Starcrossed Blog Tour Stop #5! Win a Kindle 3 and more!

I am totally excited to be the 5th stop on the Starcrossed Blog Tour!  

Starcrossed is a great book and I am excited to share more about it with all of you!

First we will take a look at the author, Josephine, and Starcrossed.  After that I have a special treat for you... a character interview with Helen's best friend Claire!!  

About Josephine Angelini: (website)

Josie was born in a tiny town in Massachusetts called Ashland. When she meets people from Massachusetts and tells them ‘what part’ she hails from, she usually gets one of two answers. The first is: “Ashland. Isn’t that in Oregon?” And the second is: “Did you just say Ass-land?”

Her next stop was about as different from her hometown as it gets without leaving the country. As soon as Josie was legal, she packed a bag and moved to New York City to attend NYU. Somehow, she managed to squeeze in a little higher learning between bartending shifts and graduated with a BFA.

Massively in debt with college loans, she then moved to Los Angeles for reasons that are still a little blurry. Something about the weather was mentioned, and a vague idea to write poetry and find herself. She found that she is a terrible poet, but she never gave up on the writing bit.

Josie still lives in Los Angeles with her husband and now writes YA fiction.

About Starcrossed:  goodreads

Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it’s getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she’s haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they’re destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.

Starcrossed Book Trailer:

Character Interview With Claire!

Describe yourself in five words or less.
Awesome genius ninja guardian angel.  

How long have you and Helen been best friends?

Since we were zygotes.  Seriously, our mothers were pals and Lennie and I are convinced we started communicating each other from their wombs.  She’d kick her mom in the kidneys, I’d head butt my mom in the liver—like a fetus Morse code if you will.

Who inspires you?

Aw, man.  Now you’re making me be all serious.  Lennie inspires me.  I just wish she wouldn’t slouch so much.  There’s no excuse for bad posture.

How do you feel about the Delos family moving into town?

Are you crazy?  I’m so excited I’m practically vibrating.  Do you have any idea how small my school is?  We’ve all known each other since first grade so trying to date someone is like trying to convince yourself it’s okay to date your brother.  We had a foreign exchange student once, but she was a girl.  

And I hear there are THREE boys coming to the island-- boys I never saw throw up eggs in second grade or walk around with big boogers hanging out of their noses in fifth or some other such icky episode that’s bound to happen over eleven years of hanging out with someone.  You know.  REAL BOYS for a change.  I can’t talk about it anymore—I get too choked up.

If you could go anywhere in the world with anyone for a day where would you go?

Oh wow.  I just want to warn you that whatever I say right now could be forgotten by tomorrow or replaced by a different boy-Caribbean combination okay?  Okay.  I’d go to Bali with Callan Mcauliffe.  But with my luck, he’d probably end up being boring, or allergic to sand or something and I’d end up back at the News Store with Lennie, eating croissants and spraying each other with silly string in the store room.  That wouldn’t be too bad, either.

Has it been a challenge being the only Asian kid in your school?

Nothing is a challenge for someone as awesome as me.  But yeah, it sucks.  It’s not like anyone is dumb enough to try and make fun of me.  I have a natural gift for figuring out exactly what’s wrong with other people and I have no problem telling them exactly what I think about them to their faces.  I don’t do bullies.  Lennie lets people bully her sometimes and it drives Matt and me crazy.  I wish she’d stand up for herself more.

What are your hobbies or what do you like to do in your free time?

I like to read.  I know, I know.  I’m a geek.  I’ve made peace with that.  I also run track even though I don’t really like running.  I mostly do it because Lennie does it.  

Don’t tell anyone this, okay?  I take calligraphy lessons from my grandma, too.  Like, ancient Japanese calligraphy.  I’m even starting to learn how to make my own brushes and paper.

Having lived their your whole life, do you like living on Nantucket Island?

Born and raised on ‘ACK.   I like it, even if it is a little hard being surrounded by white people all the time.  Most of them are okay.  ;)

You have a great personality and a lot of spunk, what are you hoping to be “when you grow up”?

I have no idea, and thank you for bringing it up.  Every morning my parents ask me “What are you going to do with your life?”  “What are you going to major in at college?” and every morning I tell them something different.  Today I told them I was going to major in horse-breaking.  They are not pleased that I haven’t answered “doctor” or “lawyer” or “computer programmer” yet.

The truth is, I have no idea what I’m going to do.  But I promise it will be spectacular.

What is your favorite memory of you and Helen?

My favorite memory!  Okay, one time in fifth, Gretchen, Helen, and I were all playing hide and seek at Gretchen’s house.  Helen was it.  She found me first and then she and I went to look for Gretchen together.  Turns out, Gretchen had to go to the bathroom half way through the game.  

So I dare Helen to pull the door open a crack, not all the way so we’d see anything, just a bit so Gretchen would freak out and scream that she was in there and all that.  But Helen pulled a little too hard.  She ripped the door off the hinges on accident.  And there was Gretchen—beauty queen girl that was always bragging about which pageant she’d just won—sitting on the can and picking her nose at the same time.  Priceless.

Well, Gretchen freaked out.  She stopped being both our friends and ever since then she’s sort of had this thing against Len and me, but mostly Lennie.  I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard in my life.  I never liked Gretchen—she’s just not a good person.  I’m glad she and Lennie stopped hanging out because that means I don’t have to hang out with her either.

Thank you so much Claire! It was great getting to know you better. :) 

 Now what you have all been waiting for... the Kindle Giveaway!

Contest rules for the Kindle give-away

• In order to enter to win a Kindle3 WiFi, including a copy of Starcrossed, a personal letter from Josie to the winner and covered in a GelaSkin of Starcrossed's cover art, you must collect the pink highlighted words from Lucas's love letter to Helen that are provide each day at the individual tour stops.  The daily words can be joined together in sequential order to create the winning secret message.  Once you've constructed the winning secret message, you will need to enter that message on Starcrossed's tour home page.
• No purchase, affiliation, status as follower to a certain blog or any other association is required to enter.
• Full rules for the contest can be found at the Starcrossed tour home page.
• Winner of the Kindle give-away will be announced on Josie's homepage on Tuesday, June 7th.
  

Here is the 5th piece of Lucas's letter to Helen! 

Make sure to visit each blog throughout the tour and collect the pink highlighted words in each letter snippet! At the end of the tour, you should have a secret message to enter at Starcrossed's tour home page!

Tour Stops:

Monday May, 16th - Bewitched Bookworms/ Tour Kick-off!

Tuesday, May 17th - Becky,  Stories & Sweets

Wednesday, May 18th - Elie, Ellz Reads

Thursday, May 19th - Heidi, YA Bibliophile

Friday, May 20th - See Scoot Read / Character Interview with Helen's BFF Claire

Monday May, 23th - Missie, The Unread Reader / "When I'm not Writing"

Tuesday, May 24th - Savanna, Books with Bite

Wednesday, May 25th - Natalie, The Mindful Musings / Character Interview with Helen

Thursday, May 26th - Heather, Buried in Books /Interview with Josie

Friday, May 27th - Nely, All about {n} / "Josie's Bookcase"

Monday May, 30th - Candace, Candace's Book Blog / Interview with Josie

Tuesday, May 31st (Starcrossed Book Birthday!) - Kristi, The Story Siren / Vlog post by Josie

Wednesday, June 1st - Small Review

Thursday, June 2nd - Jenny, Supernatural Snark / Character Interview with Lucas

Friday, June 3rd - Cynthia - A Book About Nothing

Tuesday, June 7th: Announcement of the big prize winner on Josie's Blog!