NOT THE WORST FRIEND IN THE WORLD by Anne Rellihan Blog Tour with Excerpt and Giveaway

Today, I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the NOT THE WORST FRIEND IN THE WORLD by Anne Rellihan Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

                                                                                About The Book:

Title: NOT THE WORST FRIEND IN THE WORLD
Author: Anne Rellihan
Pub. Date: February 6, 2024
Publisher: Holiday House
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 272

Find it:   Goodreads, https://books2read.com/NOT-THE-WORST-FRIEND-IN-THE-WORLD

Can Lou Bennett keep a secret? She’ll do just about anything to prove herself to her new friend—and the best friend she betrayed—in this debut novel that is a modern-day Harriet the Spy with high emotional stakes.

It’s the thirty-fourth day of sixth grade at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School in Missouri, and eleven-year-old Lou wishes she could rewind time.

Lou wants to go back to the ninth day of sixth grade—the day before she fought with her best friend Francie and said the terrible, horrible things she can’t unsay. Or better yet, she would go back to fifth grade when Francie was still the Old Francie.

Then the new girl, Cece Clark-Duncan, passes Lou a mysterious note. It says she was kidnapped. (!) If Lou can help Cece, maybe she can prove she’s not the world’s worst friend.

But as observant Lou uncovers the complicated truth about Cece’s family, she starts to panic. Can she help Cece without hurting her? Or will Lou end up losing another friend instead?

Anchored by an outstanding voice and a page-turning mystery, this remarkable debut novel honors the powerful middle school friendships that can both break and heal a tender eleven-year-old heart. Perfect for fans of Fish in a Tree and My Jasper June.

                                                     Not the Worst Friend in the World
                                                                By Anne Rellihan

Excerpt for Rockstar Book Tours

 Excerpt from Not the Worst Friend in the World / Text copyright © 2024 by Anne Rellihan. Reproduced with permission fromHoliday House Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.

 

 

1

 

Cece Clark- Duncan passed me a note on the thirty- fourth day of sixth grade.

                If she had passed it twenty-five days earlier, I might have ignored it. Or worse, showed it to Francie.

 

At first, I didn’t believe the note was meant for me. Yet there was my name, plain as day, carefully written across the front in bubbly print— Louise. She’d even put a heart above the i.

 

My name is Louise Bennett, but the fact that she’d written “Louise” revealed her newness. Only teachers and my grandmother call me Louise. Everyone else calls me Lou. Francie shortened it the day I met her in kindergarten. She said Louise sounded like a grandma name, so she made it better. I liked Lou more, too. Louise held on to her mom’s leg at the playground because she was scared of the slides and the big kids. Lou was brave and smart and funny. 

She had to be. Francie Fitzpatrick was her best friend.

 

Emphasis on was. Past tense. Because then sixth grade happened. And Tommy Maguire happened. And the dumb fight happened. And just like that, I became invisible.

 

So there I was, trying to pretend I didn’t care about any of it, when I got a note from the only sixth grader who was a bigger outsider than me.

 

It happened during our first geography quiz of the year. The end of September and it was still blazing hot in Mayfield, Missouri. I sat at my desk sweating through my white uniform shirt. Sweat pooled under my arms and my legs stuck together underneath my plaid skirt. My dark

hair hung in clumps on my neck and frizzed around my freckled face. But being invisible made it easier to forget the frizz and focus on my plan.

 

My plan had one step.

 

Step 1: Get Francie to talk to me.

 

It was written on a clean page of my leather- bound notebook. I had underlined Step 1 about a million times, drew doodles all around it, but was no closer to accomplishing it. A plan isn’t much of a plan with only one step. I was stuck remembering those text messages and hearing myself say the terrible, horrible things I couldn’t unsay over and over again. It had been more than three weeks, and that day kept replaying in my mind like a movie. I about threw up

every time I watched it.

 

I didn’t blame anyone for hating me. If I’m being honest, I hated me, too.

 

 

 

                    About Anne Rellihan:

Anne Rellihan is a former elementary school teacher and an alumna of Teach for America with a master’s degree in education from Columbia University. She lives in Kansas with her husband and four children. When she’s not writing, Anne volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate. This is her debut novel. Find her online @AnneRellihan and annerellihan.com.

 

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Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of NOT THE WORST FRIEND IN THE WORLD, US Only.

Ends February 20th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

                                                    Tour Schedule: Week One:

2/5/2024	A Dream Within A Dream	Excerpt/IG Post
2/5/2024	Log Cabin Library	Excerpt
2/6/2024	YA Books Central	Excerpt/IG Post
2/6/2024	Fire And Ice Reads	Excerpt/IG Post
2/7/2024	@darkfantasyreviews	IG Post
2/7/2024	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Review/IG Post
2/8/2024	Kountry Girl Bookaholic	Excerpt/IG Post
2/8/2024	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post
2/9/2024	@paws.read.repeat	Review/IG Post
2/9/2024	@evergirl200	IG Review
2/10/2024	Callisto’s calling	IG Review
2/10/2024	Avainbookland	IG Review

                                                   Week Two:

2/11/2024	@dana.loves.books	IG Review/TikTok Post
2/11/2024	Review Thick And Thin	Review/IG Post
2/12/2024	One More Exclamation	Review/IG Post
2/12/2024	GryffindorBookishnerd	IG Review
2/13/2024	@dharashahauthor	IG Post
2/13/2024	Lifestyle of Me	Review
2/14/2024	PopTheButterfly Reads	Review/IG Post
2/14/2024	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
2/15/2024	@anitralovesbooksanddogs	IG Review
2/15/2024	More Books Please blog	Review/IG Post
2/16/2024	@stargirls.magical.tale	IG Review
2/16/2024	Two Points of Interest	Review/IG Post