Blog Tour: IMPERFECTIONS by Ann Chiappetta

 

IMPERFECTIONS

Ann Chiappetta

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GENRE:  YA Contemporary Fiction

 

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BLURB:

 

For Lainie, feeling unwelcome is only the beginning of her struggles. Her mom is addicted to painkillers, her stepfather is a felon, and her dad traded her in for a new family.

 

So what if she’s kicked out of high school? Determined and attractive, Lainie sets out to make her own path.

 

Shane, the young man she begins dating and believes is trustworthy, transforms into a possessive and cruel boyfriend. When Efren, Shane’s older cousin, enters her life, Lainie grasps onto a shred of hope, falling in love. Shane’s obsessive and abusive treatment of her, however, casts a deep shadow over Efren and Lainie’s chance to find  safety and a future free of the fear of Shane’s  sadistic retribution.

 

Will their love persevere, or will Shane’s pervasive and negative influence push Lainie and Efren apart, forcing them to love secretly?

 

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Excerpt Three:

 

Shane wasn’t who he once was, and I needed to do whatever I could to help her feel safe. Witnessing the abuse and shame she’d endured because of his sick obsession twisted me, and I wanted nothing more than to pummel his snotty little face until he begged for mercy. How could anyone abuse someone like Elaina?

 

She strode past Shane and into my suite with the final armful , ignoring him.

 

“I’m done,” she said.

 

“I hope she doesn’t disappoint you in bed,” said Shane.

 

The anger boiled, but I kept myself in control. “Enough of that. This isn’t the time to rearrange your face, you snotty wanker,” I said, my voice thick with anger.

 

I waited until Shane dropped his gaze, then I said, “I hope that day comes soon, cousin. I hope you step over the line so I can make some improvements to your complexion.”

 

He retreated to his room. I heard the lock engage, and I permitted myself to feel a little regret at not defending Elaina’s character with direct contact of my fist against that arse’s face.

 

I entered the room. Elaina had stacked her belongings, her life, into a corner of the sitting area. It saddened me to know that a few cases and boxes were all that remained after Shane had stolen and sold the rest to get high.

 

There was so much about her that I wanted to know. Why her father never helped her. Why she didn’t ask for help from her relatives in New York. I knew her mother was an addict and that she and Elaina did not speak. She was enrolled in East Bay Community College and was close to earning an associate’s degree. She wanted to obtain a bachelor’s degree in kennel and stable management. So focused, and yet she seemed sad.

 

The fair gowns hung on a hook in the closet. Her fingers caressed the pewter and black one.

 

The gesture brought me a sense of gloom, as if she were saying goodbye. After I had crept into Rita’s box and listened to her sobbing, the moderate measure of guilt I felt for punching Shane, the wanker, then asking Rick to assist in throwing him over the fair gate, had been assuaged. Shane should have gotten a sounder beating, but he was still blood kin. That was the only thing that had saved him from my rearranging his mug.

 

Listening to Lainie’s sobs, I realized I wanted to pick her up off Rita’s back and be the one to absorb those tears. I needed her to trust me. She was so vulnerable and isolated that I wondered if she would ever take a chance on sharing the abuse I knew she had endured during her time living with Shane. I hoped when she finally decided to trust me, I would be able to handle it.

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What do you think readers can learn from your characters?

 

I find this question to be packed with potential. I write with character-focused intentions. I strive to ground the setting so readers connect with the feeling or emotion of the scene and arc of the message of the story. How else could I do this without relying on the characters? It is the characters who emote, who feel and who act and react to one another and situations and consequences in the context of a story.

 

As for the characters in Imperfections, I presented Lainie as essentially a complete personality with a little wear and tear; she attracts people and isn’t aware of why it happens because she views herself as broken and missing something. The quest for purpose and self-worth is Lainie’s story.

 

Sometimes the character is concrete, like Ray Miller, Lainie’s employer and owner of Huntsman Canine Academy. He sees Lainie as worth the time and trouble and his instincts are correct. The reader learns Ray is grounded and trusts his inner voice. The reader learns to trust Ray a step ahead of Lainie.

 

Effren is a bit Pollyanna about Shane and his predilections until he is faced with dealing with them directly. Yet, he holds back, the reader is clued into some of his doubt but not all of it until the last part of the book. Will he be strong enough to handle things or not?

 

As for Shane, he is the human representation of the ugliness in the world. He is unrelenting, cruel and suffers from bad decisions and neglect . Readers may or may not believe Shane and his pain to be realistic; the purpose of Shane in the story is twofold; push Effren into a place where he doesn’t have all the answers and to challenge Lainie’s trust in herself and learn to trust others and stop blaming herself.

 

Another major part of Imperfections is the thread of trauma, specifically, sexual trauma, introduced and processed in the book.

 

For Lainie it is the angry outbursts conveying how much she is effected. Once a person is touched by it, trauma is never gone; it resides in us inertly or actively, depending on the type of trauma and the person touched by it. I hope the story shows readers caring and purpose are two strategies to counteract the less productive paths of coping.

 

Thanks for hosting me and my book on your blog.

 

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Ann Chiappetta, M.S. Poet and author

Ann’s award-winning poems, creative nonfiction, and essays have appeared internationally in literary journals, popular online blogs, and print anthologies. Her poems have been featured in The Avocet, the Pangolin Review, Plum Tree Tavern, Magnets and Ladders, Oprelle, Western PA Poetry Review 2024and Breath and Shadow. Ann’s short story, The Misty Torrent appeared in the Artificial Divide anthology published by Renaissance Press (2021).

 

Ann is the recipient of the 2019 GDUI Excellence in Writing award and the WDOMI 2016 Spirit of Independence award.

 

Independently published since 2016, the author’s seven volume collection includes poetry, creative nonfiction essays, short stories and contemporary fiction.

 

Diagnosed in 1993 with a rare form of progressive retinal disease, Ann accepts vision loss as part of her life but doesn’t let it define her as a whole person.

 

The author resides in western Pennsylvania with her husband, retired guide dog pet dog and cats, striving to develop a mutually-beneficial relationship with her assistive technology.

 

Contact Ann by visiting her website: www.annchiappetta.com

Subscribe to Ann’s blog www.thought-wheel.com   

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/verona.chiappetta/     

 

 

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GIVEAWAY

Ann Chiappetta will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

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