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About the book: Does passion and desire guarantee success? Can friends really be trusted? Can true love be found beneath lust and deceit?
These are questions tenacious street dancer Elena Martinez faces as she struggles to compete against the most talented students at New York’s top Performing Arts High School. Along with her best friend, the carefree and mischievous Sebastien Duval, they are determined to make center stage.
But the singing diva Letitia has other plans. Beautiful, talented and popular, her desire for revenge could ruin everything for Elena and Sebastien. Now, they must fight against prejudice, treachery and deceit as Letitia sets out to destroy Elena’s friendships, her romance, her dignity and her dreams. Can Elena win the battle for true love, happiness and success?
*contains mature content - recommended for 15+*
About the book: Can secrets stay hidden forever? Can people really change? Are some mistakes unforgivable?
As Elena and Sebastian embark on a fresh start, will Letitia keep his secret, or will she use it to destroy them?
As Veronika falls in love, Frankie is out of rehab and trying to make amends, but will it last for either of them?
Meanwhile, as Anya is torn between loyalty to her Nana and love for Darius, could Darius fall for the new temptress, Rosa? With her stunning looks, her powerful, sensual dancing and her desire to seduce, she has everyone nervous but what secret is she hiding?
Continue the roller-coaster journey with your favorite characters as they try to survive junior year at the country’s top performing arts school.
Kathy Petrakis was born and raised in Sydney Australia by Greek immigrant parents. She always had a passion for the performing arts - dancing, acting and singing but they were hobbies giving way to a traditional professional career in banking. Before this book, her writing was used to entertain friends with her unusual, and often disastrous travel adventures from around the world. By the hand of fate, Passion and Pain and Bittersweet were born while living in London, heaven for lovers of the performing arts. After launching Passion and Pain, she returned to Sydney for the launch of the sequel, Bittersweet.
Sex, sex sex – is that
what it’s all about?
By Kathy Petrakis
One of the biggest controversies with New Adult is that it’s
given the label of Young Adult with sex. Sometimes, it even borders on erotic.
I have no problem with sex in books or erotica. However, for me, when writing
contemporary novels about teenagers aged over sixteen, I feel it’s important to
treat sex with the delicacy, confusion and angst that it often creates. And I
feel erotica should be identified as erotica.
Is there sex in the Dancers and Divas series? Of course
there is. These are teenagers who are entering the world of adulthood and who
have different life experiences, values and hormones!
The important thing to me, is that sex is not a matter of
being in love and hence having a wonderful sex life – wouldn’t it be great if
it was always like that? I think characters approach and deal with this
experience very differently, especially as teenagers.
In the Dancers and Divas series there are characters who
fear it, others who have seen the worst of it from a young age and others who
use sex as a weapon against those less experienced. There are characters who
avoid it, others who experience great love and pleasure from it and others who
see the often realistic initiation into loveless sex.
Often sex itself is not just about sex – it’s about
self-doubt, insecurities, pressure to please or be loved, or fear of missing
out. It sometimes is about sharing a unique and intimate experience with
someone you love. Whatever it is, it’s part of a mature teenager’s life –
whether in participation or abstinence.
Do I think all teenagers should be having sex at sixteen?
Definitely not. Some teenagers are really just not ready for it. Do I think we
should talk about it realistically? Absolutely. And that is something I’ve tried
to include in this series which deals with so many other issues apart from a
character’s decision about whether to have sex.
Not only are these teenagers growing up, but they are
following the dream of success in the performing arts, where so few make it and
so many try. They have to face so many things about themselves every day which
is what makes this series interesting for me to write and hopefully, for you to
read. Sex is only one aspect of their
complex and constantly evolving lives.
*********************************************************************
So, Kathy has some AMAZING Giveaways up for grabs as part of this tour!
One for everyone & one specifically for FANS of the series!
Use the Rafflecopters below to enter for your chance to win!
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