Did Julie Reece, author of Crux, really jump from a bridge because everyone else did?

Drama. Intrigue. Bad behavior. That’s the ‘crux’ (haha!) of Julie Reece’s teenager years! While not a quote from her, what you read below should not be repeated! 🙂 Except to buy the book … that should be repeated and sung to the hills!

Nothing’s better than being on the _________ team

Drama. Despite the fact I could be off to myself at times had nothing to do with the fact I was incredibly melodramatic! LOL *Don’t miss the eye roll I’m in the midst of as I remember a younger me* Oh, brother. Anyway, we had a ball in drama. We’d do skits and plays and improv. I was such a ham. I remember when I got the lead role in the Neil Simon play, ‘Come Blow your Horn’. I’d never heard of it, I bet you haven’t either. Then I looked it up. Imagine my suprise when I found out I was to play a big, dumb, blonde, slut-bucket. The whole plot is she tries to seduce her friend’s kid brother, who is a virgin visiting his older brother in the big city. Nice. “Hey, mom and dad, guess what your daughter is about to do …?”

If that doesn’t get you interested in this brand new author, check her out at all these other places:

My other car was a ________________

69 Sunshine Yellow Mustang fastback. Man I loved that car! My dad bought it (without asking what I wanted) and told me I’d pay him back, $100.00 a week until it was paid for. I didn’t care because the car was so sweet. Unfortunately for me, a couple weeks later, he took it back saying it was a classic and would cost too much in repairs (and to restore) for an eighteen-year-old. *Sniff* He kept my car (the big meanie, to restore himeself) and replaced it with a yellow ’73 VW Super Beatle. (again without asking me what I wanted) Yea. I was so stinkin’ mad I coudn’t see straight. A VW Bug is a fine car. I like them, unless I just had a Mustang guy magnet taken away from me! Grrrr. Believe it or not, I still speak to my dad, and yeah, he’s actually a really nice guy … aside from picking cars for teenage girls! LOL

Nerd? Geek? Jock? Snob?

I honestly don’t know. I’m not at all sure I want to find out, either! I was really insecure, that I do know. Sometimes I think I tried to become what other people wanted me to be so I could fit in. That pretty much made me a chameleon. I hung around the fringe of all the different groups you mentioned. I struggled in school and struggled to find an identity. It was pretty rough, and it wasn’t until I was much older that I figured out who I was, and what I wanted to do with my life. Writing is a big part of the girl I am now. 🙂 Even if I never got published, I would write just because I love it.

If I could do it all again, I would …

Try harder! Of course we can’t go back, but I wish we could sometimes. I’d like to shake the girl I was—tell her an education matters and she should keep asking until she gets the help she needs. I’d also like to tell her not to be so afraid to fail. I thought ‘a’ failure would define me as a failure as a human being. No, no, no! I know that’s a mistake teens still make. All failure says is you had the guts to try. When you’ve learned something from your mistakes, that’s actually a good thing. Try again until you get it right or try something else. To me, people who fail are brave and courageous. I wish someone had explained that to me as a kid. 🙂

I will never, ever, ever do ____________________ again.

Jump from a bridge. (Is my mother reading this?) When I was a teenager, I jumped from a water line that ran under a bridge near my home in Florida. Can you say dumb? It was. What I didn’t know is the reason the area was posted, and jumping was illegal, was the water way had been flooded long ago. There were ancient trees, just under the water’s surface, that were perfect for impaling stupid teenagers who didn’t pay attention to ‘no tresspassing’ signs. PLEASE! Do not try this at home.

Now, before we get to the last question, let’s look at Julie Reece’s book …

She should have run. Now, she’ll have to fight.

Eighteen year old Birdie may be homeless, but she’s surviving, that is until a mysterious guy throws money in the air like a crazy game show host and she grabs some with the idea she’ll be able to buy dinner that night.

In that singular moment, unassuming Birdie becomes the girl in everyone’s viewfinder. Thugs want to kill her. Money-guy wants to recruit her. The very hot, very rich and very out of her league Grey Mathews wants to save her.

Birdie, though, wants nothing to do with any of them until she realizes fate didn’t bring them all together.

Her heritage did.

Now, with only twenty-one days left, she’s got to decide whether to follow in the footsteps of those before her or risk her life for people she’s only just met.

Favorite one-line review about the book

the author’s writing has an almost lyrical tone to it, a flow to her prose that can lure you along without you even realising you’ve been captured.

Favorite 6 sentences from the book

” My hand juts out and I brace myself against his upper thigh. Muscles flex beneath his dark jeans, huge ones, and with blood rising up my neck to sear my cheeks, I pull my hand back as fast as gravity allows. “Oh, I’m sorry!”

“Don’t apologize.” He cuts in front of a Dodge minivan. “That’s the most fun I’ve had all day.” “

Buy it now …

or find it on Goodreads

But before you go, one last question …

There is no better class than _____________

Art. I was an art geek, big time. As a sometimes loner, I loved to sit in my high school art class and draw. My art teacher would play music (which made him uber cool to us kids) and we’d zone out drawing and painting for hours. He didn’t get on our case about talking as long as we kept it down. And there was this guy … you guessed it, so hot. I made doe eyes at him. He swapped places with someone so he could sit at my table. He’d sit there with this mysterious smile and stare at me through his shaggy black bangs until I blushed. Sometimes, he’d reach over with his pencil and bump mine while I was trying to draw. I’d look up and he’d have the most wonderful, evil grin on his face. Yeah, art was good.

Congratulations, Julie! Good luck with Crux!

Have more questions for this author? Ask in the comments!