I am excited to be part of the Book Tour for The Stars Among Us by Sanja S. Jungic.  This is Sanja’s debut novel and was originally published in Croatia, but has now been translated in English and is available in all the usual places. Below I give you the Book Blurb, an extract from the book, plus some info about this exciting new author. 

Book Blurb:

Nora is as shocked as her friends and family when she quits a perfectly good job to become an extra in a Hollywood movie being filmed in Dubrovnik. She hopes it will help her move on from a painful break-up and give her breathing space to find out what she wants to do with her life.

To Nora’s delight she discovers that she loves every minute in her new “temporary” career. It doesn’t hurt either that the handsome assistant director, Ivor, takes more than a passing interest in her. But then events take a dramatic and unforeseen turn when Lucas Winter, world-famous actor and Nora’s teenage heartthrob, unexpectedly arrives on set…

The Stars Among Us is inspired by the author’s real-life experience of being an extra on the set of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Lindsey Kelk and Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

Extract

On set – at last.

After several long days of anticipation, she took a deep breath and absorbed her surroundings. The salty tang of the sea mingling with the sweet smell of artificial smoke; people from the production companies making arrangements over their walkie-talkies; makeup technicians touching up the fake injuries and dirt on the extras, while hairstylists were doing some last-minute braiding jobs on the girls and hiding the modern haircuts of the medieval knights with scarves. Some people might have found all of this overwhelming, but Nora soaked it up. She hadn’t felt this good in a long time.

She was sure she would never forget how enthusiastic she felt on this, the first day of shooting. But a couple of days earlier, she had been anything but enthusiastic. Her arrival on set had been preceded by a serious conversation with her boss, when she informed him she was quitting because he would not approve her holiday request, and then an even more serious conversation with her parents and her best friend when she told them why she was leaving. She was going to work as an extra in Dubrovnik. An unlikely choice for a woman pushing thirty, and especially one who’d had far more notable success in production companies than being a simple extra might justify.

It wasn’t planned, and she almost regretted it after blurting out “Then I quit!”, but there was no turning back. And to be completely honest, Nora didn’t want to go back. All her friends were doing normal, nine-to-five jobs, while she was the only one still trying to find herself. In all her various, short-lived careers to date, she had always invested the same amount of effort, regardless of what the job actually was. The crazy amounts of overtime she’d worked had left her social life in ruins. She only realised she was at breaking point when that clumsy sentence, which would change her life completely, flew out of her mouth with surprising ease. In her head, she quickly calculated how much money she had squirreled away, mainly due to her sad social life. Now that she was twenty-eight, it was as good a time as any to let things run their own course. After all, she could always go back to her loving parents who, after overcoming their initial shock, had promised to support her, wanting their only child to be happy.

And so, come late May, barely a week after she had quit, she packed her bags, drove her dog Baddie (real name Hedwig) to her parents’ house, and went to Dubrovnik. Her experience from working in the production team on Croatian shows, and her energetic hobbies of horse riding and fencing, at least made her stand out from the crowds of would-be extras, even if they didn’t land her a more rewarding job on the set. Her long, light-brown hair with a hint of red, her large olive-green eyes, and her barely-visible but charming freckles hadn’t hurt either. She really did look like a character from a medieval novel.

She would be spending a month and a half on set, with breaks, and then… well, she didn’t know the answer to that question. But, for the first time in her life, she decided to give the tiny voice in her head that told her everything was going to be alright a chance.

About the Author

Sanja S. Jungic’s bestselling debut novel, Zvijezde medu nama (The Stars Among Us) was published in Croatian in 2019. The novel was inspired by Sanja’s real life experience on the set of mega-popular show Game of Thrones, gaining a lot of press interest.

This prompted Sanja to write her second novel, Ti si moje sve (You are My Everything), whilst having Zvijezde medu nama translated into English by the renowned Croatian translator Neven Divjakinja.

Sanja is very excited to see her bestselling debut published in English for the first time.

She lives in Zagreb with her husband Saša and their pets Toya, Cecilije and Egidije.

You can connect with Sanja on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sanjasrdicjungic

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanjasjungic/

Website : https://sanjasjungic.com/

All the best, Emma