Saturday, May 4, 2019

"Gone Too Soon" by Melody Carlson Book Tour and GiveAway

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About the Book

Book: Gone Too Soon
Author: Melody Carlson
Genre: Young Adult
Release Date: November 15, 2018
Gone Too SoonAn icy road. A car crash.
A family changed forever.
Hannah Josephson had always been the “perfect” daughter. Kiera couldn’t live up to her before, and she certainly can’t now that her older sister has died in a car accident. But the image she carried resentfully of Hannah is challenged when she finds her dead sister’s diary and begins to read. Apparently Hannah’s final year wasn’t as perfect as everyone thought.
Caught in a pattern of blaming each other, the Josephson family is falling apart. Their father has left, their mother is mixing opiates and alcohol, little sister Maddie has been shipped off to spend the whole summer with their grandmother, and Kiera feels utterly alone with her grief and anger. A summer job helping at a park in a poor section of town provides a friend and a purpose.
But it’s Hannah’s diary that fills her thoughts. For the first time in years, she feels close to the sister she’s lost. But can the knowledge she gleans about her possibly help her patch back together the family that seems determined to implode?
Click here to purchase your copy.
"Gone Too Soon"  by Melody Carlson is a book that is really a good book but one that really deals with a really hard topics. The topics of death and alcohol and drug addiction and suicidal thoughts and an attempt. 

This book really makes a reader think about life after death. 

This book is not a feel good book nor one to be taken light hearted but it another one that is "real life" fiction.

This book really makes me think about not wanting to read for awhile but that is not the book's fault it just hits too close to home, I have been dealing with my mom and dad's death.  Yesterday was a year ago that we put mom on hospice and she died 5 days later and my dad died in January and I have had struggled with depression so this book was more than fiction for me. But, even with saying all that I do recommend this book to other readers that like Christian reads, I really appreciate the fact that the author points out that those in Christ never ready die and that their witness outlives there earthly lives.

And I am not going to quit reading because at the end of the book there is a reason to keep going on because this reader realizes that even with all that is wrong with life there is hope and things are going to be better and if the  Josephson family can come together and mend, then we all can.

I was given a complementary copy by the author and Celebrate Lit. These opinions are my own.

About the Author

Melody CarlsonMelody Carlson has written more than 200 books (with sales around 6.5 million) for teens, women, and children. That’s a lot of books, but mostly she considers herself a “storyteller.” Her young adult novels (Diary of a Teenage Girl, True Colors etc.) appeal to teenage girls around the world. Her annual Christmas novellas become more popular each year. She’s won a number of awards (including RT’s Career Achievement Award, the Rita, and the Gold medallion) and some of her books have been optioned for film/TV. Carlson has two grown sons and makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and yellow Lab dog.

More from Melody

I think I’ve written about a hundred or more teen novels, but Gone Too Soon, a rather serious story, is a bit different. There’s no denying I’ve covered a bunch of gritty issues—everything from self-harm to suicide to murder—but I’ve never written a novel quite like this one. For starters, I wrote it from two viewpoints. Both the teenage daughter and her mother express themselves in this story. And because the premise involves an untimely death, the family is torn apart. As a result, there’s a lot of guilt and blame and confusion going around. They’re all in pain.
I’ve been asked several times what “inspired” this story. And I’m sad to say that it’s simply a case of “art imitating life.” I live in a small community where too many young people have died “too soon.” These untimely deaths—for a variety of random and unexplainable reasons—are devastating. I know more than a dozen families (some very close friends) who have tragically lost a child. So I’ve seen up close how it can tear a family apart. It’s truly heartbreaking, often leaving friends and family without words of comfort or explanation.
But that’s not the only reason I wrote this story. My hope is that teens (who often feel invincible) will be reminded that they are mortal and that this earthly life is temporary. Hard as it sounds, death is inevitable. And it’s not that I want everyone to be obsessed about dying, but we do live in a culture that practices denial about the end of a life. No one really wants to talk about it. My hope is that readers will take a hard, honest look, peel back some layers, and face death for what it is—a part of earthly life. And I hope readers will close the book with a little more understanding . . . and hope.

Blog Stops

The Avid Reader, April 25
Emily Yager, April 26
Moments, April 26
Hallie Reads, April 27
Mary Hake, April 28
SusanLovesBooks, April 29
amandainpa, May 4
Remembrancy, May 6

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Melody is giving away a grand prize of paperback copy of Gone Too Soon and a matching journal!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter. https://promosimple.com/ps/dfa9/gone-too-soon-celebration-tour-giveaway
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