One Tiny Lie blog tour: guest post & giveaway

We are stoked to be participating in the One Tiny Lie Blog Tour. I loved Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker and hoped to see younger sister Livie have her own story. One Tiny Lie is her story. I'm reading the book now thanks to a problem with my Kindle and will run my review when I can. We have a guest post by the author on the New Adult genre and there's a giveaway to enter. This tour is hosted by InkSlinger PR.

One Tiny Lie (Ten Tiny Breaths #2) by K.A. Tucker

New Adult contemporary romance*Paperback/ebook, 256 pages

Published June 11th 2013 by Atria Books

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents' tragic death and Kacey's self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would...and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action.

Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fits Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton?

As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.

My Thoughts on New Adult:

I did not start out writing New Adult Contemporary Romance. My first book (and series) is a YA Paranormal romance fantasy series with sci-fi and post-apocalyptic elements. Until last year, I hadn’t read a contemporary romance book in years! The genre just wasn’t giving me the excitement and adventure that I craved along with the romance.

Last summer, I decided to pick up a few new, edgier romance books and... I instantly fell in love. The writing was gritty and full of emotion, the problems were dramatic and dark, the plots were realistic in the “that would be crazy if it happened” way, and the characters felt real. I quickly saw myself writing a contemporary romance through this lens. A few months later, the idea of Ten Tiny Breaths came to me, and bam! I was doing it.

And, I was loving it.

I believe that New Adult is here to stay, in one form or another. Right now, NA Contemporary Romance is hot. Tomorrow, it may be NA Paranormal or NA Dystopian or NA Sci-fi. It’s hard to say. In any case, I think the massive base of YA readers (many of whom are in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and up) are starting to appreciate the more risqué feel of NA vs typical YA.

There are a few reasons for this (this is my opinion):

1) NA typically involves harsh topics—rape, drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, etc.—that are prevalent in society and the age bracket of the characters. While having alcohol and sex at the forefront of these characters’ lives isn’t necessarily healthy, it is realistic, and it’s what many more mature readers can relate to. Note: YA books do also touch on the above topics but they tend to handle them differently, given the youthful readers.

2) There is only so much teenaged angst that a reader can deal with before they start wanting that little bit more. NA still gives you angst but it also gives you the gratification (of characters having sex.) Readers are starting to look for that gratification. What I do find interesting is the broad spectrum of sexual explicitness in NA. While some books are on the fringe of almost YA-rated, others are bordering erotica. I wonder if this broad spectrum will remain so broad or if we’ll see NA further classified.

3) That time in peoples’ lives—when they’re done high school and off to college or working, when they’re trying to figure out who they are and what they want in life—is an exciting time. It’s full of wild parties, stupid mistakes, new friendships. It’s the path to adulthood, before monotony and the downsides of aging sets in. Many people fondly hold onto their late teens/twenties as a time of freedom and discovery (and perky breasts.) NA helps them relive it.

I don’t think that YA is dead. I just think it’s going to play a more transitional role for readers than it has in the past. We’re going to see more readers migrate from YA to NA as they reach their late teens, rather than hanging onto YA. Some readers will always prefer the fade to black scenes and softer handle on life and they’ll stick with YA.

As for me, I’m loving New Adult and I don’t see myself getting sick of it any time soon. That doesn’t mean I won’t dive back into the paranormal/dystopian/fantasy side of writing again. It just might be through an NA lens. Think about it... spectacular plot lines AND crazy hot relationships. That sounds pretty appealing to me.

About the author: K.A. Tucker

Blog | Website |  Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Atria

Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.

Giveaway:

There is a tour-wide giveaway of 3 signed galleys of ONE TINY LIE. Enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway