by 
Even with bad boy, TJ, disrupting their morning workouts, Karen and Stevie’s daily battles with each other are sure to bring both of them closer to a national title at next month’s championships. It’s the kind of feud that creates winning results.
Until a fall from the uneven bars shakes Karen’s rock-solid confidence. Not only does she balk every time she so much as attempts a routine, she’s also facing all this without much support from Jordan. After receiving some bad news, Jordan’s reluctance to listen to reason causes Karen so much frustration she begins to avoid him, needing space
to deal with her own issues. He needs someone to force him to make the right choice, he needs his dad to intervene and Karen knows this, but is torn between her loyalty to Jordan and her concern for her coach’s son. Even though both paths lead to the same person—Jordan—it feels like she’s choosing between two different people.
And then there’s the growing tension between TJ and Stevie. They’re obviously on the verge of either ripping each other’s heads off or ripping each other’s clothes off. It’s hard for either Jordan or Karen to tell where those two are headed. Tension is building from every possible outlet and there’s bound to be an explosion of some kind in the very near future.
Excerpt:
gymnast?”
laughter. “Yeah, I was. Nice transition, by the way.”
down at me before sticking out a hand to help me up. “Bet you can’t throw a
triple back off the end of the tumble track?”
trampoline—eighty feet to be exact—that landed into the foam pit. It helped
with training tumbling runs for floor routines.
pockets onto the mats beside the tumble track, and then took off his
long-sleeved white uniform shirt. He stood at the end of the trampoline wearing
only his khaki pants and a leather belt. “Let me warm up with a double first,
okay?”
wearily. “At least stretch out a little.”
at a run, then jumped into his round-off, which was a little slow and sloppy,
plus he didn’t even do a back handspring first. Coach Bentley would never let
me train a triple back from just a round-off. If I did that, I’d never be able
to actually perform it on the floor. Not that I planned on adding triple backs
to my floor choreography anytime soon.
himself pretty high in the air, and with stuntman-like air sense, he found his
way around the double flip. I clapped loudly, then attempted to whistle with my
fingers in my mouth, but quickly decided that wasn’t a good idea, considering
the fact that he was topless. At least he wore pants today instead of just
boxers.
fake-fell onto the carpet. “I’m so out of shape. No triples today.”
returning. “I’ll give it a shot for both of us.”
it. You’ll get hurt before the first meet and it’ll be my fault.”
bumps to spread everywhere. I got up again and laughed at him. “I’m not going
to get hurt. I’m safe and boring, remember? You said so yourself the other day.”
safe and boring. Maybe you aren’t anymore,” he conceded. “I take it back. Karen
Campbell is a wild-ass risk taker. She should be riding a Harley through
downtown St. Louis.”
at him. “Jordan Bentley is a great big ass-kisser with the cardiovascular
endurance of a ninety-year-old man.”
vindictive person. Go ahead and hurt yourself then. Fine with me.”
yet another new skill. This one was more fun and less practical, but why the
hell not? Seriously. In a last attempt at safe training, I called over my
shoulder to Jordan, “Yank me out if I end up doing the ostrich in the sand move.”
before setting myself up high enough for the triple back. Halfway through the
second flip, I got a little lost and was totally shocked to end up feet first
in the foam pit. Jordan had jumped up, cheering loudly. “That was awesome! So
awesome!”
the hell are you doing?”
Jordan. Coach Bentley and several of his staff were heading our way.
reached for his shirt and was buttoning it up. “I asked you to take Karen
home.”
in a while, Dad. Glad I wasn’t choking or in great need of a guardian to sign
off on medical procedures.”
rules, Karen. Nobody trains skills without a coach in the gym. What were you
thinking? And triple backs?”
yelled at me before. Stacey was right behind him, arms crossed, glaring at me.
“This is something I expect from the little girls.”
Bentley said, “but not from you.”
exchange from a distance. Coach Bentley strode over to the pit bar and yanked
down my chart, which had already been marked up quite a bit in the last two
days. My heart pounded, not knowing what was coming.
for now. I thought you were mature enough to understand how to weigh the risk
versus reward, but I guess I was wrong.”
around.”
It was already bad enough. “I’m sorry,” I said with a sigh, then left them to
go and grab my stuff from the locker room.
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I’ve envisioned my main character, Karen, as a red-headed McKaylaMaroney even
though I tried my best not to picture her as anyone specific.
2) I’ve been around the world of competitive gymnastics for at least 15 years
and therefore have depicted elite level gymnastics as true-to-life as possible
in this book.
3) The romance in LtN is not your typical “insta-love” or “fall
in love then break up” format. This will please some and disappoint
others.
4) My main character, Karen, has just lost both her parents in a tragic car
accident prior to the book’s opening however, I don’t consider this a typical
book about death either because there are so many other elements intertwined
and Karen is a fighter, she’s constantly driven by one goal or another. It’s
about rising up after a fall.
5) LtN is truly the book of my heart because I wanted, for so long, to find a
way to combine by two greatest passions – YA Literature and Gymnastics.
Julie Cross is the International Bestselling author of the Tempest series, a young adult science fiction trilogy which includes Tempest, Vortex, and the final installment, Timestorm (St. Martin’s Press). She’s also the author of Letters to Nowhere (8/13), a mature young adult romance set in the world of elite gymnastics, as well as several forthcoming young adult and new adult novels with publishers like Entangled, Sourcebooks, HarperCollins, and St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books.
Julie lives in Central Illinois with her husband and three children. She’s a former gymnast, longtime gymnastics fan, coach, and former Gymnastics Program Director with the YMCA. She’s a lover of books, devouring several novels a week, especially in the young adult and new adult genres. Outside of her reading and writing credibility’s, Julie Cross is a committed–but not talented–long distance runner, creator of imaginary beach vacations, Midwest bipolar weather survivor, expired CPR certification card holder, as well as a ponytail and gym shoe addict. You can find her online via twitter, her personal website, email, facebook, Goodreads, or co-moderating the YAwriters section of reddit.
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