Austin, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/02/2013 -- When Baby Boomers reflect on their lives, the late sixties stands out as a period when many explored the wilder side of their normally conservative natures. In a compelling new novel from Lara Reznik, this period of aberration comes back to haunt protagonist Laila Levin when she least expects it.

While fictional, ‘The Girl From Long Guyland’s’ exhilarating suspense was inspired and partly based on the real-life experiences of Reznik herself. In short, it’s a memoir-meets-thriller that will have readers examining their own eclectic lives.

Synopsis:

Laila Levin enjoys a successful marriage and a thriving career as an I.T. executive in Austin, Texas, but she can't quite shake her lifelong sense of not truly belonging anywhere.

When her company announces a major layoff, Laila finds herself caught between an unscrupulous CEO and her promiscuous boss. Then news of her college roommate's suicide stirs up a dark secret involving three devious friends from her past. One has betrayed a vow, another wants to rekindle their romance, and the third is out for revenge.

Suddenly for Laila, it's 1969 again. She's only seventeen, and she's left her sheltered home in Long Island for college in Connecticut. Amid protests of the Vietnam War, she's tempted by the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll that rule her generation. Laila gets swept up in a deceptive love triangle with two older locals and initiated into their unethical hippie family. Too late she realizes her search to belong has led to tragedy.

Laila must now juggle the demands of her perplexed husband and her baby boomer past forcing her to make choices that endanger her survival and challenge her conscience.

She learns that the lines between right and wrong are often blurred, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.

As the author explains, her book is striking a chord with Baby Boomers from coast to coast.

“Our generation now spends a lot of time examining our lives and experiences. While our lives have been mostly conservative, memories of the sixties present a very different decade in complete contrast to how we live now. This is a story of how misdeeds in a woman's youth have come back to haunt her current day world. It's a dramatic collision of then and now entwining family, marriage, profession and ethics,” says Reznik.

Continuing, “To date I’ve enjoyed the number one position in both Thriller Suspense and Contemporary Fiction genres during Amazon KDP promotions, with over 115,000 e-books now downloaded. Equally, the book has received five-star Editorial reviews and has even been compared to Gillian Flynn’s ‘Gone Girl’”.

The reviews Reznik references are nothing short of glowing.

"In Reznik’s debut novel, a woman confronts long-buried secrets when an old college friend commits suicide. . . . While effective as a page turner, the novel also tells a timeless, universal tale of a woman’s journey toward self-acceptance. An exciting tale of past crimes and dangerous friendships,” says Kirkus Reviews.

Publishers Weekly were equally as impressed, adding, “Laila Levin is an I.T. executive in Austin, TX, with a happy marriage and a successful career. But her life is about to get much more complicated. Laila is forced to confront a dark part of her past that she never shared with her husband. . . . Readers, particularly those who remember the late 1960's, will find this an entertaining read."

With the book’s popularity set to rapidly increase, interested readers are urged to purchase their e-book and paperback copies as soon as possible. Watch for release of the Audiobook due out in December.

‘The Girl From Long Guyland’, published by Violet Crown Publishers, is available now: http://amzn.to/GzBfWd.

About Lara Reznik
Lara Reznik, a native New Yorker, attended college at the University of New Mexico. As an English major, Lara studied under esteemed authors Rudolfo Anaya and the late Tony Hillerman, and attended a summer program at the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop. Ambidextrous from birth, she preferred her right-brained creative side, but discovered she could make a better living with her left-brain skills, so entered the I.T. field in 1985.

Lara has written and optioned three screenplays that have garnered semifinalist and finalist wins in the Austin Heart of Film, Southwest Writers, TV Writer, Chesterfield and Writer's Digest contests.

Currently, Lara is working on a new novel based on her screenplay, The M&M Boys. Check out her website at: https://www.larareznik.com