Title: Pretty
Author: Jillian Lauren
Publisher: Plume
Series: None
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Release Date: August 20, 2011
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Source: Global Influence Book Campaign

Bebe Baker is an ex-everything: ex-stripper, ex-Christian, ex-drug addict, ex-pretty girl.

It’s been one year since the car accident that killed her boyfriend left her scarred and shaken. Flanked by an eccentric posse of friends, she is serving out a self-imposed sentence at a halfway house, while trying to finish cosmetology school. Amid the rampant diagnoses, over-medication, compulsive eating, and acrylic nails of Los Angeles, Bebe looks for something to believe in before something–her past, the dangerously magnetic men in her life, her own bad choices–knocks her off course again.

You’re instantly drawn to her. Maybe it’s because we all have a piece of BeBe Baker within us. Fallen from grace, beautiful no more, and recovering from a form of self-destruction. The words are griping at times. There is someone, out there, right now, living these words. It is this thought that makes reading Pretty by Jillian Lauren so haunting. It may be a work of fiction, but this could be my neighbor, friends, a loved one, even me.

I was instantly shocked and moved. My personal life is nowhere near Bebe’s, but at a young age, I was up nights with an older sister fighting addiction. Cops at our home all the time. Fights my sister instigated, usually with family, even her teachers. I saw this life at a young age and saw what it did to my sister. Like Bebe, she finally found the semi-greener side. Almost a peaceful relief.

You may in no way be able to associate yourself with Bebe, or the life she lives, but you will be moved by her determination and the strength she has found within herself.  Bebe finds a new life, on her terms, and finally succeeds in finding pretty within herself.

I found Pretty to be almost eerie in how true, raw, and gritty Bebe’s life is on the pages. I did not read Jillian Lauren’s first book, but with her moving reality placed so liberally in Pretty, it is a no-brainer for me to run out and buy whatever I can get my hands on.

Order Your Copy 
You can order your very own copy of Pretty on Amazon and if you happen to be one of the first 250 people on 9/7 to order Pretty on Amazon and email the receipt to[email protected], you will receive a Limited Edition run of the Pretty necklace made by Fairy Tale Jewels.com.

Author Jillian Lauren grew up in suburban New Jersey. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, was published in April of 2010 and her newest novel, Pretty, was released August 30, 2011. Jillian has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review Daily, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Flaunt Magazine, Opium Magazine, Society, Pale House: A Collective and in the anthology My First Time: A Collection of First Punk Show Stories. She has read at spoken word events across the country and has been interviewed on such television programs as The View, Good Morning America and Howard Stern. She regularly blogs at TODAY Moms, The Nest and Jillianlauren.com. She is married to musician Scott Shriner and they live in LA with their son. You can connect with Jillian on her blog, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Disclosure

I received a copy of Pretty for review, and as a giveaway from Global Influence, sponsors of this campaign. Opinions are my own and were not influenced by Global Influence or the campaign.