Lifestyle Of Me: BLOG TOUR: The Brilliance of Fireflies by Leslie Hauser

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

BLOG TOUR: The Brilliance of Fireflies by Leslie Hauser

Thanks to Rockstar Book Tours for allowing me to host a spot for this new young adult novel.

Title: THE BRILLIANCE OF FIREFLIES

Author: Leslie Hauser

Pub. Date: May 21, 2019

Publisher: Gatekeeper Press

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 310

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

Summary: Emma Loukas had a typical teenage life. Until she didn’t. After choosing to stay home instead of accompanying her family to a minor league baseball game, Emma is not present when a suicide bomber detonates an explosive device at the entrance to the stadium just as her family arrives. In the months that follow, grief therapy and the gloomy looks from friends and her extended family do nothing but drag Emma further down into the rubble left behind by that deadly April afternoon.

To escape the sad reality of her new life, Emma heads out to California to spend her senior year with her grandmother. Getting away from her former life is the only way to survive. It doesn’t take long, though, for Emma to experience Grandma Connie’s dementia, and it’s more than a seventeen-year-old is capable of handling on her own. Now Emma fears she has just made her bad situation worse, and she begins to wonder if it’s even worth trying to survive.

But when the family mementos on the dresser catch her eye, Emma feels a bit of light turn on inside her. Maybe the way to make sense of her new life is to live the lives her mom, dad, and brother no longer can. So she sets out to achieve each of their dreams. It won’t be easy, but it’s all Emma has left, and in the process, she just may find out who she’s supposed to be.

Review: This was a cute sad story about Emma, a girl who is suffering survivor's guilt. She lost her parents and brother in a bombing attack at a minor league baseball game. She is being watched by her aunt and uncle, but she decides to go stay with her grandmother in California to live out her parent's and brother's dreams.

She makes this major moving decision on the chance of fireflies. When she gets to California, she gets a job at an animal shelter to pay tribute to her father. In memory of her mother, she joins the cross country team at her new high school and signs up for a half marathon. For her brother, she decides to apply to Ohio State University. Her big goal to make their dreams come true, is to take a trip to her familial roots in Corfu, Greece.

I have noticed a theme with recent releases and that is more mental health rep and terrorist attacks.

I am a YA writer and middle school teacher. I have a B.A. in English from UCLA and a Master’s degree in Educational Administration. I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and currently reside in Los Angeles, California, with my dog Mr. Darcy.

When I’m not living in fictional worlds inside my head, I run all sorts of distances, torture my body at CrossFit, and DVR entirely too many television shows. I dream of one day returning to the Midwest to live on a farm. Or perhaps owning a cookie delivery service.

I am the author of CHASING EVELINE and THE BRILLIANCE OF FIREFLIES.