Every girl who chooses to love boys will eventually make a bad choice. In Backseats and Bleachers: A High School Love Story, Alexus Rhone chronicles the journey of a discount debutante and her two love interests: Jon, a religious nympho, and Ferris, a 19-year-old hottie who just got out the county jail. The release date is October 17, 2005, the first day of Teen Read Week (sponsored by Young Adult Library Services Association).
In Backseats and Bleachers, TREK lives in the suburban community of Missouri City, Texas with her check-bouncing mom who dreams of remaking her into a socialite. The problem is they don’t have any money. Trek’s only hope of climbing the social ladder is to snag a 2-3-4 brotha – that is, a boy who wears 2-digits on a jersey, spends 3-figures on his clothes, or rolls on 4-wheels. Jon fits the criteria. At 6’4” with thick-eyelashes and pushing a new truck, he’s perfect; except he’s a Christian who talks about how blessed he is while “accidentally” brushing up against your nipple.
Ferris, on the other hand, lives in her dad’s neighborhood in a decaying urban side of Houston, and has just been released from the county jail for petty-hustles. Like Jon, Ferris is crazy about Trek, even going as far as tattooing her name on his chest. But he’s still a felon.
Regrettably, when given the choice between the two, Trek picks Ferris, and begins a downward spiral from princess-wanna-be to hoodrat-gonna-be.
Dallas bookstore Black Images Book Bazaar will host the pre-release celebration Friday, October 7, 2005. The Backseats and Bleachers national release party will take place in Houston at Omni Central the following Friday, October 14, 2005. Several library events are also scheduled throughout Texas, Louisiana and Arizona to promote Backseats and Bleachers, including a reading and book signing at Willowridge High School, the setting for the novel.
Trek’s journey began in Rhone’s debut novel Premature Pleasures and continued in her sophomore release Secret Shame, an Essence Magazine Bestseller (Essence, August 2003).
With her raw, rebellious voice, Rhone rewards her readers with a cast of outrageous characters facing intense situations you won’t soon forget. Honest and irreverent, Backseats and Bleachers is sure to be “gobbled up like candy” by its readers and will continue Rhone’s legacy as a “truth-teller.” |
