Hi there! Today is day 3 for the Blog Tour of The Key to Everything by Paula Stokes. So today Paula will tell you all about Phuket (there's an excerpt and a giveaway!), but first, let's check out the book. And don't forget to check out my review!
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Synopsis:
College senior Oakland Fuller has always believed in signs
and soulmates, so when both a therapist and a fortuneteller say that her
repeated relationship failures are due to unresolved feelings for her high
school boyfriend, Seth, Oakland tries desperately to get back in touch with
him. Problem: Seth isn’t responding to her online messages.
To rescue Oakland from a pathetic Christmas break of sitting in front of the computer, her best friend Morgan books the two of them on a guided excursion of Thailand. When the girls meet a pair of American soldiers in Bangkok, Oakland takes Morgan’s advice and engages in a little harmless holiday hooking up. Sergeant Tyson Banks is the perfect mix of sexy and fun. Two weeks with him might just turn out to be the best relationship Oakland has ever had.
Until the day she spots someone familiar across a crowded temple complex—it’s Seth! Somehow the boy she’s been trying to reconnect with is in Bangkok too. If that’s not a sign, then what is?
Filed with friendship, romance, and gorgeous faraway settings, The Key to Everything is a book for anyone who's ever dreamed of finding love when (or where) they least expected it.
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And now, here's a message from Paula Stokes:
After Bangkok,
Oakland and her friends travel by bus to Phuket, with a couple of
mini-adventures along the way. Phuket (pronounced poo-ket) is a mountainous
rainforest island off the West Coast of Thailand with over thirty beaches. The
area was devastated during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami but has since
completely rebuilt.
Here’s
a mood board for Phuket, with lots of pretty beach scenes, a street food cart,
and some muay thai or Thai boxing!
Here’s a short
excerpt from the beach:
For the rest of the afternoon, I manage to put Seth out of my mind,
sort of. I still check my phone about every ten minutes, but eventually Tyson
convinces me to go in the water with him. I’m not usually one for getting wet
at the beach, but the water looks so perfectly clear here and I could stand to
cool off. I leave my phone on the beach in Morgan’s custody.
“I’ll scream ‘shark’ if
anything pops up okay?” she says. “That’ll get your attention.”
Tyson tugs off his
T-shirt and jogs out toward the water’s edge. I take a moment to make sure my
bikini straps are tight and follow him out into the waves. We’re only knee deep
when he points at a buoy bobbing in the waves about fifty meters offshore.
“Race you out there.”
“Um…is now a bad time to
tell you I don’t know how to swim?”
He looks back over his
shoulder. “Seriously? A California girl who can’t swim?”
“I’m a California girl
by way of the Midwest. I can’t put my head underwater without starting to
panic.”
“You don’t have to put
your head underwater to learn to swim,” Tyson says. “Want me to teach you?”
“What? Like right now?”
The water is almost up to my waist. The current is gentle but some of the waves
are breaking right in this area. I inch my way a little farther out, to the
point where my feet are still on the bottom but my head and shoulders are well
above the surface.
“No time like the
present. You should at least know how to stay afloat. What if your plane had
crashed?”
“Who thinks like that?”
I say. And then I remember how Tyson’s mom died. I remember he spends his days
dealing with stuff that might blow up in his face. Of course he thinks like
that. “Sorry,” I continue quickly. “That was a stupid thing to say. You’re
right. I should know how to swim. But you don’t have to spend your vacation
teaching me.”
“We’ll just start with
lesson one,” he says. “Treading water.”
“Okay. If you want.”
“Let’s do this.” Tyson
slides his hands under my armpits and guides me a little farther from the
shore.
The sand beneath my feet
falls away suddenly. My blood accelerates in my veins and my mouth goes dry.
“I’m scared.”
He smiles. The whole
smile, with the eyes and dimples. “I got you. I promise. I’m not going to let
anything bad happen.”
Aww, isn’t Tyson sweet?
[SPOILER: He is very sweet ;D] To find out exactly how sweet he is, score
yourself a Kindle version of THE KEY TO EVERYTHING for the introductory price of $2.99.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
What’s your favorite
beach? Do prefer them quiet and secluded or full of jet-skis and partiers?
Tomorrow’s tour stop is up north is the rainforest region of Chiang Mai. Stop
by Gabriella M Reads to meet
an elephant!
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About Paula Stokes:
Paula
Stokes is the author of several novels, most recently Vicarious, Ferocious, and This
is How it Happened. Her writing has been translated into eleven
foreign languages. Paula loves kayaking, hiking, reading, and seeking out new
adventures in faraway lands. She also loves interacting with readers. Find her
online at authorpaulastokes.com or on Twitter and Instagram as @pstokesbooks.
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