Welcome to the Aversion blog tour! If you're a fan of YA paranormal romances, then you will love this book! I should have my review ready to post tomorrow!
Title: Aversion (The Mentalist Series #1)
Author: Kenechi Udogu
For Gemma Green’s first
time, things should have been straightforward. Find your subject, hold
their gaze and push a thought into their head to save them from future
disaster – Aversion complete. A pretty simple process given that the
subject was to have no recollection of the experience. But Russ Tanner
doesn’t seem to want to forget. In fact the more she tries to avoid him,
the more he pushes to get to know her. Gemma knows she has a problem
but is she facing the side effects of a failed Aversion or has the
school’s tennis champ really fallen for her?
Available in ebook format at the following places (for only .99cents):
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Excerpt:
“Great
choice. No one in their right mind would want to eat in here so we’re
clearly safe,” Russ joked and I tried not to smile.
He was right; I didn’t want to order anything from the menu because
the table reeked of what could only be stale vomit. Ingesting
anything there would probably result in the production of said bodily
discharge.
“Okay,
I’ve never eaten in here but it seems perfect for conversation so
let’s talk. Isn’t that what you wanted to do? Talk?”
Russ
shrugged and picked up the menu to scan it. “And hang out, like two
normal teenagers. Do you understand the concept?”
If
only I could tell him that I really didn’t understand the concept.
“See,
that’s my problem. I don’t see why you want to hang out with me
at all. You have all your friends. If you get fed up with them you
can easily turn your attention to any other girl at school and they
would have more to say to you than I ever would. Why do you want to
talk to me? And why now?” I tried not to sound exasperated.
Russ
put down the menu and stared intently at me. I felt slightly unnerved
by the intensity of his gaze but I had to hold my own. I was good at
this game, I had stared down scarier looking people on the bus.
Strangely enough, Russ didn’t waver. It was like he was trying to
find something in my eyes, something to answer the unspoken questions
he had, something to help him understand what the hell was going on.
Finally,
he looked away and sighed. “Honestly? I don’t know. I woke up one
morning last week and you were on my mind. I had an uncontrollable
urge to speak to you. Of course I’d always noticed you in class;
you’re kind of hard to miss, but I had never really felt that I
could approach you. I always knew I would get shot down. But that
morning, it felt like something was different. I knew that if I spoke
to you, things would work out. And here we are, sitting in a dodgy
little café, talking. I guess my instincts were right.” He grinned
and looked at me again.
My
brain tried to process what he had just said. What did he mean when
he said I was hard to miss? I thought I had perfected my blending in
technique over the years. Apparently I still had some work to do. I
was relieved to hear that all he had was a strange feeling and
nothing more concrete but nothing else he had told me so far was
helpful. I couldn’t use any of it to fix him. I realised he was
waiting for me to say something after a minute passed with us staring
at each other in silence. Perhaps he wanted some reassurance that
what he had said did not sound completely insane. Unfortunately,
confirming his sanity would mean that I believed people could wake up
and suddenly feel the need to speak to people they had never spoken
to before.
“Is
that what you tell all the girls?” I settled on counterattack, it
was always safe to stay on familiar grounds.
At
first Russ looked mortified at my question but he broke into slightly
nervous laughter when he saw a smile tugging away at the corner of my
lips. Why couldn’t I have kept a straight face when I said that?
When
he finally stopped laughing, he picked up the menu again and resumed
playing with it. “I have always noticed you, Gemma. You probably
don’t remember the few times we spoke…”
“We’ve
never spoken…” I began to protest but he cut me short.
“Last
year on that field trip to see the War Memorial in Yates, you asked
me to move over so you could get to your seat.”
I
stared at him in disbelief. “That doesn’t count.”
“Well,
there was that time you couldn’t reach a library book and I helped
you get it. That was last year as well.”
My
mouth almost dropped open in shock. Those moments were barely
memorable. I would never have counted them as mentionable in any
conversation. It almost sounded like he…no, it wasn’t impossible.
Russ Tanner did not have a crush on me. This verbal diarrhoea had to
be a result of whatever it was I did to him. I could sense that he
thought he was telling the truth but surely he couldn’t be. Why
would he notice me? And I was not thinking that in an
‘I’m-a-nobody-and-I-feel-sorry-for-myself’ way. I was a social
nobody but I knew I wasn’t unattractive. I had caught boys looking
at me even before I turned twelve and informed Dad that I needed a
bra, so it couldn’t just be my chest they were looking at. But I
was nowhere near as pretty as some of the girls he hung out with. I
didn’t wear makeup like most of them did (lip balm did not count)
but I allowed myself the little vanity of stud earrings and ensuring
my hair was as healthy looking as it could be. Maybe Russ had a thing
for pretty hair and silver studs.
“I
wish you’d stop looking at me like that. Like I’m talking a load
of nonsense,” Russ’s tone was convincingly hurt and I almost felt
bad for him. But I had to remember what was happening here and try to
gently steer him away from me.
“Look
Russ, I know you think you want to be my friend but I assure you,
this won’t work. We don’t have the same type of friends…what am
I saying, I have no friends and we both know yours will not like me.
If for some unimaginable reason I decide to hang out with you some
other day, the only way we can talk in peace is by meeting up in
places like this, where no one will know us. Do you really want that?
What are you going to say to your friends when they ask where you’ve
been? I don’t know how else to convince you that us,” I pointed
at the both of us, “isn’t practical.”
“I
don’t want practical. I want you.”
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About the author:
Kenechi lives in London and enjoys writing fantasy/paranormal fiction and short stories (some of which she posts on her blog). She also hates the cold and hopes to one day figure out how to hibernate in winter.
Giveaway!!!
Thank you for the fabulous excerpt. I like the ideas for AVERSION.
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