I’m excited today to be hosting author Mia Kerick as part of the blog tour for The Art of Hero Worship, an LGBTQ NA romance released on October 29, 2018 by NineStar Press. Read on to check out an excerpt and enter the giveaway, and be sure to follow the tour!
About the Book
Blurb
Saving the one who once saved me.
College junior Liam Norcross is a hero. He willingly, even eagerly, risks his life to save a stranger as a murderous, deranged shooter moves methodically through the darkened theater on the Batcheldor College campus, randomly killing innocent men, women, and children.
The stranger he saves is college freshman Jason Tripp. Jase loses everything in the shooting: his girlfriend, who dies on the floor beside him, and his grip on emotional security. He struggles to regain a sense of safety in the world, finally leaving college to seek refuge in his hometown.
An inexplicable bond forms between the two men in the chaos and horror of the theater, and Liam fights to bring Jase back to the world he ran away from. When Jase returns to school, they’re drawn together as soulmates, and soon Liam and Jase fall into a turbulent romantic relationship. However, the rocky path to love cannot be smoothed until Jase rescues his hero in return by delving into his shady past and solving the mystery of Liam’s compulsion to be everybody’s savior.
Excerpt
I WAKE UP crying.
Okay, I’m going to be real: I’m sobbing. Sprawled on top of the solid chest of a man I hardly know, I sob in a way I never have before. Hopefully, I’ll never have occasion to cry this bitterly again.
My emotions are practically indescribable, yet I need to apply words so I can make some sense of what I’m feeling. Mentally, I’m on edge; my pain is raw, grating, and unbearable. I’m guilt-ridden and mortified. Devastation crossed with desperation—this is me, at the moment.
And I’m not sure why I’m still here…on earth. I want to disappear.
Liam stays silent, but I know he’s awake because his hands have resumed the rhythmic stroking on my back.
“Why’d you have to go and s-save me? Y-you should have let me d-die like I was supposed to!” My fury is evident in the trembling accusation. But my pain would be over if he’d let me die, so I add mad as hell to my growing list of emotions.
He inhales deeply. “We’re gonna get through this. Our bodies survived Friday night in the theater. Now we’ve gotta make our minds survive the aftermath.”
“What makes you think I want to survive it? What makes you so sure I didn’t want to go with her?” It’s too hard to say her name.
Wide palms freeze on my shoulder blades and rest there heavily. “Sorry, dude, but it wasn’t your day to die.” He takes another one of those huge gulps of air that causes both of our bodies to rise and fall. Then the mesmerizing movement of his hands picks up where it left off.
About Mia Kerick
Author Bio
Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—a daughter in law school, another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son off to Syracuse. She writes LGBTQ romance when not editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing English papers. Her husband of twenty-four years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it is a sensitive subject.
Mia focuses her stories on emotional growth in turbulent relationships. As she has a great affinity for the tortured hero, there is, at minimum, one in each book. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of said tortured heroes (most of whom happened to strongly resemble lead vocalists of 1980s big-hair bands) and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to her wonderful publishers for providing alternate places to stash her stories.
Her books have won a Best YA Lesbian Rainbow Award, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly First Place Award for Cultural Diversity, a Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly First Place Award for YA Fiction, among others.
Mia is a Progressive, a little bit too obsessed by politics, and cheers for each and every victory in the name of human rights. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology.
Connect with Mia
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Giveaway
Hi Jamie! Thanks for hosting me today on my rerelease tour for The Art of Hero Worship!
I appreciate you taking the time to give us a great book description and giveaway as well. Thank you so much!
Congrats on the new release! The cover looks great. I feel like there’s going to be some tears from this one.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy the story