The Girl from Long Guyland
by Lara Reznik
BLURB
Laila Levin enjoys a successful marriage and a thriving career as
an I.T. executive in Austin, Texas, but she can't quite shake her lifelong
sense of not truly belonging anywhere.
When her company announces a major layoff, Laila finds herself
caught between an unscrupulous CEO and her promiscuous boss. Then news of her
college roommate's suicide stirs up a dark secret involving three devious
friends from her past. One has betrayed a vow, another wants to rekindle their
romance, and the third is out for revenge.
Suddenly for Laila, it's 1969 again. She's only seventeen, and
she's left her sheltered home in Long Island for college in Connecticut. Amid
protests of the Vietnam War, she's tempted by the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll
that rule her generation. Laila gets swept up in a deceptive love triangle with
two older locals and initiated into their unethical hippie family. Too late she
realizes her search to belong has led to tragedy.
Laila must now juggle the demands of her perplexed husband and her
baby boomer past forcing her to make choices that endanger her survival and
challenge her conscience.
She learns that the lines between right and wrong are often
blurred, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.
EXCERPT
CHAPTER
ONE
Lost
in Texas
Austin,
Texas, 2012
A
couple dozen stars and the eye of a yellow moon pierce light through a sky
filled with smoke. I look out the broken window to the ground below. Crumpled
in the weeds is a lifeless body with red-flecked eyes, a bushy mustache, and
sweet smile.
Vapor
seeps into the room. I can barely breathe. Ben wraps his arms around me as I
weep. Denise lies in a catatonic state perched on the bed. Why is she only
wearing her bra and panties?
Chris
stumbles inside the room. His eyes glow like diamonds. He cranes his head out
the window. “We gotta do something, man.”
“I’ll
call for an ambulance,” I say.
Ben
gulps, “That’s not a good idea.”
“We
have to,” I insist. “For Godsakes.”
He’s
dead, Laila,” Chris says.
Tears
sting my eyes.
WITH
A JOLT, I awake whimpering. The nightmare has infested my dreams for years. It
may be time to see a shrink.
The
anxiety subsides when my husband Eduardo arrives with a cappuccino and the
morning paper. “Are you okay? It sounded like you were crying.”
I
clear my throat. “No, no, I’m fine. Just a dream, I guess.” I’ve never
discussed these recurring nightmares with him. Eduardo’s got his own problems.
He was recently laid off in a corporate downsize and refuses to talk about it.
There’s lots of tension in our home right now. Maybe we should both see a
shrink.
AUTHOR BIO:
Lara
Reznik grew up on Long Island but escaped to New Mexico in 1970 in a Karmann
Ghia that she and her boyfriend jump-started cross-country. As an English major
at the University of New Mexico, Lara studied under esteemed authors Rudolfo
Anaya and the late Tony Hillerman. She also attended a summer program at the
prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop.
Ambidextrous
from birth, Lara preferred her right-brained creative side, but discovered she
could make a better living with her left-brain skills, so entered the I.T.
field in 1985.
Lara
published her first novel, The Girl From Long Guyland in November 2012. The
novel ranked #1 during its recent Amazon Kindle promotion and has over 115,000
Kindle downloads. In addition to her novels, Lara has written and optioned
three screenplays that have garnered semifinalist and finalist wins in the
Austin Heart of Film, Southwest Writers, TV Writer, Chesterfield and Writer's
Digest contests. Currently, Lara is working on a new novel based on her
screenplay, The M&M Boys.
LINKS
AMAZON
LINK:
FACEBOOK
WEBSITE
Note: The Girl from Long Guyland will be on sale at Amazon for 99 cents on December 7.
GIVEAWAY
The author will
be awarding a randomly drawn commenter with a $50 Amazon gift card. Follow
the tour and comment to increase your chances of winning.
The
tour dates can be found HERE.
