Time to get free stuff! Armchair BEA has been hosting giveaways all week. Now is the time for bloggers to post items to win. Be sure to check out all the blogs for lots of great stuff. My thanks to Katie at Putnam for this title.

from the publisher…

1458926287-hbz-the-list-beach-reads-20MONSTERS introduces Stacey Lane, a published poet and mother of two young boys, who, after the sudden death of her husband eight months ago, is a certified mess.  Stuck in the suburbs of her husband’s hometown, she feels lost inside a life she’s not sure she wants, and she hasn’t got a clue about how to break out.  She’s a poet who can’t write and a mother who adores her kids but senses she’s failing them.  She feels like a monster searching for new boundaries to reframe her life, and nothing seems to click.  That is, until she gets an unsolicited email from a producer who wants the film rights to her latest work, a novel-in-verse called Monsters in the Afterlife.

That brief message triggers a sea change in Stacey’s life, sending her spinning in a direction she’d never have imagined.  Soon she’s in Hollywood working closely on the screenplay with actor Tommy DeMarco, an A-list star with a bad-boy reputation and off-the-charts charisma.  Surprisingly well read, it’s Tommy who had stumbled onto Monsters—an inventive feminist re-imagining of Frankenstein—and is the driving force behind the project as both star and co-producer. The film offers Stacey a fleeting escape from home as she jets between her staid suburban life in Omaha and Tommy’s cynical inner circle.  Passionate and reckless, Tommy pushes every boundary, while Stacey struggles to re-establish them in her unstable life.  They are an unlikely pair by any standard, but similarly damaged by life’s blows.  When flirtation quickly evolves into a tumultuous affair, they find themselves in a quandary: Can these beautiful monsters reconcile what they truly want with what they think they can get?

Riveting, poignant and always surprising, MONSTERS reveals how meeting the right person can be as much brutal as it is breathtaking. With Liz Kay’s beautiful spare prose and crackling dialogue, the novel deftly details the ways we love, even when we’re not at our best, and delivers an eminently satisfying love story.

About the author:

Liz Kay is a founding editor of Spark Wheel Press and the journal burntdistrict.  She holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska and was the recipient of both an Academy of American Poets Prize and the Wendy Fort Foundation Prize for exemplary work in poetry.  She lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband and three sons. This is her debut novel.


To win:

  1. Leave a comment: What monsters are hiding in everyday society?
  2. Include your email in the following format: name (at) service (dot) suffix
  3. Have a US mailing address.
  4. Wait until May 16, 6 p.m. EST. 

I will choose two (2) comments and use the provided email address to contact the winners. Good luck!

The giveaway is now closed. Thank you for entering!

7 thoughts on “ARMCHAIR BEA 16: Giveaway #1”

  1. I agree with the others that “monsters” are everyday people. I was in an abusive relationship and he and being with him was great at first. That’s how they get you. Then they manipulate and damage you so bad, you continue the same mental paths (like “I’m worthless, overreaching etc.) without him. It’s a great challenge to leave and everyday is another challenge to grow as a survivor.

    broke(dot)book(dot)bank(at)gmail(dot)com

  2. Monsters are everywhere, child abusers, liars, thieves, rapists, killers. The honest answer is you cannot tell what a person is made up of just by looking at them. Your own neighbor or your kid’s coach could be harboring dark secrets. It is a scary world out there and we need to be careful who we let into our world.

  3. I have had a stalker for more than 20 years. Stalkers are very “everyday” but unless you have had one you don’t realize what monsters they are. michele at mccarthy dot net

  4. Monsters are hiding everywhere in society and not just what we would normally think of. When I think of monsters though I think of the ones that hide right inside of me like anxiety, fear, depression, ect. My email is tiffany (at) thecraftyhome (dot) net

  5. Oooh this book looks really good! Monsters in everyday society, what a great question. I feel like every person has a hidden monster that with the right circumstances, it can come out. I feel like the people who have become bitter over time and then want to pass their bitterness on to other people can be very dangerous, particularly if they have risen to certain prestige and power. People who can ruin careers just because it is fun for them and because they have no place to go but down. Another monster that terrifies me that I haven’t yet encountered, is the person that seems entirely trustworthy and good, but have a hidden, secret side and could be dangerous to you and your family. I hope I never meet that person. Thanks for the thoughtful question and post! Christina @ Ensconced in Lit Email: ensconcedya at gmail dot com

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