, please. Lloyd is popular,
rich, and gorgeous. He doesn’t even have to get a bus to school, the lucky
bugger. I’m the complete opposite.”
No one even knows where Lloyd
Layton lives. He has a taxi bringing him to school every morning and picking
him up outside the gate every afternoon. I get to ride on this rustbucket with
Debs twice a day. He’s popular, always surrounded by a gang of equally popular
mates, and always the first to be picked for sports teams. I’m unpopular,
always surrounded by no one but Debs, and always the absolute last to be picked
for sports teams.
“Come on, Chessie,” Debs says.
“You’re not ugly and you’re not unpopular. No one dislikes you.”
“No one particularly likes me
either.”
“I particularly like you. Ewan
does too. We’re your friends.”
“I love you for trying to make
me feel better but I’m average all round and you know it. The only person who
has any feelings towards me whatsoever is Leigh, and she intensely dislikes
me.”
“Leigh is just a bitch. She
intensely dislikes everything.”
Leigh Marlow is our class bully.
She walks around the school like she owns the place, flanked on either side by
two other bullies who think the sun shines out of her backside. If she doesn’t
get what she wants, someone gets hurt. What she wants this year is our friend
Ewan, who isn’t interested in her in the slightest. She thinks this is somehow
our fault, and Debs and I are her current targets. Me in particular.
This is why I made those
resolutions. Not because of Leigh, but because I have to do something. I’m sick
of being the girl who doesn’t stand out. I doubt most of the kids in my form
could even tell you my name, and I’ve been in class with them for over two
years. I get good enough marks but never good marks. I’ve never done anything
memorable in my life. The most memorable thing about me is the size of my boobs
and how frizzy my hair goes in the rain.
So I’m going to make Lloyd
Layton fall in love with me. On most days it seems like the unlikeliest thing
that could ever happen, because apart from those three little words last month,
he barely even glances in my direction. I want to prove to myself that I can do
things if I put my mind to it. I’m not pretty, I’m not smart, but I think Lloyd
and I have lots of deeper, more important things in common, and I want to prove
to people like Leigh that looks don’t matter, and not being as pretty as her
isn’t the end of the world.
Not Pretty
Enough
Title:
Not Pretty Enough
Author:
Jaimie Admans
Genre:
YA Contemporary Romantic Comedy
“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.
Get
your own copy of the book here:
Author Bio
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.
She
is the author of chick-lit romantic comedy Kismetology and YA Paranormal
romantic comedy Afterlife Academy. Not Pretty Enough is her fourth book.
Website:
http://www.jaimieadmans.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/be_the_spark
Facebook: http://facebook.com/jaimieadmansbooks
Title: Anathema
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Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.
Title: Just Off the Path
Title: Rex
Title: Acadia’s Revenge (Undying Love, Book Two)
Tracy Ellen was born in Indiana to middle-class parents, the third out of five hellions. She often used her supernatural powers to compel her family members to listen to her talk and tell stories. When that tough crowd laughed of their own free will, Tracy knew the world would someday, somehow be her stage. Now she’s a full-time writer living her dream. Tracy’s resided in the Midwest her whole life–in a small town, on a farm, and in the big city. Currently, she lives in the suburbs of St Paul, Minnesota with her husband and family. Stay in touch by checking out Tracy’s website, and then signing up for her monthly newsletter to be notified of new books coming your way, giveaways, and exclusive content. She also has a fetish about giving fun surprise gifts to her lovely newsletter members every edition. (Hint: She hopes that entices you to her website.) 
