Saturday, November 15, 2014

Getting To Know You Blog Hop And Giveaway!


Hi All!

Today I'm participating in Cuddlebuggery's Getting to Know You bloghop, where a bunch of fabulous writers can learn a little more about one another, and give away some awesome prizes while they're at it!



So here are some random facts about me, both authorly and otherwise:

- My name is Gina Ciocca, and no one knows how to pronounce my last name. For the record, it's See-OH-ka :)

- I'm seriously grossed out by feet and potato buds.

- I'm the worst Italian ever. I speak maybe 3 words of the language, hate coffee, rarely drink wine, have never been to Italy, and can not make homemade pasta sauce without the assistance of my mother or grandmother.

- I write YA contemporary romance, and have a soft spot for paranormal of the I-see-dead-people variety. Which is why I write that too. (PARANORMAL IS NOT A 4-LETTER WORD! POWER TO THE DEAD PEOPLE! *steps off soapbox*)

- The first book I ever fell in love with was Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, and the first literary couple I ever fell in love with was Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe from the Anne of Green Gables series.

CLASSIC.

But....

- I totally credit Smallville and the romance between Lana and Clark as the inspiration for keeping my romance-obsessed brain fueled with teen angst.
clana clark kent lana lang gif calling kiss photo: Clana Smile (Exodus) ClanaGIF.gif
SWOOOOON

Speaking of which...

My YA debut, LAST YEAR'S MISTAKE, releases June 9th, 2015 from Simon Pulse, and is available for pre-order on Amazon now! It has a pretty atypical pub story, which you can read here.


Is there anything that electric chemistry can’t overcome? The past may be gone, but love has a way of holding on in this romantic debut novel told in alternating Before and After chapters.


The summer before freshman year, Kelsey and David became inseparable best friends—until the night a misunderstanding turned Kelsey into the school joke and everything around her crumbled, including her friendship with David. So when Kelsey’s parents decide to move away, she can’t wait to start over and leave the past behind. But David’s not quite ready to be left.

Now it’s senior year and Kelsey has a new group of friends, genuine popularity, and a hot boyfriend. Her life is perfect. That is, until David’s family moves to town. Old feelings bubble to the surface and threaten to destroy Kelsey’s second chance at happiness. The more time she spends with David, the more she realizes she never let him go. And maybe she never wants to…


For my giveaway, I chose books that are near and dear to my heart.


The first combines my love of paranormal and romance - UNEARTHLY by Cynthia Hand (paperback). It's one of my absolute favorites, and therefore my go-to anytime I'm asked to give away a book that's special to me. 

AND - to represent the straight up contemp in me, I will also giveaway one copy of BEHIND THE SCENES by my fabulous CP, Dahlia Adler, AND a pre-order of my own book, LAST YEAR'S MISTAKE! (And if you don't win, there's still time to enter my very first ARC giveaway here!)

One random commenter will win all three. Looking forward to getting to know YOU!




30 comments:

  1. Awwww! This is so adorable! You used a Anne of Green Gables Gif! I love you forever!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It must be so fun and rewarding to publish a book -- congrats!
    Dede

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anne of Green Gables is an awesome book! I agree that Anne and Gilbert are the best couple ever. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations on your upcoming book! Thanks for the giveaway!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am probably the worse person ever since I haven't ever read Anne of Green Gables. -hides-
    I promise that I will one day though!

    ReplyDelete
  6. congrats on your upcoming book!!I always wanted to read unearthly , so thanks for the chance

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm not Italian, but I am Portuguese and even if you can't do the things you mentioned above, if you can eat, you're all good ;) Also, with my own last name people always say it wrong, so I have now memorised the pronunciation of surname - TA-DA! Can't wait for your book and congrats on debuting next year! Also, thanks for stopping by my blog! Always so cool when an author leaves a comment :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Feet kinda freak me out too! Can’t wait to read your book it sounds so awesome :D Thanks for the great giveaway!

    iliveforreading AT hotmail DOT com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yes!! Anne and Gilbert were almost definitely my first OTP as well. I actually just started watching Smallville too! I'd seen a few episodes here and there scattered across all sorts of seaons, but I'd never been able to watch all of it. Hopefully I'll be all about that ship too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. HI I LOVE YOU and also how badly do I want an ARC of LYM even though I've already read it multiple times for no reason other than that I'm obsessed?? I will resist entering because I want more people to share in the LYM glory (and also because I am so bored of my own book) but JUST KNOW THAT I WANT TO.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yesh! A fellow Smallville fan!!! Clark and Lana were so cute in high school, but I thought it got weird when she went ninja on us. But still, they had the best shipper names - Clana or Lark/
    Anywho, congrats on publishing!!! I can't wait to pick up a copy :D
    Thanks for the giveaway.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Awww, swoon! Anyone who uses a gif from Anne of Green Gables is alright in my book :) I have to get my grabby paws on all those books!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for the amazing giveaway! AWESOME!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Congrats on publishing a book! I can't imagine how exciting that must be! I wrote my first novel last year, but I can't stop editing it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am SO excited to read your book!! I was looking through some of your other posts, I love the use of gifs XD I'm totally grossed out by feet too ;) Eewwww, get them away from me!! I really liked Anne of Green Gables too! Unearthly is one of my favorite series ever!! I have them on my iPad, for some reason I don't have physical copies. I need to remedy this soon! I'm so excited to read your book too :D Lovely getting to know more about you!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Last Year's Mistake basically says Valerie Read This. Super excited!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I loveeeeeee Anne of Green Gables! The movies are so great :) As for me... I love purple, chocolate, soccer, baking, rock climbing :D I hate the sound of knuckles cracking. I never take the first can/box/bag/etc. on the shelf in the grocery store. I'm veeerrrryyy particular with everything. Heh.

    Thank you, Gina! I'm really excited to read LYM (if you couldn't tell by now)! :)

    Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Would be flippin great to win all three .... it would be a first time read of all the authors.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I would love to be able to read your book! I am very curious about that book and also I love romance-- all kinds!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks for the giveaway.
    magic5905 at embarqmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  21. Have you seen Shipwrecked Comedy's series Kissing in the Rain (on YouTube)? There is the most adorable Ann & Gilbert scene! Seriously adorable!!

    I (online) know your lovely CP, Dahlia. So great to "meet" you too!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I love all of the adorable GIFs! :D

    ReplyDelete
  23. Congrats on your book, it looks like a great read.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anne of green gables and bridge to terabithia were favs growing up! My first book crush was gilbert!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by! Shannon Alexander is the lucky winner of all 3 titles. So nice to "meet" you all!

    ReplyDelete
  26. This is an amazing giveaway! Thank you so much. I'm really excited for Last Year's Mistake. The selfie contest was really cute; I can't wait to see who wins!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Your book (LYM) looks good to me, so I'd love to win it.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Congrats on your book and Thanks for the chance to win! :)
    sienkiel1821 at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete