Author: Cher Gatto

Where does someone run in the face of his deepest shame?

Welcome to the Blog Tour & Giveaway for Something I Am Not by Cher Gatto, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Something I Am Not by Cher GattoTitle: Something I Am Not

Author: Cher Gatto

Publisher: Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas

Release Date: January 25, 2019

Genre: Mature Young Adult

A father who never loved him. A woman who stole his worth. A brother he couldn’t protect. Where does someone run in the face of his deepest shame?

Billy McQueen works hard to keep his life together … and concealed. At seventeen, he dreams of an escape from the barroom, his father’s manipulation, and the advances of his father’s girlfriend. However, on his eighteenth birthday, he is introduced to a younger brother he never knew he had. An eight-year-old, barely capable of navigating the distorted and corrupt world of his father’s boxing club. Billy realizes in order to protect his little brother, he can never leave.

After discovering a battered young woman in the back shed of the club, Billy uncovers the true nature of his father’s activities. Before he can share it with the sheriff, Billy is kidnapped by his father and sold to a wealthy old maid who imprisons him on her yacht in the Gulf of Mexico. His death is fabricated and his little brother used it as leverage for his compliance.

In order to secure his freedom, Billy must fight for it. To save his little brother who is next in line for the slave trade… he must die for it.

PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Excerpt

Excerpt One: 

We shared an old broken dresser, my father and I. Tough capable of buying a new one, he chose not to. Priorities, I suppose. If there had been a mother, maybe it would have been fixed. Maybe some fancy doily or a vase of flowers would have been set on the dresser top, adding a splash of color to the only other decoration there—a faded black-and-white photo encased in a cheap frame.  

… I was four the day of the picture. It was my earliest memory and my first real boxing match. And it was Sunday. I remembered because I thought God would be disappointed I’d missed Mrs. Bailey’s Sunday school class and would be sure to punish me later. 

… The photo had captured the flashing lights along with my father’s messed-up face and radiant smile. I stood at his feet then, but the cameraman had left me out. Each time I held the photo, I willed the lens to pan down, just once, to know for sure if the face, and its frozen expression, matched the recollection. To know if the light in the boy had been snuffed out then. Or years later. 

Excerpt Two: 

Two weeks passed, maybe three, since I set foot on The Damsel, and nothing had taken me from her deck. The days found their rhythm, each one blurring into the next, as I lapsed into a cold detachment I learned to live in the moment, for nothing else existed behind or before me … How well I learned to silence the pain until it shivered and lay still behind the walls of dormancy. What shell of a man, and barely a man, I had become. 

For the yacht’s mistress, I represented merely a shiny toy, a shelved plaything. I stood when ordered, sat when commanded. She dressed me like a paper doll, ushered me into this room or that one, fed me rich foods, and then sentenced me to work it off. I rubbed her wrinkled hands and bloated feet. Mixed drinks and passed truffles. I read to her when her eyes tired and escorted her to bed, garnished with a good night peck on the cheek. And all the while, the hands on the clock never marked the hour, and we floated and bobbed out to sea like an engorged baroness taking respite before next course. 

 



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cher Gatto

Cher Gatto is the award-winning author of Something I Am Not. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and their five teenaged children. Together, she and her husband founded a kids’ ranch in Mexico (www.ranchoelcamino.org) and a recovery ministry (www.recovery-hub.org) based in NJ. Cher also launched the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) NY/NJ chapter to support other writers in her area and currently serves as president.

Visit her website: www.journeywithwords.com and sign up for her newsletter and monthly blog for inspiration and encouragement. Follow her on Instagram @chergatto.

CONNECT WITH CHER: Website | Facebook | Instagram

 

**TOUR GIVEAWAY**

(1) winner will receive a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Something I Am Not JustRead Giveaway

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. The full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway will begin at midnight on April 27, 2020, and last through 11:59 PM EST on May 4, 2020. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of the close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of the prize. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

 

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8 Comments

  1. Sounds like a great book.

  2. But of the excerpts makes me want to learn more about the character, Billy McQueen.

  3. Wonderful excerpt, great.

  4. What a great excerpt !

  5. Thanks so much for including “Something I Am Not” on your blog! I appreciate the chance to meet new readers! Hope it introduced new people to your blog as well. Thanks! Cher

  6. Excerpt Two really manages to show the pain that the character is going through and it makes me want to learn more about the character.

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