Two weeks before junior year, Darcy hops a plane to Orlando for a little R&R with her best friend Dylan and his family. Fresh off the heels of solving three murders in Valley, you'd think she'd sit back and enjoy the vacation capital of the world … maybe if you're a noun. Darcy Walker, however, is nothing but verb.
Before her feet hit the Orlando soil, she's meddling in the disappearance of a five-year-old boy who vanished six months earlier.
With authorities still no closer to solving the case, Darcy is shanghaied by her impulsivity and runs headlong into that proverbial burning building, convinced she can bring him home.
She travels down a road that not only follows this missing child but branches off into the corrupt and sinister world of mob activity when she tampers in a case on which Dylan's detective grandfather is working.
After a near disastrous midnight meeting in a warehouse and a date with a mechanical bull, Darcy realizes she might've bitten off more than she can chew. Add the boiling flirtationship with her best friend and the appearance of his romantic rival, and she is in over her head.
Will she survive a life of flirting with death too easily? Or will her flirtationship with Dylan become the actual death of her instead?
For a girl with a habit of finding dead bodies, No Brainer gives Darcy Walker more of the same…surprising twists and turns…and running for her life.
Here are a few tasty hors d'ourves-via-words to whet your appetite :-) You're going love them because each one is a piece of the girl that can only be described as Darcy!
INIQUITY ENGINEER
I
didn’t understand this relentless need to unravel the mysteries in front of me.
Regarding Cisco, perhaps it’s because I knew firsthand that paralyzing and
debilitating pain when your nuclear family went away. Most days I successfully
buried the grief, but on the days it resurrected itself, I realized the term
“emotionally numb” signaled progress. Pain was a funny thing. The physical, you
could heal from; the mental, didn’t always cooperate.
WHAT’S
IN A NAME
Cowboys
had a big, black mechanical bull—a new attraction Dylan had heard about through
his Orlando-based grapevine. Guys and girls took turns bucking to and fro like
fools. It didn’t look particularly scary. In truth, it seemed rather fun until
Elmer decided, “Buffy needs to take a ride.”
Holy. Bull. Gods.
I had no idea how to ride a
freaking bull.
If you asked me how I’d come to
sit on the bull, I’d say it was Divine Intervention because next thing I knew,
I was sitting in a pit as a man in jeans and a cowboy hat flipped the “start”
button. My hands sweat like a greasy pig as I gripped the reins and tentatively
slid my boots inside the leather stirrups. At first, it was a piece of cake.
The bull rocked slowly back and forth, but the moment I adjusted to the
movement, the vibration began sending shock waves to my face. Vibrate. Pitch
forward. Pulsate again. Pitch backwards. I flopped around like a fish out of
water, but when the crowd erupted into cheers, my inner attention-getter threw
her left arm in the air and YOLO’d it up.
Right on cue, Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy hit the
airwaves, and the group grew even rowdier. I bucked. Rolled. Whipped my hair
back and forth in a 360-degree circle. I looked like a freaking superstar. When
I erroneously grinned at the operator, he took that as confirmation to give me
the full rodeo treatment. Before I could scream “No,” he activated the
buck-and-spin speed, and the shaking intensified. Starting at my butt bone, it
traveled the length of my spine and stopped at the base of my chin, then
unexpectedly dropped down to my girl parts. I moaned like a porn star—well, what
I thought a porn star might sound like—but my guess was it was more like a
wildebeest. My jean skirt rode up to the hoochie zone, and my Barely-Bs
practically bounced up and hit me in the face.Darcy Walker is also infamous for the things that just roll from her lips, like, "Nothing from my mouth was ever scripted; obviously, I needed a publicist."
OR
This, "Dylan was crazy good looking, with a face that made angels weep and a body that burned nothing but nuclear. Lately, I’d tried not to notice his attributes, but when his mile-long legs were as lethally shaped and powerful as his, you couldn’t deny the male in front of you. Yup, I wanted to hug every inch of his godforsakenfreakingfine body."
As if Darcy isn't enough, here are a few things about AJ (author extraordinaire) to capture your attention.
Ten Things You Didn’t Know About AJ Lape
AKA - Ada Miracle Lape
1. I can dislocate my left shoulder on command.
2. I started running high school track when I was in the
sixth grade.
3. I would’ve been a police officer or journalist if life
didn’t land me where I am.
4. My favorite movie is It’s a Wonderful Life…cry like a
baby when George Bailey starts yelling, “I want to live again…I want to live
again.”
5. I had an academic scholarship.
6. I like to shoot 9mm guns (dying to shoot an Uzi) in my
spare time…look out Target World, every once in a while you have to walk your
inner hillbilly
7. I’m like Rain Man when it comes to fractions.
8. I used to write and record songs. I won Honorable
Mentions in the John Lennon Song Writing Contest and Music City Song Festival.
9. I’m a notorious sleepwalker.
10. I’ve cliff-dived off a 40-foot cliff into a
lake…wouldn’t recommend it…painful.
You can stalk - ahem - find out more about AJ by checking out her online haunts -
Can't have all this Darcy-fun without something for YOU the readers as well. So you can be a part of TWO giveaways. Yes, TWO.
1.) A daily Ebook given of No Brainer!! These winners will be chosen from pooling comments from all that day's comments for each participating blogger. (Hint: make sure to check out the other stops listed below!) And to keep it fair and square, the winner is picked by Random.org.
2.) Rafflecopter!
Enter for your chance to win: 1- $30 Amazon gift card, 1- autographed copy of No Brainer, 4- Ebooks (either Grade A Stupid or No Brainer - winner's choice), and 2- SWAG pack winners (SWAG includes signed Iniquity Engineer bookmark, signed postcard of both books, and refrigerator magnet of both book covers)
Enter for your chance to win: 1- $30 Amazon gift card, 1- autographed copy of No Brainer, 4- Ebooks (either Grade A Stupid or No Brainer - winner's choice), and 2- SWAG pack winners (SWAG includes signed Iniquity Engineer bookmark, signed postcard of both books, and refrigerator magnet of both book covers)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Here are the other stops you can visit. Get to know new-to-you blogs. Comment away and enjoy your time in Darcyville :-)
Here are the other stops you can visit. Get to know new-to-you blogs. Comment away and enjoy your time in Darcyville :-)
JUNE 5th
JUNE 6th
JUNE 7th
JUNE 10th
JUNE 11th
JUNE 12th
JUNE 13th
The excerpt of the bull ride cracked me up. I could see it so clearly. Sounds like a fun character.
ReplyDeleteDarcy sounds like a live wire.
ReplyDeleteDislocating your shoulder on command? Wow.
Hope the book is doing well. Sounds exciting.
Aw...It's a Wonderful Life is awesome, isn't it??? Honestly, I'm surprised it's something Darcy would watch-her with all that sass and all. lol She sounds like such a fun character!!!
ReplyDeleteTweeted and shared.
ReplyDeleteHugs and chocolate,
Shelly
A fun story you featured here today.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to AJ again. I"m about to start the first book :-)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like so much fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me over, Angela!!! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat new release!! Excited to see it!!!
ReplyDelete