The
X Factor: Confession of a Naïve Fashion Model
by
Ivan Sivec
FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!!! Jan. 13 & 14th!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE:
Young Adult
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
It
takes three mistakes to be swallowed up and spat out by the fashion
industry.
You trust the wrong people.
You think you know everything there is to know about life.
You abuse drugs.
The almost 18-year-old Maja is a regular high-school kid, who at the threshold of adulthood thinks she knows everything there is to know about life. As she enters the world of fashion modelling she gets completely enchanted.
However, the more her career thrives she’s less able to see the danger lurking around fashion industry. Maja starts falling in a downward spiral of drug addiction and is torn between the tempting dream of becoming a world famous model and the horrendous thought of destroying her body beyond the point of no salvation.
At a yacht party Maja gets drugged, assaulted and tossed overboard. She’s found the next day. Barely alive. Only a shade of her former self, in a gray space between life and death, she realises the fashion industry sucked everything out of her – except one thing – the will to live. Maja wants to be her old self again.
Ironically, it means losing the only thing that made her special. She has to give up on her hidden X Factor.
The X Factor:
Confession of a Naïve Fashion Model
is a psychological YA novel showing the glamorous fashion world behind its less glamorous scenes.
You trust the wrong people.
You think you know everything there is to know about life.
You abuse drugs.
The almost 18-year-old Maja is a regular high-school kid, who at the threshold of adulthood thinks she knows everything there is to know about life. As she enters the world of fashion modelling she gets completely enchanted.
However, the more her career thrives she’s less able to see the danger lurking around fashion industry. Maja starts falling in a downward spiral of drug addiction and is torn between the tempting dream of becoming a world famous model and the horrendous thought of destroying her body beyond the point of no salvation.
At a yacht party Maja gets drugged, assaulted and tossed overboard. She’s found the next day. Barely alive. Only a shade of her former self, in a gray space between life and death, she realises the fashion industry sucked everything out of her – except one thing – the will to live. Maja wants to be her old self again.
Ironically, it means losing the only thing that made her special. She has to give up on her hidden X Factor.
The X Factor:
Confession of a Naïve Fashion Model
is a psychological YA novel showing the glamorous fashion world behind its less glamorous scenes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
On the
evening of the third day the agent Maurizio paid them a visit. They
didn’t have any money or food, so they begged him to lend them a
couple of euros to buy lunch at McDonald’s. He didn’t want to
hear anything about that.
“I
came to make sure you’re successfully losing weight. In Milan
there’s currently somewhere between two hundred and three hundred
too many models, and the ones that don’t respect the rules will be
fired without compensation of any sort.”
They
curled up and managed to convince themselves they didn’t even need
yoghurt. They stayed determined even after Maurizio had left.
Later
Maja and Svetlana found out that Maurizio had locked them in the
apartment, so they weren’t able to leave, even if they had somehow
been able to beg for some food money.
They
managed it until midnight.
But at
00.30am Svetlana suddenly jumped up from her sleep.
“Maja,
are you asleep? I can’t sleep. I’m going crazy from hunger.”
“Don’t
even start on food,” Maja grumbled. “My vision is blurred. I’ll
probably die tonight. I’ll die of hunger.”
“I’ll
die, too. We’ll both die of starvation.”
At 1am
they started banging on the door: “Open, please! We’re dying of
starvation. Help!”
There
wasn’t a living soul to be found anywhere. It seemed like there was
nobody in the neighbouring apartments and the shops downstairs were
already closed. Maja started looking for the business card. She would
call that famous director. She’d ask him to bring them half a loaf
of bread. She’d do whatever he wanted as long as he saved their
lives.
“No,
don’t do it! You know Monica will be mad. For now we belong to
Milleuno. We cannot make contact with anyone outside the agency. We
cannot go out. We cannot meet anyone. We have to take care of
everything by ourselves or with the help of the agency.”
At 2am
they were in such crisis they were rolling around with cramps. Maja
had never experienced something like this before. She felt like she
was about to die any moment now.
“I
don’t want to die!” Svetlana made one last effort to get up and
swayed to the window.
“Quickly,
pass me the bed sheet!”
It was
like in a film.
An
entertaining film for the good children.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**SPOILER FREE**
This was a completely different type of writing style that I normally read. But yet I found myself enjoying the book even more. I think more of the uniqueness of really kept me intrigued. The plot of the story as well as the character were enjoyable. I believe I will have to search out more books from this author just to see what else has been written.
*Received for an honest review*
This was a completely different type of writing style that I normally read. But yet I found myself enjoying the book even more. I think more of the uniqueness of really kept me intrigued. The plot of the story as well as the character were enjoyable. I believe I will have to search out more books from this author just to see what else has been written.
*Received for an honest review*
AUTHOR
Bio and Links:
Ivan
Sivec is a writer, poet and publicist from Slovenia, Europe. People
say he is ‘a man with a hundred stories’ and he has been sharing
them with his audience, both young and mature, for over four decades
now. He is listed under the top five Slovenian bestselling authors.
In his
rich and thriving career he has written in many genres. As a poet he
has written more than 2,500 lyrics for ethnic and entertaining music
for which he received several awards. His broad prosaic ‘repertoire’
includes biographies, historical, psychological and adventure novels,
travelogues, youth book series, picture books as well as humorous
stories. To this date he published over 130 books and is considered
to be one of the most popular Slovenian authors.
His
particular interest goes to psychological novels on issues teenagers
face today, especially topics like suicide, drug addiction, adoption,
AIDS... He shares true stories to let the young reader know they’re
not alone.
Sivec
devotes his free time to his wife of 44 years, their two children and
three grandchildren. Since his retirement a decade ago he enjoys his
days hiking the Alpine peaks (he is especially proud to have
conquered the tallest mountain in Europe, the French Mont Blanc
(4,810 m/ 15,771 ft), together with his daughter-in-law Tina). When
he is not gathering inspiration from the mountains he is soaking in
the tranquility of the Mediterranean Sea with his wife. Nature is
his source of creativity. It allows Ivan to gather his thoughts and
pour them onto paper.
Official
Webpage: http://ivan.sivec.net/en/
Facebook:
facebook.com/ivan.sivec.en
facebook.com/the.X.factor.the.book
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Ivan_Sivec
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/ISivec
http://bit.ly/1MOwSp0
Amazon:
http://amzn.to/1RJz7d9
Kobo:
http://bit.ly/1ZKSE29
B&N:
http://bit.ly/1VXy1v4
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