Blog tour & competition- Lolly Luck by Ellie Daines

Today I have great pleasure in taking part in the blog tour for Lolly Luck by Ellie Daines (Phew!  What a busy week!!)

Competition now closed - winner announced (Caroline F)

Lolly Luck is filled with a rollercoaster of emotions for the main character, Lolly.  She’s a fun loving, easy going girl who you can’t help but like from the very start of the book.  Lolly considers herself lucky, if anyone finds money it’s Lolly, she’s the one who wins competitions and is the person people see with a smile on her face and in her heart….but everything is about to change….here’s an excerpt from Lolly Luck:

I’d never seen my dad cry before. It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting when I got home from school. It was a horrible end to what had started off as the perfect birthday. My morning had begun with a special birthday breakfast of French toast with crispy bacon, and a fruit salad topped off with strawberry yoghurt. My favourite. Mum had put all my birthday cards into a neat little pile next to my presents and had tied a Happy Birthday balloon to my chair. But straightaway I could tell that one present was missing; the present I’d been looking forward to the most – my brilliant new bike. I knew my parents had bought me a bike. They’d been whispering to each other for weeks and ‘bike’ was the word I always picked up. I’d wanted one for ages; a proper grown-up bike with gears, which hadn’t been handed down from my sister, Zola, and wasn’t covered in Barbie stickers.

Zola was already at the table having her breakfast, a yucky concoction of scrambled egg mashed up with baked beans. Even though I like baked beans and I absolutely adore scrambled egg, they so do not go together.

‘Happy birthday, Lollipop,’ said Mum, giving me a hug. ‘I can’t believe you’re eleven today! You’re growing up so fast. You excited?’

‘Yeah, totally,’ I replied. ‘And today’s going to be fantastic.’

‘Oh, it will be, don’t you worry. Your dad and I have got you a wonderful present. Dad’s been called into work a bit early today, so we’ll give it to you this evening. I hope that’s OK?’

I smiled at Mum. ‘Of course.’ But, no, it wasn’t OK. I wanted my bike at that precise minute and wasn’t looking forward to waiting twelve torturous hours before I finally got to see it.

‘Right then, I’ve got to scoot off myself. Enjoy your breakfast, birthday girl – and, Zola, no dawd­ling on the way to the bus stop,’ said Mum, grabbing her handbag and looking pointedly at my sister. ‘Make sure you and Lolly get to school on time.’

‘Yes, Zola, no flirting with boys and making us late,’ I mumbled, picking up a slice of French toast.

‘Omigod that is such a lie,’ said Zola, glaring at me. ‘Just because it’s your birthday, Lolly, it doesn’t mean you can start showing off.’

‘Girls!’ Mum snapped. ‘Can’t the two of you get through a day without arguing?’

We sighed and nodded obediently, but as soon as Mum had left the room Zola was poking her tongue out, pieces of her vomit-looking breakfast falling onto her plate.

‘Oh, grow up, Zola,’ I hissed.

My sister is fourteen but sometimes it’s like she’s only four. I know Mum thinks we argue too much, but really we do get on and, to be honest, I don’t think there’s anyone else I’d want as my big sister. I can talk to Zola about anything, and ever since I was really little she’s been there for me. When Zola was still at my primary school I could always count on her to back me up whenever my arch-enemy, Mariella Sneddon, tried to upset me with some snidy remark. All Zola needed to do was threaten Mariella with a wallop, which was enough to have her running scared.

‘By the way, happy birthday, Lolly Loser,’ said Zola, hurling a card and a little parcel at me.

Lolly Loser is Zola’s horrid pet name for me, even though she knows I’m no loser. I’m Lolly Luck by name, lucky by nature. I’m the luckiest person I know, and the luckiest person everyone else knows.

Ellie Daines, author of Lolly Luck