Rockstar Tours: THE BIGFOOT QUEEN (Jennifer Weiner), Excerpt & Giveaway! ~ US ONLY

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE BIGFOOT QUEEN by Jennifer Weiner Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Title: THE BIGFOOT QUEEN (The Littlest Bigfoot
#3)

Author: Jennifer Weiner

Pub. Date: October 24, 2023

Publisher: Aladdin

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 352

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/THE-BIGFOOT-QUEEN 

From #1 New York Times bestselling
author Jennifer Weiner comes the third and final book in the “cheerful” (The
New York Times Book Review) and “charming” (People) trilogy about
friendship, adventure, and celebrating your true self.

Alice Mayfair, Millie Maximus, Jessica Jarvis, and Jeremy Bigelow face their
biggest challenge yet when exposure of the sacred, secret world is threatened
by a determined foe, someone with a very personal reason to want revenge
against the creatures who call themselves the Yare.

The fate of the tribe and its members’ right to live out peacefully in the open
is at stake. Impossible decisions are made, friendships are threatened, secrets
are revealed, and tremendous courage is required. Alice, her friends, and her
frenemies will have to work together and be stronger, smarter, and more
accepting than they’ve ever been.

But can some betrayals ever be forgiven?

Weiner will be celebrating the book’s
publication with an in-person event via Children’s
Book World on October 24, 2023 at 7:30pm ET. A hardcover boxed set collection of all three books in The Littlest
Bigfoot series will be published on November 13, 2023—just in time for the
holidays!

Excerpt:

CHAPTER  1

Charlotte

CHARLOTTE HUGHES HAD BEEN BORN IN A dying town, to parents who didn’t survive to see her second birthday. They’d perished in a car accident, after their minivan had hit a patch of black ice and skidded off the road. Charlotte’s father had been pronounced dead on the scene. Her mother had died in the hospital, later that night. Baby Charlotte, strapped into her car seat, had survived without a scratch, and had been sent to live with her father’s mother, her only surviving relative, who, clearly, had no interest in raising another child. Grandma managed Upland’s only bed-and-breakfast, and it was an exhausting, thankless job—but one Grandma always said she was lucky to have, given how many in town couldn’t find any work at all.

In the winter, when the skiers who couldn’t find lodging closer to the mountain resorts booked rooms, Grandma worked from sunrise to late at night, doing laundry, cleaning, and cooking, and as soon as Charlotte was tall enough to push a broom or carry a load of dirty towels to the basement, she had to help her. There were floors to be swept and mopped, beds to be stripped and made, trash cans to be emptied, carpets to be vacuumed, and toilets to be scrubbed. Even when they didn’t have guests, there was always cleaning. The big, old house seemed to generate its own dust and grow its own cob- webs. Little Charlotte would wake up at five in the morning to iron napkins and to bake scones and clear snow off the porch. She made beds and cleaned bathrooms. She learned to be invisible, to slip in and out of the rooms when the guests were gone, so quickly that they hardly noticed she was there. Her hands would chap and her skin would crack and she’d yawn her way through her school days.

And, all around her, Upland was dying.

When Grandma Hughes was a girl, Upland had been a thriving town, with a ski resort and two different fabric mills that stained the river with whatever dyes they were using that week: indigo, crimson, goldenrod yellow, or pine-tree green.

Then one of the mills had caught fire, and the other mill had closed, and the Great Depression and the two World Wars had come.

Young men had gone off to fight and hadn’t returned; families packed up and moved to more prosperous com- munities. In 1965, the interstate highway, which went nowhere near Upland, was completed. Skiers used it to travel to the mountains that were close to the highway, and Upland was not. Two years after the interstate opened, Mount Upland was closed.

For as long as Charlotte could remember, her home- town had been full of run-down houses and rusty trailers, roads with more potholes than asphalt, where the schools were ancient and the bridges were elderly and every third storefront had a faded “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS” or “EVERYTHING MUST GO” sign hung over its soap- covered windows. Every year, more and more people moved away, to bigger towns with better opportunities.

Then, when Charlotte was twelve, Christopher Jarvis had come to town.

Famous Scientist to Establish New Labs in Upland, read the headline in the newspaper Charlotte saw on her grandmother’s desk. Famed scientist Christopher Jarvis, owner of Jarvis Industries, which holds patents on everything from dental tools to heartburn medications, is opening a new research and development facility in Upland. A spokes- man for Dr. Jarvis said the renowned scientist and inventor has purchased the eighty acres of land that were formerly Ellenloe Farms, and plans to break ground on the labs next month, with an eye toward opening next year. “We’ll need everything from support staff, such as custodians and cooks, to researchers and security personnel,” a spokeswoman for Jarvis Industries said.

“Maybe we’ll get some more guests,” Grandma had said, not looking especially hopeful. She spooned a clump of macaroni and cheese onto Charlotte’s plate, where it landed with a dispirited plop. Charlotte tried not to sigh. She couldn’t remember her parents, not even a little bit, but somehow she thought that if her mother had survived, she’d buy name-brand mac and cheese, not the generic kind, and she’d make the sauce with milk instead of water.

The next day, the school was buzzing with the news. Courtney Miller said her mom had already applied for a job as an administrative assistant, and Lisa Farley said her mom had gotten a call about working in the cafeteria. Ross Richardson said his dad had heard there was going to be a job fair at the community center, and Mrs. McTeague, who taught English literature, said she’d heard that the lab would bring more than five hundred new jobs to Upland.

Charlotte took the long way home after school, wondering whether her grandmother would ever go to work for Jarvis Industries. Maybe they could sell the inn and move to a regular house, where they didn’t have to sleep in cramped bedrooms in the attic and worry about being quiet so the sound of their feet or their voices wouldn’t disturb their guests. Charlotte would be able to get a job babysitting, or she could be a lifeguard in the summertime, instead of making beds and scrubbing toilets for no money, not even an allowance. She could get an iPhone, instead of the crummy knockoff with limited data that was all her grandmother could afford, and a pair of the clogs that all the girls were wearing that year. She could get new clothes and concert tickets and a car when she was old enough to drive. Maybe her grand- mother wouldn’t have to work so hard, and maybe she’d stop being so grumpy with Charlotte when she wasn’t so exhausted, with her back and her knees hurting her all the time. Maybe everything would change.

When Charlotte arrived at the inn that afternoon, she saw a shiny black car in the driveway, and a man in a suit and shoes as shiny and black as the car, standing on the front porch. “I hope you’ll give our offer some serious thought,” he said to Grandma Hughes, who didn’t answer. The man shrugged, climbing into the car and giving Charlotte a quick, two-fingered salute before driving away.

Charlotte could tell from her grandmother’s tight- lipped expression that asking questions would only cause trouble, but she couldn’t keep quiet. “Who was that man?” Charlotte asked, taking her place in front of the kitchen sink to start on the afternoon’s dishes. “What’d he want?”

“He’s from the Jarvis company. They want to buy the place,” her grandmother said. She’d pulled a bunch of celery out of the refrigerator and was going at it with a cleaver as if she was imagining it was the Jarvis representative’s head.

“And you won’t sell?” Charlotte asked. Her heart was sinking.

“This place belonged to my parents. And my father’s parents before them,” said her grandmother. “It should have gone to my son. It’ll be yours someday, I imagine.”

I don’t want it, thought Charlotte. “Wouldn’t it be easier, just to sell it? You could probably retire!”

“Easier doesn’t always mean better.” Her grandmother kept chopping, dicing the celery into tinier and tinier pieces. After a minute she muttered, “And it’s dirty money.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve learned a few things about Jarvis Industries.” Chop, chop, chop, went the heavy silver blade. “All those pharmaceutical companies are bad news. Profiting off people’s illnesses. Making their pills so expensive that regular people can’t afford them. Getting rich, while sick people suffer and go without to afford their medication. Dirty money.”

Charlotte decided she didn’t care if Jarvis Industries’ money was dirty or clean. If they’d offered it to her, she’d have taken it, and if Charlotte inherited the inn and the Jarvis people still wanted it, she would sell it to them and never look back.

Her grandmother pressed her lips together, even more tightly. “I’ve heard other things too,” she said.

About Jennifer Weiner:

Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling
author of twenty-one books, including The Summer Place, That Summer, Big
Summer, Mrs. Everything, In Her Shoes, Good
in Bed, and a memoir in essays, Hungry Heart. She has
appeared on many national television programs, including Today and Good
Morning America, and her work has been published in The Wall
Street Journal and The New York Times, among
other newspapers and magazines. Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia.
Visit her online at JenniferWeiner.com.

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Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of THE BIGFOOT QUEEN, US Only.

Ends October 24th, midnight EST.

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