Fiction Book Review & Giveaway!: Pretty by Jillian Lauren

Book Title: Pretty
Author: Jillian Lauren
Publisher: Plume (Penguin)
Genre: Fiction
Length: 288pp
Available Formats: Paperback, eBook
ISBN: 978-0-452-29734-0
Approx. Retail Price: $15.00 USD / $17.00 Can.







Pretty is the story of Bebe (Beth) Baker.  Bebe, raised by an alcoholic mother, whose father, an alcoholic jazz musician, dies while she is very young, meets Aaron, a confident trumpet player in a jazz band and leaves her town of Toledo, OH behind to follow him to California.  While living in LA, a speedbump on the way to San Francisco, Bebe takes a job as an exotic dancer and becomes an alcoholic/addict.  After a fight with Aaron in a bar, the two of them, wasted, get in the car and end up in a motor vehicle accident which leaves Aaron in a coma.  Eventually, Aaron's brain activity has ceased and his mother consents to pull the plug.  Vowing that she will never talk to God again, Bebe is left to start anew.

Bebe ends up at a state-sponsored halfway house, Serenity, where she lives with other clean and sober women who are trying to put the pieces of their lives back together.  While living at Serenity, Bebe and her roommate, Violet, receive training at Moda Beauty Academy to become cosmetologists.  Although Bebe is less than enthusiastic about her training, she looks at it as a step in her journey of sobriety.  During this time, Bebe becomes involved with a man from the men's Serenity halfway house, Jake, who is an ex-marine, recovering addict, and schizophrenic who occasionally thinks he's Jesus.

With her boyfriend off his meds and now in a psychiatric ward, pregnant, about to lose her only real home, and a bad influence from her past trying to wedge his way into her 'now,' Bebe finds herself having to make some tough choices.  Does she look to her future?  Does she reach out to someone from her past?  Does she stay clean and sober or let it slide away along with her pain?  As Bebe explores these questions, the story comes to it's climax and Bebe realizes, in the Moda supply closet, that life goes on.  That there is a future for her.  And that maybe for the first time in her life, she is seeing things clearly.

Giveaway Details:

• (1) winner will be selected, at random, to win (1) copy of Pretty by Jillian Lauren
• The winner must be at least 18 years of age 
• Giveaway will run from 9/7/2011 - 9/15/2011.  Winner will be announced on 9/16/2011
• All entrants must provide an email address - NOT for solicitation purposes, but to contact the winner

Required Entry:

• You must tweet or post to Facebook about the giveaway, using this link: http://amzn.to/prettybook  and the hashtag - #PRETTYBOOK
• Come back to this post and leave the link where your tweet or facebook post can be located

Optional, Additional Entries:

• You may tweet about the giveaway as many times as you'd like.  Each tweet may be considered a separate entry as long as you return to this post and provide a link to the tweet!

The FIRST 250 people who order the book from Amazon and email the receipt to pretty.the.book@gmail.com will receive a limited edition Pretty necklace by Fairy Tale Jewels!!

Disclosure: Global Influence and Plume Books sent KnitPurlGurl a FREE review copy of Pretty by Jillian Lauren.  KnitPurlGurl was not compensated for the above blog post.  All opinions stated in the blog post are those of the blog author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Global Influence and/or Plume Books.

Fiction Book Review & Giveaway!: Pretty by Jillian Lauren