Cover Reveal and Exclusive Excerpt: DEAR CASSIE by Lisa Burstein

Dear Cassie

by Lisa Burstein

Expected release date: March 2013

Published by: Entangled Publishing

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary 

SUMMARY

What if the last place you should fall in love is the first place that you do?

You'd think getting sent to Turning Pines Wilderness Camp for a month-long rehabilitation "retreat" and being forced to re-live it in this journal would be the worst thing that's ever happened to me. 

You'd be wrong. 

There's the reason I was sent to Turning Pines in the first place: I got arrested. On prom night. With my two best friends, who I haven't talked to since and probably never will again. And there's the real reason I was sent here. The thing I can't talk about with the guy I can't even think about. 

What if the moment you've closed yourself off is the moment you start to break open? 

But there's this guy here. Ben. And the more I swear he won't - he can't - the deeper under my skin he's getting. After the thing that happened, I promised I'd never fall for another boy's lies. 

And yet I can't help but wonder... what if? 

Dear Cassie is a companion novel to Pretty Amy 

that follows Cassie's post-prom arrest to a rehabilitation retreat in the woods, 

told in Cassie's irreverent voice via her diary entries. 

You can see my review of Pretty Amy here!

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EXCERPT - Dear Cassie

We kept walking on the lake trail, the bullfrogs croaking. There was also a humming in my ears from the nicotine. 

It could only be from the nicotine. It had nothing to do with being outside, at night, alone with Ben. It had nothing to do with Ben coming to the cabin and taking me instead of Nez and it definitely had nothing to do with the stars above us shining like they were the sky's tiara. 

I stopped on the trail and looked up, taking them in, when all of a sudden bright colored lights exploded in the sky - fireworks, one after another, on top of each other, huge kaleidoscopes of light, like sparkling rainbow spiders. 

"How did you know?" I asked, my voice going softer, like if I talked too loudly they would stop. It was so beautiful, after weeks of so much ugly. 

Ben turned to look at me, the colored lights in the sky turning his skin pink, blue, green. "I'm magic." He shrugged. 

I geared up to tell him to fuck off, because that was some corny-ass shit, but then I realized that he really kind of was. In that moment he was able to actually make me forget being me. 

"I would try to kiss you," he said, "but I'm afraid you'd kick my in the balls." 

"I probably would." I laughed, the sky filling with noisy color like paint launching from a giant popcorn popper. "But like I said, it wouldn't be about you."

"I guess I'll have to figure out how to make it about me," he said, taking off his boots and socks and standing. "Come on."

"There is no way I am getting near that water again," I said. 

"I'll make sure nothing happens to you," he said, holding his hand out to help me up.

I looked at his palm, open, waiting, just wanting to hold mine. For once, I didn't think about anything except that there was a cute, sweet, smart-ass boy standing in front of me with his hand out. 

I pulled off my boots and socks and took it. 

We stood at the lakeshore, our hands still clasped, the water licking our feet, fireworks decorating the sky. 

I turned to him. He was looking up, his mouth open in wonder like he was trying to swallow the moment. 

It was definitely one worth keeping. 

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MY THOUGHTS

First, that cover is absolutely perfect! I love it to pieces!

I really love how you can read one of Cassie's journal entries on the cover...

and the picture itself seems to fit the excerpt perfectly - giving us a glimpse to the rehab that she is staying at... with Ben ;) 

I am really looking forward to reading Cassie's side of the story, 

learning more about Cassie and what happened to her on prom night.

And of course, Ben. 

What do you think of the cover and excerpt???  

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. 

She received her MFA in Fiction from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. 

She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats. Pretty Amy is her first novel. 

She never went to her senior prom.

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A Cover Reveal for: 

http://www.entangledpublishing.com/