Scar of the Bamboo Leaf Blog Tour: Guest Post with Sieni A.M. & Giveaway

Title: Scar of the Bamboo Leaf
Author: Sieni A.M.
Genre: Young Adult fiction, Contemporary Romance


Summary from Goodreads:
“Her heart wept when she realized that the hardest part about loving him was the idea that his love was never meant for her.”

Walking with a pronounced limp all her life has never stopped fifteen-year-old Kiva Mau from doing what she loves. While most girls her age are playing sports and perfecting their traditional Samoan dance, Kiva finds serenity in her sketchbook and volunteering at the run-down art center her extended family owns.

When seventeen-year-old Ryler Cade steps into the art center for the first time, Kiva is drawn to the angry and misguided student sent from abroad to reform his violent ways. Scarred and tattooed, an unlikely friendship is formed when the gentle Kiva shows him kindness and beauty through art.
After a tragic accident leaves Kiva severely disfigured, she struggles to see the beauty she has been brought up to believe. Just when she thinks she’s found her place, Ryler begins to pull away, leaving her heartbroken and confused. The patriarch of the family then takes a turn for the worse and Kiva is forced to give up her dreams to help with familial obligations, until an old family secret surfaces that makes her question everything.

Immersed in the world of traditional art and culture, this is the story of self-sacrifice and discovery, of acceptance and forbearance, of overcoming adversity and finding one’s purpose. Spanning years, it is a story about an intuitive girl and a misunderstood boy and love that becomes real when tested.

Buy it now on Amazon

About the Author:
Sieni A.M. is a coffee addict, Instagram enthusiast, world traveler, and avid reader turned writer. She graduated as an English and History high school teacher from the University of Canterbury and is currently living in Israel with her husband and two daughters. “Scar of the Bamboo Leaf” is her second novel.
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Guest Post with Sieni A.M.:

The Art of Scar of the Bamboo Leaf


The art in Scar of the Bamboo Leaf is Samoan/Pacific influenced--wood carvings, traditional printing from dyes made from natural resources, cultural tattoos on the legs and thighs of both men and women. I grew up next to an art center in Samoa, so inspiration came from there. I contacted the owner and bombarded him with questions… everything about the bark from the tree used to create prints to the actual dyes crushed from soils and soot. It was an incredible learning experience on my part.



The art of Kiva, the main heroine, however are sketches. She draws her emotions, dreams, and aspirations onto paper. Its her outlet, her solace when everything else seems to crumble around her. It is where she almost purges her soul.

An extract from the book: Dragging the pencil from her hair, she sharpened it and then positioned the tip in the center of the blank page. Her hand immediately became a graceful dancer, the ivory parchment a stage where movement transformed into delicate lines and spheres and music translated into the scratch of her palm as it shifted across the paper. Looming shadows with blurs and smudges were choreographed with precision and purpose as she imagined peering through a window sprinkled with rain drops, their descent slow and unintentional, the direction spontaneous, only picking up speed when it joined with another. The background beyond was obscured, the focus entirely on the drops and their journey. She imagined pressing her hands against the cool glass, imprinting herself with the breath of life as it fogged the pane and momentarily shrouded the rain. The sketch was soft but raw, and vastly different from anything she’d ever drawn before. It represented a part of her reality, the part where she was an observer, always watching from a distance on the fringes of life.

Images courtesy of the author via Pinterest

Giveaway:

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