Today we have an excerpt of Facebook Jeanie by Addison Westlake to share with you! Natalia recently read the book and loved it. Check the bottom of the post for a chance to win a copy!
It’s Bridget Jones meets Groundhog Day…
Ever wonder if you made the right choice? What if you could go back and find out?
31-year-old Clara is in a steady relationship—with Facebook. Every night after her depressing bureaucratic job (so much for saving the world), after coming home to her empty apartment Clara settles down with a pint of ice cream for some good, old-fashioned Facebook stalking. It’s her college boyfriend, The One Who Got Away. He now has a perfect marriage, perfect house, perfect life—everything she could have had if she hadn’t been so, so stupid.
But, wait. Jeanie from Facebook shows up at Clara’s job. There’s a new app they’re beta-testing and Clara’s perfect for it. That night she clicks on it and… nothing happens. But the next morning when Clara wakes up at noon, hung over, listening to her roommate blow-drying her hair and singing “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”, she realizes she’s back in college. With the chance to do it all over again.
Back in the world of frat parties, BFFs, and long-suffering, overlooked lab partners, join Clara as she discovers what it really means to hit the reset button on life. What could possibly go wrong? And, this time, can she get it right?
Excerpt:
Will Smith was singing and there was a hurricane. Or a tornado. But that was definitely Will Smith’s voice. What a strange dream she was having; she felt so aware of her surroundings. Sound asleep she usually couldn’t make herself move, but here she was opening her eyes.
A tall, gorgeous model stood close by at a dresser blow-drying her hair. She danced and sang along to “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” as she styled her long, sleek black locks in the mirror.
“Na na na na na na na.” She shook her hips in her low-riding jeans, then turned her blow dryer around to sing into it like a microphone. “Na na na na na na! Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It!”
“Cat?!” Clara sat up quickly, then brought her hand up to her forehead. Her head pounded and her mouth felt like it was lined with thick, fuzzy cotton. And she was clearly going crazy because she’d woken up in a room with a girl who looked exactly like her friend Cat back in college.
“Rise and shine, beautiful,” the girl called out in a voice exactly like Cat’s. She resumed her shimmying and blow-drying. “It’s almost 12.”
Hunching back down into her bed, Clara pulled the covers up to her nose. Who was that girl? Why did she seem to know her? Where the hell were they?
She peered up at the wall next to her bed. Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and George Clooney gazed down at her, dressed and ready for the Vegas strip. Clara remembered that poster; it was from Ocean’s Eleven.
She’d had it up on her dorm room wall in college.
Clutching the covers more securely up around her, she nervously peeked at the opposite wall. An angry-eyed, young Paul Walker stared down at her looking buff and tuff and shirtless courtesy of a poster from The Fast and The Furious. As in the first movie. Before the second, third, or even the sixth or seventh sequel.
“What’s…? Where…?” Clara’s voice came out in a croak.
“You look so hung over.” Cat laughed, then flipped her hair over in a giant waterfall. Raking her hands through her mane she then flipped it back up and shook it out, examining her reflection with pursed lips. Just like she’d always done when the two of them had been roommates. Blowing a kiss at her reflection, she said to herself, “And you look gorgeous.”
“Is this our dorm room?” Clara managed.
“Yeah, remember? We ditched the guys and came back here to make ramen noodles at, like, 3am.” Cat laughed again. “You are so hung over!” She turned and grabbed something off of her dresser. “Here.” She threw a cream-colored block at Clara. “Go shower. You can try the new vanilla soap I just bought. Smells soooo yummy. I’m heading out.”
Clutching the soap in one hand, Clara managed to sit upright in bed. She swung her feet over the side. Her toenails were blue. Flaming lips adorned her boxer shorts and her t-shirt was from a Dave Matthews Band concert. Clara exhaled and did her very best to then inhale, then exhale again.
One foot in front of the other seemed the best thing to do. On instinct, Clara woodenly headed out of their bedroom and turned right into the bathroom. Closing the door behind her, she lunged for the spigot on the sink. With shaking hands she started splashing huge palmfuls of cold water onto her face. She gulped down handful after handful, parched like she’d been wandering the desert.
With a click, the bathroom door opened. In walked a striking blonde with her hair pulled back into a high ponytail. Over her forearm she’d draped a folded pink hand towel and a matching folded pink washcloth. She carried a pink-and-white polka dot shower caddy.
“Hi there!” Super perky.
Clara still held her hands to her face, her concert T now sopping wet. She peeked over her fingers and then her mouth dropped open in surprise. “Jeanie?”
Jeanie plonked her toiletries onto the vanity and gave Clara a big smile and a wink. “Hiya!” She squeezed out a dollop of facial cleanser into her palm and began rubbing it in circles over her perfect, pink cheeks. “It’s so beautiful out today! The perfect spring day!”
“Jeanie?” Clara took a step closer, as if she might grab hold of her to prove she was real. Instead of high heels and business attire Jeanie now wore running clothes and sneakers, but it was clearly her, the nutso, hyper-caffeinated volunteer from Facebook who’d shown up at the office. Jeanie still smiled but took a slight step back.
“Freaking out?” she asked sympathetically. “That happens. I wonder if we shouldn’t give people more warning. You know, like when I install the RESET button I could also be like, ‘so, when you press this, it’ll send you back in time!’” Jeanie resumed massaging small circles of foaming cleanser on her face.
Clara kept staring at her. Finally she managed, “Could you say that again?”
“What? About how we maybe should give people more warning?”
“The part about the…” Clara brought her hand to her forehead, feeling insane for even repeating the phrase. “About going back in time?”
“I know! Isn’t it amazing!” Jeanie gushed as if celebrating being asked to prom by the football captain. “It’s so exciting. I’m so lucky!”
“What?”
“I have the best job in the world,” Jeanie continued, now wetting her washcloth. “The look on people’s faces when they realize they’ve been sent back in time so they can change their past! Do things different and make things right! It’s…” She gave a cute shrug of her shoulders. “It’s magic.”
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