Ready To Go
Release Date: 11/12/13
Publisher: Swoon
Romance
Summary from
Goodreads:
Daniel is sick of his
wonderfully boring and predictable life. He dutifully gets up every morning,
goes to class, goes to work, and it never changes. He does, says and even wears
exactly what others expect of him. He's so predictable that he barely notices
just how unhappy he truly is.
One afternoon, everything changes when David meets a girl on the run from her
own demons. She doesn't need Daniel's help, but he offers and she
accepts--setting a course for an adventure neither will soon forget.
Together, on an impromptu road trip, two strangers become friends and a bit
more, all while facing money problems, car problems, and tourist traps and the
naked truth: they can't run forever.
Will they finally stop running long enough to discover true and lasting love?
Buy Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble
Excerpt:
First Day
“Who’s ready to go on a science adventure?”
The kids cheered, and as Daniel started leading his tour
group through the museum, he relaxed for the first time that day. He’d started
the day by oversleeping—not a thing you want to do in medical school, and as he
walked through the halls of the Pittsburgh Children’s Discovery Museum, he was
already planning on how to tell his professor that a grandmother died or
something. At least he’d only missed his first class.
Daniel was enrolled in the medical school at a so-called
prestigious Pennsylvania college, where the reputation was more important than
the education. Not that the degree was completely useless. He was going to be
using that degree as a doctor in just three or four more years. Sometimes those
years seemed long, sometimes they seemed short. Today, they seemed short.
Classes flew by when he didn’t go.
He had to skip brushing his teeth that morning, and he
hoped no one noticed. He’d just shoved a few orange Tic-Tacs into his mouth to
hide his morning breath. He’d have some coffee on the way. It would stink up
his breath a little bit, but everyone smelled like coffee in the
morning. It was the only way they survived. They spent their classes learning
about caffeine overdose, how it would fuck up their bodies, and they still
needed it. Other students turned to anti-depressants, pills to keep them awake.
Wasn’t hard to get them. Most of them worked with doctors on internships,
fellowships, who could swipe a prescription pad. Daniel didn’t want to touch
the stuff. Too tempting to get addicted.
His tie had been crooked all day, and his perpetually messy
black hair had remained uncombed. The kids didn’t notice, and lucky for him,
neither had his boss. Daniel didn’t care about looking good for class, but he
did care about the museum. He had the job so he wouldn’t have to rely on his
parents’ money all the way through school. They paid tuition, he paid
everything else, and it worked out for him.
“So, kids, the first thing we’re going to do is visit the
moon!” Daniel said as he led his tour group on. “How does that sound?”
“Awesome!” one of the kids, a boy, shouted a bit too
loudly.
“Follow me!” Daniel continued, his voice still holding too
much fake cheer. He held his flag high so that the group could see him and
headed towards the space travel exhibit.
Daniel surveyed the group as they walked, trying to size
them up. Who would be the troublemaker this time? There were babies in their
parents’ arms, too young to understand a word he was saying. He’d have to make
them wait outside for the lightning display. The noise would scare them. There
were a couple of cute little girls who looked like they’d eagerly hang on to every
word he said. The parents, on the other hand, didn’t look like too much
trouble. One of the mothers looked like the type who might disagree with
everything that wasn’t in the Bible, based on the way she fingered the cross
around her neck, and he’d probably lose her around the dinosaur exhibit. He
knew that thought was incredibly judgmental, but he’d actually met parents who
were like that. He could tell the type.
His eyes settled on a girl in the back, carrying a
suitcase, her eyes shifting around uneasily. Probably the older sister of one
of these kids, forced by her parents to take the younger sibling to the museum
for “quality time.” He’d had to do it himself when he and his brother were
young. She might be a smartass, the older kids usually were, but that wasn’t a
problem.
He wondered if he should say something about the suitcase.
But he figured that it probably had the kid’s diapers, extra snacks, a toy to
entertain him, stuff like that. A few of the mothers had backpacks. A suitcase
wasn’t much different, even if it did have the same print on it as his
grandmother’s sofa. Besides, he didn’t want to embarrass her. She looked
uncomfortable being there.
She was in fact uncomfortable, but not for a reason Daniel
could have guessed. Nicole was in a strange place with strange people, and she
was just itching to get back on the road. She’d hitchhiked her way to the
museum, and while she was grateful to be out of the sun, she was far from her
destination.
Then again, her destination was just “not Philly,” so she
was there if she wanted to be. She didn’t feel far enough from home for it to
count quite just yet. She’d made up her mind that she was going to go a long
ways away—and not leaving the state was simply not good enough. But she was on
this tour now, and she was just going to deal with it and listen to the guy
talk. He was kind of hot, anyway. While they walked, he was talking to one of
the parents. He had the forced smile of a person who didn’t want to deal with
this shit. Nicole herself had worn that smile many times, working fast food.
She would never have to go back to her restaurant. That was
a huge relief, one that made her relax and listen as the guide talked about the
first moon landing. She sat down on a plastic moon rock and rubbed at a wasp
sting on the back of her hand. She’d never been stung before that morning.
About the Author
Stephanie Mann lives in Massachusetts.
Besides writing, she spends her free time working with fan conventions. She
loves to travel, and has visited many tourist traps along the way.
READY TO GO is Stephanie
Mann's first novel.
***GIVEAWAY***
1 - $10 itunes gift
card & ebook of Ready To Go (INT)
3 – ebook copies of
Ready To Go (INT)
It sounds like 'be careful of what you wish for' Daniel. Love the sound of this.
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