What makes a family? I've worked as a teacher for over 20 years. I see a variety of families. Some are people of blood- traditional- Mom, Dad and Siblings. Then there's the blood-extended families where Grandparents are the guardians and there aren't parents living at home. In addition we have blended families where some of the people aren't related except by marriage and foster families. I believe they are all families and deserve the same respect and love that a traditional family has. Ms. Moss' latest release, The Art of Being Indifferent explores family dynamics as well as what makes a family. This book has so many feels. I couldn't put it down. I had to read to the very end. A must read for everyone! BLURB: When opposite worlds collide… Posey Briggs has a chip on her shoulder the size of Whidbey, the island off of the Washington Coast where she’s stuck with her annoying foster family, and their band of mismatched, screw up kids. The last thing she needs while she rides out these last few months until she’s eighteen and finally free from the system, is to be saddled with some bogus tutoring assignment given by an English teacher with a God complex. Drew Baxter has the world in the palm of his hands. Best athlete in school, coolest guy on campus, nailing the hottest girl in school whenever he wants. What more could he ask for? Except for his dad to stop making his life a terrorizing game of whose face will get pounded tonight? He’d rather do just about anything other than sitting around listening to the school loser lecture him about Shakespeare every day. Sometimes the universe has a way of thrusting two people together, even though they’d rather drink poison than sit across a library table from one another. And in this case, the universe knew something Drew and Posey never saw coming: they would become the single most important person in each other’s lives, and save each other from completely unraveling. Will the explosion, save them or destroy them? EXCERPT I didn’t know how to be tender. My mom was never tender. The sweetest thing she’d ever done for me was tattooing my name on the side of her neck. And as for John? Hell, I didn’t know what to do with one of those “father-figure” types. Every man I’d known before coming into foster care either hated me to the point of knocking me around, or liked me way more than he should have. And if the counseling I’d been forced to participate in since being in the system taught me nothing else, it was that neither of those kinds of relationships were okay. John was just...nice. Nothing more, nothing less. He didn’t cuss me out for breaking a plate while doing dishes, and he didn’t try to stick his hand in my shirt. John simply acted the way I imagined a dad should, and it was weird. I shot Jessa a look, hoping she’d get the hint to shut up. “It’s not a job, really.” “Oh?” Paula pulled her hand back, and tucked it in her lap. “Want to tell us about it?” I opened and closed my mouth a few times, before putting down my fork and wrapping my arms around myself. “It’s just extra credit.” When I didn’t elaborate, Jessa groaned. “Mr. Kingston asked Posey to tutor someone.” Both John and Paula’s faces lit up. They’d read my transcripts, and I don’t think they had high hopes for my academic career. “Really?” John burst. “Posey, that’s great!” “I’m so proud of you,” Paula gushed, beaming. I looked away. “It’s nothing. He said it would help my grade.” “I’m sure it will.” Paula helped Cooper twirl his noodles onto his fork. “At back to school night, he said you had great potential. I’m not at all surprised he picked you.” “But that’s not the half of it.” Jessa practically vibrated in her chair. Good grief, she reacted to gossip like a damned Chihuahua. “Guess who Posey is tutoring?” “The pope?” John joked, at the same time Paula said, “Barack Obama?” The kids all laughed at their wittiness. I just sank lower in my chair. Golden Boy Drew Baxter was like royalty around here. They were going to fall all over themselves. “Who?” asked Lacey, tearing her bread into pieces. Jessa paused, looking around the family dramatically. “Drew Baxter.” Micah’s head popped up. “No kidding?” John and Paula exchanged a look I couldn’t read. One of his eyebrows was cocked upward, and Paula’s pressed her lips together tightly. After an awkward second or two, John said, “A heck of an athlete, that kid.” Grab Your Copy Today |
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