The Burning Star by Jessie Lane (Guest Post/Giveaway)

I would like to welcome the author duo who make up Jessie Lane with their debut fantasy romance Y.A., The Burning Star!

When The Going Gets Tough

            Remember that phrase? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. But what is the measure of being tough? Who do you see and think, “Wow, they’ve got a will made of granite. Unbreakable.”

Do you assume it’s the guy who looks like he’s spent half of his life dedicated to the gym and has muscles on top of his muscles? Or do you look at the quiet, slight slip of a teenage girl sitting in the Oncologist office, and realize beneath her pain she holds more determination than a whole gym full of muscle bound tough guys?

When Kay, the main character from The Burning Star, is diagnosed with a fast moving terminal cancer, her world stops. Being only seventeen years old, Kay is devastated when the Oncologists tell her that she will not live long past her eighteenth birthday, which is just months away. She watches as her Mom refuses to accept the doctor’s diagnosis and starts making plans to find a miracle cure. Kay battles with her emotions as she does her best to comfort her mom. She regrets not living her life to its fullest and the missed opportunities she had to be more of the person she always wanted to be. She never planned on being the quiet girl in the corner reading a book. She wanted to live the adventure. Experience that once in a lifetime love. Not just imagine what it was like through her favorite characters. Now she has to plan the best way to say goodbye to her mother.

Out of the blue she meets Ryan. An inhumanly hot guy who saves her from an animal that suspiciously looks anything but normal. But after Ryan assures her it’s just a rabid dog and then blows her away by asking her, Ms.-Completely-Awkward-Around-All-Hot-Guys, out on a date, she sees her opportunity to live a little before she dies. Maybe even experience her first kiss. Then the insane happens. Her cute satellite installer guy, Nick, also asks for her phone number. Suddenly the girl who had her life before her but didn’t live at all is now the girl who has a timestamp on her future but is cramming all that she can into that life.

When her first date with Ryan goes horribly wrong, and a chain of unbelievable events unfolds, Kay finds out that there is more going on in her life than her cancer. Now she’s surrounded by the fact that things she believed were only fairytales or myths in books are real. Ryan is trying to convince her that she’s something that she’s not, and her mother has secrets so big, that it could blow her whole world apart. And when the going gets tough, Kay gets going.

Kay takes on all of her new obstacles head on. She never lets the protective, but pushy, Ryan and Nick tell her what she should do, or how to do it. This is her adventure and she’s going to live it. But halfway through her journey to everything she never dreamed would be possible; she finds out that there might be a miracle cure for her after all. With new hope on the horizon, Kay will do anything to find a cure. But will she live long enough to find it?

Now who’s tough?

She'll have to believe the unbelievable to survive. The doctors have told Kay that she will die before she reaches her eighteenth birthday. Her mother’s determination to save her life leads them to a move outside of Asheville, NC to a new set of cancer specialists in the hopes to help her. But it’s not what Kay and her Mom find in the doctor’s offices in Asheville that lead them on the journey to save her before time runs out. It’s what Kay finds in the woods outside of Asheville, and an inhumanly gorgeous guy named Ryan, instead. Myths and fairy tales come to life before Kay’s eyes, bringing her closer to the ultimate cure if she can stay alive long enough to get there. And if the cancer doesn’t kill her before she finds the cure the secrets her mother has hidden from her may be the beginning of the end.Can she reach her destiny before tragedy strikes?

Available to buy ebooks at: Barnes & Noble - Amazon - Smashwords - AReB - Kobo - Diesel Book

Available to buy book in print at:Createspace

Excerpt:

All I could think was that if I concentrated on cleaning his gash then maybe I wouldn’t make myself look like an idiot anymore. The concentrating helped because I could just feel his eyes on me. I wanted to ask him what he was thinking, or why he was staring, but I thought it was better to just stay quiet and clean his arm. I worked quickly and when I was done I looked up into his face with a somewhat steely determination not to make an ass out of myself anymore today. “Hey, you think you can handle it if we clean it off with alcohol. I bet it’s going to sting like a bitch, but I’m afraid it might get infected if we don’t.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” He said as he concentrated on my face.

“Are you sure? Because a cut like that, I bet it’s going to hurt. Like hurt a lot.” I inwardly debated if he was trying to be brave, or if he was nuts enough that he just didn’t care. My bet was nuts.

Ryan put on a confident face and said, “I think I can handle it. But if it makes you feel any better I promise I won’t scream like a little girl.” 

Well at least I could go get the alcohol without feeling like I hadn’t warned him properly. “Ok, wait here. I’ll go get the alcohol out of the bathroom, and I’ll be right back.” I headed out of the kitchen and turned right down the hall towards that bathroom. I snagged it out from underneath the bathroom sink cabinet and hurried back to the kitchen because some part of my brain still couldn’t believe that there was an exceptionally hot half naked guy in my kitchen. But sure enough I rounded the corner and he was still standing there waiting for me. “So, do you want me to like pat it on with the rag or…”

“No just pour it straight into the wound. That’s the best way to avoid any infection.” And with that comment he positioned his arm over the sink so that we wouldn’t make a mess. I just shook my head. He really was nuts.

“I’m betting twenty bucks you scream like a girl.” I chided.

“And I’m betting a date with you that I won’t scream like a girl.” He stared intently at my shocked face with a cocky little grin as I absorbed his comment in.

“Ok.” Really? I thought to myself. That’s all you can come up with is ‘ok’? He’ll think you’re oh so smooth now. In fact, I’m sure I just won the ‘smooth award’ somewhere.

I shook my head and gingerly started to pour the alcohol into the gash that ran nearly from his shoulder to right above his elbow. As I braced myself for the scream that I was sure he had coming, when the alcohol hit his wound he gasped from the pain and then snapped his jaw shut. His face became clenched and contorted from pain and his entire body literally locked up in a spasm of sorts. Jerking the bottle upright and setting it on the kitchen counter; I stared into his distorted face. He was in so much pain that I had absolutely no idea how he was not screaming. His body shuddered and then I saw where there were beads of sweat on his forehead that started trickling down his face.

I inadvertently took a step back from him afraid that he was going to crack and instead of screaming throw a punch or something. Then the strangest thing happened; I felt a blast of hot air that was strong enough to lift my hair a little as if it was in a breeze and then there was a rich smell of some kind of flowers I couldn’t identify that practically engulfed my senses. My body started tingling in response to something, and I felt a flash of heat ripple through me. Then as quickly as it had started, it was over. I looked around my house somewhat wildly for a minute trying to figure out what just happened. “What was that? Ryan did you feel that?”

“Feel what Kay? The alcohol burning the crap out of my arm. Yes, I most certainly felt that.” He was looking at me somewhat analytically, and I thought that maybe he was thinking that I belonged in the loony farm or something.

I was seriously going to have to reread the side effects of that new medication I was on. Maybe I was having hallucinations? But it felt so real. In fact, my body was still humming with something that I couldn’t place.

“Right, you’re right. It must have been the heater coming on or something. I just wonder when my mom got that smelly thing. It has such a strong smell of some kind of flower.” I started scanning the wall outlets for an air freshener plug in and then the counters for some kind of new smelly candle. Nothing. There had to be an explanation for it. The hot air came on and hit whatever air freshener Mom had put out, right?

“Kay, are you all right?” The way Ryan was watching me now I was obviously never getting that date. What a freak he must think I am.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Sorry, I guess I’m a little out of it today. How’s your arm? I guess we should wrap it up now.” I reached for the ace bandage and shook my head to clear the crazy fog that was still in there. I glanced up into Ryan’s face before I touched his arm just to make sure that he was ok with me trying to take care of him.

He must want me to stand, like, fifty feet back so he didn’t catch my crazy.

Author Bio:

Jessie Lane is the writing team of Crystal Leo and Melissa Pahl. The two sister-in-laws share a great love of breathtaking romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them. Because really, it is ALL about the characters. (They’re kind of megalomaniacs)
When not losing themselves in a story, they remember they have real lives. Crystal lives in Kentucky with her husband and two little girls who plot daily the many ways they can drive their poor mother crazy. At the end of the day, Crystal calls Melissa and threatens to ship her two nieces to their favorite Aunt with lots of air holes punched through their box. Melissa answers Crystal’s crazed calls in Washington state where she lives with her husband and big furry baby of a Rottweiler named Yuffie, and reminds her that children are not shippable.This is their first novel, but they are all geared up and excited to be releasing other projects soon!

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~*GIVEAWAY*~

Jessie Lane is giving away one eBook of The Burning Star (the newly re-edited version available in two weeks) to one lucky reader today! To enter, just leave a question or comment for the authors on this post and then fill out the rafflecopter below. Additional entries are available but not required. Good luck!

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