Title: Pearl
Author: Deirdre Riordan Hall
Published by: Skyscape
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Published by: Skyscape
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Publication date: March 1st 2016
BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours
Run fast and run far, unless you’re fearless. Unless you’re courageous. I’m not, but I’d like to be.
Pearl Jaeger is seventeen and homeless after drugs, poverty, and addiction unraveled the life she shared with JJ, her formerly glamorous rock star mother.
This moment of happiness is fleeting; someone will take it from me.
When tragedy brings a chance to start over at an elite boarding school, she doesn’t hesitate. Yet the only salvation comes from an art teacher as troubled as Pearl, and she faces the stark reality that what she thought she wanted isn’t straightforward.
I trace the outline of my reflection in a window. I am no more than a replica of my mother. This is not the self-portrait I want to paint.
Through the friendships she forms at school—especially with Grant, a boy who shows Pearl what it means to trust and forgive—she begins to see a path not defined by her past. But when confronted with the decision to be courageous or to take the easy way forged by her mother’s failures, which direction will Pearl choose?
PURCHASE LINKS
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EXCERPT
From Chapter Two
EXCERPT
From Chapter Two
Sweat and tears intermingle on my mother’s face, and a
cut bleeds slowly from the side of her eye.
“Pearl, we gotta get out of here.”
I’ve heard this before. We’ve had to leave abruptly from
other situations: lousy boyfriends, landlords she owed rent to, roommates she’d
stolen from, and the police.
As the stream of blood reaches her T-shirt, she clutches
her side. Her face crumples in agony. “I think I have a broken rib. He hit me
with his guitar.”
Everything about this is wrong. I want to wish it all
away—go somewhere simple, clean, and faraway, like Antarctica. I’d prefer the
cold to the fevered flush of fear running through me. I get to my feet and grab
a pair of stretch pants from the floor. I help her into them. As she leans on
me, we slowly make our way to the door. In the hall, she falls against the door
frame of the bathroom.
“Come on, Mom, let’s go.” She probably needs an
ambulance, but who knows how much crack—and whatever else—she has in her
system, so I dare not get the police involved. We’ve gone that route, and I
don’t want to see her arrested again.
“Wait. Get my purse and some clothing. Pack me a bag. No,
never mind. I’ll do it,” she says hoarsely. She gets to her hands and knees and
crawls back to her room.
“Mom, come on, let’s just go. I can come back for
whatever you need later.” I grip my hands together, my fingers blanching as I
hold on tight.
“I have to get a few things,” she whimpers.
“I’ll get them. Tell me what you need,” I say
insistently, my vision starting to blur.
She shakes her head, continuing. She wants to get the
crack pipe and other drug paraphernalia she has hidden in her room. This
scenario is uncomfortably familiar.
I shift from foot to foot. My stomach clenches with
anxiety. What if Darren comes back?
Part of me fears what other damage he might do, but the
bitter part is that if he comes back with drugs, she’ll do them instead of
getting medical attention.
“Mom, let’s go.”
She must have used the bed to pull herself up and stand,
because she emerges, staggering on her feet, dragging a duffel bag. “Why don’t
you grab some clothes too?”
I scoot past her and stuff a couple of outfits,
underwear, and Vogue into my backpack. I scrounged whatever I could this
past month, saving every penny, even the ones I found on the ground, to get the
latest issue, my lone extravagance. “Ready?” I say when I step back into the
hall.
She nods. Step-by-step, we make our way down two of the
three flights. She droops on the top of the last one.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
During her teens, Deirdre Riordan Hall traveled throughout the United States and Europe, developing a love for stories and a desire to connect with worlds—imagined or real—on the page. She has written Sugar, To the Sea, Surfaced, and the Follow Your Bliss series. When not spending time with her family, writing, or traveling, Hall is at the beach, pretending to be a mermaid.
AUTHOR LINKS
***GIVEAWAY***
This is a Blitz Wide International Giveaway
The Prize = 3 x print copies of Pearl
Here is the LINK
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