For Rose Gardner, working at the DMV on a Friday afternoon is bad even before she sees a vision of herself dead. She’s had plenty of visions, usually boring ones like someone’s toilet’s overflowed, but she’s never seen one of herself before. When her overbearing momma winds up murdered on her sofa instead, two things are certain: There isn’t enough hydrogen peroxide in the state of Arkansas to get that stain out, and Rose is the prime suspect.
Rose realizes she’s wasted twenty-four years of living and makes a list on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt: twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her vision comes true. She’s well on her way with the help of her next door neighbor Joe, who has no trouble teaching Rose the rules of drinking, but won’t help with number fifteen– do more with a man. Joe’s new to town, but it doesn’t take a vision for Rose to realize he’s got plenty secrets of his own.
Somebody thinks Rose has something they want and they’ll do anything to get it. Her house is broken into, someone else she knows is murdered, and suddenly, dying a virgin in the Fenton County jail isn’t her biggest worry after all.
**Buy on Amazon **
Twenty Nine and a Half Reasons Amazon
Thirty and a Half Excuses (Rose Gardner, #3) Amazon
Falling to Pieces (Rose Gardner, #3.5) Amazon
Thirty-One and a Half Regrets (Rose Gardner, #4) Amazon
Thirty-Two and a Half Complications (Rose Gardner, #5) Amazon
Picking Up the Pieces (Rose Gardner, #5.5) Amazon
Thirty-Three and a Half Shenanigans (Rose Gardner, #6) Amazon
Ripple of Secrets (Rose Gardner, #6.5) Amazon
Thirty Four and a Half Predicaments Amazon
Winner of The Beacon – 2010 Unpublished Division, Mainstream Category
Author Denise Grover Swank
Denise is a single mom who lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri raising five of her six kids. (The oldest has gone off to live on his own.) She loves to embarrass her children whether it be spontaneous dance parties in the kitchen or making her teens’ friends think she’s funny/cool.*gasp* (Even if it’s in her own mind.) On rare occasions, she is known to post stories about her crazy life on her family blog There’s Always Room for One More.She keeps her sanity by creating worlds to escape to and characters to hang out with.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Six kids!?!?! Wow! Did you give birth to all of them? No, three of my children are adopted– two from China and one from Vietnam — though I tend to forget who’s bio and who’s adopted. My oldest son, Trace, has moved out and is engaged to a wonderful woman. The other five, Ross, Julia, Jenna, Ryan, and Emma range in age from twenty-one to four.
How did you become a single mom? My husband was in a single engine plane crash in January of 2006. He suffered burn injuries and died five weeks later on March 7.
Why did you decide to become an author? I’ve always written, since I started my first novel in the fourth grade. I made it to page 70 on my wide ruled spiral notebook before I stopped. I continued to write in high school and attempted several novels in my twenties before life got in the way of writing. I rediscovered my love of writing when I started my blog There’s Always Room for One More. In the fall of 2009, I realized I wasn’t getting any younger and it was now or never, so I participated in NaNoWriMo. I was off and running! Chosen and Hunted of The Chosen series and Here from my YA On the Otherside are dark and angsty. Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes is quirky and funny. How can I write such extremes? I’m a Gemini. Enough said.Actually, I like both. I hope I never have to pick one or the other. Writing dark and then light and funny is a good balance. Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes is more like my family blog (mentioned above).
When is Thirty and a Half Excuses coming out? September 10, 2013. Amazon.
When The Chosen series is over, will you write another adult urban fantasy? Yes. I’ve researched and plotted out three books and three short stories for my new series The Curse Keepers. The release date of the first book is November 19, 2013. Amazon.
Have another question for Denise? Email her.
The beginning of the book is the set-up for her Momma getting murdered. When I was reading the first few chapters, some were hard, I felt like laughing and then crying. When Rose makes a list on her Wal-Mart receipt, she does so because of her “non eventful” life. The list really made me love her. The feeling of really being connected to a character just makes to be book a real page turner. Her boring town, lack of excitement and her truly crazy mother were only the beginning. She works at the DMV, that alone is funny.
1st Books in these Series are FREE!
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