Hit Summer With Your Best Shot 6/21 – SEQUEL PREMIERE

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! In the spirit of this occasion of remembering those who gave their lives for America (may they always be honored and remembered), I thought I’d make a pretty big announcement of my own.

The sequel to my time-travel coming-of-age romance Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember is called Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change. And you can read it on June 21st (yes – the first day of Summer). Summer isn’t just a season; if you’ve read book one, you know that Summer is the name of the biggest grade-school-baddie-turned-psychopathic-criminal. So of course, I figured the best way to forgive her once and for all was to drop this second and final installment on the first day of her season.

Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change actually takes place in the SoCal fall, but that’s basically still warm weather (with the addition of pumpkin spiced everything). It was really fun to situate the characters in that season of blending the savory with the summertime. That also mimics the interesting blend of spastic daytime patterns as experienced by Vera and Fader in the virtual reality world they get trapped in.

The book will be available in ebook, paperback, and eventually, audiobook – narrated by the amazing Chelsea Kwoka. She voiced book 1 and hit it out of the park, so I knew we absolutely had to work together again.

To catch up on book 1, you can find it on Amazon HERE. I always like to tell people how personal both books are to me (but the first book especially – because it’s basically me traveling back in time to enact some justice on my old bullies).

I also have (what I hope) is a fun book trailer on YouTube all about book 1 – care to take a look? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUUTZ820GTI

Thank you so much for all your continued support. Comment below with more content you’d like to see from me. I could talk about my writing for ages, but I know that lifestyle stuff is important too, of course!

I’ll leave you with a quick spoiler-free passage from the sequel that I particularly enjoy. This is a moment between Fader and Vera while navigating the digital reality world:

Between the sound of the falling acid just outside, and the repetitive drip-drip-drip of hidden water somewhere in the cave, the silence was bearable. But only for so long. 

            “I don’t bite, you know.” 

            Fader huffed. “That hasn’t been proven. You looked like you were in enough pain to bite me if I hadn’t have given you that cloth to chomp on instead.”

            I rolled my eyes, even though the gesture may have been left unseen in the faint neon halo light. “That’s not entirely true.”

            “You sure? Because I can’t stitch up my own wounds. Don’t think I’d have the stomach for it.” 

            “What I’m sure of right now is that… I want you.”

            He froze, like being stung by an unseen predator. “What?”

            “Want you next to me, I meant. Yeah, like, scoot in. I’m cold.” Turning away momentarily, I prayed that Freudian slip didn’t just damage everything good we had going on. In a virtual reality world built on real-world death, you’d be surprised at how hard good stuff was to find.

            Before he could find a proper rebuttal, he moved closer to my side, wrapping his arm around my bare shoulders as shivers ran up my spine. “Okay, you have me. Is that all you wanted?”

            The ambiguity in his words wasn’t lost on me, so I treaded lightly. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”

Advertisement

Life Doesn’t Come with Cheat Codes.

Hello friends! I’m writing today with some VERY exciting news about my yet-to-be-published book.

Before anyone else, I’m going to let you see my book cover and cover blurb. How cool is that?

But first, a little background: So this newest book, Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change (The Rewind Duology Book 2) is the sequel to Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember. Both books deal heavily with coming of age, struggles with bullies, and finding yourself amidst the noise. Vera Bartlet is the main character, and in book one, she has to track down her missing dad while dealing with issues like time travel, dating, and learning to adult. If you like snark and clever tagline, you’d probably like this book, and you can find it on Amazon HERE.

Here’s the blurb for book 2:

Life doesn’t come with cheat codes.

Vera Bartlet finally lands her dream job after rescuing her dad from the psychotic bullies who held him captive. Despite dealing with the recurring trauma from being bullied and the psychological struggles surrounding it, Vera’s moving in a much better direction. With time travel under her belt, happily engaged friends, and an improved relationship with her previously estranged Uncle Edgar, life is stable – until the time machine gets stolen.
Vera’s family worries that a machine immune to the limits of time and space in the wrong hands would spell disaster for more than just their family. But when she’s quite literally dragged into the epicenter of the nefarious operation, Vera gets thrown into the very same virtual reality world that imprisoned her dad for the better part of a decade.

This place isn’t like anywhere Vera’s been before. Sporadic sky patterns with a deadly acid nightfall, man-eating purple-blooded wolf creatures, and an avatar with totally unnecessary upgrades is only the beginning of what she has to deal with. Her only saving grace is the frustratingly attractive Fader, who’s been in the game longer than she has and knows a way out.

Can Vera make it out of the game alive, forgive her bullies, and level up before her whole world glitches?

AND HERE’S THE COVER…

Seriously, how cool is this?!?! I’m obsessed with this cover. My designer really nailed this one.

As of now, I’m planning far a soft-release, maybe later next month if all goes to plan. But I’m not making any formal announcements yet as I’m still in the editing process right now. Even the cover may be subject to change depending on how everything is laid out, but I’m really excited to see how it goes.

There’s just so much that goes into all this, and I’m really hoping that it’ll all go smoothly, but the key is to just keep rolling with it and not panic. But then again, that’s also just life. And lately, I’ve been really bogged down with all my freelancing work on top of it all. And getting out of burnout is really, freaking difficult. I’ll probably blog about that soon too – but today is not the day.

In the meantime, if you want to join my review team, you can do so at this link: http://eepurl.com/df6qqf

Thank you so much for all your continued support! Angelina signing off for now, but I’m never too far away. Comment below to connect or follow me on Instagram and Tiktok.