Blog Tour: Where I Belong Scene Excerpt

An excerpt from Mockingbird in Manhattan, a possible companion to Where I Belong. The manuscript follows Kitsy to NYC for summer art classes. This scene takes place as Kitsy and Corrinne are on their way to Kitsy’s first NYC party.

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Corrinne throws her hand in the air, and a yellow cab comes barreling towards us.

“Here’s the thing about the subway, Kits, it’s fine to get from place to place, but it’s no good for making an arrival. Think about celebrities and how sexy they look getting out of cars.”

“Corrinne, you can usually see those celebrities crotches, which isn’t sexy, and they are in limos anyways,” I refute.

“Kitsy,” Corrinne says as she gets in the cab, “There’s still a recession going on. We can’t be going places in limos. It would be insensitive.” Corrinne pushes her head towards the Plexiglas divide: “2 E. 61^st street please. The Pierre hotel.”

I slid into the cab next to Corrinne and buckle my seatbelt even though Corrinne told me nobody wears seat belts in cabs. It’s a cab, Kitsy, not a pick-up truck. I am not sure I follow her logic, and there’s no way that I am letting anything, especially a taxi collision, mess up my adventure.

And the cabbie zooms off into traffic. I stay quiet in fear of saying something else stupid and watch out my window. I am shocked by all the types of people I see. Fancy strollers. Even fancier double strollers. Little kids by themselves on scooters. Bike messengers weaving through traffic. Every single person seems interesting enough that I want the cabbie to stop, so I can ask themWho are you? How did you get to live here? Why not me?

And then we approach a green forest, which I immediately recognize as Central Park.

“Ohmigosh,” I squeal and forget that I was 1% annoyed with Corrinne, “It’s the park. It’s from Sex and the City when Carrie and Big fall in the water. It’s from like every movie in New York. It’s beautiful. Where’s Tavern on the Green? Can I see it?”

Corrinne looks up from her iPhone, which she had been obsessively typing on throughout the entire ride.

“There’s my Kitsy,” she says, “I was beginning to worry that the city caught your tongue.”

And then, we pull up in front of The Pierre, a white hotel with arched windows and two beautiful awnings. Men, dressed in green suits with hats, guard the hotel as if it were a palace and they its protectors. As Corrinne hands wads of money to the cab, a doorman swings open my door and grabs my hand. I am having a total princess moment.

“Your friend lives in a hotel like Eloise!” I exclaim as Corrinne, and I teeter on her highest heels into the lobby.

“No,” Corrinne says, “Vladlena’s just renting a suite for her birthday. It’s a win-win. No one has to use a fake ID, and we can still party in style without getting caught by someone’s parents.”

I don’t ask about how Vladlena, a high school exchange student from Russia, can afford a place like this as her own birthday gift. I think that, like most things here, falls under the category of T.N.O.M.W., things not of my world.

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I hope everyone enjoyed the excerpt and if you haven't already definitely pick up Where I Belong when it releases next month! Check out my review or visit Gwendolyn's website for more info!

Where I Belong Review

Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release date: February 1, 2011

Source: Publisher

Corrinne Corcoran’s upscale Manhattan life is perfectly on track—until her father announces he’s been laid off and she’s shipped off to Broken Spoke, Texas, to live with her grandparents. All alone in a big public school and forced to take a job shoveling manure, Corrinne is determined to get back to the glamorous life she’s supposed to be living. But as she grudgingly adjusts—making new friends and finding romance along the way—this city girl begins to realize that life without credit cards and shopping sprees may not be as bad as it seems....

In this sparkling debut that flawlessly balances romance and humor, readers will grow to love sharp and sassy Corrinne as she goes on her totally reluctant but completely irresistible journey of self-discovery.

Review:

Where I Belong was a fun and light hearted debut novel perfect for reading cozying up to the fire or lounging around the pool. Corrine was a main character that readers will either love or hate. At first I couldn’t stand her. She was a whiny, demanding brat and I just couldn’t feel any remorse for her when she found out her father had lost his job. After living the high life in New York City, rubbing shoulders with celebrities, and partying with her best friend, Waverly, Corrine and her younger brother get shipped off to Texas to live with her mother’s estranged parents. I understand how hard it must be to have to move to a completely different state and with family members you’d never met, but Corrine was just plain obnoxious.

Luckily, as the story progressed, readers got to see a change in Corrine. She started to realize that while her situation was not what she expected, that she had to make the best of it. She still had much of her old opinions and ideas, but she matured quite a bit by the end of the novel, which is especially obvious when her NYC bestie Waverly comes to visit.

There are a variety of characters introduced over the course of the story. Kitsy, Bubby, Rider, Waverly…each of them had something unique about them and it was easy to see which character was not what they appeared. I loved Kitsy and Bubby because they stuck it out with Corrine and helped her adjust to life in Texas. Although, at first, if I was Kitsy I don’t know if I could have put up with Corrine and all her Texas stereotypes!

Readers got to experience Texas alongside Corrine and her friends and I loved imagining the football games and rodeo.

There was a small amount of romance in Where I Belong, but, most of all, this was a story of acceptance and learning to love what you have today, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but right now. This was a great debut from Gwendolyn Heasley and I’m sure she has more fantastic novels to come. I definitely recommend this to fans of riches-to-rags stories and if you don’t like Corrine at first, stick it out, you may be surprised!

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars