17 YA AUTHORS + DISNEYLAND = THE YAPPIEST DAY ON EARTH!

If you couldn’t make The YAppiest Day on Earth, never fear! The YAppiness keeps rolling with giveaways of epic reads by each of the 17 authors.

This is the 3rd YAppiest Giveaway! See the “Here’s How” rules for a chance to win. For a complete list of upcoming giveaways, go here.

Ditched ~ A Love Story, by Robin Mellom

Food, a cell phone, and my dignity … all things I did not have.

The sun is coming up after an all-night prom-apalooza, and Justina Griffith is lying in a ditch at the side of Hollister Road. She’s been ditched. Literally and figuratively.

What’s worse is that her hideously stained thrift-store prom dress holds the only clues to how and why it happened. The throbbing bump on her head isn’t helping much in the memory department.

Justina isn’t the type of girl who dreamed of going to prom. So she wasn’t expecting her best friend, Ian Clark, to ask her. But he did … promising her the most amazing night ever. Ian, the one person who knew exactly when she needed licorice (for her low blood sugar), and always knew just the right thing to say…

Justina wonders how  “the best night of her life” turn out so horribly wrong? It takes reliving the night of shame–stain-by-stain–in a tell-all confession to a couple of been-there-done-that women at 7-eleven for her to figure out how she ended up dateless and ditched.

Surprising & Funny  = Positively Delightful!

This is so not your typical prom-night-from-hell story. Trust me. DITCHED is fresh and surprising in more ways than I can say, without committing serious spoilers. Which you would hate me for later. No doubt.

What I can tell you is…

Justina is as honest and funny as the map of stains she traces along her iridescent blue prom dress to unravel the mess of her life. Curry, chicken marsala, soy sauce, and butter all play their part … as do the french-fry-shaped bruise, the ripped zipper (fixed with old bong-cleaner wire), and her new Tinkerbell-on-a-meth-binge tattoo. “So cliche,” Justina tells her 7-eleven confidants, “go to prom and end up with a tattoo.”

Then there’s the wonderfully quirky supporting cast of characters:

• The best friend: Hailey, who has a reputation for being wild, but knows how to spin it. Roll & deflect. That’s her motto.
• The guy: Ian, her best friend and — as she only recently realized — serious boyfriend material. He looks out for her low blood sugar, is the boy of every mother’s dreams, and asks her to prom with Hallmark promises.
• The mom: Seriously type-A and can’t help micro-managing Justina’s life — the  pride-parade-blue prom dress and dyed-to-match shoes were totally her idea — while making the best vegan curry on the planet.
• The Mikes: Justina’s pot-head lab partners, and their girlfriends — Serenity and Bliss, from the wrong school and equally wrong side of town — turn out to be the best comrades-in-arms a girl could be dumped with.
• The character arc: Justina’s inner journey is as comically cathartic as her outer one, but without the visible stains. Justina realizes her penchant for “assuming the worst” ensured just that … and then is brave enough to step beyond I’m-not-worthy to meet true love.

Shaken — not stirred — with copious confusion…

This just-right blend of riotous comedy and heartfelt truth makes for a read so delicious you won’t want it to end. I haven’t read anything this funny since Meg Cabot’s When Lightning Strikes (1-800-Where-R-You series). And that’s saying A LOT.

Bet you want to win a FREE copy now, don’t you?

Here’s how…

NOTE: The FREE giveaway of a copy of this book is open to residents of the United States and Canada only, due to shipping costs. My sincere apologies.

1. Leave a comment on this blog by midnight, May 20th (1 entry).
2. Tweet about this giveaway, including #yappiest in your tweet (1 entry).

I’ll tally the entries and choose a winner at random, then announce it on this blog on Saturday May 25th. Good luck!

Stay tuned for more YAppiests Giveaways!