Salvation by Anne Osterlund Teaser Tour- Excerpt & Giveaway

Salvation teaser tour

Salvation is a book I’ve had on my radar for months now, and this teaser tour is making me more anxious to read the whole book! I’m thrilled to be the next stop on the Salvation teaser tour and share the 7th excerpt. Make sure to visit all the tour stops to read the teaser excerpts in order to get the full effect.

Salvation is a YA Contemporary book published by Speak (Penguin Young Readers) and released January 10th.

About Salvation:

Salvation by Anne OsterlundSalvador Resendez–Salva to his friends–appears to have it all. His Mexican immigrant family has high expectations, and Salva intends to fulfill them. He’s student body president, quarterback of the football team, and has a near-perfect GPA. Everyone loves him.

Especially Beth Courant, AKA the walking disaster area. Dreamy and shy, Beth is used to blending into the background. But she’s also smart, and she has serious plans for her future.

Popular guy and bookish girl–the two have almost nothing in common. Until fate throws them together and the attraction is irresistible. Soon Beth is pushing Salva to set his sights higher than ever–because she knows he has more to offer, more than even he realizes.

Then tragedy strikes–and threatens to destroy everything that Salva has worked for. Will Beth’s love be enough to save him?

SALVATION Blog Tour: Excerpt Part 7 of 8.

CHAPTER 2: A GRAVEYARD BUTTERFLY—SCENE 1

Beth savored the silence of the emptied-out school hallway that afternoon and devoured the final pages of Wuthering Heights. She could no longer feel the oppressive late summer heat or the hard metal of the locker at her back. Gone were the crumpled papers, broken pencils, and discarded candy wrappers on the tiled floor. She was on the cold English moors with the wind blowing around her and the whistle of death in the air.

A trio of voices suddenly invaded the end of the hall. Beth rushed through the last page. A banging locker emphasized the drama of the final line, and she looked up,  just in time to see El Perfecto sprinting past, no doubt in a rush to get to football practice. Apparently, tardiness was a new thing for him.

Nalani came up at a much more relaxed pace, her pink canvas book bag slung over one shoulder.

“So what was the meeting about?” Beth asked her best friend.

“Who knows?” Nalani’s eyes shone as she rolled them. She glanced over her shoulder, then lowered her voice. “Just Markham on a power trip. I’ll tell you on the walk home.”

Beth stuffed Wuthering Heights back into her locker, not wanting to lose the book again and owe a fine to the library as she had back in June. Then she gathered her supplies and hefted her backpack.

Nalani was already halfway to the back exit, which led, naturally, to the football field. Beth hurried after her.

The team had stretched out in lines, five rows of testosterone-filled tight pants and loose jerseys hopping up and down in jumping jacks. The compact blond with the number 12 plastered on his front wasted no time sending Nalani a wave, even though he was leading the entire team—minus El Perfecto, who must not have made it out of the locker room yet—in the warm-ups. The team mimicked the wave.

Nalani pretended not to notice.

Which was fine because Beth didn’t want to hear the one-sided conversation about all the things Luka had done that day.

Heat radiated off the black asphalt path as the girls curved their way along the field, back toward the front of the building. Beth realized she had forgotten her sunscreen, but it didn’t matter much. Far too late to worry about freckles. By August, she was always a mess.

The three thousand pounds of football players, now jogging in place, disappeared behind her.

“Okay, we’re outside,” she said. “Now, what was your surprise ASB meeting about?”

Nalani groaned. “Markham wanted to go over all the responsibilities of our new positions. He said Salva has to do the announcements at the assemblies. I only fill in when he’s gone. Kaitlyn has to take the notes. We have to elect a new parliamentarian to fill her old spot. Which is all fine, of course, except Salva didn’t want to be there because he was anxious to get to practice. He and Markham got into an argument about who should be able to schedule meetings and how it’s not fair to hold them without advance notice. Of course, Markham just blew him off.”

Beth tried to fix the uneven shoulder straps on her backpack as she listened.

“It’s a good thing I have such an excellent best friend who’s willing to wait,” Nalani added, smiling at her.

Beth smiled back.

Her best friend kept talking. “But I mean, really, what did Markham expect? It isn’t like he didn’t know Salva is booked after school in the fall; but oh, no one else could become president. I mean Salva didn’t want the job. I don’t see why Markham wouldn’t even discuss the idea of me taking Julie’s spot.”

The slide toggles on Beth’s backpack straps refused to adjust. “Did you want it?”

Nalani shrugged.

“I’m sorry, Ni,” Beth said softly, trying to protect her best friend’s feelings. “But maybe this is a good thing. You’re already so busy . . .” What Beth didn’t say was that Nalani had a habit of volunteering for too much and only following through on about half of it.

“Well, we could have discussed it.” Nalani took the backpack away from Beth, smoothed out the puckers on each of the straps, and corrected the length. The two girls turned the corner, taking a route that led first to Nalani’s, then to Beth’s. Ni returned the pack, raising her voice over a barking hound dog and a whining air conditioner. “It just doesn’t seem fair that Markham thinks Salva is the only one who can do the job.”

Beth nodded in sympathy, though the principal had a point. After all, if Salva had decided to run for president in the first place, no one doubted he would have won.

Ni climbed onto the curb. “I mean, he’s not perfect.”

Beth’s head shot up at that, and a warm blush spread over her cheeks before she could control it.

Her best friend must have noticed. “Sorry . . .” Ni trailed off.

Was Beth never going to escape the repercussions of one silly junior-high crush? Everyone has had a crush on him. It’s not like I own the embarrassment. She cringed to think of herself in the eighth grade: naïve, suffering from the bombardment of braces, two bouts of head lice, and the illusion that Salvador Resendez would one day magically look across the freshman-lit classroom and realize that she, Beth, was perfect for him.

“There’s nothing—” Beth tried to say, but her friend ended the discussion.

“We won’t talk about him.”

It wasn’t him, Beth told herself. It was just an image. Middle schoolers fall in love with image all the time. Though she couldn’t quite push away the image of him today, picking up all her papers before he went on to class.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” Nalani said.

Beth startled, having failed to realize they had reached the plastic fence around her best friend’s lawn.

“Unless you want to come in for dinner,” Ni added.

“No . . . thank you.” Beth looked up at the freshly painted house with the barrage of sunflower stickies in the window. Better to save her invitations for when she needed them.

Besides, she wanted to talk to her grandmother.

Nalani gave her friend a quick shoulder squeeze, then traipsed through the arched garden trellis, pausing to adjust the hose caught on the back of the stone deer decorating the path.

Beth fled, not wanting to regret her choice to turn down supper.

She smiled as she reached the graveyard.

Copyright @ 2013 by Anne Osterlund. Used by permission of Speak, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. All rights reserved.

Anne Osterland

Anne Osterlund is the author of four young adult books, including Aurelia and its sequel, Exile.  Her second novel, Academy 7, won the OCTE Spirit of Oregon Award and was an ALA/YALSA Popular Paperback nominee.Anne works as a full-time author and presents for schools, conferences, and writing events. She grew up in the sunshine of eastern Oregon and earned a BA from Whitworth College, where she majored in elementary education with Spanish and English teaching fields. Anne lives in a cute little yellow house with her new feline friend, Simba, and her own library of young adult books. She and her characters can be found on her website at www.anneosterlund.com. Salvation is her fourth novel, and she has dreams of many more in the future.

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Giveaway!

Congrats to Natasha who won a Salvation swag pack filled with signed bookmarks, postcards, etc. just by leaving a comment below. And to Livvy who received a kindle edition of Salvation from me. Yay!

For more chances to win, and to read all the excerpts in order, make sure to visit all the tour stops listed below:

2/1 Pure Imagination
2/2 Always YA at Heart
2/3 Books With Bite
2/4 Live to Read
2/5 The Bookish Babe
2/6 Confessions of a Vi3tBabe
2/7 The Reading Date
2/8 I Am a Reader, Not a Writer

Thanks to Candace at CBB Book Promotions for organizing this fun tour!

CBB book promotions

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5 thoughts on “Salvation by Anne Osterlund Teaser Tour- Excerpt & Giveaway

  1. Candace says:

    Thanks so much for hosting a stop!

  2. This book sounds really awesome. One of the few contemporary books I’m eager to get my hands on! 🙂

  3. Jennifer says:

    I’m having fun checking in each day to find out what happens next.

  4. bn100 says:

    Very nice excerpt.

  5. Natasha says:

    Sounds like a great read!!
    Thanks for the chance to win!
    natasha_donohoo_8 at hotmail dot com

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