Blog Tour: All Lined Up | Cora Carmack | Review | Giveaway | Interview

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New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack follows up her trio of hits—Losing It, Faking It, and Finding It—with this thrilling first novel in an explosive series bursting with the Texas flavor, edge, and steamy romance of Friday Night Lights.

In Texas, two things are cherished above all else—football and gossip. My life has always been ruled by both.

Dallas Cole loathes football. That's what happens when you spend your whole childhood coming in second to a sport. College is her time to step out of the bleachers, and put the playing field (and the players) in her past.

But life doesn't always go as planned. As if going to the same college as her football star ex wasn’t bad enough, her father, a Texas high school coaching phenom, has decided to make the jump to college ball… as the new head coach at Rusk University. Dallas finds herself in the shadows of her father and football all over again.

Carson McClain is determined to go from second-string quarterback to the starting line-up. He needs the scholarship and the future that football provides. But when a beautiful redhead literally falls into his life, his focus is more than tested. It's obliterated.

Dallas doesn't know Carson is on the team. Carson doesn't know that Dallas is his new coach's daughter.

And neither of them know how to walk away from the attraction they feel.

When I see Cora Carmack’s name. I’m on it. Ready to read it. Ready to devour it. Ready to live it. I’m going to be very honest. When I saw that the main focus was centered around football. I shied away just a pinch. Football what do I know about football. Give me NASCAR, give me Jeff Gordon and I’m all on it. But I knew that Cora would weave a story so well, that it wouldn't matter that I had limited interest in the sport. By the end I had much interest in Dallas and Carson. Is it hard enough starting your first year of college. Maybe. Try adding on top of all the new transitions, being the daughter of the football coach for the university. Dallas, has it a little rough, but her spunky personality and character assist her in handling all that the role throws out at her. Just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, it does, but in steps Carson ready to fill the void. Keeping important factors about themselves from one another adds yet another layer of sticky situations that they must get through. 

This book is filled with frustration, life choices, love, disappointments and new beginnings. All themes that I love to read. Although I thought the story began a bit slow for me, it quickly picked up pace and moved right along. I couldn't put it down! Cora’s story lines always hook the reader in, with believable characters and refuse to let go even when you've reached the last page. Readers will be in for a treat, as Cora tells the back story of All Lined Up and how it came to be. Cora’s novels are always great reads to capture!     

Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. She's done a multitude of things in her life-- boring jobs (like working retail), Fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). She enjoys placing her characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. Her first book, LOSING IT, is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.

 Interview with Cora

The age of young adult writing and the addition of the New Adult Category has changed writing and novels tremendously over the years. Teens and young adults are more captivated with deeper in depth story lines that go far beyond the classics we once knew.

Is there a classic that you will never forget and why?

Well, considering I have a tattoo inspired by it, I’m fairly certain I’ll never forget The Awakening by Kate Chopin. In many ways, it’s a coming of age story that not about a teenager. It’s about a woman who is already married, already has children, and realizes that she’s never really known who she is or what she wanted. I read it as a teenager, but it was the beginning of my own awakening, of my own realizations that my life needed to be about what I wanted, not what others wanted for me.

What point in your life did you realize that you wanted to be a writer?

I do believe I was in Kindergarten the first time I said I wanted to be an author. I wrote that down on an assignment for a teacher when I graduated Kindergarten. That same teacher gave me the assignment when I graduated from high school at eighteen. It said I wanted to be an author, but also an actor, ballerina, teacher, an archaeologist, and the President of the United States. Gotta dream big, right? But the first time I began seriously considering writing as a career was my freshman year in college.

Lastly, what do you find as inspiration for your writing?

Oh gosh, everything. From music to art to movies to other people or places. When I see or experience something that I find particularly beautiful or captivating, I’ve always felt this itch to share it with the world. But it was that first year in college when that itch became something I couldn’t ignore. There was this one spot on the drive between my university and my hometown (a spot that provided some inspiration for a scene in FAKING IT), and for whatever reason that stretch of Texas countryside always got to me. But I wasn’t an artist who could capture the beauty I saw with paint or pencils. I had no knowledge or equipment for photography. I was an actor, but I couldn’t exactly act out a sunset. But I did have words. That was something I knew how to do. And from that moment on, it became the way that I expressed my view of the world— the things I saw and felt and knew that I thought were important or entertaining enough to share with others. I think that’s all inspiration is, really. Taking the pieces of the world that capture our attention and giving them new life in stories of our own.

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