True Colors by
Krysten Lindsay Hager
Tagline: A little
competition can really bring out people’s true colors.
Blurb: Landry
Albright just wants to be one of the interesting girls at school who always
have exciting things going on in their lives. She wants to stand out, but also
wants to fit in, so she gives in when her two best friends, Ericka and Tori,
push her into trying out for a teen reality show modeling competition with
them. Landry goes in nervous, but impresses the judges enough to make it to the
next round. However, Ericka and Tori get cut and basically "unfriend"
her on Monday at school. Landry tries to make new friends, but gets caught up
between wanting to be herself and conforming to who her new friends want her to
be. Along the way she learns that modeling is nowhere as glamorous as it seems,
how to deal with frenemies, a new crush, and that true friends see you for who
you really are and like you because of it.
Back Cover Blurb:
Every day I walked down the sidewalk to
school and wished I were one of the interesting popular girls who ran up with
exciting news. Just once I’d like to be one of those girls instead of the being
the one who didn’t get invited to things because people “forgot” about me.
Landry Albright gets pushed into trying out for the American
Ingénue reality show modeling competition with her two best friends. She
doesn't think she stands a chance, but she advances to the next level in the
competition and her friends ignore her when they get cut.
Enter the gorgeous Devon Abrams, who also makes the first
cut and includes Landry in her clique. Devon becomes the perfect best friend,
but can their friendship survive the competition?
Landry hopes her big break could come at any moment, but
soon sees there's much more to modeling than just getting your hair done and
looking pretty. She begins missing out on being with new friends like Ashanti,
a girl who truly has Landry's back. Landry also has the chance to have a
boyfriend when she meets a boy named Vladi from another school.
Part of Landry wants to be famous (and have her hair look
good for once), but part of her just wants to be accepted. She learns about
friendships, being true to yourself, and that a good hair conditioner doesn’t
hurt either.
Excerpt:
While I was deciding whether or not to chicken out, the
stage manager, Georgia, started having the girls go out on stage. I overheard
somebody say one girl fell out of her shoe as she stepped on the runway.
“Is she okay?”
“Yeah, she’s fine. She just pretended to have two heels on and
walked on her tip toes,” Georgia said.
I would have burst into tears and run off the stage — kind
of like I did when I was four years old and in a dance recital. We were
supposed to be little ballerinas and have scarves attached to our tutus, but my
mom was still in school at the time and she came home late and forgot to give
me my scarves. So all the other little girls pulled out their scarves, and
there’s a video of me looking on either side of my tutu for my scarves and then
bursting into tears crying “Mommy!” as I ran off the stage. My grandmother said
I was adorable, but I don’t think it was any coincidence my grandfather died
two weeks later.
At least I didn’t have to worry about missing scarves
tonight. All I had to do was focus on not tripping. If I could just make it
down the runway and back, I’d be fine. Unless, of course, I suddenly came down
with Tourette’s Syndrome and started swearing live on the air… but I’d know if
I had Tourette’s, right? It doesn’t just come on out of nowhere, does it?
“Okay, girls. Your group is next,” Georgia said.
I took a deep breath. All I had to do is say, “My name is
Landry, and I’m from Grand Rapids.” Easy—as long as I didn’t get the dry heaves
or puke into the microphone and electrocute myself…or get diarrhea on live TV.
Why did I ever go to the audition in the first place? Everything was fine when
I was just boring old Landry fading into the background. The girls at school
were a lot nicer to me when I was nobody special. I mean, before this stupid
competition I had friends, but now it seemed like there was no one I could
trust. Maybe if I lost this stupid thing I could go home and everything would
be back to normal.
“Okay, girls. You guys are next.” Georgia pushed me in the
back. “Don’t forget to smile,” she said in my ear.
Then the girl in front of me morphed into a different
person. She straightened her spine and walked with a little skip in her step.
“I’m Desiree, and I’m from Sterling Heights,” she said in a low sexy voice.
Great, I had to follow her.
“I’m Landry, and I’m from Chicago, Illinois,” I said. I
moved away from the microphone and realized I said “Chicago” instead of “Grand
Rapids,” so I went back to the microphone to correct myself and slammed into
the next girl. She acted like she didn’t notice, but I had hit the microphone
and it made a shrieking noise. I heard laughter. People were laughing at me. On
television. I wanted to die.
I saw Georgia gesturing at me to
get off the stage, and I walked off. I had been practicing my stupid runway
walk for weeks and for what? A chance to humiliate myself on live TV? I’ve
always been sorta accident prone. If anybody was going to do something stupid
and embarrassing it was probably me, but I thought I could control myself for
two seconds on live television. I’m such an idiot.
Author bio: Krysten
Lindsay Hager is an author and book addict who has never met a bookstore she
didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and also writes middle grade, YA,
humor essays, and adult fiction. TRUE COLORS is her bestselling debut novel from
Astraea Press. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in South Dakota,
Portugal, and currently resides in Southern Ohio where you can find her reading
and writing. She received her master’s in American Culture from the University
of Michigan-Flint.
Buy Links:
Barnesandnoble.com: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/true-colors-krysten-lindsay-hager/1119742726?ean=2940149747658
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/449308
Connect with Krysten:
Website: http://www.krystenlindsay.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrystenLindsay
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/krystenlindsay/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/krystenlindsay
Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jxcUH54hU
Amazon author profile: http://www.amazon.com/Krysten-Lindsay-Hager/e/B00L2JC9P2/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Thanks for having me on today!
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