It gives me very great pleasure to welcome Samantha Rose to Linda’s Book Bag today as part of her blog tour organised by Kelly at Love Books Group. Samantha is going to stay in and tell me all about her very first book.

Staying in with Samantha Rose

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Samantha and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me. Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I have brought with me The Very Real World of Emily Adams. It is my first novel and man, it has been quite a journey getting it here, so I’m pretty excited to share it with you.

Congratulations. You must be thrilled to be in print. What can we expect from an evening in with The Very Real World of Emily Adams?

The Very Real World of Emily Adams is a dark yet uplifting story about a suicidal girl who meets a magical musician/motivational speaker, who likes to doll himself up in makeup and a dress on Ladies Night. There’s a portal, man-eating monsters, aliens, pop-culture references and an elevator with a personality.

Crikey, that’s quite a cast and plot!

Despite its dark themes, early readers have told me how much they have laughed—literally out loud—throughout the book, which is important to me, because I feel like laughter is a life-saving medicine in dark times.

It certainly is!

This novel is about finding your way again when you feel lost, and when things don’t work out the way you hope. If you can just find the strength to hold on through those times, you will find joy on the other side that is as deep and real as has been your despair. I really believe that, as it’s a lesson I’ve learned from experience, and one that I just had to share with people.

That sounds perfect for today’s world.

Here are a few reader reviews:

“I fell in love with Rain and Emily right away.”

“I have been hooked on every chapter! … It’s suspenseful, it’s romantic. Perfect story! Perfect ending!”

“I loved it. I still have [the characters] on my mind.”

“Not saying I neglected my children or anything, but…. [that’s] a testament to the quality of the book. The only time I get like that with a book is when I can’t put it down.”

Those are fabulous Samantha. You must be thrilled to get such a response.

What else have you brought along and why?

I have brought with me The Green Mile by Stephen King, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

In The Green Mile, John Coffey is this beautiful character with remarkable empathy and the ability to heal others. Because of prejudice, he ends up on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. I read it in high school, and it has always stayed with me. There was such a dark, beauty to that story. Stephen King has been my hero ever since, and so much about that book has inspired The Very Real World of Emily Adams.

As an ex high school English teacher, I love the idea that reading in school had led you to writing Samantha.

However—let me now present The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s really not dark, other than the fact that the Earth is demolished to make way for an intergalactic bypass. The humor in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is just amazing. There were moments where I was in tears, I was laughing so much. And I just thought, “I want to do that. I want to write like this.” Throughout writing The Very Real World of Emily Adams (her last name is a nod to Douglas Adams, by the way), I’d hoped to try and marry the things I loved and had learned from these heroes of mine.

The Very Real World of Emily Adams is not your typical urban fantasy and I was concerned about that, but these authors have given me courage. I feel like both Stephen King and Douglas Adams are very brave in their writing. They are completely unapologetic, and that’s what makes them so inspiring and timeless.

And it sounds as if you’ve learnt from them to make for a highly entertaining read in The Very Real World of Emily Adams Samantha. Thanks so much for staying in with me to tell me all about it.

The Very Real World of Emily Adams

Emily Adams has reached a breaking point. Her boyfriend pushed her down the stairs, breaking her arm, and now she’s found herself in an unfamiliar city with fifteen cents in her pocket and nowhere to go. She’s decided that all that’s left for her, is to take matters into her own hands and put an end to her misery…

Until an encounter with a magic man in a dress changes everything.

In a story full of humor and heart, The Very Real World of Emily Adams shows that there is hope in darkness, triumph in tragedy, and the moment when things are at their worst is when you hold on the hardest, because you never know what good things are waiting for you on the other side of despair.

The Very Real World of Emily Adams is available for purchase here.

About Samantha Rose

Samantha Rose is a forever-student at Utah State University, who will one day have her Masters Degree in Psychology. She wrote her first novel in permanent marker on her sister’s vanity chair when she was three-years-old. It wasn’t well received.

She currently resides in the mountains, in a little house full of toys, where she’s enjoying her happily ever after with her Prince Charming and three adorable, little bears.

You can follow Samantha on Instagram.

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