Oh wow, Always Second Best is going to be out in less than a month. *runs in circle* *sits down to finish revision*…

Here is a little teaser for you…

Hope you’re all doing great!!!

Always Second Best has a cover!

Sometimes being first isn’t what you expected.

Release date: October 13th

Seventeen-year-old ballerina Emilia Moretti is tired of always being second best. And she’s going to prove the world she deserves to be first. In her upcoming School of the Performing Arts showcase. In the eyes of her birth parents. And in the heart of the guy she loves. She spends hours rehearsing, hours dreaming about becoming number one, hours imagining how her entire life is about to change. But when nothing goes the way she planned, she’ll need to realize what it really means to be first.

Eighteen-year-old Nick Grawski doesn’t want to follow Daddy Dearest’s rules any longer. He’s going to prove he’s meant to be a dancer—not a lawyer—and he is not going to stay away from Em just because his father demands it. He needs to show Em that—this time around—he’s there to stay and that he won’t break her heart again. Even when her world goes down to shit, even when he finds out his dad may have been trying to protect him all along, even if being there for one another is harder than falling in love.

ALWAYS SECOND BEST is a novel of hope and heartbreak and broken dreams. It’s a novel about falling in love and discovering that being first isn’t always what matters.

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It’s crazy. It seemed like only yesterday that I revealed the cover of A Summer Like No Other…And the publication of Always Second Best is right around the corner. This cover didn’t come as easily to me. For A Summer Like No Other, I found the picture I wanted to use in minutes. For this one, I had to realize that what I had wasn’t working. And to realize I had to let it go (*cue Frozen soundtrack :P*).

After searching for something that “spoke” to me and spoke to me about the story, I finally found “it”. And fell in love. And as always, I am so grateful to my husband and my wonderful & encouraging friends who answered my emails, my questions, gave me feedback on the different versions of this cover. ❤

I’d love love love to hear what you think about the cover. Don’t hesitate  to let me know what you think!

❤

When I was a teenager, I read a book called “Death is my trade” by Robert Merle. The protagonist, Rudolf Lang, was closely based on Rudolf Hoess, commandant of the concentration camp Auschwitz.

It’s a book that made me pause and think. It’s a book that shows the horrors of the concentration camps under a different light because it shows them from the perspective of one of the people who ran the camp, who decided how many “units” they were going to be able to kill in one day, how to top those numbers, how to do even better. Those were no longer people for him but numbers to achieve, numbers to make people proud and pleased.

It’s showing the horrors under a the light that basically flashes in your face to remind you to ask questions, to not simply follow orders, to not stay silent.

That’s what it mentions:

Everything Rudolf did, he did not out of viciousness, but in the name of the categorical imperative, of duty, of loyalty to his commander, in submission to orders, out of respect for the State. In short, as a ‘man of duty’; it is precisely for this behavior that he is monstrous

—(Robert Merle, 27 April 1972)

His wife also asks him why he did it and when he answered that because if he didn’t someone else would have done it, his wife replies “But it wouldn’t have been you.”

Responsibility.

I read memoirs from survivors.

I have met people who fought on both sides during the Second World War. I’ve seen people regretting their choices. I’ve seen the pain in the eyes of those who suffered. I’ve seen survivors of the camps in my Junior high in France talking to us about what they’ve endured, making sure the history doesn’t become that forgotten place.

My German professor made sure we talked about it, that we discussed it, discussed the roots, discussed the way this happened. Because it did happen.

I also went to the concentration camp of Buchenwald when I was in high school…and I fail to see the romance in this place.

I saw death, I saw horror. I saw how humanity can commit monstrous acts. I saw a genocide.

Millions of Jews were persecuted and killed during that time. Millions of Jews died a systematic death during that time. The Nazi regime is responsible, yes. But not only. The ones who stood by and either helped in their silence or even helped by denouncing, by not hiding, by not trying in small ways to somehow help in Germany, in France, in Poland, in Russia, in England, in the United States, in the world are also partly responsible. And it’s hard to write that, because it always asks the question: what did my family do? what would I do? But at the same time, you know what’s worse? Being in those camps and dying. That is worse than the tough questions.

I haven’t read the book that actually puts a romance with the Holocaust as a background. I don’t know why the author chose to write it or what story she may have that made her believe this was not a big deal. That it was okay. That it was fine that her heroine was saved because she didn’t appear Jewish or that she redeemed herself by converting to Christianity (just writing those words actually hurt.)

I’ve seen how Jews were portrayed in the thirties not only in Germany but in Europe, in France. How simple it seemed to be to not portray them as people anymore. So that rhetoric of changing religion to be saved in the context of the Holocaust is appalling. A romance where the heroin really doesn’t have a choice in the matter, because well the guy could basically put her to death and no one would even blink is appalling.

I don’t understand. I sometimes hear “it was such a long time ago.”

Bullshit. Dehumanizing a group of people happens all the time. It happens now.

I don’t think I have the answers. I don’t think I understand how it affects generations after generations.

But what I do know is that I can’t stay silent.

Even if my thoughts are all over the place.

Because staying silent is the beginning of the end.

Tomorrow, A SUMMER LIKE NO SUMMER will be out in the world…I wanted to write a #selfpub post today talking about the ads I booked and my experience with Ereaders news or maybe a post about how to help your favorite authors, but I’ve decided on a much different post today.

I need a nap.

I’ve been working hard on the release, and trying to keep up with everything else. Even though it’s my third book out in the world, I’m still very anxious about people reading my books and yes, it’s exciting and thrilling but it’s also a bit emotionally draining 🙂

So today, I’ll just say “thank you!”

Thank you for reading and reviewing. Thank you for pre-ordering. Thank you for buying my books. Thank you for your emails. Thank you for listening to me when I need to talk. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for your support and encouraging words. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. Thank you for helping me spread the word.

Thank you!