Ellesea Loves Reading: Release Day & Review: The Gossip by Jenny Holiday

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Release Day & Review: The Gossip by Jenny Holiday

Title: The Gossip

Series: New Wave Newsroom #2

Author: Jenny Holiday

Genre: New Adult Romance

Release Date: October 4, 2016

Length: 36k words

Format: Digital/Paperback

Digital ISBN: 978-0-9950927-3-0

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9950927-2-3

Dawn Hathaway is a realist. She’s not the smartest girl at Allenhurst College. She’s not the prettiest, either. So if she wants to be popular, she’ll need something else: power. What better way to get it than to start a gossip column in the campus newspaper? If she has to commit a few minor crimes in pursuit of the latest scoop, what’s the harm?

Arturo Perez loves being a campus cop. He knows Allenhurst’s nooks and crannies—and lately he’s been finding the campus gossip snooping into every one of them. He can’t deny that he enjoys bantering with the sassy schemer. But he also can’t shake the sense that there’s more going on with Dawn than meets the eye.

When tragedy strikes and Dawn needs help, how far will Art go to protect her?

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“You aren’t going to call my parents, are you?” Never mind that I only had one, and that Daddy finding out I was drinking probably wouldn’t even rate a phone call from him. I stuck out my lower lip and tried to make it quiver, not enough that I could be accused of purposeful manipulation, but enough—I hoped—that I was communicating some remorse.

“Nope,” said Officer Perez, totally unaffected by my emotional display. “You’re eighteen. Welcome to adulthood.”

“Welcome to adulthood, yet I’m not allowed to buy alcohol?”

“That is correct.” He handed my ID to the cop next to him, and that cop flipped open a little notepad and started writing on it.

“You’re a campus cop,” I said, letting my gaze rake over Perez’s belt. It held a baton and handcuffs and a few other things I didn’t recognize, but no gun. The other guy had a gun.

He glanced at the patch on his right biceps that read ALLENHURST COLLEGE PD. It was stretched taut over the muscle. “And you have a talent for stating the obvious.”

“Do you even have jurisdiction here? Because we’re not actually on campus.” We were a mere two blocks from it, but still. If he wasn’t going to respond to my remorseful-little-girl act, maybe I could wiggle out through a procedural loophole.

“That’s why this guy”—he jerked his thumb at the colleague I’d come to think of as Good Cop—“is writing your ticket.”

“Teamwork,” Good Cop said, smiling as he ripped off the ticket and held it out to me. “Allenhurst PD at your service, miss.”

“Oh, so you need a real cop to close your deals.” I was being a brat for no reason now, but I hated the fact that this big guy, this big gunless guy, could just step in and ruin everything.

The big gunless guy in question took a step toward me. God, he was big. Maybe he didn’t need a gun because of those tree-trunk arms. They looked like they were more than sufficient to take on any villain. “Perhaps you’d prefer that instead of issuing you that fifty-dollar possession ticket, I have my ‘real cop’ friend here arrest you,” he said. “And hey, while we’re at it, we’ll get your friends for furnishing alcohol to a minor.”

“You can’t do that!”

He took another step, leaving only a few inches between us. My eyes were level with the middle of his chest, so I had to crank my neck back to maintain eye contact. He was probably doing it on purpose, trying to intimidate me and compensate for his lack of a gun.

He smirked. “Perhaps you’d care to add resisting arrest?”

Before reading The Fixer, the first book in this New Wave Newsroom series, I was a bit apprehensive because of the covers for each title. Now that I've read the first two books, I can see how clearly they fit the personality of each female protagonist.

Dawn Hathaway's plans sensationally backfire when she's caught trying to illegally acquire alcohol for an upcoming party hosted by the Delta Chi Fraternity. With a $50 fine and missing out on getting into the Alpha Phi Sorority, she decides to reinvent herself as a gossip columnist for the campus newspaper. When a story she writes ends with a death, she needs help and the cop who's had her on his protective radar since their first run-in is more than happy to comply.

Arturo Perez loves his job as a community police officer at Allenhurst. Yet, lives with the guilt of not living up to his father's expectations...moving back home to join Boston PD. When he meets Dawn Hathaway, he knows deep down, he needs to put his plans on hold and stay in his current role. When a family emergency occurs, he decides to implement his plans but doesn't expect the local gossip columnist to make him see his predicament from an entirely different angle.

This time around, I know the song this novella is based on "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" and equally love all the references to 1980's...Erik Estrada and LEG WARMERS! Both the protagonists have daddy issues and are equally complex as they try to make life changing decisions which make them happy rather than pleasing other people. There's no sugar coating the serious issues the plot throws up however the novella maintains a fun and entertaining vibe. A lot packed into the pages and the author does a magnificent job by showing palpable character development.

You don't have to read the series in order, but be warned...once you've read one, you'll want to read the others.

***arc received courtesy of the publisher via Barclay PR***

More books from the New Wave Newsroom this fall!

The Fixer: Out Now!

Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks

The Pacifist: coming Oct 25, 2015:

Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks

Jenny Holiday started writing at age nine when her awesome fourth grade teacher gave her a notebook and told her to start writing some stories. That first batch featured mass murderers on the loose, alien invasions, and hauntings. (Looking back, she’s amazed no one sent her to a kid-shrink.) She’s been writing ever since. After a brief detour to get a PhD in geography, she worked as a professional writer, producing everything from speeches to magazine articles. More recently, her tastes having evolved from alien invasions to happily-ever-afters, she tried her hand at romance. A lifelong city-lover, she lives in Toronto, Canada, with her family. She is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan of Greenburger Associates.