True Colors
By Krysten Lindsay Hagen
Landry Albright enters a modeling competition with her two best friends, but runs into jealousy when she advances to the next level without them. Enter the gorgeous Devon, who also makes the first cut of the modeling contest. Devon seems like the perfect new best friend, but can their friendship survive the competition? Throw in a new boy, jealousy and loyalty issues, and insults from hair stylists. How’s a girl to deal?
My Rating:
4 SASSY BOOKS!
My Review:
Welcome back to High School... for me anyway lol ^_^
We meet Landry, a 13yr old girl who's slowly discovering who she is. Her best friends, Ericka & Tori convince her to join a modeling tryout with them. After much deliberation she decides to tag along.
Things start to fall apart when Landry receives a call to continue on and her two friends don't.
I couldn't believe how fast her so called "best friends" turned their backs on her, even though they're the one's who begged her to go with them. Just shows how cruel teenagers can be and how hard things can be at that age. I really felt for her, losing people she cared about dearly, it's like a knife to the back!
Landry's a brave girl and takes each day as it comes, some are better than others. During these torturous days/weeks friendships begin to grow with a few other girls. So if you look at the positive, good things do come from bad.
I had to laugh out loud when Landry and her friend, Thalia had gym class (as we in Australia call it PE or Health), and they had all these excuses to get out of it. Took me back to my high school years and all the letters my mother would write to get me out of it or the excuses I used to use. Just as Landry did I used to loath dodge ball too lol and would deliberately stand in the way to get hit so I could sit out. My excuses didn't always work though haha! ;-)
All in all it's a great read, vibrant characters, a storyline so profound (if like me) will take you back to your own childhood memories, and will bring all those emotions back.
I really loved how it ended and I hope there's more to Landry's story to come. ^_^
Excerpt
The competition was for girls between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, but it felt like Ericka, Tori, and I were the youngest ones there. I only saw a couple of girls from school, and the lineup looked more like something you’d see on a music video set. All the girls were gorgeous, and they had these curvy womanly bodies. I looked like a skinny little kid next to them. The first girl walked out, and I heard the judges say she “owned the runway,” and, “walked like a gazelle.” I was starting to feel ill. I wasn’t sure which way it was going to come, but I knew I had to find a bathroom —fast. I started to get out of line when Ericka grabbed my wrist.
“It’s almost time,” she said. A tiny bit of spit flew out of her mouth and hit my cheek.
I wasn’t sure why she was so intent on me going through with it, but she had a death grip on my arm, so I didn’t have much of a choice. Her number was called and she walked out to the stage. One of the other girls said she walked like a kid with sand bucket stilts on her feet, but she came back with a smirk on her face like she knew she’d get chosen.
“They said they had never seen such long legs,” she said.
Tori was next.
“She walks like a gorilla at feeding time,” said the girl behind me. I went next, and I tried to focus on not tripping over my feet. My mom’s pumps had a rubber sole on the bottom, which probably wasn’t the brightest idea seeing as my shoes were making squeaking noises as I walked. I was so nervous I couldn’t stop smiling as I walked. I looked like the plastic clown who blows up balloons with its mouth at the Pizza Palace. When I got to the end of the runway, I tried to cross my feet to turn like the other girls had, but I over rotated and ended up doing a full spin which made my kilt fan out and gave the mall walkers a view of my blue underpants. I tried to act like it was intentional and did an extra turn. One of the judges put her hand up to stop me, and I held my breath as she started to speak.
Author Bio
Krysten Lindsay Hager is an author and book addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and also writes middle grade, YA, humor essays, and adult fiction. Her debut novel, TRUE COLORS, will be out June 17th from Astraea Press. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in South Dakota, Portugal, and currently resides in Southern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she’s not catching up on her favorite shows.
Blog Tour Giveaway
$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 8/15/14
Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the publisher. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
Thank you for spotlighting and reviewing True Colors! That gym class part *might* have been something I did...every other Tuesday in gym class ;) Glad to see I wasn't alone in that!
ReplyDelete