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GIVEAWAY!! Blog Tour – Spotlight: Defy the Stars by Stephanie Parent

Defy the Stars
written by Stephanie Parent          
published by Stephanie Parent

find it here: Amazon, Goodreads


About the book – from Goodreads: Julia Cape: A dedicated classical piano student just trying to get through her last semester of high school while waiting to hear from music conservatories. 

Reed MacAllister: A slacker more likely to be found by the stoners’ tree than in class.

Julia and Reed might have graduated high school without ever speaking to each other…until, during a class discussion of Romeo and Juliet, Julia scoffs at the play’s theme of love at first sight, and Reed responds by arguing that feelings don’t always have to make sense. Julia tries to shake off Reed’s comment and forget about this boy who hangs with the stoner crowd—and who happens to have breathtaking blue eyes—but fate seems to bring the two together again and again. After they share an impulsive, passionate kiss, neither one can deny the chemistry between them. Yet as Julia gets closer to Reed, she also finds herself drawn into his dark world of drugs and violence. Then a horrific tragedy forces Julia’s and Reed’s families even farther apart…and Julia must decide whether she’s willing to give up everything for love.

Defy the Stars is written in an edgy free-verse style that will appeal to fans of Ellen Hopkins and Lisa Schroeder; however, the writing is accessible enough to speak to non-verse fans as well. The novel’s combination of steamy romance and raw emotion will appeal to fans of Gayle Forman, Simone Elkeles, Jennifer Echols, and Tammara Webber. With a story, language and form that both pay homage to and subvert Shakespeare’s play, Defy the Stars is much more than just another Romeo and Juliet story.

About the author: Stephanie Parent is a YA author represented by Brenda Bowen of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. She is a graduate of the Master of Professional Writing program at USC and attended the Baltimore School for the Arts as a piano major.

Find Ms. Parent here: blogTwitter, Goodreads

Stephanie Parent is on tour with YA Bound to promote Defy the Stars. Here is an excerpt to whet your appetite.


A quiet morning,

an empty practice room,

and Chopin’s first Ballade—

this is the best part of my day.

I’m done with the dull scales and arpeggios, the

thorny new Czerny étude, and as always—at least

since November’s  auditions—I end my practice

session with Chopin. 

Two months ago, I played this Ballade before

tables of stern judges, knowing they held my

future in their furiously scribbling pens, and

I really don’t need to practice it anymore—

—but I do, every day, because it feels like

welcoming home an old friend.  The trills and

flourishes are so familiar by now, they flow from

my fingers with little effort.

And that feeling—the music carrying me

along, as though I’m swept up by a current

on a gentle, sun-warmed sea—reminds me

why I love piano so much, why all the hard

work is worth it. 

More than that, the Ballade reminds me that I can

play, that I may not be a prodigy worthy of

Juilliard, but I nailed this piece at my auditions.

Two months from now, I’m sure, at least

one acceptance letter will be on its way to

my mailbox, offering me a place at a good

music conservatory—Oberlin or Eastman,

or even the Peabody.

By next fall, I’ll be miles away from Fairvern, from

Mom’s charity balls and Dad’s business dinners. 

From the exhausting rounds of who-likes-who, the

endless drama that fills up the equally infinite

hours of high school.

Good-bye to calculus, chemistry, world

history; hello to Chopin, Copland, Tchai-

kovsky.  I’ll be learning what matters to me,

surrounded by other people who get it—

it being music, obviously—and for the

first time in my life, I’ll feel like I’m really

part of something.  

I just have to make it through this last semester of

high school…

…and then my future will begin.     


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Happy reading wherever you are and whenever you get a free chance!!!

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