Blog Tour + #Giveaway: Finding You by Lydia Albano @LydAlbano @XpressoTours

Finding You
Lydia Albano
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: September 19th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Taken from home and family, all they have is each other.

Isla is kidnapped from a train platform in broad daylight, and thrust into a nightmare when she is sold to a sadistic aristocrat. Locked in a dungeon with a dozen other girls, Isla’s only comfort is a locket and the memory of the boy she loves. But as days pass and more girls disappear, she realizes that help is not coming… If they’re going to survive, they’ll have to escape on their own.

Swoon Reads is proud to present Lydia Albano’s debut novel, a powerful story of a teen girl finding strength and hope in even the worst circumstances.

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Interview with Lydia Albano

What inspired you to write Finding You?

To be honest I didn’t plan to write Finding You at all- at least not the way it came out.  I was writing a totally different story about a girl who was going to follow her sweetheart to war and then when I got to the scene at the train, everything happened really quickly and I kind of realized Isla was being kidnapped.  From there the story took on a life of its own, really- I’ve had an interest in the amazing work of some different anti-human-trafficking organizations for some time, and I think that played a part in how the story that took shape.

Can you tell us a little bit about the books that come after Finding You or what you have planned for the future?

Honestly, I have whole lifetimes of stories for Isla and her friends in my head already, definitely enough to fill further books.  I’d love to get to explore those with readers at some point, but for the moment I’m working on a couple of other things that may turn into something!  I hope I’ll get to share some good news about next projects soon!  Just know that it’ll probably have action and romance and girls learning to save themselves.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Finding You?

I’d love to- Isla is my heroine.  She starts off pretty unsure of herself, more comfortable with books and her sweetheart (Tam) for company than the outside world but when all of that is ripped away from her, she really has to learn to rely on her own strength, and lead the other girls around her to fight for themselves as well.  I’ve loved Tam since he showed up in my head; he’s the adventurous golden boy who has his own insecurities and sees Isla in a way she doesn’t see herself. My villain, Zachariah Curram, is so seedy in my head I can only hope it translated onto the page.  I won’t name everyone but I’m really excited for you all to meet the other girls, too- like Phoebe, who’s afraid to be vulnerable and full of escape plans, and Valentina, who’s selfless even though she’s terrified. And Des, of course, in the cell next to theirs- I’ll just let you meet him for yourselves.

You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite

author and why?

Oh man, this is the worst question!  I’ve read a lot of fantasy and fairy tale retellings in my life, and a lot of Jane Austen and Eva Ibbotson and other historical dramas.  I guess if I really had to pick one though, I’d have to be a cliche and say C.S. Lewis.  At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, The Chronicles of Narnia made me who I am today.

If you could time-travel would you travel to the future or the past?

Where would you like to go and why would you like to visit this

particular time period?

Oh, past for sure.  I couldn’t care less about the future.  I’d love to see the 1920s in Chicago or New York or my own Boston, I think.  I know it’s hardly original to be obsessed with the jazz age, but there’s a gorgeous, decadent chaos to it all that I wish I could see first hand (Owen Wilson style, haha).

Do you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any

pets?

No, but…I’m getting a hedgehog next month!! I’ve already got a breeder picked and I’m just waiting for a day I can go and pick up the hedgehog itself.  I’ve always been the animal lover in my family and it’s probably the only thing I really resent my parents for, not getting me a dog or something. 

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us today.

Thank YOU!  It’s been an absolute pleasure, really.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you taking an interest in Finding You!

Author Bio:
Lydia Albano is a (self-proclaimed) Bunburyist living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she promotes Oxford commas, spends her money on musical theater, and demands the Myers-Briggs letters of everyone she meets. Her debut novel, Finding You, will be released in September, 2017, with SwoonReads/Macmillan.

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