BSP: The Keepers Blog Tour & Giveaway

Reader Girls is today's stop for The Keepers Blog Tour. The Keepers may be classified as a YA paranormal romance but this story deals with other issues like faith, loss, heartbreak and angels. Author Monique O'Connor James is sharing an excerpt form her novel and offering one copy to one of our readers. First, let's share the blurb with you.

Book blurb: Jess denies God. In his infinite wisdom, he's taken everyone she's ever loved. Moving to the French Quarter was a ploy to erase the guilt she felt for rebuking her faith. Perhaps, if she hadn't met Justin, an angel preoccupied with getting back into God's good graces, and drowning in his hatred for humanity, her plan would have worked.

Justin's general disdain for the human race makes him difficult to like, but some higher power has appointed him her keeper. Justin's convinced he can mend her broken relationship with her maker, but in the process he learns a thing or two about his own humanity.

Never mind falling in love, that's not supposed to happen. In fact, it may even be forbidden. Jess just wants Justin to understand her plight, and he wants to protect her from a world she doesn't know.

If neither are equipped to save the other, then whose soul will live and whose will perish?

We welcome author Monique O'Connor James. Here is an excerpt from The Keepers: 

Earlier, Justin had sat alone in his bedroom watching rain trickle from the roof line onto the patio outside, where it collected in an empty Coke bottle. He'd planned to be knee-deep in a pity party by the time his brother, Rory, returned from work.

It was difficult not to feel sorry for himself. He was utterly surrounded by the stench of humanity. He had asked for this very thing. He'd wanted to commune with them, be part of their world, but he’d soon discovered they repulsed him. He watched the human race and wondered how they managed to take their faultless existence and make it complete crap.

So he passed his time on days off watching the horrid humans and even he found it pathetic. If he wasn’t dealing cards at Harrah’s, he sat on the couch in the French Quarter townhouse he shared with his three brothers and loathed his circumstances.

Dealing cards at the casino kept his mind from lamenting on things over which he had no control. Cards distracted him from the examination of mankind. They held no surprises and fell in predictable patterns. The stability comforted him. The notion that something so simple calmed him was ridiculous, but the serenity he found behind the table was the reason he returned to the casino night after night.

Justin’s principles had been complicated by the years he had wasted on Earth. The average mortal got out in eighty years, maybe ninety if they lead a mundane existence, but he had been stuck here for over three hundred, and for him the second hand no longer swept across the clock. The totality of his life was mind numbing, so he tried to block it out with work.
Important Links:
The Keepers: Astrea Press / Amazon / Goodreads
Author's website
Author's blog
Author's Goodreads page
Find Monique O'Connor James at: Facebook/Author page and Twitter: mjames13

About the author: Monique is the mother of two beautiful children and lives in a small community outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She currently works full time as an insurance agent, but her favorite jobs are mother, wife, and author. 

On her eighth birthday, her mother bought her a journal and said "write whatever you want, just write". And so, a love affair with words was born. She wrote poetry and short stories in high school and college, until 1993 when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. 

After her mother's death in 1998, deep in depression, she found herself unable to write. Nine years passed, and only on rare occasion did she attempt to write. 

Finally, in 2007, under the urging of friends, she sat down and pecked out her first novel. It was raw and unpolished, but the process had been unquestionably cathartic. The next three years were spent filling her hard drive with seven complete manuscripts. 

At the beginning of 2011, Monique decided it was time to edit the work and share it with the world. She hopes you enjoy the ramblings of a truly southern girl raised in a state rich with heritage and love.

Giveaway:

The author has graciously offered one of our readers who leaves a comment today a chance to win an ebook copy of The Keepers. Please leave your email address with your comment in order to be entered. Monique O'Connor James is also having a Blog Tour - Final Stop giveaway.


Next tour stop: Coffee Table Reviews

For the rest of the tour, go here