As a reader, we encounter various books in our daily lives, and some stick more than others. Today's featured title caught my eye thanks to the description (which you'll read in a moment) because all three movies/books mentioned, I really enjoyed! So, if you're looking for your next read, I've got a title to introduce you to today that's currently touring with Rachel's Random Resources, along with a taste of the story (EXCERPT TIME!), and your chance to win a copy to call your own (CONTEST TIME!). Ready, set, read all about it...
The Placeholder
by
Lynda Wolters
About the book...
THE PLACEHOLDER, a mash-up of Thelma and Louise besties meet Eat, Pray, Love and Me Before You.
Middle-aged Serenade Kincaid has lost everything: her stepchildren, her house, half her earnings, her sports car, and her husband, all to a decades younger–and more fertile–woman.
Sera now drinks boxed wine from a plastic cup as she attempts to start over from her new home, a seedy motel, as she kills time scrolling dating apps in search of a semi-decent-not-mass-murderer-please-just-spend-time-with-me port in the storm.
As Sera discontentedly leapfrogs through men, her snarky, meddling boss and sometimes-best friend, Carolyn, encourages her to focus more on finding a friend with benefits, just until Prince Charming comes along, of course. Zac fits the bill.
He’s a self-proclaimed “unsuitable boyfriend” who looks to have jumped straight from the pages of a romance novel. Zac also insists he, too is only looking for some fun, which is perfect for Sera.
Cue the booty calls. And wow, are they hitting the spot. But just when Sera is starting to figure herself out, get her life back on track and think she may have found someone, life takes a sharp left. And all fun and games come to a screeching halt.
Now, Sera, Zac, and Carolyn must race against time to disentangle their web of lies and deceit before it’s too late.
The Placeholder is an unconventional, unforgettable, unputdownable story of loss and love.
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~~~ EXCERPT ~~~
The Placeholder’s main character, Sera, is a mid-forties, newly single woman who has a vast and diverse group of friends. A personal favorite character while writing this became Vance, the barista at a neighborhood coffee shop called the Flying M. Vance and Sera banter and chat as if they are schoolgirls, but their friendship is fiercely protective to one another. In this scene, Sera is frustrated with her boss, Carolyn, giving her grief about her dating habits, and leaves her office to go to her favorite coffee place where she learns Vance has a new boyfriend. Here’s the scene:
The Flying M, a coffeehouse with an eclectic, nostalgic vibe, sits in the corner of a historic, renovated building at the end of restaurant row. A rainbow sticker on the door and Vance, the daytime barista, are the primary reasons I frequent the place. I feel love whenever I enter the M, and Vance’s carefree zeal for life makes me happy. Over the past many years, he and I have become friends and gossip like schoolgirls.
“Hi, Vance,” I say when It’s my turn to order.
“Heyya, yourself.” He breaks into a full smile. “Come, give me some shugga.” He patters around the island and holds me close. “It’s been a dog’s age since I’ve seen you,” he says, scampering back to his side of the counter. “What have you been doing? Or should I say, who?”
I roll my eyes. “You and Carolyn, real comedians. The usual, please.” I’m not in the mood for more insults.
“Small, skinny chai, half-shot of vanilla, hot,” he calls over his shoulder, ignoring his coworker’s complaint about why he isn’t making the drink himself.
“What’s going on? Let’s sit.” He removes his apron, drops it on the counter and proclaims to no one in particular, “I’m taking a break.”
We sit at my favorite back corner table, next to a window. It has terrific light to work by and makes it easy to people-watch. I spend a good deal of time here, thinking it a safer option than a bar, and liking it much better than my seedy old motel room.
“Tell Vance all about it,” he says.
“I’m just in a rut, ever since the divorce.”
“Small, skinny chai, half-shot of vanilla, hot,” interrupts a sweet young person with a smile.
I sip the foam from the top of the drink, making a slurping noise. “You know I hate being alone.”
Vance flicks his wrist at me. “We all hate being alone,” he says and then leans in, “I have a new beau.”
“What?” I choke. “Who? When? Why didn’t I know?”
He laughs, “Hold on now; I don’t tell you everything.”
“You don’t?” I feign disappointment and shock, lifting the back of my hand to my forehead.
“Okay, so there’s this guy down at the new One Nineteen building – you know, the boujee condos on Tenth and Grove?” Vance looks at me as if I know all the goings-on in the Boise real estate market. My blank stare informs him otherwise.
“Oh, come on,” he leans back and chuckles. “Sera, you gotta check it out, those are right up your alley, and you need to get out of that nasty, pay-by-the-hour motel.”
“It’s not pay-by-the-hour. And how do you know?”
Of course, Carolyn.
He looks sheepish, and then waves it off and starts again: “Okay, so down at the One Nineteen, there is this fine young thing who handles the door–”
“Wait, this place has a doorman?” I interrupt.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“That is boujee,” I say, taking another sip. “Continue please.”
“Anyway, I met him at the Balcony the other night. It was ladies’ night, and I said to the bouncer, ‘Honey, I’m wearing my best heels,’ and I lift a Jimmy Choo so he could get a good look. He let me in for free!” Vance throws his head back, reliving the moment.
“And when I walked in, it was like God himself parted the sea of people.” Vance fans himself as if he’s suddenly faint, “And there he was. Stefan.”
“Moses parted the sea,” I correct.
Vance rolls his eyes, continuing, “Well, Stefan looks like a god, and he parted the people at the club, and we’ve been inseparable ever since.”
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About the author...
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Lynda was born and raised in a tiny farming community of 400 in northern Idaho. She worked on the family farm, with her first job being picking rocks out of the fields with her dad and grandpa. She graduated to driving both the truck and combine during harvest season. After high school, Lynda traveled to New York to be a nanny for a few months before moving to Las Vegas to further her schooling.
Lynda has worked in the legal field for 30+ years and enjoys ballroom and swing dancing, horseback riding, kayaking, and river rafting. She has a heart for people and regularly volunteers. Following a diagnosis of incurable cancer, Lynda began writing. Her first non-fiction book, Voices of Cancer, was released in 2019 (a piece was done by Jane Brody on January 20, 2020, and published in the NYT, and a grant purchased the Chinese translation rights, and Voices of Cancer is now offered to medical students in the Tawain area), and her second non-fiction book, Voices of LGBTQ+, was released in 2020.
The Placeholder, Lynda’s debut novel, will be released on November 1, 2022. Lynda currently has a middle-grade historical fiction manuscript about her in-laws, who were children in the Netherlands during WW2, in editing.
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YOUR CHANCE TO WIN...
1 of 5 PB copies of The Placeholder
(Open to US Only)
*Terms and Conditions –US entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
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Special thanks to Rachel at Rachel's Random Resources for the chance to bring this tour to you and for the excerpt to share with all of you. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the author, this promotion, or those on the horizon, feel free to click through the links provided above. Be sure to check out the rest of the tour for more bookish fun!
Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!
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