Chapters Through Life: The Weekend Bucket List ♥ Blog Tour! ♥ Giveaway and 2x Excerpts

The Weekend Bucket List

by Mia Kerick

Summary:

High school seniors Cady LaBrie and Cooper Murphy have yet to set one toe out of line—they’ve never stayed out all night or snuck into a movie, never gotten drunk or gone skinny-dipping. But they have each other, forty-eight hours before graduation, and a Weekend Bucket List.
There’s a lot riding on this one weekend, especially since Cady and Cooper have yet to admit, much less resolve, their confounding feelings for one another—feelings that prove even more difficult to discern when genial high school dropout Eli Stanley joins their epic adventure. But as the trio ticks through their bucket list, the questions they face shift toward something new: Must friendship play second fiddle to romance? Or can it be the ultimate prize?

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Excerpt

“Are we technically ‘sleeping under the stars’ if we crash in a tent?” I ask.

He shakes his head, and I’m surprised. Cooper usually chooses the easy route. “The stars are out there.” He nods toward the unzipped tent door. “That’s why we set up in a clearing, right? We can bring our sleeping bags outside when we’re ready to go to sleep.”

“I’m coming in if the bugs start to make a meal of me,” I say, but he knows that if he wants me to I’ll brave the mosquitos all night.

“Sounds like a plan, Cades.”

Review: ♥ ♥ ♥

The Weekend Bucket List

1. Go skinny-dipping
2. Stay out all night
3. Face a fear
4. Sleep under the stars
5. Take a road trip
6. Get drunk
7. Have a first kiss
8. Run naked on the beach
9. Sneak into a movie
10. Spend twenty-four hours with no electronics
11. Get pierced and tattooed
12. Say thank you to someone

This is Cadence and Cooper's end of school Bucket list. They want to have a memorable weekend before they have to start thinking about college. This is a becoming of age story about friendship.

Cadence and Cooper are best friends. They are in a weird place with each other at the moment. They are trying to work out if they want to be more than friends. They are working their way through the list and meet Eli.

Eli ran away from home before he finished high school. He joined the carnival and has been drifting through life. He doesn't know what he wants or what he's doing really. Cady and Cooper become his friends. He joins them on their road trip leaving his job behind.

Cadence and Cooper both have a college lined up and future plans. Eli needs to find his own path.

This book is supposed to be a little fun. I felt sorry for Eli. He knows he doesn't want to go home to his parents but his prospects are looking slim. He isn't the brightest tool in the box.

Cooper likes to plan things safe. He likes Cady but he also likes boys. I would have preferred him to have just liked men. It made this story a little over complicated.

I liked Cady. I just didn't like the awkward friendship dynamics.

This is a light bedtime read. It was good but not fantastic.

*I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review as part of the YA Bound Book Tour.

Excerpt

“I don’t see how adults can be so naïve? I mean, they fell for my line,” she says, finally opening her gray-blue eyes.

Cady’s right. It was almost too easy. My parents had zero problems with me “spending the weekend at Cady’s house” either.

“See, it was Tuesday night, I think, and I was scraping the last of the SpaghettiOs from my bread bowl, when—”

“Your mom put SpaghettiOs in a bread bowl?” That’s just plain wrong—a crime against bread bowls.

“She’s trying to be more creative in the kitchen so she doesn’t obsess over stuff she can’t deal with, like Bradley being in rehab. See what I’m saying?”

I don’t see shit, but still yuck.

“And we can’t all have a gourmet chef in the family. Anyway, when I asked Mom and Dad if I could stay at your house this weekend, Mom said, ‘Of course you can, dear, and thank you for never giving us one minute of trouble during your high school years, the way your brother did.’”

“Major guilt-infusion, huh?”

“Um... yeah.” Cady stuffs a final stack of fries in her mouth and then unwraps her double cheeseburger. You’ve got to respect her dedication to junk food consumption. “Mom actually got up from her seat, leaned across the table, and kissed me.”

I can’t help but imagine an orange-sauce lip print on Cady’s forehead—it’s not my fault I giggle.

“So it was as if my burden of guilt was physical as well as emotional.” She frowns. “And it’s not a laughing matter, Murphy.”

“Uh, sorry... that so sucks.” This about sums it up. I take off my glasses and rub my eyes; I’m determined to keep a straight face when I put them back on. 

About the Author

Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—all named after saints—and five nonpedigreed cats—all named after the next best thing to saints, Boston Red Sox players. Her husband of twenty years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about that, as it is a sensitive subject.

Mia focuses her stories on the emotional growth of troubled men and their relationships, and she believes that sex has a place in a love story, but not until it is firmly established as a love story. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with romantic tales of tortured heroes (most of whom happened to strongly resemble lead vocalists of 1980s big-hair bands) and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to Dreamspinner Press for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.

Mia is proud of her involvement with the Human Rights Campaign and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of marital equality. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology.
Contact Mia at miakerick@gmail.com.

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