Recap of Rules
Everyday that you participate in the giveaway of the day, you are eligible to win a brand new kindle.
How to participate
a) Subscribe via email, so you can get the author & prize of the day sent directly to your email.
b) Like the author of the day on facebook
c) Follow the author on Twitter
d) Read any of the author's books
e) Answer the occasional quiz on author's interview
f) Scroll to the bottom of each interview and enter the raffle (you'll have to unlock the raffle with your email first)
That's it- then enter the kindle giveaway!
All giveaways will be sent out by the 7th day in April. Good Luck.
Featured Book 0.99$
At the age of 15, Taylor Beauforte has only met her father twice in person. After all, he is the lead singer of a world-famous rock band, constantly on the cover of music magazines and giving interviews on MTV. He pays for Taylor to attend the Treadwell Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts, and provides her mother with monthly checks to cover her basic needs, but has never made much of an effort to play an active part in Taylor’s life. Taylor's mom Dawn is the only family she has ever really known, and because of Dawn's hard-partying Hollywood lifestyle, studious Taylor is happiest on the other side of the country in Massachusetts with her nose buried in a book.When Taylor 's mom unexpectedly dies the summer before Taylor starts her junior year, she receives a crash course in fame. She has no choice but to join her father and his new family on their summer concert tour before she has even had a chance to mourn the loss of her mother. Life as the daughter of a rock star seems like it would be enviable, but Taylor can't figure her dad out. He seems like a supportive authority figure (even if he's kind of a fashion tragedy) , but she is collecting a growing pile of evidence that he's a liar and a cheat. Her stepmother, Jill, can’t seem to decide if she wants to treat Taylor like a girlfriend or a nuisance.
Having had no time to grieve and say goodbye to her childhood before being thrust into the limelight, Taylor is suddenly finding herself in situations she could have never imagined before this summer. With no one else to turn to, Taylor falls head over heels in love with Jake, the teenage son of one of the band's touring groupies. Taylor has growing concerns about Jake's background and the suspicious relationship between his mom and her own father, but is desperate for something real in her life onto which she can build a future. When Jake offers Taylor an opportunity to join him on a whirlwind adventure and leave her problems with her father far behind, Taylor has to decide – should she carve out her own way in the world, or try to repair the relationship she has with her only living parent? Over the course of the summer with the band, Taylor learns the depths of her own strength, the difficulty of overcoming loss, and that the definition of family means much more than shared bloodlines.
Interview with Caitlyn Duffy
Hello Caitlyn,
1) What role does reading play in your life?
When I was growing up, my family moved pretty frequently. Reading was a huge source of comfort for
me because it always took a while for me to make friends at new schools. Certain books, like “And You
Give Me a Pain, Elaine,” by Stella Pevsner, and “Tiger Eyes,” by Judy Blume, helped me to not feel so
alone.
2) If you could be any character in any YA book, who would you be? Why?
Good question!! I like the idea of being Olivia, Grace’s friend in “Shiver,” by Maggie Stiefvater. She’s the one who’s bitten by a werewolf and starts to turn into one. Being the beautiful, popular girl who makes everyone jealous has never really been interesting to me; I’d rather be the girl who turns into the werewolf! And of course, Katniss. Who wouldn’t want to be Katniss? Or Gemma Doyle from the “Gemma Doyle Trilogy,” by Libba Bray. Those books are awesome.
3) Do you read YA books? What is the best YA series you have read recently?
I read a lot of YA books as well as Contemporary Fiction for grown-ups. I was slow to jump on the
Rainbow Rowell train but I read “Eleanor and Park” over Christmas break and it rocked my world. This
series might be aimed at readers a little older than YA, but the “Starstruck” series by Rachel Shukert
about starlets in classic Hollywood is pretty addicting. It’s really well-researched and steamy, kind of like
if Gossip Girl was set in the 1930’s.
4) What makes a book great in your opinion?
Whether a book is set in a completely fictional world, or in the past, or even just in a high school I never
attended, what makes a book great and memorable to me is if there’s something in it to which I can
emotionally relate. Books that make my heart puff up or make me cry are the ones that I remember in
detail for longer periods of time.
5) What is the last book you read that had a profound impact on your life?
Neil Gaiman’s “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” made me remember exactly what it felt like to be
seven years old. As I’m getting older, it’s increasingly difficult for me to remember childhood with
clarity, but wow – that book did it. A masterpiece.
6) In another interview, you mentioned admiring Lois Lowry. What do you admire about her
writing? How does it feel to be part of 31 books in 31 days with her?
Lois Lowry has astonishing range as an author. It overjoys me to see such a forward-thinking, imaginative
book like “The Giver” finding a new audience today even though that was a book I cherished over twenty
years ago when I was a kid! It kind of blows my mind to be part of this 31 Books event with her. I
probably took the “Anastasia Krupnick” series of books out of the Danvers Public Library no fewer than
five thousand times between fifth and sixth grade. Two of Ms. Lowry’s older books, “Autumn Street” and
“A Summer to Die” are both books that make me choke up with emotion even when I simply think about
them. When I write, I can only hope I’m doing a halfway decent job of emulating her magical sense of
pacing. She really draws her readers into the worlds she creates, and for me it’s always wrenching to
reach the last page. No matter what your age, if you haven’t read “Autumn Street” and “A Summer to
Die,” I highly recommend both of them.
7) Tell us about the Treadwell academy Series. What inspired this series and how is it different
from other YA books in its genre?
I’m not so sure that the Treadwell Academy series is completely unique from other YA books! There
seem to be a lot of YA books set in worlds of boarding schools, but in those books there’s usually either
some kind of hook (the school is really a training camp for teen spies!) or every plot revolves around
gossip and evil tricks girls play on each other. My series focuses on one girl at a time and on the problems
she’s facing. In Taylor’s book, Taylor’s acclimating to a new family structure and getting to know her
new stepmother. In Betsey’s, she’s hiding a secret about sexual abuse. Emma, the most popular girl in the
junior class, struggles with anorexia as she tries to prove to her parents that she can make it on her own as
a top model. I try not to integrate too much cattiness between my characters into the stories; I think teen
girls see vicious behavior glamorized by the media too much already. The books all overlap a little,
because I always want the timelines in the girls’ lives to seem realistic.
Other Books by Caitly Duffy
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