Book Blitz: Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry #giveaway

Welcome to the Blue Sky Days Relaunch Blitz!

~*~

Blue Sky Days
by Marie Landry

Contemporary new adult
Add on GoodReads

A year after graduating from high school, nineteen-year-old Emma Ward feels lost. She has spent most of her life trying to please her frigid, miserable mother - studying hard, getting good grades, avoiding the whole teenage rebellion thing - and now she feels she has no identity beyond that. Because she spent so many years working hard and planning every moment of her life, she doesn't have any friends, has never had a boyfriend, and basically doesn't know who she is or what she really wants from life. Working two part-time jobs to save money for college hasn't helped her make decisions about her future, so she decides it's time for a change. She leaves home to live with her free-spirited, slightly eccentric Aunt Daisy in a small town that makes Emma feel like she's stepped back in time.

When Emma meets Nicholas Shaw, everything changes - he's unlike anyone she's ever met before, the kind of man she didn't even know existed in the 21st century. Carefree and spirited like Daisy, Nicholas teaches Emma to appreciate life, the beauty around her, and to just let go and live. Between Daisy and Nicholas, Emma feels like she belongs somewhere for the first time in her life, and realizes that you don't always need a plan - sometimes life steers you where you're meant to be.

Life is wonderful, an endless string of blue sky days, until Nicholas is diagnosed with cancer, and life changes once again for Emma in ways she never thought possible. Now it's time for her to help Nicholas the way he's helped her. Emma will have to use her new-found strength, and discover along the way if love really is enough to get you through.

June 27th is the 20th anniversary of my dad’s death from leukemia. For a long time I’ve wanted to honour him in some way, and I thought having the relaunch of Blue Sky Days, a book that was partly inspired by him, would be the perfect tribute. My dad was a wonderful man—smart, funny, kind, and loyal. He was an amazing father, husband, brother, and friend. Even before he died, I knew I wanted to be a writer, and he would listen to my crazy made-up stories with the patience of a saint.

From the 27th-30th of June, half the proceeds from all sales of Blue Sky Days will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society. If you already own a copy, maybe you’d consider buying the book for a friend or family member? Or buying another copy from a different retailer (like Smashwords, which offers the book in every format)?

I greatly appreciate the support of the online reading/writing community for helping me honour my dad.

Amazon US || Amazon CAN || Amazon UK || Barnes & Noble || Smashwords || Kobo || iBooks

Thanks to eight incredible sponsors, there's a huge blitz-wide giveaway! There will be three (3) $20 PayPal cash prizes. Three chances to win - not too shabby, huh? This giveaway is open internationally to people aged 18+ who can accept PayPal cash.

Jessica @ Thoughts at One in the Morning
Follow Jessica on Twitter

Author Molli Moran @ Books and Whimsy
Like Molli's Facebook page

Patricia Lynne
Follow Patricia on Twitter

Mickey @ I’m a Book Shark
Follow Mickey on Twitter

Rachelia @ Bookish Comforts
Follow Bookish Comforts via email or BlogLovin'

Tana Rae Reads
Follow Tana's blog

Tana @ A Diva a Day!
Follow A Diva a Day!

Jess @ Jess Time to Read
Like Jess's Facebook page

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Marie has always been a daydreamer; since early childhood she's had a passion for words and a desire to create imaginary worlds, so it only seemed natural for her to become a writer. She resides in Ontario, Canada, and most days you can find her writing, reading, blogging about writing and reading, listening to U2, watching copious amounts of TV on DVD, or having grand adventures with her nephews and niece. She's a hopeless romantic, an unapologetic eavesdropper (occupational hazard), an equally unapologetic squeeing fangirl, and a lover of swoonworthy book and TV characters. For more on Marie and her books please visit http://sweetmarie-83.blogspot.ca. She also loves to chat with fellow book lovers, so feel free to tweet her @SweetMarie83 any time.

Find Marie online: {Blog || Twitter || Facebook || GoodReads || Instagram}

~*~

And now...

For a little something I like to call a blast from the past...

I was updating my status on Goodreads while I was beta reading Blue Sky Days when I noticed something that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Two and a half years later and not only have both Molli and I have read everything she writes, we still feel the same about BSD!

Blog Tour: Excerpt & Giveaway of Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry!

Welcome to the first stop on the Blue Sky Days Blog Tour!

I am thrilled to be part of the tour for this awesome book by the wonderful Marie Landry. She is an absolute sweetie, and an amazing author. Thank you Marie for letting me be part of this. *huge hugs* Don't forget to check out the other blogs that are part of the tour on Marie's book blog here or author blog here.

 "This novel was amazing. Purely and completely amazing. I used to wonder what made people say that someone had a remarkable debut, but with Marie Landry I wonder this no more... Blue Sky Days is a journey beyond compare. A love story in every sense of the word, a larger than life lesson, a renewed sense of self." ~taken from my review

I am pleased to present an excerpt from Marie's debut novel Blue Sky Days. Enjoy!

~*~EXCERPT~*~

.
There was a delightful breeze moving across the field, unhindered by buildings or trees. It rippled across the low-lying greenery surrounding the strawberries, sending the mouthwatering scent of ripe berries into the air. The wind moved around us, teasing the hem of my shirt and ruffling Nicholas’s hair so that it fell forward across his forehead, giving him a slightly roguish look that had my fingers itching, as they had before, to touch his hair. To touch him.

We worked away in silence until the container between us was full. Nicholas plucked one more strawberry from the vine and held it out to me. When I reached for it, he shook his head and held it to my lips. My stomach tensed as I leaned forward to take a tentative bite, careful not to graze his fingers with my teeth. I laughed when juice spurted from the ripe berry and rolled down my chin. When my eyes met Nicholas’s, expecting him to be laughing too, his face was serious, his eyes intent on my mouth.

I licked my lips self-consciously and wiped the juice from my face with the back of my hand. Nicholas’s gaze lingered on my lips a minute more before meeting my eyes as he popped the rest of the berry in his mouth and smiled slightly. “Sweet,” was all he said as he stood.

He moved around, working the kinks out of his legs before stretching, arms reaching up toward the sky. “Where’d those clouds come from?” he asked.

The note of surprise in his voice had my head snapping up to see a dark, foreboding mass crawling across the sky that had been a beautiful forget-me-not blue only moments before. “I didn’t hear anything about rain in the forecast.”

“Sure looks like a storm.” Nicholas stood there, his face upturned, and watched the clouds pick up their pace across the sky. He wiped away a fat raindrop that fell on his arm, and had just opened his mouth to say something when the sky seemed to burst open and pour sheets of rain down on us.

I let out a startled shriek as the cold raindrops hit my face. My first instinct was to run for shelter, and I turned in the direction of Farmer Milligan’s old red barn to do just that when Nicholas grabbed my hand and held me where I was.

“Stay!” he yelled over the noise of the heavy rain pounding on the ground. “Feel it. Enjoy it.” He took both my hands and turned them over, holding onto my wrists so I could feel the rain slip through my fingers and see it puddle in my palms before it overflowed and slid down to drip onto the earth.

As it washed over my face and hair, drenching my clothes so they clung to my body, I turned my face toward the sky again and closed my eyes. When the rain started falling harder than I thought it possibly could, I began to laugh. I had never seen it rain so hard in my life. It was coming down so thickly that when I opened my eyes to look at Nicholas, who was no more than two feet away from me, even he was blurred.

When he saw that I was laughing, a quick grin spread over his face. I couldn’t stop, and he started to chuckle, too. He let go of my hands and put his arms around my waist to pick me up and spin me around. I giggled harder as the rain flew from his hair. Closing my eyes, I buried my face in his neck, feeling dizzy but not from being spun.

When my feet hit the ground again, Nicholas kept his arms around my waist. The rain let up slightly, but was still coming down in buckets with the sound of it drowning out all the previous springtime noises—the birds chirping, the insects buzzing, the occasional far-off sound from the park. It was like we were in our own little rain-soaked world, the downpour creating a curtain of water around us that blocked out everything else.

Nicholas pushed a few strands of wet hair away from my face. Droplets of rain clung to his eyelashes and dripped from his hair. His mouth was curved into a hint of a smile, his eyes locked on mine. When his body shifted to lean toward me, my knees began to shake and I worried that I would melt into a puddle and wash away with the rain. He paused, his lips lingering close to mine, barely touching, but just enough to have my lips tingling in anticipation. This was it; I was about to have my first kiss, and it just happened to be with the most beautiful boy in the world.

Nicholas laughed under his breath as I sighed, and when he finally brought his mouth to mine, I was glad he still had his arms around me so my quivering knees didn’t land me in a heap right there in the middle of the field.

The kiss was slow and soft, mingled with the barest hint of strawberry sweetness as our lips parted and our tongues met. I knew I would never forget this moment—the feel of the rain as it slid over my skin; the way Nicholas’s hands moved to cup my face; the pungent smell of soaked strawberries and earth.

As I clung to Nicholas and the rain washed over us, I knew that everything would be different from that moment on. I may have been nineteen years old, but my life was really just starting in many ways. This was another new beginning: right there in Nicholas’s arms, in the middle of Farmer Milligan’s strawberry patch.
.

~*~

About the novel...

Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry
Add to your Goodreads shelf HERE
Buy on Amazon HERE
Buy on Smashwords HERE

.
 A year after graduating from high school, nineteen-year-old Emma Ward feels lost. She has spent most of her life trying to please her frigid, miserable mother - studying hard, getting good grades, avoiding the whole teenage rebellion thing - and now she feels she has no identity beyond that. Because she spent so many years working hard and planning every moment of her life, she doesn't have any friends, has never had a boyfriend, and basically doesn't know who she is or what she really wants from life. Working two part-time jobs to save money for college hasn't helped her make decisions about her future, so she decides it's time for a change. She leaves home to live with her free-spirited, slightly eccentric Aunt Daisy in a small town that makes Emma feel like she's stepped back in time.

When Emma meets Nicholas Shaw, everything changes - he's unlike anyone she's ever met before, the kind of man she didn't even know existed in the 21st century. Carefree and spirited like Daisy, Nicholas teaches Emma to appreciate life, the beauty around her, and to just let go and live. Between Daisy and Nicholas, Emma feels like she belongs somewhere for the first time in her life, and realizes that you don't always need a plan - sometimes life steers you where you're meant to be.

Life is wonderful, an endless string of blue sky days, until Nicholas is diagnosed with cancer, and life changes once again for Emma in ways she never thought possible. Now it's time for her to help Nicholas the way he's helped her. Emma will have to use her new-found strength, and discover along the way if love really is enough to get you through.

~synopsis from Goodreads

About the Author...

~*~

Marie Landry has always been a daydreamer. She has created imaginary worlds for as long as she can remember, so it only seemed natural that she would become a writer. With a passion for words that started in early childhood, Marie has written a varied range of works, and has been freelance writing since 2009. She resides in Ontario, Canada, and most days you can find her writing, reading, blogging about writing and reading, listening to U2, or having grand adventures with her two precious nephews.


Keep up with Marie online on the following pages:

GoodReads

Facebook: Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry
Facebook: Marie Landry, Writer
Follow Marie on Twitter
Blog: Ramblings of a Daydreamer
Author site: Marie Landry, Author
Check out the Blue Sky Days trailer

~*~

~*~

Blue Sky Days Giveaway!

Win an EBook copy of Marie Landry's Blue Sky Days! (EBook copy is made available through Smashwords, so you'll need an account with that site to receive the copy if you win)
All you have to do is fill out the form below to enter.

Rules:
1. You must be a follower.
2. You must be over 15 years old.
3. This is open to international followers.
4. You can earn extra entries by liking Marie on Facebook and/or following her on Twitter.
5. This contest runs from January 17th to 31st.
6. Winner will be selected on February 1st and notified via blog post announcement and email.

Please fill out THIS FORM.

~*~

Marie would like to thank the people who have supported her by showing her appreciation in some small way. So, for every person who buys a copy of Blue Sky Days during the tour and sends Marie proof of purchase via email to irishstar_83{at}hotmail{dot}com she will enter you into a giveaway to win a book of your choice up to $12 CAN from The Book Depository.

~Jessica

Review: Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry

Title: Blue Sky Days
Author: Marie Landry
Source: Copy given by author for honest review
Genre: Young Adult
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble (thru Smashwords)
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

.
A year after graduating from high school, nineteen-year-old Emma Ward feels lost. She has spent most of her life trying to please her frigid, miserable mother - studying hard, getting good grades, avoiding the whole teenage rebellion thing - and now she feels she has no identity beyond that. Because she spent so many years working hard and planning every moment of her life, she doesn't have any friends, has never had a boyfriend, and basically doesn't know who she is or what she really wants from life. Working two part-time jobs to save money for college hasn't helped her make decisions about her future, so she decides it's time for a change. She leaves home to live with her free-spirited, slightly eccentric Aunt Daisy in a small town that makes Emma feel like she's stepped back in time.

When Emma meets Nicholas Shaw, everything changes - he's unlike anyone she's ever met before, the kind of man she didn't even know existed in the 21st century. Carefree and spirited like Daisy, Nicholas teaches Emma to appreciate life, the beauty around her, and to just let go and live. Between Daisy and Nicholas, Emma feels like she belongs somewhere for the first time in her life, and realizes that you don't always need a plan - sometimes life steers you where you're meant to be.

Life is wonderful, an endless string of blue sky days, until Nicholas is diagnosed with cancer, and life changes once again for Emma in ways she never thought possible. Now it's time for her to help Nicholas the way he's helped her. Emma will have to use her new-found strength, and discover along the way if love really is enough to get you through.

~synopsis from Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Amazing.

That’s my review… just kidding! Seriously though, this novel was amazing. Purely and completely amazing. I used to wonder what made people say that someone had a remarkable debut, but with Marie Landry I wonder this no more. Believe me, I’m not just gushing because I’ve gotten to know Marie a little bit over these last few months. I am being truly honest--her work can speak for itself.

There is something about Emma that sincerely appeals to the side of me that wants to not only do more, but be more. The journey she has taken on is entirely new to her--a new place, new people, new life. She’s technically been an adult for a short time but it feels like much longer since she grew up fast. She missed out on so many of the little things, like a sunrise, and she learns to appreciate them.

Emma’s relationship with Nicholas is one of the most beautiful ones I have read. Even as I am typing up this review, I am tearing up thinking about it. Nicholas sees how amazing Emma is, despite the fact that she feels she has nothing amazing about her at first. He sees what she really is, the person she can be, the one that can break through the walls she built up over the years that hid that person. They fall head over heels in love, and can you blame either of them? No, you can see from the start they were destined for each other.

When the knowledge of Nicholas having cancer comes into play, the entire focus of the story remains. Emma is right by his side, and their love plays a role in how things progress. They face the ups and downs of the illness, hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel. Faint glimmers of hope appear and disappear. Through thick and thin, Emma and Nicholas pull through just as strong as they were over the summer.

The story isn’t just a love story between Emma and Nicholas. Emma’s aunt Daisy plays a huge role that impacts Emma’s very perspective. Nicholas introduces her to his friends Maggie and Vince, who are really cool people, and she meets his father Sam, too, who is just as sweet as Nicholas.

Along the way, Emma talks with her parents a little bit. Her mother is still attempting to control her in any way possible. Although her mother isn’t very nice, her father tries to stay in touch. The way things end up with her and her parents is a very accurate depiction of reality. Not everything can be tied up into neat and pretty little bows, some things come undone and can never be put back together again. It doesn’t matter what happens, but how you choose to react to these situations. Emma makes some brave choices that shape her into an incredible young woman.

Blue Sky Days is a journey beyond compare. A love story in every sense of the word, a larger than life lesson, a renewed sense of self. Marie Landry’s storytelling ability connects the reader to the story to the point where their eyes cannot stray from the page. Yes, you will cry (I did). Yes, you may even sob (oh boy, I certainly did). But, you will never regret reading this novel (and I mean never). I, for one, am anxiously awaiting what else Marie has in store.

 My Rating:

Exceptional: Stay up until at least 1 AM

Waiting On Wednesday #13: Blue Sky Days

WoW: Hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine

Title: Blue Sky Days
Author: Marie Landry
Read the Goodreads Synopsis


I discovered this one because the author is behind one of the blogs I adore: Ramblings Of A Daydreamer. Marie is such a sweetie, and I am so anxious to be able to read this story by her. ^_^


What are YOU waiting on?

~Jessica