How We Fall’s Paperback Release Day + Giveaway!

I’m thrilled today, because today is the release day for the How We Fall paperback! To celebrate, there’s a Goodreads giveaway of the paperback, open internationally, with signed copies for the US. So enter, enter. 🙂

Also, this post is kicking off an awesome blog tour where I’m chatting with some fantastic book bloggers, giving away a seriously adult hot chocolate recipe (yes, it’s Marcus’s recipe), showing deleted scenes, playing a last-lines game, and showcasing some really genius fan art. So watch my twitter feed for the posts!

And if you haven’t yet gotten the book yourself, there’s a slick new $9 paperback that just hit shelves. Enter the giveaway below, order from your favorite bookseller, and read the first chapter, all below 🙂

Goodreads Book Giveaway

How We Fall

by Kate Brauning

Giveaway ends November 30, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/widget/160443

About the book:

Ever since Jackie moved to her uncle’s sleepy farming town, she’s been flirting way too much–and with her own cousin, Marcus.

Her friendship with him has turned into something she can’t control, and he’s the reason Jackie lost track of her best friend, Ellie, who left for…no one knows where. Now Ellie has been missing for months, and the police, fearing the worst, are searching for her body. Swamped with guilt and the knowledge that acting on her love for Marcus would tear their families apart, Jackie pushes her cousin away. The plan is to fall out of love, and, just as she hoped he would, Marcus falls for the new girl in town. But something isn’t right about this stranger, and Jackie’s suspicions about the new girl’s secrets only drive the wedge deeper between Jackie and Marcus.

Then Marcus is forced to pay the price for someone else’s lies as the mystery around Ellie’s disappearance starts to become horribly clear. Jackie has to face terrible choices. Can she leave her first love behind, and can she go on living with the fact that she failed her best friend?

Praise for How We Fall:

2015 Silver Falchion Best YA Novel finalist- Killer Nashville

Kirkus Reviews: “Debut novelist Brauning tells a touching story of young, star-crossed lovers caught in a drama they have tried hard to avoid…. A sweetly written mix of mystery and romantic turmoil.”

School Library Journal: “Heartbreaking and well-paced, this mystery novel challenges readers to look past preconceptions and get to the know characters, rather than focus on an uncomfortable taboo. Brauning’s characters are well developed and their story engrossing. An intriguing thriller… this title will raise eyebrows and capture the interest of teens.”

ALA Booklist: “…an unusual combination of romance and suspense…There is also something universal about Jackie’s struggles with her feelings and her desires, and readers will identify with her emotions, while going along for the plot’s ride. This quest for identity, wrapped up in an intriguing mystery, hooks from the beginning.”

How We Fall is available through:

Barnes & Noble Indie Bound Walmart.com Books-A-Million Book Depository Powell’s

Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.co.uk

Read the first chapter!

View this document on Scribd

Author Bio:

Kate Brauning grew up in rural Missouri and fell in love with young adult books in college. She now works in publishing and pursues her lifelong dream of telling stories she’d want to read. This is her first novel. Visit her online at http://www.katebrauning.com or on Twitter at @KateBrauning.

How We Fall Review Giveaway: Books and $20 to Barnes and Noble!

Good morning, friends! Guess what? Tomorrow, the paperback edition of How We Fall releases. And guess what that means? My book has been out for a year. A whole year. And all of you have been wonderful, leaving reviews, telling your friends about my book, helping me get the word out and being such an awesome part of this year that I’m doing a little giveaway to say thank you, especially to those of you who have taken the time to leave reviews. Reviews are such a huge part of a book’s success, and it does take time and energy, and I so appreciate every one of you who has taken the time to do that.

So! If you have left a review on Amazon AND Barnes & Noble on or before Nov. 7th, you’ll be entered into a drawing where I’ll pick three winners at random. Prizes include a hardcover copy of All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry, a hardcover copy of The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett, and a $20 giftcard to Barnes & Noble! (Books US addresses only, giftcard international.)

Want to enter? Go leave a review! If you can help by sharing this post, that would be wonderful, too.

Haven’t read How We Fall, and want to know if it’s for you?

Read the first chapter!

View this document on Scribd

Praise for How We Fall:

2015 Silver Falchion Best YA Novel finalist- Killer Nashville

Kirkus Reviews: “Debut novelist Brauning tells a touching story of young, star-crossed lovers caught in a drama they have tried hard to avoid…. A sweetly written mix of mystery and romantic turmoil.”

School Library Journal: “Heartbreaking and well-paced, this mystery novel challenges readers to look past preconceptions and get to the know characters, rather than focus on an uncomfortable taboo. Brauning’s characters are well developed and their story engrossing. An intriguing thriller… this title will raise eyebrows and capture the interest of teens.”

ALA Booklist: “…an unusual combination of romance and suspense…There is also something universal about Jackie’s struggles with her feelings and her desires, and readers will identify with her emotions, while going along for the plot’s ride. This quest for identity, wrapped up in an intriguing mystery, hooks from the beginning.”

 

How We Fall is available through:

Barnes & Noble Indie Bound Walmart.com Books-A-Million Book Depository Powell’s

Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.co.uk

 

Some Things on YA, Obsession, and Hot Chocolate

Back in October for my blog tour, Victoria Dougherty, author of The Bone Church and writer of chilling and magical historical thrillers, interviewed me for her blog, Cold. I’m posting the interview here for my own readers! I was so honored to be interviewed by her because I don’t think I could love her writing more if I tried. Definitely check out her books and give The Bone Church a read!

Kate Brauning Has Fallen into the Cold…But She’s Got Hot Cocoa

October 27, 2014 Victoria Dougherty

 

Meet Kate Brauning.

YA author extraordinaire and a damn fine editor, too.

In her debut novel, How We Fall, Kate drives us through the scenic routes of a small town, focusing her keen eye on its passions, its friendships and the secrets that could burn it to the ground. She sees the subtleties that the rest of us often miss; the gradations of emotional color that can be so elusive to writer and reader alike. And she gets on a gut level the swollen, hammering hearts of the young, because her own heart continues to beat with the same relentlessness.

And given Kate’s background, it’s no wonder.

Kate Brauning grew up in the 2nd poorest county in Missouri; the same region in which How We Fall is set. A homeschooled pastor’s daughter, and one of five kids, her young life was lived in the tempest of a big, crazy household.

For her, real life happened as much in the books she borrowed from the library as it did on the twenty acres where her family raised purebred Siberian Huskies and German Shepherds. She loved YA books, primarily. Those stories lived in tandem with movie nights at the Brauning house – the bonzai optimism of 1950s musicals and broken-mirror storytelling of Alfred Hitchcock.

Her mother believed that no good movies were made after 1960, so Kate and her siblings didn’t watch them.

Grown-up Kate Brauning could spend all day at a zoo or a good aquarium and come back the next. She loves making three-tiered cakes and has a serious weakness for pie.

She’s wanted to be a writer since she was twelve years-old, and that dream, or rather, destiny, has come to pass.

But instead of giving you a synopsis of How We Fall (which I will do, but way down there) and bragging to you about what Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal has said about her work (which I’ll also do), I thought I’d present Cold readers with a chance to experience Kate in her own words, thinking on her feet.

I asked her to select three images that evoke the mood or storyline of How We Fall and then asked if she would write to those images. And if you don’t want to order her novel after taking a look at what she’s got to offer us here, then I’m afraid your heart is no longer young. You need to go carve your initials into a tree, write a love letter, make a cup of Kate’s hot cocoa (recipe below), and come back and try again, for Pete’s sake.

HOW WE FALL

This image says so much about How We Fall, to me. The story is very much a best friends romance, and there’s something terrifying and wonderful about falling for someone you never wanted or expect to love. The teens here are close, comfortable with each other—it’s clear just from their body language. They’re not even doing anything particularly romantic, but you can see their relationship anyway. I love writing stories like that, because the romance tests the friendship. The more invested the people are in the friendship, the higher the stakes are when things start to change.

Bravery is a major theme in the story. The difference between bravery and recklessness, especially. Even though she’s a bit of a brash character, Jackie’s afraid of the social stigma and potential consequences of being with her cousin. When someone consumes you, the freefall of that relationship can change everything—and not always in positive ways. Bravery was a struggle for me as a teen, and I think a lot of young people struggle with it, too. I wanted to be bold and confident, but so many little—and some bigger—fears held me back. I think a lot of it comes down to what we’re willing to fight for, and how hard we’re willing to fight.

Jackie’s missing friend, Ellie, becomes a catalyst in her relationship with Marcus. Obsession becomes a factor in both conflicts—not being able to see past someone is a dangerous place to be. I particularly love writing teens into these situations. So many teens are hitting these serious adult issues for the first time, but they’re having to go through those issues without the experience and often without the resources of older adults. Most teens don’t have easy, black-and-white lives, and How We Fall explores some of those darker struggles. I saw and experienced a lot of dark things myself as a teen, and a lot of it would leave me floundering and having to re-evaluate everything I thought I knew. It’s a tough, challenging stage in life with a lot of heartache and a lot of battles. Because of those heartaches and battles, though, there’s also a lot of persistence and vibrancy and truth.

A Note from the author:

The hot chocolate Marcus makes in How We Fall is significant to me. I’ve always had a minor war going on with cocoa mixes. They’re always too sweet and not dark enough for me, and I don’t like marshmallows (please don’t hate me). I started altering mixes, adding more cocoa, but soon gave that up and just figured out how to make my own. I make it strong, dark, and bittersweet– and nothing tastes more like fall to me. Marcus teaches Jackie how to make it and I want to teach Cold readers, too. Everyone deserves a great cup of cocoa, after all. – Love, Kate

Marcus’s Hot Chocolate:

Warm 1 ½ cups milk in a sauce pan on medium-high heat. (Use 2% or whole milk for richer hot chocolate.) When the milk starts to steam, whisk in 2 tablespoons dark cocoa and 1 tablespoon sugar. Turn the heat down to medium so the milk doesn’t scorch, and whisk constantly for about three minutes, until it looks smooth and not silty on a spoon. Makes 1 serving.