Benevolent by Erin A. Jensen - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hello, lovelies!  It gives me great pleasure today to host Erin A. Jensen and her new book, “Benevolent”!  For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!!  Also, come back daily to interact with Erin and to increase your chances of winning!

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!

Benevolent

by Erin A. Jensen

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GENRE: Fantasy

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BLURB:

A story about the purpose of life, the healing power of fandom, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Tormented by the in-crowd at school on a daily basis, there were two things that gave fifteen-year-old Abigail Perkins the strength to keep going—her best friend, Danny Cobb; and her favorite television show, Supernatural. But the night Danny’s mother calls to say that his battle with cancer is nearing its end, and the doctors don’t expect him to live through the night, even Supernatural can’t dull the ache in her heart.

Devastated by her impending loss and crushed that Danny’s mother won’t allow her to visit him one last time, Abigail crawls into bed and cries herself to sleep that night; and she wakes to find Supernatural’s most endearing angel standing at the foot of her bed.

Told from Abigail’s perspective as she nears the end of her long life and revisits the moments that defined it, this story was inspired by the deep connection that Supernatural fans feel with the show’s beloved characters, and the show’s miraculous ability to help its fans through troubled times.

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EXCERPT ONE:

I shuffled across the room with a heavy heart, crawled into bed and cried myself to sleep, aching in the knowledge that I’d most likely wake in a world that my friend no longer inhabited.

That was the first night that he ever came to me in a dream.

“Would you like to say your goodbyes now, Abigail?” a male voice inquired from the foot of my bed.

A deep male voice—rousing me from sleep in the middle of the night—probably should’ve terrified me, but it didn’t because this man’s voice was a familiar comfort.

I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, which was pointless since I was obviously still dreaming. There at the foot of my bed, stood my favorite television angel, dressed in a button-down shirt, crooked necktie, and that iconic trench coat of his. He was beautiful, flawless bone structure, stylishly mussed-up hair, and piercing blue eyes that looked far too wise to belong to this man at the peak of physical perfection.

I blinked my eyes a few times to reboot my senses, but he still stood there waiting for an answer. “Castiel?” I muttered in a groggy whisper, “Am I dreaming?”

He smiled at me with more compassion than I’d ever witnessed in any human set of eyes. “Yes. You are, but that doesn’t make this any less real.”

“I’ve lost my mind,” I muttered as my eyes filled with tears. “My best friend is dying and I’m sitting on my bed, talking to a fictional angel.”

His brilliant blue eyes brimmed with sorrow as he shook his head. “You are talking to a real angel. I chose this form because the fictional angel is a comfort to you.”

I blinked my eyes a few more times, expecting him to be gone each time my eyelids lifted. “What?”

His apologetic frown did nothing to detract from his beauty. “There isn’t much time to explain, Abigail. Danny is not long for this world, and I know how much he means to you. His mother is wrong to deny you the opportunity to say goodbye.”

“How would we get there?” I muttered, ignoring the way my heart ached at the angel’s words. If I focused on that pain, I would fall apart, this dream would morph into something nightmarish, and I’d lose this imaginary chance to see my friend one last time. “I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to leave the house with strange men who slip into my bedroom in the middle of the night.”

“I’m not a man,” he whispered as he touched a hand to my foot.

The instant he touched me, my room melted away and I found myself sitting on Danny’s hospital bed. 

My eyes filled with tears at the sight of all the tubes and wires connected to my friend’s brittle body. I looked up and felt comforted by the angel’s presence.

“He can hear you,” the angel standing beside the bed whispered.

“Danny,” I croaked as I slid closer to him, “it’s me, Abigail.”

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GUEST POST:

Putting Yourself on the Page:

What It’s Like to Share your Most Personal Words with the World

One way or another, a writer’s past finds its way onto the pages of her books. Plenty of memories from my life inspired details in my previous books, but my latest story contains more of me than anything else I’ve ever written. I think that’s why readers relate to the main character on a personal level. There’s a truth to Abigail’s story because my own life experiences are woven into it. I’m currently recording Benevolent’s audiobook. Narrating it myself is tougher than I expected because I’m telling a story inspired by events from my own past. Capturing your memories on paper is one thing, but reading them aloud requires an exhausting amount of honesty and raw emotion.

One memory has been on my mind since I recorded it for Benevolent’s audiobook. In the book, Abigail revisits a night that could’ve ended very differently. Looking back on it, she wonders whether her guardian angel might’ve whispered in a young man’s ear and nudged him to get her out of harm’s way. The memory is from my own past, told exactly as I remember it:

       “Our posse for the evening consisted of three fresh-faced girls, who might as well have had naïve virgin tattooed across their foreheads. We were at a frat-house party but this fraternity was new to us, and so were the shots of cheap vodka they were serving along with the beer.

       The memory was hazy for obvious reasons, but I remember meeting a couple of freshman boys, new faces I couldn’t have identified in a lineup the next day if my life depended on it. I think one of them was Asian and the other had light brown hair, but I couldn’t even say that with any certainty. We all started downing shots together, and somehow—in the midst of all the alcohol-induced haziness—one of the boys’ lips ended up colliding with mine. Damned if I could even remember which of the two boys it was, but damaged as I was from all the bullying I’d endured in my younger years, my drunken-self delighted in the fact that any boy would take such an interest in me.

       When I pulled my lips away from the boy’s, the music was deafening, the room was a blur and my friends were nowhere in sight. Too drunk to feel anything more than mildly uneasy, I searched the crowd of blurry faces for the familiar ones I’d come to the party with. But the boy took me by the hand and murmured in my ear, telling me not to worry as he tugged me across the crowded room.

       The next thing I knew a much older boy with the fraternity’s letters on his baseball cap and hoodie was towering over me. He bent his head close to my ear so I could hear him over the blaring music. “You’re drunk.”

       I grinned up at him like an idiot without a care in the world. “I know.”

       “I’m taking you home now,” he declared in no uncertain terms.

       His statement made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but I was too intoxicated to be overly concerned by it. In my altered state, it never even occurred to me that I had any say in the matter as I parroted his words back to him in an unsteady voice, “You’re taking me home?”

       “I’m taking you to your home,” he clarified, his mouth close to my ear.

       The next thing I remember, I was on a campus transport bus sitting next to the tall upperclassman, who was really much more man than boy. The man-boy confided that his girlfriend was pissed off at him for leaving the party to babysit some random drunken freshman, but he said he wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself if he hadn’t stepped in when he did. Looking back on it with a sober adult mind, I shuddered to think how that night could have turned out if he hadn’t intervened.”   — excerpt from Benevolent by Erin A. Jensen

Reading that story into a comically large microphone while two men listened on the other side of the glass in the recording booth was unnerving. I felt an odd sense of vulnerability pulling me back in time and an overwhelming amount of gratitude for that boy’s actions. I have no idea where — or even who — that frat brother from Geneseo is today. Although he’ll probably never read this, I’d like to thank him for looking out for me all those years ago.

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AUTHOR BIO:

Erin Jensen is the Amazon International bestselling author of The Dream Waters Series. She was awarded the Bronze Medal for fantasy fiction in the 2018 Readers' Favorite international book awards. She also received Honorable Mention for fantasy fiction in the 2018 Writer's Digest self-published e-book awards. A part-time pharmacist and a full-time daydreamer, she resides in upstate New York with her ridiculously supportive husband, two teenage sons--who are both taller than her--and a Yorkshire terrier who thinks he's the family bodyguard.

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CONNECT WITH ERIN:

Website:

http://www.erinajensen.com

Blog:

http://blog.erinajensen.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/erin.jensen.756

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ErinAJensen

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15064955.Erin_A_Jensen

Goodreads Book Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43864204-benevolent

Amazon Author Page:

http://amzn.to/2FfLRbV

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BOOK BUY LINKS:

Amazon Kindle eBook:

https://amzn.to/2KmFQyA

Amazon Paperback:

https://amzn.to/31tmDkE

Barnes and Noble Paperback:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/benevolent-erin-a-jensen/1132005681

The Book Depository Paperback:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Benevolent-Erin-Jensen/9780997171297

BAM! Books-A-Million Paperback:

https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Benevolent/Erin-a-Jensen/9780997171297

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Erin will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions.  Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.