Once Upon a Twilight!: Rebekah Purdy

Welcome to our stop on the How To Unbreakup tour for Rebekah L Purdy. This tour is hosted by YA Bound Book Tours.

How To Unbreakup
Author: Rebekah L. Purdy
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: January 1, 2015
Review Source: Swoon Romance

First rule of breakups: There’s no going back.

For three years, seventeen-year-old Grace Evers has regretted breaking up with Sage Castle.

That day, she lost her boyfriend and best friend. And let's be honest, it's impossible to just be friends with the one person who gets you, faults and all, and loved you anyway. It's impossible not to think about how it felt to be held by him, or the way he looked right before he was about to kiss you with the most perfectly yummy kiss goodnight.

And now that things are over between them, they've become strangers to one another. Sage won’t even look at Grace, let alone talk to her!

Breakup life sucks and Grace is utterly miserable, doing whatever she can to ease the pain of losing Sage. She's spent the better part of high school pretending to be something she’s not and hanging out with people who probably wouldn't notice if she wasn't there. Crappy dates, backstabbing friends, and Sage's cold shoulder have taken their toll.

So when her parents propose going away to their house on Lake Michigan for the summer, Grace is thrilled. No more massively bad dates with horrible kissers or lunch with frienemies. Just three months of swimming, hiking, and relaxing before senior year starts.

But when Grace learns Sage and his family will be joining them, she readies herself for a totally awkward family vacation of disastrous proportions. How can it be anything but awful if Sage won't even acknowledge she exists?

This is it, Grace's last chance to get Sage back and unbreakup.

How To Unbreakup centers around a relationship between Grace and Sage, longtime best friends. As the title states, there is a plan to unbreakup, because being broken up totally sucks. So when both families join together for a summer vacay, Grace is more than happy Sage will be there and nothing will stop her from winning him back. Except, maybe he'll try to stop her...

Three words: cutest story ever! I read How To Unbreakup in half a day because I couldn't bring myself to put it down. I was rooting for Grace 100% of the way and becoming very irritated when Sage wasn't cooperating! Rebekah Purdy definitely brings a unique twist on the Young Adult contemporary genre. Who starts a book with a breakup? It's brilliant, because now we get to read a story about winning someone back. And, to make it even better it's a girl trying to win a boy back!

My favorite thing about this book are the characters. Each so unique and quirky and different from one another. Purdy could write a book about each one and I would make sure to read them! My second favorite thing, is the friendship between Sage and Grace. Sometimes a friendship can come off too cheesy in a book, but theirs felt completely genuine and I loved being able to connect with it.

Have I mentioned how utterly cute this story is? How to Unbreakup is, for sure, going in my "to-read-again" pile!

Rebekah Purdy grew up in Michigan, where she spent many late nights armed with a good book and a flashlight. When not hiding at her computer and getting lost in her stories, she enjoys reading, singing, soccer, swimming, football, camping, playing video games and hanging out with her kids. She loves the unexplainable like Bigfoot, the Dogman, and the Loch Ness Monster (lots of good story material)! She admits to still having all the books she bought throughout her childhood and teen years, and she may or may not have an obsession with anything chocolate…

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Today is release day for THE WINTER PEOPLE by Rebekah Purdy we’re here to celebrate with a giveaway and an excerpt! Help us celebrate the release of this amazing book and enter to win a Winter Emergency Kit!

The Winter People
Author: Rebekah Purdy
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Released: September 2nd 2014

An engrossing, complex, romantic fantasy perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore or Maggie Stiefvater, set in a wholly unique world.

Salome Montgomery fears winter—the cold, the snow, the ice, but most of all, the frozen pond she fell through as a child. Haunted by the voices and images of the strange beings that pulled her to safety, she hasn't forgotten their warning to "stay away." For eleven years, she has avoided the winter woods, the pond, and the darkness that lurks nearby. But when failing health takes her grandparents to Arizona, she is left in charge of maintaining their estate. This includes the "special gifts" that must be left at the back of the property.   

Salome discovers she’s a key player in a world she’s tried for years to avoid. At the center of this world is the strange and beautiful Nevin, who she finds trespassing on her family’s property. Cursed with dark secrets and knowledge of the creatures in the woods, his interactions with Salome take her life in a new direction. A direction where she'll have to decide between her longtime crush Colton, who could cure her fear of winter. Or Nevin who, along with an appointed bodyguard, Gareth, protects her from the darkness that swirls in the snowy backdrop. An evil that, given the chance, will kill her.

Excerpt

The pond water rippled while the trees bent beneath the strong gusts. Soon, everything became so white I couldn’t see the house. In the distance a strange tinkling sounded, like dozens of wind chimes. Not the chimes. Not the chimes. Not the chimes, I repeated over and over in my mind.
What had the shrink told me to do?
Ten, nine, eight. Breathe. Seven, six, five. Shit! I held my head in my hands for a long moment. Get it together.
Panic stole my thoughts and I raised my head, backing away from the pond as the flurries swirled toward me. Chasing me.
I bumped into something—something that felt quite human. A firm chest, arms, hands. Not something, someone. A shriek tumbled from my lips and I spun around to face my captor.
“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you,” a soft masculine voice said, pale hands clinging to my arms as he kept me from falling.
My gaze followed those long fingers, then up black leather sleeves, to the most gorgeous face I’d ever seen. My breath caught in my throat. I was gawking. But I couldn’t help it. His raven hair was shot with strands of blue, his face was pale and perfect, like an ice sculptor had chiseled it into existence. His eyes—oh God, his eyes. They were the palest blue I’d ever seen. Glacial. He had to be over six feet tall, muscles evident through the tight shirt he wore beneath his unzipped leather jacket.
His mouth turned up at the corners as if enjoying my scrutiny. A cocky grin that made my cheeks warm and my whole body buzz. “You’re trespassing.” I tried to keep the tremble from my voice. “This is private property, or can’t you read the signs?” Bravo. I’d scare him off with my bitchiness. He chuckled. And it sounded like the low song of chimes. “Doris doesn’t mind me coming around. In fact, I’ve met you before, Salome.”
My name on his lips made my knees go buttery. I groaned inwardly.

Rebekah was born and raised in Michigan (just look for the mitten-shaped state on the map). She’s lived there most of her life other than the few years she spent in the U.S. Army. At which time she got a chance to experience MO, KS, SC, and CA.

She works full time for the court system and in her free time she writes YA stories. Pretty much any genre within the YA realm is game for her, but her favorites are fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, thrillers, light sci-fi, and some time travel.

She also has a big family–she like to considers them the modern day Brady Bunch. When her hubby and her met and got married, he had 3 children from a previous marriage, she had 2 and have 1 together. It’s a lot of fun though.

And she can’t forget her other family members–yep, they’ve got some pets: 4 dogs, 3 cats, and 1 turtle. Everyone in the family has one…she won’t bore you all with their names (unless you really want to know). Okay, you talked her into it! Jack, Pearl, Grr…(yes that’s her dog’s name), Callie, Shadow, Mooshoo, Grouchy, and Sorbert. Other than writing some of her other hobbies include: reading (mostly YA of course), singing, swimming, football, soccer, running, camping, sledding, church, hanging with her kids, and traveling.
She belong to a fabulous writing group called YA Fiction Fantatics (YAFF) and you guessed it they all write YA!

REPPED by Jennifer Mishler and Frances Black of Literary Counsel.
And that’s her in a big ‘ol nutshell.