Book Tour Stop: Crushing + Excerpt and Giveaway!

The Book.

Crushing

As a pampered and adored daughter of a wealthy Southern family Rory's life was seemingly perfect until her troubled childhood crush moves back in across the street forcing her to choose between him and the life that has been chosen for her.

As if that isn't enough, her quiet island town has turned dangerous. A good friend has gone missing, lending truth to the rumors of a serial kidnapper.

In her quest to help she becomes a target and will have to make choices about love, friendship and the inevitable sacrifice that they both require.

Book Excerpt.

The rain fell from the sky in sheets. Hiding in the huge woodpile the golf course drew from when they needed wood for outside fire pits or the fireplaces in the clubhouse meant I would win hide-and-seek for sure. I found this hiding spot weeks ago. Higher than me by a foot at least, I had pulled out some of the wood to make a little niche I could hide in. Not quite big enough for two. I also moved some of the wood in the front out of the way to make a peephole to see out of.

It was my best hiding spot ever. I could see if anyone came across the golf course toward me, and the forest was to my back. No one knew about it. I could make a run to the clubhouse from here, and no one would see me if I ran just inside the tree line.

I was about to sneak out of my spot, when a car drove up and backed right up to one of the greenskeeper sheds across the fairway. The shed was kind of off to the side, and I had actually never seen anyone use it.

Odd. There was literally no one on the course today. Even the greens people had left because of the rain. I decided to stay put. We weren’t supposed to be playing on the golf course. Even though the course was closed because it was raining, we would get in trouble if we were caught out here. Games of hide-and-seek in the warm summer rain were the best, but getting caught on the course meant a lecture from the parents and probable grounding.

The man got out and opened the trunk of the car. He went into the shack. What would he need out of there? When he came out he carried something big over his shoulder. It looked like a big canvas sack. I couldn’t tell if he worked here or not. As he went to put it in his trunk the canvas slid off, and I saw a head of black hair hanging down. Good grief, was that a person?

I started to breathe too fast and the wheezing started. A ton of dust and stuff was floating around in here. I started to cough. He must have heard because he whipped his head around fast. He paused, staring right at the woodpile. I covered my mouth with my hand. The woodpile was too far away for me to make out his face because of the rain, but I could see he had heard me. He started to head directly toward my hiding spot.

I was a little dizzy. I felt around in my pocket. Oh man. Where was it? At that moment I had a picture of my inhaler at home sitting on the bathroom counter. This was bad. I knew I needed to get out of there, but what if he saw me? I had to try to sneak out the back side of the woodpile and get to the woods.

I started to slowly scoot my way backward on my butt. I was coughing and wheezing with almost every breath now. I had almost made it out of the opening, when a big piece of wood fell and landed on my leg. Time to panic. I tried to pull my leg out. I didn’t have enough breath to pull very hard. Stuck. The wood was too heavy. And I couldn’t pull back hard enough.

I couldn’t see out the front anymore, but I could hear him coming. He called out.

“Hey there. Why don’t you come on out?” His voice singsonged.

Totally creepy. Did he sound familiar? I could barely hear him over the wheezing of my breath. I pulled harder. It didn’t even budge. He was going to get me. I heard the man call out from even closer.

“Don’t be shy now.” I saw a hand reach into the peephole. I was going to die.

About the Author.

Elena lives and writes in a suburb North of Los Angeles. She has never lived anywhere besides California which is probably a good thing since she hates being cold and is terrified to drive in the snow. She loves being a wife and a mother to her two kids and three dogs, although really the bulldog is the fourth child who has never matured beyond the toddler stage.

A self proclaimed nerd, she has been writing since she was a child. She has only recently, however, come out of the closet about this to her family and friends. They now understand better, but not completely, why she talks about characters in stories as if they are real people.