Rebels n Readers Book Blog: **BT** Keep It Safe ~ KIS #2 ~ Olivia Snow ~ Excerpt ~

Friday, January 16, 2015

BT Keep It Safe ~ KIS #2 ~ Olivia Snow ~ Excerpt ~

Keep It Safe (KIS #2) by Olivia Snow Blog Tour

January 5th – 16th

Book Details:

Title: Keep It Safe (KIS Series Book #2)

Author: Olivia Snow

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Day: December 16, 2014

Eight months ago Vanessa Saint John’s life was a lot different than it is now…

After losing Gabriel, and the discovery of his and Ava’s indiscretions, Vanessa becomes depressed and turns to partying and alcohol as a distraction.

Recognizing that she’s spiraling out of control, she manages to turn her life around. Still, her mother poses as a problem, and like the social climber she is, she fixes Vanessa up with the very rich and affluent Stellen Webb.

Vanessa is nothing more than a pawn in her mother’s quest for wealth and recognition, and unknowingly Cynthia pushes Vanessa into the arms of another man; Diesel Knox, a tattooed country boy with an attitude.

Clean and sober Ava has spent the last eight months in Sicily running away from her problems, until her mother summons her back to Colorado…

Reluctantly Ava returns to a broken Vanessa, a bartending job, and an unexpected love interest. Maxwell Gallagher, a much older man, who has a six-year-old son.

Will Vanessa finally break free of her parents grip? Will Ava finally find the happiness she so desperately seeks? Or will she forever be in the hell of her own making?

*****

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Title: Keep It Secret (KIS Series Book #1)

Author: Olivia Snow

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Day: November 18, 2014

Is blood truly thicker than water?

After the unexpected death of her father, and her mother’s emotional abandonment, Ava Veneziano’s life is turned upside down. She turns to drugs, sex and alcohol as a way to cope with all the destruction in her life, inconsequence, she flunks a grade and loses touch with her favorite cousin Vanessa.

Five years later, Ava and her mother are reunited with the family they’d lost touch with and they end up moving into their home.

Enter Vanessa Saint John.

Vanessa is unawarely beautify, with an overbearing and controlling mother. She’s never given the opportunity to have a boyfriend or experience life like a normal seventeen year old girl.

However, all that changes when her cousin Ava moves in, and she finally gets the attention of Gabriel Mason.

The same boy who’s also caught the attention of her beloved cousin.

*****

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Present day

Ava

“Noccioline? Peanuts?” The female flight attendant asked.

“No, grazie.” I smiled tightly, and she nodded before asking the person behind me.

I was on my way back to the states, Colorado. Vail. Home—even though nothing felt like home these days. Since my father’s death six years ago, nothing has felt like home.

A lot has happened since I left, since Gabriel’s death. Losing Gabriel gave me the opportunity to evaluate what I was doing with my life, how I was living it. Instead of becoming submersed in alcohol, sex, and drugs again, I cleaned myself up. I would become a better person for him and live the life he was robbed of. He was my inspiration for living, and for not killing myself slowly with alcohol.

I’ve been sober for eight months now, ever since I left. It wasn’t easy; I was pushed to my limits.

Those days passed in a blur. I had to increase my appointments with Dr. Parker to three times a week because we were both concerned I would relapse. Vanessa had even gone so far as to write whore with red paint on my locker.

For a while, she and Katherine Alexander had been joined at the hip. I was driven into isolation, and not even Mallory or Talon would talk to me. Soon after the locker incident, I had dropped out and earned my G.E.D. It seemed as if I had nowhere to go, and no one to guide me.

I was lost, so I jumped at the opportunity to go to Sicily. It had given me some sort of direction, at least for now.

But then Rose called last week and told me something was going on with Vanessa. I hesitated before telling her I was on my way. After all, we were family, and I was supposed to do anything for family. At least, that’s how I was raised. Even if the majority of your family disliked you, if they needed you, you went to them.

Zia Teresa, my Zio Enzo’s wife, didn’t seem to agree with me there. While sitting at the kitchen table, I had explained to her what my mother had told me and why I needed to leave. Teresa was always quick to speak her mind, and I loved that about her.

“What do you mean, you go back?” Her accent was thick. Even though I could carry on a conversation in Italian she was always adamant about improving her English and speaking it.

“Teresa.” Zio Enzo had spoken in a gentle warning, standing behind his wife with his hands on

her shoulders. I had known she wouldn’t want me to go.

“Zia, devo andare.” I took her hands into mine and gently squeezed.

“No, Ava you don’t have to go, to what? Ah? To abuse? To a family who, what is the word, disprezza—”

“Despises,” Enzo offered. “Si, despises you. Perché?” “Because it’s family, è la famiglia.” She grunted, huffing out her reply. “Some kind

of family.” “I know you’re just saying it because you care.” “Si.” She had taken my hands to her lips and

kissed my knuckles. “Ti adoro, Ava.” “And I you.” I had smiled at her, and at the man

who looked so much like my father. He was quiet behind his wife, although he didn’t need to say what he was feeling. It was written all over his face. He agreed with her. I stood, and he’d stepped forward, taking me into his arms.

“I love you, little girl. You know you always have a home here.”

Pulling back, I sniffed, wiping away my tears. “I know, thank you both for everything.” “When do you leave?” 

“Tomorrow, I already booked my flight.” “The kids, they will be sad.” Teresa had looked

out the window as the children ran around the lavender field behind their house. Gia squealed as her big brother Luca chased her with a dead worm in his hands. We all laughed when Luca told Gia he would make her eat it for stealing his toys.

God, I’ll miss them.

***

The night before I had left, I slept with the kids in the living room. They wanted one last night of indoor camping. Lorenzo took me to the airport.

“You call me when you arrive, yes?” he had asked, handing over my carry-on.

“Yes.”

“You know, Ava, your babbo would be so proud of you and the woman you have become. You are stronger, little girl, don’t ever forget that.”

“Thank you,” I whispered as we’d hugged. With tears in his eyes, he had pulled back, placing a hand on the side of my face.

“Be safe.” “I will.” While sitting on the plane, I thought about all

that had transpired, and my imminent arrival. Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Bill had concocted a plan that would force Vanessa into speaking with me. I didn’t know what they had up their sleeves, but it must have been something big for Vanessa to want to speak to me.

The last thing she’d said to me was that she hated me. It made my heart ache to know I had caused her so much pain. I had messed up, and I didn’t know how to fix it between us, so I’d run. After all, that was what

I was best at. My second skill, according to Aunt Cynthia, was what was between my legs.

Shit. That was what I was going back to—hate and name calling. Zia Teresa was right. I was going back to a family that despised me.

*****

Olivia Snow lives in a lovely town in Colorado, with her wonderful husband and three beautiful but highly energetic children that she can barely keep up with. Her day is devoted to chasing after her three monsters, cleaning, cooking and often times tearing out her hair.

She loves drinking coffee eating chocolate and cheesecake. In her free time, you can catch her reading a steamy book, watching juicy drama filled reality TV or just cuddling with her yummy hubby.