This is a magical post from beyond time and space. I’m nowhere near a computer! Well maybe it’s not magic, but it is a scheduled post I wrote before my vacation, scheduled for today in particular because this is the day that my and Tara Altebrando’s collaborative novel, ROOMIES, is officially out in paperback.

If you missed our book the first time around, you may have missed such rave reviews as:

“two great novels in one”! (I added the exclamation point) – Publisher’s Weekly in a starred review, or,

“a modern and meaningful epistolary novel.” ! (ditto) – BCCB, starred review, or,

“tremendous appeal”! (ahem) – Kirkus – and – “the must-have book at the moment…a five-star coming-of-age novel” – Pretty Little Memoirs – and – “I also loved the sheer breezy teen American-ness of it all.” – The Daily Mail (from the UK, which is apparently a lot less of a breezy place), and, of course:

“Ladies and gentlemen: Finally! Roomies is the New Adult novel I have been waiting for!” – Anna Reads

The paperback has a fun new cover, which I have to tell you looks great in person, and feels satisfying in the hand–just the thing to throw into your beach bag or airplane carryon or take with you on your summer babysitting gigs for when the kiddies are asleep. (If this last scenario is you, you’ll especially appreciate the character Lauren’s struggles with her five younger siblings.)

For more about the actual plot of the book, see here, or just go ahead and look for it from your favorite bookseller or library. And of course, it’s also available in ebook.

Happy summer, happy reading!

p.s. since the publication of this book, Tara has been busy,  with two middle-grade novels published – The Battle of Darcy Lane and My Life in Dioramas – and a new YA, The Leaving, coming in 2016 which is “about six kids who disappear when they’re five. Eleven years later, five of them come back…” That sounds wonderfully, wonderfully creepy.

Hopefully by the end of my quiet-away-writing time I will have gotten a little closer to catching up with Tara!