102 DAYS OF LYING ABOUT LAUREN by Maura Jortner - After being abandoned by her mother in a most unusual place, a defiant heroine sticks to her plan for staying hidden—even though getting caught could mean saving her life.
I am thrilled to be hosting a spot
on the 102 DAYS OF LYING ABOUT LAUREN by Maura Jortner Blog Tour hosted
by Rockstar
Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
About the Book:
Author: Maura
Jortner
Pub. Date: June 20, 2023
Publisher: Holiday
House
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 227
Find it:
Goodreads, https://books2read.com/102-DAYS-OF-LYING-ABOUT-LAUREN
Twelve-year-old Mouse calls an amusement park home.
Nobody notices her, and that's the way she likes it. Mouse sweeps the streets and wears a uniform she “borrowed” and sleeps on the top floor of the Haunted House of Horrors. She knows which security guards to avoid, eats the bagel left out each morning for the Ghost of Summer (a popular theme park legend), and even has the taco guy convinced that her lunch is paid for. She has her special hiding methods down to a science.
But one morning, a girl named Cat comes looking for Lauren Suszek. Cat notices her, and Mouse doesn’t like it. Mouse cannot let this nosy pest find out who she really is! If Mouse gets discovered living in the park, Mama might come back for her, and Mouse doesn’t want that. Or—even worse?—Mama might not come back at all.
Mouse knows she can lose this girl without blowing her cover. She just has to follow her rules. A carefully constructed life in the park is all she needs. Right?
Anchored by memorable characters and an extraordinary setting, Maura Jortner’s brilliant debut novel is bursting with grit, humor, and heart.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Reviews:
"Debut author Jortner’s writing is smooth and
interesting. . . ."—Kirkus Reviews
"A moving debut from Jortner that retains a sense of adventure while
lightly exploring an experience of abandonment."—Publishers Weekly
"Mouse is a main character to root for—with plenty of spunk, humor, and
heart." —Ben Guterson, Edgar Award-nominated author of Winterhouse
"Hilarious, absorbing, and immensely endearing, here is a story that will
have your whole heart. This book is alive with 'Park Magic.'" —Chris
Baron, author of Sydney Taylor Notable Book The Magical Imperfect
"Told with the feel of a classic, 102 Days of Lying about Lauren is
a truly special book full of hope, friendship, and heart—all the things you
need to weather the worst of storms." —Ally Malinenko, author of Ghost
Girl
102
Days of Lying About Lauren
By Maura Jortner
Excerpt from 102 Days of Lying About Lauren / Text copyright © 2023 by Maura Jortner. Reproduced with permission from Holiday House Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Every morning,
the skeleton-rooster let out a cock-a-doodle-doo
that could shake a person to their very core. It was so loud you could hear
it all the way to the long line of silver turnstiles where the guests waited to
get into this amusement park. That rooster clung to his perch on top of the
Scary Farmhouse with the nastiest pair of bony rooster feet you ever saw. The
Scary Farmhouse was two attractions down from the Haunted House of Horrors, so
I considered him a neighbor. I called him Mr. Noisy McSkinnyBones. I thought it
was funny, and I tried to hold on to a sense of humor, despite everything.
Normally, when I heard Mr. Noisy
McSkinnyBones give everyone that Wake up
now! farmhouse shout, I was already sneaking past the Bloody River Rapids
ride, edging my way along the outer wall of the park. Today, though, when he
let his cock-a-doodle-doo rip, I was
still lying on the floor with a thin beach towel tucked under my head, holding
my old Barbie doll close to my face.
The Barbie’s name was Pretty Dolly
because (1) I got her when I was really little, and (2) no one around me had
the guts to argue. Heck, no one said a word about it. Life is tragic sometimes,
I guess.
The towel I had was threadbare in
places, but it was long enough to wrap around my neck and tuck under my head,
so I pretended it was a blanket and a pillow. If anyone asked, I was all set. I
had a blanket and a pillow, thank you very much. I was fine.
When the last notes of Mr. Noisy
McSkinnyBones’s call faded into the morning air, I jolted up so fast both the
towel and Pretty Dolly went flying. What the cream cheese and jelly? Why was I
still sleeping? If the skeleton-rooster was cock-a-doodle-dooing,
it had to be seven thirty—a half hour before the guests would arrive—and if it
was seven thirty, I had overslept. A lot.
Crap weasels with skinny, scary
chickens on top.
I would have run to the small window
that hung on the east wall and looked out, but that would break rule #4— Don’t look out the window—and those
rules had been written for important reasons, so I stopped myself and did the
next-best thing. I took a few steps back. When you stood at just the right spot
in this attic-like room and held your neck at just the right angle, you could
see the sky outside.
Cloudy. Dark.
That was why I’d overslept.
It was sunny 90 percent of the time in Florida. Every morning, the
sun’s rays would find me through the window, and it was like being kissed
awake.
That’s what I would have said to
anyone who asked, anyway.
The other 10 percent of the time was
usually in the afternoon. A quick thunderstorm would blow in, dump a bunch of
rain, and then clear out. Cloudy in the morning almost never happened. Or, at
least, I’d never seen it happen here before.
The last few days had been so hot
and muggy it was like living in somebody’s armpit. Maybe cloudy meant a cold
front was blowing in. Or maybe it meant a storm.
I didn’t give it much thought either
way because the real problem with clouds this morning was that Tanner would
beat me to the Ghost Town entrance marker. I had to rush. I had to win this
race.
Tanner and I had been racing to the
Ghost Town entrance marker since early May. It was a game I started and a
challenge I maintained. One of the reasons I kept it going was because I always
won, and winning was a great way to start the day.
I won every day because I cheated,
of course. Living here in this park gave me an edge. But Tanner didn’t know
that. No one did.
Rule #1—Don’t tell anyone where you live.
About Maura Jortner:
Maura Jortner teaches creative writing and literature at
Baylor University. She lives in Texas with her husband, two daughters, and a
cat that can do tricks. Though she doesn’t do big roller coasters, she loves a
good haunted house attraction. This is her debut novel.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon
Giveaway Details:
1 winner will receive a finished copy of 102 DAYS OF LYING
ABOUT LAUREN, US Only.
Ends July 25th, midnight EST
a Rafflecopter giveawayTour Schedule:
Week One:
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7/10/2023 |
Excerpt |
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7/10/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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7/11/2023 |
Excerpt |
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7/11/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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7/12/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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7/12/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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7/13/2023 |
IG Review/TikTok Post |
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7/13/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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7/14/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
Week Two:
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7/14/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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7/17/2023 |
Review |
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7/17/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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7/18/2023 |
IG Review |
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7/18/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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7/19/2023 |
IG Review |
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7/19/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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7/20/2023 |
IG Review |
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7/20/2023 |
IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok
Post |
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7/21/2023 |
IG Review |
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7/21/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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