I’ve been reading a lot of books to knock things off my #52Booksin15 list, and a lot to catch up. I saw on Facebook that a friend, Erin Brown, was doing a media tour for her newest book, and I couldn’t pass up the possible opportunity to be involved.
I’m so excited to be kicking off what is sure to be an awesome blog/media tour leading up to the release of “Finding Slope” on March 10. Brown is a native of Arkansas (and a fellow UA grad and KD) who currently lives in Singapore, and I had a blast reading this book and being a part of sharing it with others.
Brown’s first book, Taking Flight, which has a companion novel, Making Headlines, is worth a read in it’s own right, and starts off the story that we catch back up with in “Finding Slope.”
A brief recap:
Seventeen-year-olds Willa Thompson and Dan Martin are falling in love. But there’s one major problem: Willa lives in New York. Dan doesn’t.
Teens with divorced parents, Dan, a comic book nerd from Texas, and Willa, a sassy urbanite, have spent the last three years coordinating their monthly trips to visit the parent they don’t live with so that they can meet up during their layovers. As their junior year wraps up, Willa and Dan realize that their feelings for each other are more than friendly.
When they begin a long-distance relationship, Dan and Willa find out that there is more working against them than geography—both are serious students who aren’t applying to any of the same colleges. To make matters worse, Dan’s ruthless ex sees Willa as nothing more than a challenge to overcome, and Willa’s more-experienced-in-love best friend doesn’t trust Dan.
Spanning a year and told from Willa and Dan’s alternating perspectives, Taking Flight captures the many stresses of being a high school senior, and how very difficult—but also how very easy—love can be.
Not to ruin “Taking Flight” for you, but it kind of leaves the reader hanging. They’re in love, but they’re not together. But they’re still in love! Which brings us to “Finding Slope.”
A spring break ski trip turns into the reunion Willa and Dan never saw coming.
After months of not talking, Willa and Dan run into each other at the last place they thought they would—a ski lodge in Colorado. Neither of them expected to see the other during spring break, and certainly never expected to meet their ex’s new college friends.
Dan sees this as his last opportunity to win Willa back and wants to make the most of the week together. He knows that they can make long distance work, and when he hears that they may both be in New York for the summer, he’s more determined than ever to convince the girl of his dreams that they should try to have a relationship again. Third time’s the charm, right?
But Willa isn’t sure if that’s for the best—they broke up for a reason, after all, and if they did get back together, the deck is stacked against them. They’re still going to different colleges, they’re still long distance, and they still have no idea how to make that work.
But then again, when Willa is honest with herself, she knows that she wants to spend time with Dan. That she wants to see where the week in Colorado may take them. That she wants them to end up together. She just isn’t sure how—or even if—that’s supposed to happen.
In this Taking Flight novella, set against the snowy, stunning backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, Willa and Dan have to face the truth about their relationship and decide if they want to run back up that slippery slope together, or go their separate ways.
Brown is also hosting a super fun giveaway!
Here’s an exclusive excerpt from the book, which goes on sale Erin told me this was one of her favorite parts, so I’m so excited to share it with you!
After we’ve all eaten, we head back outside to the ski lift. I catch Sophie’s eye and she nods before looking at her friends, somehow communicating with them without saying anything.
And it works because when it’s time for us to break into groups for the lift, Willa and I are the odd ones out.
Which means I’m going to have an entire lift ride up the mountain with Willa.
“Hey,” she says.
“Hey back.”
“I guess my friends decided we need some alone time.”
“I guess they did.”
We scurry to scoot ourselves to the line as the chair lift comes up behind us, and we sit in it as it sweeps us up into the air. Willa seamlessly moves her ski poles into one hand as she lowers the metal bar over our laps.
“This used to terrify me,” she says.
“The chair lift?”
“Yeah,” she says. “I was so scared it was going to get stuck. Or that I’d fall off. Or that I wouldn’t lift the tips of my skis up far enough when I got to the top and I’d break my leg.”
“Does that happen?”
“I’ve never seen it happen. The first time I skied, I was five, and my dad told me that if I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t lift the tips, I’d break my leg. I used to have nightmares about it.”
The wind blows just then and the frigid mountain air makes Willa shiver. I automatically move to wrap my arm around her, but catch myself before I actually do it.
“It’s so gorgeous here,” she says, surveying the snow-covered trees and mountain peaks from our aerial vantage point.
“It really is,” I agree.
“Something about this place feels a little bit magic, you know?”
“I do know. I’m sitting in a chair lift with you. It has to be magic.”
Willa looks at me when I say that and we sit there for a long moment, eyes locked, not saying anything. I realize that I should kiss her. Right now. This is the perfect moment—we’re alone, we’re both feeling that magnetic pull toward each other, and I can see in her eyes that she wants me to kiss her. I start to make the move, scooting closer to her and beginning to lean down, but she shakes her head and says, “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“What can’t you do?”
“This,” she says, motioning between us. “I don’t know if I can do it again. The looking and the chemistry and the completing each other. If it’s magic and not reality, I can’t do it.”
“No, Willa, that’s not what I meant. I meant that it’s magic that we ran into each other here without planning it.”
“Oh,” she says, “Of course that’s what you meant. I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry. Can we forget what I said?”
I want to tell her no, I can’t forget it, and that we clearly need to talk about whatever freak-out she just had, because that’s the conversation we need to have before this week is over. But then again, there isn’t a “we” right now. Not in that sense, at least.
“Sure,” I say. “Consider it forgotten.”
“Thanks,” she says, looking relieved.
I replay her words in my head and can’t help but say, “Did you say we complete each other?”
“Jesus H. God, this is the slowest chair lift ever.”
“You absolutely said that.”
“I might have,” she says, without looking at me.
© Erin Brown, Finding Slope: A Taking Flight Novella, On Sale March 10th
Purchase Finding Slope and all of the Taking Flight novels at:
And if you’re interested, here are all the awesome bloggers coming up (great places to find more suggestions/reviews, if you’re into that sort of thing!):
PBR & PEARLS 