 YA Novel, NARVLA’S CELTIC NEW YEAR, Features Adventure, Love in Young Woman’sAlluring Story of Narvla Captures Transitions: From Youth to Adulthood, Safe to Foreign Environments, Mundane to Challenging Friendships
By: Therese Gilardi book NARVLA’S CELTIC NEW YEAR is set in current day Dublin, Ireland, and the author takes full advantage of the Irish landscape, traditions and most of all, its people, in portraying Narvla’s personal growth and embrace of the unexpected. The importance of place is a theme that resonates throughout this crisply written novel. When Narvla arrives in Dublin, she suddenly finds her life upside down in a spiral of events, over which she seemingly has little control. First she receives a disturbing picture of her boyfriend and her best friend. She finds qualifying for the elite Irish step-dancing squad much more challenging than it was in America. Then Narvla’s grades plummet, jeopardizing her chances at a successful admission to Notre Dame. As Narvla struggles through the emotions of her new surroundings, she meets Dublin Boy, a fellow classmate and musician she is paired with for the most important semester of her life. He has a disdain for academics and a distrust of Americans. To Narvla’s surprise and consternation, she feels a growing attraction to him. For the first time Narvla finds her lifelong need for control at war with a newfound desire to embrace the unexpected. “NARVLA’S CELTIC NEW YEAR features Narvla, an American step dancer who thought she knew what it meant to be Irish until she moved to Ireland,” Gilardi notes. “I hope the variety of characters – Dublin Boy; Leenie, a wanna-be anime artist; Win Squared, two vastly different friends whose mothers are rabid Winona Ryder fans; Ambassador Maeve O’Shanihan, the proprietor of a hip hat making business – leave my readers with a laugh, a cry, the feeling they’ve made some new friends and the sense that they’ve spent some time in Ireland.” Gilardi reveals that, “As a girl I had those little lock and key diaries, although I was forever losing the keys. I dreamed that someday I’d live in foreign places and write about the people I met. Like so many other adults I secretly feel like a 17-year old, constantly grappling with the conflicts between family and societal expectations and a desire to hit the road in search of a new destination.” “I’ve written extensively about the pleasure and pain of living on foreign soil in my essays and short fiction. My favorite piece is ‘The View From A Broad’, which apperas in the anthology ‘Knowing Pains’, which was featured on NBC’s ‘Today’ show.” In this same theme, Gilardi says, “I wrote ‘Matching Wits With Venus,” a paranormal romance about a Hollywood matchmaker who goes head-to-head with the Roman goddess Venus to see who is the true goddess of love, after being seduced by the hidden charms of Los Angeles.” “My favorite Young Adult author is Stephanie Perkins, who wrote ‘Anna and the French Kiss’. When I read ‘Anna’ the proverbial lightbulb exploded over my head. I thought, ‘I’ve lived that life. I can write about an American girl abroad!’” About the Author Therese Gilardi has lived in many parts of the world and done a variety of jobs. She has lived in the U.S., France and Ireland with her Irish husband and an unusual collection of house pets. She has lived in cold climates, high desert plains, land-locked cities and beachside towns, all of which have influenced her writing. “My favorite writers are Marian Keyes…she can make any subject funny, and Frank McCourt, who was a master at writing poetic prose. And F. Scott Fitzgerald, for his subtle yet searing portraits of what it’s like to be an outsider. The thing that unites all of these writers for me, besides their mastery of language, is the strong sense of place in their work.” Therese currently resides in the Los Angeles area with her husband, dogs and a Viennese hare. Here’s what critics are saying about NARVLA’S CELTIC NEW YEAR – “With unexpected twists and turns, NARVLA’S CELTIC NEW YEAR is an excellent read for teenagers--especially Irish dancers, and a nice glimpse at Irish life in Dublin. I very much enjoyed meeting up with Narvla and hope there might be more of her adventures forthcoming.” - Brenna Briggs, author of “The Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries” “NARVLA’S CELTIC NEW YEAR is realistic with good characters that are interesting to read about. The things that happen to her and around her are relatable because they’re the types of things that could happen to any high school senior. She struggles to keep up in school, she meets a guy she likes, a party gets out of hand. NARVLA’S CELTIC NEW YEAR is realistic with good characters that are interesting to read about. I love the cast of characters in Ireland!” - Jenna, Rather Be Reading YA Blog “I have to say, this book is fantastic. I read it in two days and argued when I couldn’t read it to do life-oriented things like eating and showering. There are three things I look for in a book: characters, writing, and story, in that order. Mostly, I want to connect to characters. Gilardi did a swell job making all of her characters, even minors, fully fleshed. Everyone has a desire and a problem and works to overcome it. There’s a lot of dimensions in the book because every character was given attention. The other two aspects? Well, the story line is familiar, but well-developed. Bad boy love affair. Cheating boyfriend. Parties and school troubles. Familiar, but in this case more exciting because of the characters and the fact that it’s all in Ireland. The writing? It was clean and precise. No extra flourishes. Nothing disgustingly poetic that gave me shivers. But I can’t complain because I loved the story and the characters and they were developed well. The bad news? This book isn’t released until April 6, 2015, so you have to wait. This is a book that on April 6 I’ll be buying a copy just so I can read it again.” - Rachel Sparks, Reviewer, NetGalley “I need to confess I did something I hadn't done since way back when I first discovered the addictiveness of reading. I gorged on this book. Meaning that when I saw I had little time and no guarantee that I would have another reading break for an undetermined period and was unwilling to leave these characters and story to rest, at the 7% mark I started skimming over the book, reading bits and pieces of it until I got a partial picture and was somewhat appeased. Don't judge, I know I shouldn't have done it. I wasn't even going to start this book for few days because I needed a break from reading. But once I picked this up I couldn't put it down.” - Benish Khan, Reviewer, NetGalley “NARVLA’S CELTIC NEW YEAR was a quick and fun read. I really got a sense of the Irish culture and could envision what it was like for Narvla to experience her ancestor's home turf. The dialogue between characters (who each had unique qualities of their own) was rich and authentic.” - Jaidis Shaw, Reviewer, NetGalley Book Title 289 pages Softcover, $9.99; ISBN-13: 978-0-9862811- E-book, $2.99; ISBN: 978-0-9862811- Mobi ISBN: 978-0- Publication date: April 2015 Available at http://amzn.to/ Website: http://theresegilardi.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/ NetGallery: https://www.netgallery.com/ Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/ April 2015 Media Contact: Charlie Barrett, The Barrett Company Communications 310-471-5764 Email: cbarrett@thebarrettco.com, or barcopr@earthlink.net Media Contact Charles Barrett ***@thebarrettco.com 310-471-5764 Photos: https://www.prlog.org/ https://www.prlog.org/ End
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