Pandora Wild Child by Sunniva Dee
Publication date: October 28th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult
Synopsis:
I’m free. Fucking free!
I’m in college with my best friends and far, far from home!
With my Scheuermann’s disease as the excuse, my father kept me locked up at home all through high school. Here in Deepsilver, I can finally be me, Pandora, so—
Why the hell should I hold back?
They accept our fake IDs at Smother, our local haunt. I’m the life of the party, everyone loves me—hell, I could get away with murder in this place! Drunk off my ass, I dance on the bar, and—
I’m on top of the world!
I need to get my shit together, though. If I don’t pull off good grades, my father won’t pay my tuition. There’s no way I’m moving back into his “fortress.”
At the bar, I set my eyes on a gorgeous stranger. My plans don’t involve him long term; one night should be enough. But Dominic is more than I bargained for. God, I’m so drawn to this man. My skin hums at his touch because—
He expels the shadows of my past and replaces my pain with desire.
Perfect Dominic. Beautiful, graduating, soon-to-move-on-with-his-life Dominic.
I’m a wild child. A hot mess. Not grownup and focused like him. He’s addictive, and I am weak, but—screw this; I can wean myself off him! With the right antidote—
Addictions can be broken.
Excerpt
Everything happens so fast. My grades come in, my parents barge into our apartment, and without as much as a “hi,” Dad starts throwing my belongings into big, plastic containers while I scream louder than I’ve ever screamed at him before. My father keeps working, impassable, like I am air to him.
He slams the door to my bedroom, leans against the panels from the outside, trapping me while he calls the movers. The bright ceiling light doesn’t detain my panic, a roaring, howling thing that whirls and sucks me in. My fear is irrational. I know this, I know, because—
The lights are on. The lights are on.
Dad can’t dictate my life anymore, and yet my nervous system doesn’t believe. My mother cowers in here with me, eyes wide and fixed on me as I go crazy. When my fear drowns me and I don’t see her anymore, I still sense her reaching for me, and I slap her away with hands I barely control.
From within my private hell, my brain ticks off signals, telling me to get my shit together. They grow with insistence, yelling—
You need to harness this!
Slowly, I resurface. My surroundings sharpen. I see the wall with the James Dean posters. My mother’s stricken expression.
I suck air in through my nose. It saturates my lungs while my mind races and grinds on—
My father’s punishments.
They were unorthodox. His way of protecting me. They made me stay out of trouble most of the time. Who knows who I would have been, which path I’d be down in high school if he hadn’t stopped me?
But that part of my life is over. With every fiber, I know I can’t take more of his discipline. Yes, I messed up—I recognize that I did; I earned Ds and Fs across the board, but even so, I’m an adult. Not even Dad has the right to restrain me now.
“Please, Mom.” My voice is sandpaper gritty. “I need to stay in Deepsilver. I’ll pull myself together—figure things out. I can’t go back to living with you.” My pitch quivers on the last sentence, and I’m about to lose it again when my mother begins to soothe me.
“Pandora-honey, everything will be fine,” she says. Her longing look makes me think she wants to tuck away the blanket of hair soaking up my tears. I breathe in deeply, gathering control.
“Winter break is starting, Dora. I’m sure no one stays on campus, and a lot can happen over the next month while you’re at home. I’ll talk with your father.”
Mom’s the queen of wringing her hands in the background. She never seriously tries to convince Dad.
“No, you won’t.”
She straightens, the concern for me still in her eyes, but her lips thin into a line. “Pandora, trust me. I agree with you: you do need to learn on your own, and I think your father is acting hastily.”
“Fucking stop him from moving all my shit, then!”
The stunned silence from my mother merges with Dad’s in the hallway. If I were younger, if I’d lived at home, I’d be very, very scared of the repercussions. But I am not who I was. Perhaps freedom changes people.
I stride to the door and pound. The sound isn’t the panicked scratching from my first times in the walk-in at home. He’s quiet, probably biding his time. I won’t back off, though, because where would I end up if I didn’t stand up for myself? Would I even become me—the real me—the one I have the potential of becoming?
I flick a glance to my shelf, where one of my fragile little friends is on display. It gleams in the overhead light. It’s not lit, but it could so easily be lit—my sweet, silly safety blanket. I could screw it in anywhere and control its flicker. Winking with hope, the 60-watt light bulb I wish I’d had at home lends me strength.
“Dad, open up. We need to talk.”
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AUTHOR BIO:
I write New Adult fiction with a paranormal twist and don’t shy away from romance and heart-wrenching passion when necessary.
I moved from Norway to the United States in 2001, and the first awesome five years I spent in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. Then I read “The Book,” aka Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which spurred my husband and me to move cross country to beautiful Savannah, Georgia.
I’m currently on my seventh year in the Deep South, where I enjoy the heat and the humidity. Besides writing, I spend my time with our “petting zoo” as in an opinionated parrot, a herd of cats that are experts on keyboard shortcuts, and puppies that…uh, bark.
I hold a Master’s degree in languages, with concentrations within literature and linguistics. I taught at college level for a decade before settling in as a graduate adviser at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Writing is my passion, my joy, and my addiction. When I’m not writing, I read.
Shattering Halos is my debut novel, and its standalone sequel, Stargazer, is due out later this year.
Author links:
Giveaway:
Tour-wide giveaway (INTL)
- 50$ Amazon Gift Card
- Signed copy of Pandora Wild Child
- 5 eCopies of Shattering Halos
Thank you so much for posting! :)
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