The Unis are super excited to welcome Suki Fleet into the stable today. Suki - who needs an award for author most likely to rip your heart out and stomp on it a little before handing it back - brings an excerpt of her latest book, Foxes. SheReadsALot will be reviewing this for the blog, but I've been lucky enough to read it too, and I would say BUY THIS BOOK. It's brilliant!!! It's already on my favourite books of 2016 list! Check out the excerpt - and for your convenience are some to buy links!
A chance meeting with an American boy selling himself on the streets throws this lonely existence into disarray. Micky is troubled, fragile, and Danny feels a desperate need to protect him—from what, he doesn't know. As Danny discovers more about Micky, he realizes that what Micky needs saving from is the one thing Danny can't help him fight against.
To save Micky, Danny must risk expanding his world and face something that scares him more than any shark ever could: trusting he will be accepted for who he is. If a freezing winter on the streets, a sadistic doctor, and three thousand miles don’t tear them apart first, that is.
Excerpt:
The clothing bank is like a big cupboard, with a couple of small cupboards that act as dressing rooms off to one side. They have towels and sheets and sometimes sleeping bags, as well as clothes on the shelves.
We’re not the only ones here. Helen, as usual, is sitting behind the desk knitting colorful squares that will be made into blankets for some cause or another. I have one of her blankets back at the swimming pool. She must have made thousands of squares in the years she’s been here. As we go in, she stops knitting and hands us a ticket. It states how many items we can take. If you’re really desperate, they let you take more, so I think it’s just to stop people being greedy or from taking clothes to sell on.
“Are you looking for anything in particular?” she asks us without looking up.
“Two coats,” I say.
“We’re a bit short on coats. It’s the weather. Might be one on the far shelf.” She points to the other side of the room.
The coat is a dark blue quilted jacket. It’s short but it looks warm, though it smells a little musty. I guess coats can’t be washed as easily as other clothes.
I take it off the hanger and pass it to Micky to try on.
He promptly hands it back to me. “You brought me here. You should have it.”
“I have another coat. It’s pretty ripped, but I can wear it,” I lie, while thinking, You wear hot pants and a see-through shirt when it’s snowing, and you faint, and you have to deal with people touching you where you don’t want them to touch you.
And you make my heart beat faster and faster.
“Are you sure you have a coat?” Micky draws his eyebrows together and looks at me. Really looks at me.
He looks at me until I look back at him.
My heart beats like a hummingbird’s wing. His eyes are bluer than any sky. I can see my own dark eyes reflected within them, like storm clouds over a sea.
For a moment it feels as if he can see right through me, as if I’m made of glass and every lie I tell is written out for him to read. It makes me sad, as sad as I’ve ever been, because I wish things were different. I wish it with everything in me—the thought sharp as a spear in my heart. I don’t normally let myself think like this, but right now I’d give anything, absolutely anything, to look ordinary. For him to look at me and see an ordinary boy looking back at him. I wouldn’t ask to be beautiful.
I can’t let myself think like this so I look away and nod. “Please take it.”
It fits him well enough. When he zips it all the way up, his face just about disappears inside the warm hood.
He looks at me unhappily. It’s the same face he pulled when he didn’t want to take my phone.
I wish I knew what to say to make him smile.
***
To Buy Links:
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Dreamspinner Press
ARe
Author Bio:
Suki Fleet grew up on a boat and as a small child spent a lot of time travelling at sea with her family. She has always wanted to be a writer. As a kid she told ghost stories to scare people, but stories about romance were the ones that inspired her to sit down and write. She doesn’t think she’ll ever stop writing them.
Her novel This is Not a Love Story won Best Gay Debut in the 2014 Rainbow Awards and was a finalist in the 2015 Lambda Awards.
Author Links:
Email: sukifleet@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/suki.fleet.3
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7919609.Suki_Fleet
http://sukifleet.tumblr.com/
http://sukifleet.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/SukiFleet?lang=en
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