Title: The Weekend Bucket List
Author: Mia Kerick
Release Date: April 19th 2018
Genre: Young Adult, LGBT
BLURB
High school seniors Cady LaBrie and Cooper Murphy have yet to set one toe out of line—they’ve never stayed out all night or snuck into a movie, never gotten drunk or gone skinny-dipping. But they have each other, forty-eight hours before graduation, and a Weekend Bucket List.
There’s a lot riding on this one weekend, especially since Cady and Cooper have yet to admit, much less resolve, their confounding feelings for one another—feelings that prove even more difficult to discern when genial high school dropout Eli Stanley joins their epic adventure. But as the trio ticks through their bucket list, the questions they face shift toward something new: Must friendship play second fiddle to romance? Or can it be the ultimate prize?
Purchase: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Interlude Press
Find The Weekend Bucket List on Goodreads
While there are some romantic feelings to be explored, this is not a romance. The Weekend Bucket List is all about the friendship of these teenagers. So often, what makes a character most interesting are their flaws and that is the case with Cady, Cooper, and Eli. While some things about this trio are more likable than others, they all play an important part of the story and even when I was frustrated with one or all of them, I wanted to see how things played out. This one is perfect for an easy weekend read and I'd easily recommend it to a teenager or young adult.
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT
It doesn’t take long for us to push the cart up and down the aisles and pick out stuff for a cookout my mom would be proud to call her own, which isn’t saying much, along with snacks and drinks. When we’re back in the parking lot, nobody looks at us funny as we load our groceries into the trunk, but I worry that everyone who can see me thinks I’m pregnant. They probably figure I’m a too-young-to-be-married, pregnant high school girl, and this explains why I’m grocery shopping for food with a boy who is equally young. I feel guilty for “getting pregnant” and I’ve never even had sex.
As we drive back to the carnival, I ask Cooper, “Do you think you’re cured of your fear of heights now that you’ve faced it directly?”
“That’s a good question.” He doesn’t hurry to answer. It’s as if my simple question submerges him in an ocean of thought bubbles. I’ve almost given up on getting an answer from him when he says, “No. I’m still terrified of heights. I’m sure I’ll have nightmares about what we did for the rest of my life.”
“But we did it, Coop, and we didn’t run away.” He shrugs. I don’t think facing a fear head-on worked as well for him as it did for me. I’m a different person already: more mature and somehow liberated. “We’ve been set free.”
When all he says in reply is “cool,” I sigh because I know I’m being selfish. I’m usually on the same page as Cooper. I don’t like to be as far apart in our minds as we’ve been lately. Something is changing between us, which makes me want him to write an oath swearing that we’ll always be friends—in his blood on a square of toilet paper from one of the rolls in the trunk—even if I may want more from him than friendship.
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Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—a daughter in law school, another in dance school, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son still in high school. She writes LGBTQ romance when not editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing English papers. Her husband of twenty-four years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it is a sensitive subject.
Mia focuses her stories on emotional growth in turbulent relationships. As she has a great affinity for the tortured hero, there is, at minimum, one in each book. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of said tortured heroes (most of whom happened to strongly resemble lead vocalists of 1980s big-hair bands) and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to Dreamspinner Press and Harmony Ink Press for providing alternate places to stash her stories.
Her books have won a Best YA Lesbian Rainbow Award, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly Award for Cultural Diversity, among other awards.
Mia is a Progressive, a little bit too obsessed by politics, and cheers for each and every victory in the name of human rights. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology.
Contact Mia at miakerick@gmail.com. Visit her website for updates on what is going on in Mia’s world, rants, music, parties, and pictures, and maybe even a little bit of inspiration.
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