BLOG TOUR --- What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard [Excerpt + Giveaway]

I am so excited to bring you this excerpt from What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard before the book releases on June 6, 2017!  A book with heart, this is the story of a girl's fighting to recapture everything she lost.  I hope you like the excerpt, and don't forget to check out the other stops of the tour!

Title: What I Lost
Author(s): Alexandra Ballard
Edition: Hardcover, eBook, 304 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: June 6 2017
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Buy: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository - iBooks

Tour Schedule

Week One:

5/29/2017 - YA and Wine - Interview
5/30/2017 - Take Me Away To A Great Read - Review
5/31/2017 - BookHounds YA - Guest Post
6/1/2017 - Here's to Happy Endings - Review
6/2/2017 - Eli to the nth - Excerpt (ME!)

Week Two:

6/5/2017 - Lisa Loves Literature - Review
6/6/2017 - YA Book Madness - Guest Post
6/7/2017 - The Cover Contessa - Interview
6/8/2017 - Book Briefs - Review
6/9/2017 - A Gingerly Review - Review

The Summary

What sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has lost so far: forty pounds, four jean sizes, a boyfriend, and her peace of mind. As a result, she’s finally a size zero. She’s also the newest resident at Wallingfield, a treatment center for girls like her—girls with eating disorders. Elizabeth is determined to endure the program so she can go back home, where she plans to start restricting her food intake again.She’s pretty sure her mom, who has her own size-zero obsession, needs treatment as much as she does. Maybe even more. Then Elizabeth begins receiving mysterious packages. Are they from her ex-boyfriend, a secret admirer, or someone playing a cruel trick?

This eloquent debut novel rings with authenticity as it follows Elizabeth’s journey to taking an active role in her recovery, hoping to get back all that she lost.

(Goodreads)

Excerpt

     That night we went to Kelly’s Roast Beef, a local takeout place open late that was always crammed with rowdy kids stuffing their faces with shakes and sandwiches. I usually avoided it. Everything Kelly’s served was fried, or came from a cow, or was slathered with mayonnaise. I hadn’t eaten anything like that since the whole Target bikini incident.

     Normally, the idea of taking a bite of a roast beef sandwich or a sip of chocolate shake would send me into a massive panic. But that night, even though I’d already eaten my usual dinner—one banana, sliced in half lengthwise and cut again into twenty half-slices, which I ate from a toothpick, one half moon at a time—something was different.

     Here’s what I ate:

     1. One-third of a Junior Beef sandwich, no mayo or cheese

     2. Five fries, two dipped in ketchup

     3. Two small tastes of Charlie’s coffee shake

     4. Four sips of regular—not diet—Coke, because Charlie messed up when he ordered for
     me and I didn’t want him to feel bad.

     What was amazing was that when we were finished I didn’t even feel full. In fact, I felt better than I had in months. I’d expected that I’d at least get a stomachache from all those calories, but it was magic, like my entire body was saying, This is the guy for you. And the night just kept getting better. After dinner, Charlie drove me to the beach in front of his house. He played Bob Marley, “No Woman, No Cry,” a song that Katrina and I had decided made us want to hold hands with boys. And as the song was playing, like he’d read my mind, Charlie held my hand. When we got out of the car, the moon was bright and I could see his house stretching behind a thick wall of shrubs that bordered the beach. It looked even bigger in the moonlight. Houses like that cost millions.

     We’d just stepped onto the sand when he pulled me toward him and kissed me. His touch was soft and his mouth tasted like french fries. I only worried for a second about potential calorie transfers. When he pulled his salty lips away from mine, my body buzzed. When he pulled off his shirt and ran, whooping and hollering, into the dark, rolling ocean, I realized that I really liked him. And when he came back a minute later, shivering and dripping and with goose bumps on his skin, I realized that, amazingly, he might really like me, too. He kissed me again and everything in the world was perfect: the air, the night, the beach, even me.

About the Author

Alexandra Ballard has worked as a magazine editor, middle-school English teacher, freelance writer, and cake maker. She holds master's from both Columbia (journalism) and Fordham (education) and spent ten years in the classroom, beginning in the Bronx and ending up in the hills of California. Today she writes full time and lives in the Bay Area with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs. What I Lost is Alexandra's first novel.

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Giveaway

3 winners will receive a finished copy of What I Lost.

US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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