Cover reveal season is in full swing in the YA and MG communities! So many beautiful covers have been revealed over the last few weeks and today on Pop! Goes The Reader I’m so excited to have partnered with author Cameron Kelly Rosenblum to reveal another as we share the cover for Cameron’s 2020 debut novel, The Stepping Off Place! Coming to a book store and library near you in Summer 2020, The Stepping Off Place has been compared to E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, and follows one girl’s search for answers, understanding, closure and healing after the unexpected suicide of her closest friend. The Stepping Off Place is said to include a nonlinear exploration of grief and is ultimately meant to honour the the unbreakable female bond between the two friends. Please read on to learn more about The Stepping Off Place, including an exclusive note from the author about the book’s inspiration and an opportunity for one lucky reader to win an advance reader copy of the novel!
About Cameron Kelly Rosenblum
Cameron Kelly Rosenblum is a former teacher and now a children’s librarian. She lives near Portland, Maine with her husband and two children. The Stepping Off Place is her debut novel.
Writing this novel was a way for me to process losing my best friend from adolescence. We were well into adulthood when she died by suicide, and it’s been several years now, but I still shake my head in disbelief. She was magnetic, beautiful, athletic, irreverent and hilarious, and simply the most fun of just about anyone I’ve ever known. Though we’d lived on opposite sides of the country for many years, we always kept in touch with funny cards (snail mail only!). My shock when I learned of her passing was exacerbated by the fact that I found out too late to attend her service. I never properly mourned her, so I turned to my go-to for emotional processing: writing. I’d been writing middle grade seriously for a while, but I abandoned that to try YA, so I could recapture those years of our teens in my imagination. So, The Stepping Off Place is an homage to my friend. I am forever grateful I had her in my life, and making sense of her illness is the heart of this story. Hattie and Reid are definitely fictionalized, but the force of an unbreakable female bond is worth celebrating! Ours has lasted beyond a lifetime.
Cover art by Michaela Goade
Title The Stepping Off Place
Author Cameron Kelly Rosenblum
Intended Target Audience Young Adult
Publication Date Summer 2020 by HarperTeen
Find It On Goodreads
Every girl loves her best friend, but Hattie is more like Reid’s social oxygen. Hattie’s the badass, Reid’s the wingman; that’s how it’s meant to be. But when, two weeks before the start of senior year, Hattie drowns off the coast of Maine while summering with her family, Reid must confront the devastating loss and her own identity crisis, all while hearing and seeing Hattie everywhere. The police declare that Hattie died by suicide, but it just doesn’t make sense. Hattie was one of the most enigmatic and joyful people Reid has ever known. Something just doesn’t feel right, and in her grief, Reid immediately begins to question the circumstances surrounding Hattie’s death — and the secrets kept by the person she thought she knew better than herself. This is the summer that Reid is forced to reexamine everything she knows about alphas and betas, truth and lies, the complexities of mental health, and what it means to step into yourself.
As an extra, exciting bonus, Cameron has been kind enough to offer one lucky reader the opportunity to win an advance reader copy of The Stepping Off Place! One winner will be chosen at random at the conclusion of the giveaway and the prize will be distributed by Cameron when ARCs become available. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Please fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter!
One Response
I cannot WAIT to read this book!