This is my stop on the book blitz for Camp Christmas (Camp Boyfriend #1.5) by JK Rock, Camp Christmas is a novella which is part of the Camp Boyfriend series and is free to download on
the publisher website . While it is part of the Camp Boyfriend series, it can also be read as a stand alone. This book blitz is organized by
Lola's Blog Tours . The book blitz runs from 17 December till 21 December, you can view the complete tour schedule on the
website of Lola’s Blog Tours. So far this series contains 3 book: Camp Kiss (Camp Boyfriend #0.5), Camp Boyfriend (camp Boyfriend #1) and Camp Christmas (Camp Boyfriend #1.5).
Camp Christmas (Camp Boyfriend #1.5)
by JK Rock
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Young Adult
Release date: 17 December 2013
Blurb:
Hannah never meant to be a mean girl – at Camp Juniper Point or at her high school. It just sort of happened during one painful year when her parents split and her life fell apart. Who knew being mad at the world would catapult her to popularity? But since changing the status quo would make her some serious enemies, she’s prepared to ride out her time until graduation. That is, until a camp friend calls her on the act during their school ski trip. Will Julian out her to her friends? Or will the guy she once accused of being King of the Nerds make her wish she was a whole lot more like him?
You can find Camp Christmas on
Goodreads
Author Interview:
- How did you come up with the inspiration for the Camp
Boyfriend series?
The
brainstorming process is so fluid and fast-moving sometimes it can be tricky to
trace where an idea originated! But we talked about writing a “summer” story
since so many interesting changes happen over a summer when you are in high
school. From there, we jumped to the possibility of summer camp, and the idea
for Camp Boyfriend started developing. We were both inspired by our own
experiences at summer camp.
-Who is the main character in the Camp Christmas book and what was the
inspiration for her?
Hannah is the main character, which we’re very excited
about because it can be interesting to write a character who is viewed one way
and sees herself in another way. The girls in Munchies Manor see Hannah as a
mean girl. But we wondered… are they right? Is she really mean and if so, why? We
ended up really connecting with Hannah and we hope readers will too. She goes
on to have some interesting roles in future books, too.
- What does the main character in camp Christmas like to do in her spare
time?
Hannah has a secret geeky side and she knows way too
much about Star Trek, but she would die before she let that particular bit of
information get out! But for the right guy, she does let her guard down so we
can know her better.
-How many books will the Camp Boyfriend series contain?
We have three books planned and three novellas, so six
stories in all. We’ve staggered the releases to that there is a free novella to
precede each book.
-Who designed the covers for your books and how went the process of developing
them?
The tremendously talented author/designer Jennifer
Rush designed the first two covers in the series. You can see more of her work here. Since Jennifer’s writing career keeps her plenty
busy these days, we’ve been working closely with our publisher, Spencer Hill
Contemporary, to maintain the spirit of her wonderful layouts in the rest of
the artwork.
-Which scenes do you find the easiest to write?
K- I’ve always loved writing dynamic scenes full of
interesting action with lots of dialogue and a bit of fun thrown in.
J- Scenes with a lot of action and momentum. When a
lot is going on, words fill the pages in no time!
-Which scenes do you find most difficult to write?
K- Deeply emotional scenes are sometimes the
most challenging, but ultimately the ones I love the most! I feel so strongly
for these characters and if it’s a breakup scene or a setback, I agonize with
them. If it’s a love scene, I want to make sure that each word sound real, raw
and genuine, not clichéd or expected.
J- Any scene where I’m not sure of the character’s
goals or motivations. To which, of course, I tell myself to *stop writing*
until I know those things <G>. But sometimes I’ll be excited about a
scene because I know the basic action and I think it sounds fun to write. Then
I get midway through and realize I’m losing focus because I forgot a story
element that’s really fundamental and needs to be in there.
-What do you like to do in your spare time?
K- I read… surprise J I love all genres including fantasy, horror, contemporary,
supernatural, sci-fi, suspense, dystopian, romance… you name it- I’ll read it.
Or at least give it a chance. I have to admit that once I start a book, even if
I don’t really like it, I feel like I should finish it just to see how it ends.
J- I watch a lot of hockey games with my husband and
sons. None of them play hockey competitively, so the sport is pure fun for me
and there are many, many cute players to sigh over. I’ve written a couple of
romances with hockey player heroes, you know, so I put all the fun to practical
use!
- Are there things you have in common with your main characters in the
Camp Boyfriend series?
K- I think I see a bit of myself in every character in
the series. If I had to narrow it down to one or two, I would say Kayla and
Emily. Kayla, the main character in the third book of our series, CAMP
FORGET-ME-NOT, describes herself as a girl who speaks her mind IN her mind- but
never really says what she’s thinking for fear of offending her friends. She
wants to blend in with the crowd and not be judged, picked on, or left out. I
felt like that a lot as a teenager. There were times that I wished I’d been
truer to myself, or stood up and did exactly what I wanted, instead of going
along with my friends. Kayla’s not a bad person, and neither was I. But we both
needed to get a voice and speak up for ourselves, whether people wanted to hear
what we had to say or not. Emily reminds me a bit of my adult self because once
I’d learned not to care so much about what other people thought of me, I got in
touch with my goofy, real personality. Emily cares a lot about the girls she
supervises, much in the way I cared about my students when I was a teacher. Yet
I never forgot that it was important to have fun while doing activities and to
encourage kids to be kind instead of mean, interested instead of apathetic, and
act goofy instead of cool because there isn’t anything fun about being cool-
too much pressure!
J- I relate well to characters like Trinity and
Brittany. They seem a little kooky on the outside sometimes, but only because
their passions are a bit outside the norm. I feel like that was me as a teen
because I my head was in a story half the time. I was more interested in
Catherine and Heathcliff than anything that happened in social studies, and I
may have come across as a bit spacey because of it. Also, I was mapping out
diagrams of the relationships between the Greek Gods in my spare time or
checking out twelve books on Italian art while at the library on my bicycle. I
have a quirky side and that’s why I love Brittany for wearing fangs. If you
have a passion… own it.
Camp Christmas by J.K. Rock
Excerpt
Hannah
A male voice in my ear made me
jump.
“I thought you gave up the mean
girl act at camp last summer.”
Turning slowly, I faced the only
boy at Northstar Academy who knew I attended camp in a remote corner of the
Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina every year.
“I thought we had a deal never to
speak to each other,” I shot back, nudging my bag higher on my shoulder. I
didn’t follow my friends since I didn’t want to be seen talking to Julian
Berwick.
“Really?” He grinned, surprising me
with a flash of white teeth and humor. “I think a ‘deal’ implies agreement
between both parties. You barking at me to keep my mouth shut when we were ten
years old doesn’t count.”
He strode away toward the main
lodge, his long legs covering ground in a hurry. What was he, like
six-foot-four? He’d been tall and gawky forever. Now, he seemed tall and…built.
“Wait,” I called, following him
toward the building and hoping none of my friends watched from the windows.
Thankfully, thick holiday wreaths
covered most of the windows anyway, the whole place decked out for Christmas.
He stopped. Turned.
I took a breath, ready to launch
into a tirade about keeping his distance. But seeing him through the falling
snow, his longish dark bangs half covering one eye, it was like looking at a
stranger. When had he quit carrying a dopey fake sword with him everywhere?
He’d worn a cape for as long as I’d known him, whether he was with a bunch of
rich kids from Manhattan at Northstar or he was at camp with his geekster squad
of science-lovers and video game freaks.
“Where’s your cape?” I asked,
sounding like an idiot. I cleared my throat, grateful I had pulled down my
goggles earlier, since they hid half my face. “I mean, you’re not trying to
turn normal or anything, right? Because I think it’s too late for you to fit
in.”
Why did I feel awkward around
Julian of all people? It made no sense. Maybe I was just regretting the
showdown with Missy since I’d hoped to have fun on Christmas Eve instead of the
endless battle to maintain social status.
“Same old Hannah.” He heaved a sigh
and shook his head. For the first time, I noticed some kind of tattoo on his
neck, half hidden by a scarf. “Guess the camp rumors about you had it wrong.”
He turned to head inside by the
time my ears caught up with what he’d said.
“Excuse me?” I tugged his sleeve to
pull him away from the door, away from a red-cheeked family wearing matching
wool reindeer sweaters and clutching paper cups of hot cocoa.
Julian glanced at my hand on his sleeve
and frowned. For a second, my gaze darted to where my snowflake-decorated
fingernails rested on his wrist just above his black leather glove. Flustered,
I let go.
“If you have more insults in mind,
I’m going to leave.” He spoke clearly, as if he was talking to an
eight-year-old. “Otherwise, I’m listening.”
I pulled off my goggles, wanting a
better look at this semi-normal-seeming boy who’d taken the place of Julian the
Super Nerd. My hair snagged in the hinge though, and I accidentally yanked it.
When Julian reached to help free me, I pulled back and tugged out enough
strands to hurt.
“You can’t talk smack about camp
rumors and then walk away. What gives?” I loved camp. No one there knew about
my mom, serial dater of rich men. No one at camp noticed if I wore last year’s
clothes. Or if I forgot to be too cool for campfire songs and trilled a chorus
of “Kumbaya” with the girls in my cabin.
I really missed them.
“Nothing. I just thought…” He
folded his arms across his chest, taking up way too much space for a boy I’d
always thought of as gangly. He started to lean against the side of the lodge,
until an underclassman approached and handed him his lift ticket. “Thanks, man.
Would you mind getting Hannah’s, too? You can take a turn down the mountain
with my video camera.”
The younger kid looked at me,
nodded at Julian and then ran off as fat snowflakes fell all around us, a
waterfall of icy lace.
“Thanks,” I said, figuring my
friends weren’t going to miss me too soon anyway. Better to give Missy a little
time to cool down. “So what’s the deal with camp? And who’s trash-talking me
behind my back?”
I hadn’t been the reigning queen
bee of our cabin, Divas’ Den, for the last seven years by letting the rumor
mill get the best of me. I worked the system, not the other way around.
“No one.” Julian reached toward me
and I tensed. But he just lifted the heavy bag with my skis off my shoulder and
propped it up against the lodge. “I just saw you hanging out with the Munchies’
Manor girls at the end of camp last year. The word around camp was that you’d
made peace with your nemesis.”
Leave it to Julian to make it sound
like the rival cabin was from the Klingon Empire. Not that I would ever admit
to familiarity with Klingon culture. It was one thing to lust after Chris Pine.
Another entirely to admit I’d ever attended a Star Trek convention in my own
brush with nerd-dom.
“Oh.” Last summer at camp had been
weird. But then, it wasn’t easy being fabulous all the time, especially not
when other girls were letting down their guards and having fun.
Not when that was exactly what I
wished I could do, too.
“Maybe. But Northstar Academy is a
long way from Camp Juniper Point.” My eyes went to his neck where I’d seen a
hint of a tattoo. Something dark green and black. I was curious.
“Seven hundred seventy miles.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“I am aware of that.” His brown
eyes studied me in a way that made me self-conscious. And not because of last
year’s clothes. “I’m telling you, it’s not that different here.”
“You wouldn’t understand.” I
grabbed my bag again, ready to be done with this conversation. Since when did
Julian-Freaking-Berwick get to judge me? “It’s different for me and you know
it.”
“Because you’re a girl?”
I rolled my eyes and remained
silent while my phone started to vibrate. My friends must have finally noticed
I was missing.
“Do you think I’ve never felt like
an outsider?” Julian asked.
Perfectly serious.
I forced a laugh as I pulled my
phone from my pocket. No way was I letting him see how much that question got
to me…
Earlier books in this series:
Camp Kiss (Camp Boyfriend #0.5)
by JK Rock
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Young Adult
Blurb:
The Camp Kiss That Started It All…
Lauren Carlson, a fourteen-year-old expert on the cosmos, superheroes, and science fiction trivia has a crush on her longtime camp friend, Seth. Last summer she’d dreamed about upgrading their relationship to BF/GF status and this year she has a plan… if only her well-meaning cabin mates wouldn’t interfere before she’s ready. She hasn’t even adjusted to her new braces yet, let alone imagined kissing Seth with them. When a dare pushes her out of her comfort zone, will she and Seth rocket out of the friendzone at last? There’s only one way to find out…
You can find Camp Kiss on
Goodreads. It is free to download on the
Spencer Hill Contemporary website or you can buy it on
Amazon .
Camp Boyfriend (Camp Boyfriend #1)
by JK Rock
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Young Adult
Blurb:
The summer of her dreams is about to get a reality check.
They said it couldn't be done, but geeky sophomore Lauren Carlson transformed herself into a popular girl after moving to a new school halfway across the country. Amazing what losing her braces and going out for cheerleading will do. Only trouble is, the popular crowd is wearing on Lauren's nerves and she can't wait to return to summer camp where she's valued for her brain instead of her handsprings. She misses her old friends and most of all, her long time camp-only boyfriend, Seth. This year she intends to upgrade their relationship to year-round status once she's broken up with her new, jock boyfriend, Matt. He doesn't even begin to know the real her, a girl fascinated by the night sky who dreams of discovering new planets and galaxies.
But Matt isn't giving her up without a fight. As he makes his case to stay together, Lauren begins to realize his feelings run deeper than she ever would have guessed. What if the guy she thought she was meant to be with forever isn't really The One? Returning to Camp Juniper Point was supposed to ground her uprooted life, but she's more adrift than ever. Everything feels different and soon Lauren's friends are turning on her and both guys question what she really wants. As summer tensions escalate, Lauren wonders if she's changed more than she thought. Will her first big discovery be herself?
You can find Camp Boyfriend on
Goodreads
You can buy Camp Boyfriend here:
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Amazon (kindle)
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Amazon (paperback)
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B&N
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Kobo
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The Bookdepository
About the Authors:
Sisters in law Joanne and Karen Rock write Young Adult books under the pseudonym J.K. Rock. They bonded on a set of bleachers, watching their respective Rock boyfriends play baseball, and later, as young wives married into the same big family. Today, they have fun reliving teen drama on the pages of their YA books in their ongoing Camp Boyfriend series, which reviewers have noted for its authentic treatment of navigating relationships and self-identity. Individually, Joanne and Karen write adult romance books for Harlequin. Joanne is a three-time RITA Award nominee and Golden Heart winner. Her books have been reprinted in twenty-six countries and translated into twenty different languages. Karen's debut romance, WISH ME TOMORROW, has garnered critical acclaim for its sensitive portrayal of a cancer survivor's journey. You can learn more about their upcoming projects and previous releases at http://jkrock.net
You can find JK Rock here:
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Website
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Series website
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Joanne’s Twitter
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Karen’s Twitter
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Facebook
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Pinterest
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Goodreads
There are two blitz wide giveaways!
One of the giveaways is US Only, here is what you can win: signed copies of J. Lynn's FRIGID, Kimberly Sabatini's TOUCHING THE SURFACE, J.K. Rock's CAMP BOYFRIEND, journal, chinese lantern, pen, stickers, assorted bookmarks, friendship bracelets, Camp Boyfriend pen and mini-flashlight and Bath and Body Works Triple Moisture Cream in Aruba Coconut.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The other giveaway is open internationally and is for a 25$ gift card. You can enter the rafflecopter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
