Giveaway winners and Love month wrap-up

First off, I really want to say thank you to everyone who helped me in creating this Love month event, from the fabulous guest posters to the friends who listened to me when I was stressed out, to everyone who commented and spread the word about Love month. It has meant so much that so many of you contributed. I wanted to make people happy in February, and I hope that this was achieved. I know that I'm happier knowing the levels of awesome that my readers are. Thank you all.

Before we get to the round-up of giveaway winners, here is an overview of what happened during Love month. There were a lot of topics that I wanted to cover and just didn't have the time for them, so you might see them popping up sometime in the near future (love poetry, love letters etc)


POSTS

Love month Mr Linky
Favourite TV Couples
Favourite Love stories
Real life romantic moments: Marriage Proposal
Waiting On: Love Stories
Wedding Songs
Favourite YA authors who write love stories
LGBT love stories
Real-life romantic moments: Airport meeting
Love Stories on my TBR shelves
High School Crushes
What influenced my idea of love
Romantic couples in history, part one
Post-It Love
Romantic couples in history, part two


REVIEWS

My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
A Match Made In High School by Kristin Walker
Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
Kissing Kate by Lauren Myracle
Girl Meets Cake by Susie Day
A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl by Tanya Lee Stone
Rules Of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
Treasure Map of Boys by E. Lockhart
Swapped By A Kiss by Luisa Plaja
The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller
The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles
Siren by Tricia Rayburn
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning
By Midnight by Mia James
Jessie Hearts NYC by Keris Stainton
Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin


GUEST POSTS

A reader's response to Delirium by Jo from Once Upon A Bookcase and Ink and Paper

YA boys I will always love by Lyndsey from Heaven Hell and Purgatory Book Reviews

Recommendations for Younger Readers by Luisa Plaja from Chicklish

Why Didn't I Hire a Wedding Planner? by Vivienne from Serendipity

Comparing Love Interests by Suey from It's All About Books

Expectations of Love by Ali McNamara

Lessons Jane Austen Taught Me About Love by Stephanie Burgis

A discussion on love in YA by Sya from The Mountains of Instead

The trouble with loving YA boys by Laura from Sister Spooky: Book Fangirl

Greatest description of Love in a song by Emma from ASAMUM BOOKTOPIA

Susie Day on the books she writes by Susie Day

A love poem by John O'Halloran

The Good Guy by Tricia Rayburn

Favourite couples in YA by Kirsty from The Overflowing Library

Portia and Vance by SusanKMann

The loyalty 0f Puck from The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Love by N from g r e y s q r l

Top 10 Favourite couples by Dwayne from Girls Without A Bookshelf

...And now for the GIVEAWAYS

Delirium by Lauren Oliver (UK HB) Winner: Carrie from TeaBelly

Girl Meets Cake by Susie Day Winner: Jessica L from JessHeartsBooks

From Notting Hill With Love ... Actually by Ali McNamara Winner: Kulsuma

A Most Improper Magick by Stephanie Burgis Winner: The Library Owl

Swapped By A Kiss by Luisa Plaja Winner: Cem from Cem's Book Hideout


Congratulations to all the winners, you should each have already been emailed. Please respond as quickly as possible with your postal addresses and the books will be sent out very soon!

The rest of you, thank you (again!) so much for taking part in this with me. I've had a lot of fun!


...and just because I thought it was a lot of fun, here are just a few of the anwers to 'Love is...' for the Delirium giveaway:

knowing that you want to grow old with the person you are with and knowing that no matter what they will be there for you

A child's hand in the palm of yours.

the warmth that can envelop even the iciest of hearts and allows even the heaviest of souls to soar and fly like a butterfly; gliding from flower to flower, simply, peacefully and content.

...a puzzle. It encounters joy, hapiness, jelousy and pain. It triggers our emotions that make you no longer hide.

... passion, vulnerability, happiness, frustration and excitement... all rolled up in one!

making cups of tea and tucking you up in bed when you are ill. It's cleaning the bathroom and going out in the middle of the night to buy toilet roll because no one else has. It's buying your favourite biscuits. It's laughing at your jokes. It's rubbing your feet and playing with your hair. It's a choice you make everyday, in small ways and big ways, to say 'You. I choose you.'

Aww. Such a beautiful month, February. Thank you all.

Guest Post: Top 10 Favourite Couples

Join me in welcoming Dwayne from Girls Without A Bookshelf today! I adore Dwayne, she's a wonderful book blogger, one of my favourites and I look forward to the day that we actually meet! For now, over to Dwayne and her favourite couples...

I am not ashamed to admit that I am a romantic at heart, and I love reading books that has even the tiniest bit of romance in it. Children's, YA, adult, historical, paranormal - as long as it has romance, I am in for it. Of course, my reading list is not only testament for that, but also holds some of the best love stories I have come across. Let me share with you my top ten couples - and mind you, it was very difficult to list!

10. Alex and Brittany (Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles)

A cheerleader and a gang member - two different people, two very different lives, but ultimately just two sides of one coin. And yes, they do have a perfect chemistry!

9. Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen)

Of coooourse these two are one of my favourites. Why, they have what I personally call the classic romance! Pray, tell - what's not to love?

8. Quince and Lily (Forgive my Fins, Terra Lynn Childs)

I think I have giggled and reveled over the love-hate relationship between these two too much. For the life of me I'll never get enough of their 'accidental' romance though - that just shows that sometimes, what you really want is just right in front of you!

7. Isobel and Varen (Nevermore, Kelly Creagh)

Two very unlikely couple - but their feelings are so much deeper than just hormonal attractions. These two may be a genteel couple, but the focus on their feelings for each other makes them one of my favourites to sigh over!

6. Daniel and Lucy (My Name is Memory, Ann Brashares)

Don't we always melt whenever a guy says he'll wait for the girl however long it takes? Well, Daniel (his soul, at least) has waited for Lucy for centuries, literally. These two are soul mates in every sense of the word, and there's nothing more romantic than two people coming together after a lifetime (or more) of waiting.

5. Alona and Will (The Ghost and the Goth, Stacey Kade)

Death was certainly not the end for these two - and I have never ever felt happier about a lead character's death than I did with Alona! Though she and Will are at the opposite end of the spectrum (and of the high school social ladder), together they are certainly much more than average! I adore them.

4. Violet and Jay (The Body Finder, Kimberly Derting)

I always find myself coming back to re-read Violet and Jay's love story. I also cannot say no to the best-friend-turned-boyfriend romances, and these two has the best of the lot.

3. Patch and Nora (Hush Hush Series, Becca Fitzpatrick)

There is nothing more attractive than a mysterious bad boy - now, pair that one with a studious girl and you get a destructive combination. That's exactly what these two do to me.

2. Katniss and Peeta (The Hunger Games Series, Suzanne Collins)

I love the series. I love the characters. The romance? Addictive! I always melt whenever I remember all of Peeta's sacrifices for Katniss and how, ultimately, the selflessness draws Katniss to him. It's a classic 'he-finally-gets-the-girl' story, and I'll probably pine for these two longer than Peeta pined for Katniss!

1. Cat and Bones (Night Huntress Series, Jeanine Frost)

This is pretty much self-explanatory to anyone who have read the series. To those who haven't, it's time for you to begin reading it! Cat and Bones are electric. Explosive. They sizzle. I can never get enough of them!

PS - chapter 32!

There you have it - my personal favourites. I'm sure I'll add more to the list as I indulge in more romance books, but as of now - these couples rock!

Thank you Michelle for the guest post - you rock too! Although it's past the fourteenth now, I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the love month!

Ah! I love it when this happens, I haven't read most of these! But oh, how I want to NOW! Do head over to Dwayne's blog, Girls Without a Bookshelf and say hello. Thank you for a wonderful guest post Dwayne, and for ending Love Month! Last, but certainly not least :)

Guest Post: N on love

Today I have a very, very special guest. My husband, affectionally called 'N' on this blog. We met over 12 years ago on the Internet and despite living on two different continents, fell in love and decided to get married 10 years ago.

N can usually be found on his own blog, g r e y s q r l that showcases his photography, but today, N is here talking about love...


To the best of my knowledge, no book, movie or music has ever shaped my idea of love... without wishing to offend anyone, I think that's more of a female thing. Guys are (in my opinion) more visual creatures and, consequently more likely to lust than love. I don't think that words can have as powerful an effect on a man, as they could do on a woman. Personally, I don't tend to get emotionally attached to a character from a book or movie.



A TV series, maybe, but that's because I invest a lot more time into it. So, I don't think 'Kate and Leo... how wonderful' - I've never fallen in love with book characters or cried whilst reading a book. However, I did feel sad when Jack died in Titanic, and when Jack (yes, another Jack) in Lost realised he was dead, yes, I felt a lump in my throat. Honestly, I'm much more likely to fall in love with a gadget than a book character :)

I wouldn't say that my viewpoints of love are derived from anything I've watched or read - no, not even the time that Scott and Charlene married, and no, not the theme music to Prisoner Cell Block H (although that is one of the greatest songs ever), I think love is a natural thing developed subconsciously and shaped by the behaviour of those around you, i.e. parents and affected by other people via acceptance and rejection, I don't feel that fictional works played a part in the shaping of my feelings.

Now, the very strange thing is that all I've written above shows that I don't believe that love can be borne from words, however, my relationship with Michelle is almost entirely based on words, for that's all we had at first. Our relationship was based on various chats and emails, from questions and from answers and two people in such a relationship have nothing to rely on other than trust.

I fell in love with Michelle very soon after I started to speak to her, the more I spoke to her the more she was all I could think about, the more I thought about her, the more I loved her and, I knew that I was going to marry her way before we met. The first time we met I was so nervous, my heart was pounding away inside my chest. I couldn't stand still as I didn't want her to be able to properly see me. When we spoke I couldn't remain still, I bounced my leg like a dog wags its tail.

Love to me is natural, it's not defined, it doesn't fit in a square box. Love is just... us ;)


Aww. I love you N. And thank you. Everyone, please do visit N at g r e y s q r l!

REVIEW: Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

Fans of romance don't need to look any further than the fauxmance brewing between teen idols Charlie Tracker and Fielding Withers—known on their hit TV show as Jenna and Jonah, next-door neighbors flush with the excitement of first love. But it's their off-screen relationship that has helped cement their fame, as passionate fans follow their every PDA. They grace the covers of magazines week after week. Their fan club has chapters all over the country. The only problem is their off-screen romance is one big publicity stunt, and Charlie and Fielding can't stand to be in the same room. Still, it's a great gig, so even when the cameras stop rolling, the show must go on, and on, and on. . . . Until the pesky paparazzi blow their cover, and Charlie and Fielding must disappear to weather the media storm. It's not until they're far off the grid of the Hollywood circuit that they realize that there's more to each of them than shiny hair and a winning smile.


I can't say that I'd heard of this one before it landed in my postbox, but I'm quite glad that I read it, as Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin is a very cute and rather sweet read. I read it very quickly and it was a very enjoyable experience. Thank you to the people of Bloomsbury for sending me this copy for review.

I'm not all that familiar with that many YA books that are co-authored (the one pairing that springs to mind, of course being David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, who I think work together quite nicely), but in this, I thought Franklin and Halpin seamlessly connected the two characters well without any interference into the characters or storyline. We have Charlie and Fielding, two teenager actors who play the roles of Jenna and Jonah on a wholesome family TV show. To boost ratings, the two have been pretending to be a couple despite despising each other. When a news story breaks officially outing the two stars as a fake-couple, they end up in an isolated house away from the paparazzi and learn that both Charlie and Fielding might not hate each other. They might even be falling for each other...

What I liked about this one is that isn't what I was expecting to read when I first started it. I thought it'd be a straight-forward love story with the backdrop of Hollywood and the glamour of being television stars. But instead, the story seemed to develop into a character assessment for both Charlie and Fielding. They each really take a look at their careers and relationships and start piecing together what they want out of life and what's important. While I didn't feel as though there was much chemistry between Charlie and Fielding as a couple, I did love to see both of their transformations throughout the novel.

Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance is a very quick and light read. There are some amusing bits and the idea of a romantic relationship as well as some interesting soul-searching at a Shakespeare Festival in my home-state Oregon (YAY!). Definitely worth a read!

Romantic Couples from history, continued

Victoria and Albert - I always thought of Queen Victoria as a dour woman, which is why I was suprised when Victoria and Albert's great love story kept popping up again and again when researching for this blog post. Despite their marriage being arranged, Victoria and Albert shared a passionate and committed relationship. Albert pushed Victoria into being a better queen, and they both adored each other. I love the idea of such a sweet and uncomplicated relationship. When Albert died, Victoria mourned for 40 years.



Marie and Pierre Curie - I know very little about Marie or Pierre Curie. I know even less about the work that they did with radioactivity and in the field of science, but I just love the idea of Marie Curie advancing so far and recieving such acknowledgement. And the idea of their marriage surviving over the course of the important work that they discovered and pioneered is pretty awe-inspiring. I resolve to learn more about science and this couple!



Elizabeth and Robert Browning - Turns out that I know very little about romantic couples outside of YA fiction! I've just recently read about the relationship between Elizabeth Barret Browning and Robert Browning... after reading poetry from Elizabeth, the two struck up a correspondence together in which they fell in love. Despite Elizabeth being six years older than Robert, being an invalid and against the wishes of her father, Elizabeth and Robert married. The period of time that they spent together has produced such beautiful poetry.

Which romantic couples have touched your heart?

REVIEW: By Midnight by Mia James

April Dunne is not impressed. She's had to move from Edinburgh to Highgate, London, with her parents. She's left her friends - and her entire life - behind. She has to start at a new school and, worst of all, now she's stuck in a creepy old dump of a house which doesn't even have proper mobile phone reception. Ravenwood, her new school, is a prestigious academy for gifted (financially or academically) students - and the only place her parents could find her a place, in the middle of term, in the middle of London, on incredibly short notice. So she's stuck with the super-rich, and the super-smart . . . and trying to fit in is when the rest of the students seem to be more glamorous, smarter, or more talented than she is, is more than tough. It's intimidating and isolating, even when she finds a friend in the conspiracy-theorist Caro Jackson - and perhaps finds something more than friendship in the gorgeous, mysterious Gabriel Swift. But there's more going on at Ravenwood than meets the eye. Practical jokes on new students are normal, but when Gabriel saves her from . . . something . . . . in the Highgate Cemetery, and then she discovers that a murder took place, just yards away from where she had been standing, April has to wonder if something more sinister is going on. . . . and whether or not she's going to live through it . . .

Aha, when I heard of By Midnight by Mia James, I did think to myself 'not another YA vampire book!' ... and yet, I still wanted to read it. Mia James is a pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team and I absolutely love that they are British. That everything takes place in By Midnight is a stone's throw from Highgate Cemetary. I thought that the atmosphere of the book was wonderful, with a creepy old house, a spooky cemetary and a mystery to solve. The elite school, Ravenwood, and the minor fashion elements to the story give this story a slight edge with the spooky factor with a dash of glamour.

We start the novel with April Dunne and her parents moving from Edinburgh to Highgate in London. April's father is a writer, previously for the Scotsman in Scotland, but he also writes books about conspiracy theories and other off-the-wall subjects. The only school April is able to attend at such short notice is the Ravenwood Academy, school for the academically gifted as well as more financially well-off. When April first arrives, she's not sure where she fits in, neither being super-intelligent nor rich. Luckily for her, she is befriended by the quirky conspiracy-nut, Caro and easily falls into her studies. She seems surrounded by good-looking boys, but it's Gabriel Swift, mysterious and dark who catches her eye.

When people start dying in mysterious ways, and April is a witness at one of the crime scenes, April decides she must to get to the bottom of things. Are the murders coincidental or linked in some way? How is her father's book research tied into everything? What was Gabriel doing at the murder scene and how is he tied into everything?

While I did very much enjoy the mystery aspect of the novel and the subsequent information that we learn about vampires and the puzzling information surrounding Ravenwood Academy, my favourite part of By Midnight were the relationships that April has with the other people in the novel. The wonderfully sweet relationship she has with her father. This strong friendship she maintains with her best friend from Scotland, Fiona. Her new friendship with odd Caro. And finally, her relationship with Gabriel.

I love how April and Gabriel have so many misunderstandings, just like any two teenagers who might like each other. The uncertainties after one doesn't call, the jealousy when Gabriel is linked to another girl. I'd like to have seen a touch more tension between them, but I'm not complaining much. I did quite enjoy this tentative beginning to April and Gabriel. By Midnight is a very readable and engaging book and I'm glad that I gave it a chance!

Thank you to Tina from Gollancz and Orion books for sending this book for me to review, I really appreciate it.

REVIEW: Jessie Hearts NYC by Keris Stainton

Jessie’s just arrived in New York, hoping to forget about her awful ex.

New Yorker Finn is in love with his best friend’s girlfriend.
They might be perfect together, but in a city of eight million people, will they find each other?

I have to start this review by saying a massive thank you to Keris Stainton for sending me her book for review even before the proof copies had been printed! (The book isn't due for publication until 7 June 2011!) Thank you, I was so thrilled to read it :)

Jessie Hearts NYC was such a fun book to read. I adore books set in NYC anyway, but the way in which Keris creates such a romantic atmosphere within the pages of her book with the many references to some of my favourite rom-coms such as When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle plus the many, many almost-meetings between Jessie and Finn made my heart beat quicker in anticipation!

Because New York City IS a big place, how on earth are two people meant to meet and fall in love? Jessie Hearts NYC is written in a dual-perspective. There's Jessie, teenager from England who arrived in New York with her best friend in tow, prepared to live with her mom for the summer holidays. Jessie's hoping that this trip will cure her of any leftover ickiness of her ex-boyfriend. Perhaps the perfect somebody to help her get over him is the yummy Ben that works in the play Jessie's mum wrote. And there's also Finn, who at the same time as juggling the guilt he feels for fancying his best friend's girlfriend, he must also decide if he really wants to head down the career path his father has laid out for him.

I love all of the characters in this book so much! Jessie is such a breath of fresh air, she has so much enthusiasm for New York City, to see all the sights and to make the most of her experience there. It really, truly makes me want to visit NYC again and do a Jessie tour, follow in her footsteps and see the city the way that she saw it. I'd like to visit the Empire State Building again and look at it from an architectural point of view, like Finn's. I'd just love to see the city again, from a new perspective.

And I adored the friendships that Jessie and Finn have. Their two best friends, Emma and Scott are wonderful. Supportive and comfortable with each other, I'd really love to have such a close friend like these two when things start going wrong. I think this book has a very realistic outlook on crushes and relationships, but it takes a bit of time for all of the characters to reach that place, and an excellent best friend like Emma and Scott are perfect in these roles.

Also, part of the reason that I loved Jessie Hearts NYC so much is, for me, how close to home things started getting with the tenuous relationship that Jessie has with her distant mother. I thought it was an interesting aspect of the storyline and there are so many things that have been left unspoken between the two, resentments and bitterness that Jessie has been holding onto. It really touched something inside of me.

The characters, the setting, how romantic it is, the relationships - everything about this book very real to me and I finished it with a huge smile on my face! Jessie and Finn are pretty high on the adorable factor - Jessie Hearts NYC by Keris Stainton is so sweet and romantic, it really is a book not to miss!

Guest Post: Julie Kagawa on the loyalty of Puck

Julie Kagawa is the author of The Iron King, which I reviewed (and loved!) earlier in the month here. It is a thrill to have her on my blog today discussing one of my favourite characters from the book!

So far there are three books in the Iron Fey series, The Iron King, The Iron Daughter and The Iron Queen, as well as a free novella available on Julie's website.

Over to Julie...


Loyalty. A simple word, but a trait as complex as the wyldwood and world of Faery featured in my debut novel, The Iron King. And no character embodies loyalty as much as one character, Summer Court faery Puck.

Yes, that Puck!

Aka Robin Goodfellow, the great prankster, court jester of Arcadia and servant to the powerful Summer king, Oberon. In The Iron King, Oberon assigned Puck to watch over his secret daughter, half faery princess Meghan Chase. As Meghan grew up, Puck became her best friend, defender and finally becomes her guide as she enters the dangerous world of the faeries, the Nevernever. At great risk to himself, Puck accompanies Meghan on her quest to rescue her little brother from a threat that Faery has never seen before—a new kind of faery, poisonous to the traditional faery world, the Iron fey. And his loyalties are tested as never before.

As a Summer faery, Puck owes his loyalty to his king and court. Disobeying King Oberon will put him at risk of banishment. But leaving Meghan vulnerable to the whims of the capricious and dangerous Summer Court fey is something he won’t do. Still—what’s a guy to do when his loyalties are pulled in two different directions?

Well, one thing you can be sure of with Puck—it won’t be pretty, and often the results will be hilarious! Puck’s loyalty to his court is strong, but his commitment to Meghan offers a new dimension to his existence—and that’s something no fey can resist.

I hope you enjoy The Iron King!



Thank you Julie for a lovely guest post! I'm very much looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the Iron Fey series! To find more about Julie Kagawa and her books in the following places:

Julie's website
The Iron Fey website
MiraInk's website
Julie Kagawa on Twitter

REVIEW: You Don't Have To Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning

Sweet, bookish Neve Slater always plays by the rules. And the number one rule is that good-natured fat girls like her don’t get guys like gorgeous, handsome William, heir to Neve's heart since university. But William’s been in LA for three years, and Neve’s been slimming down and re-inventing herself so that when he returns, he’ll fall head over heels in love with the new, improved her.

So she’s not that interested in other men. Until her sister Celia points out that if Neve wants William to think she's an experienced love-goddess and not the fumbling, awkward girl he left behind, then she’d better get some, well, experience.

What Neve needs is someone to show her the ropes, someone like Celia’s colleague Max. Wicked, shallow, sexy Max. And since he’s such a man-slut, and so not Neve’s type, she certainly won’t fall for him. Because William is the man for her… right?

Somewhere between losing weight and losing her inhibitions, Neve’s lost her heart – but to who?

I really, really love Sarra Manning. I've only recently started reading her books, but every book of hers that I have read, I've loved. And You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is no exception. I knew that I was in for a treat when I read the product description - how dodgy is that premise? Losing weight in order to win a guy? Test-driving another guy until the guy you really want comes back? By that description, it sounds as though the main character, Neve, won't be likeable at all, and instead I was rooting for her all the way through. I think the concept of body image is something that a lot of us women struggle with, so I could relate to Neve's insecurities.

Neve used to be extremely overweight, but through years of hard exercise and a strict diet, she's dropped a shed-load of pounds but she's still conscious of her body shape and the way she looks. She's desperate for her long-term crush, William to fall in love with her when he returns after a three year absence to LA and she hopes to surprise him with her brand new body. But in order to gain some dating experience before William returns (so she doesn't mess things up with HIM), Neve believes her best choice is to start dating her sister Celia's colleage and womanizer, Max.

Early on in You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, Neve and Max share an absolutely humilating sexual experience, but it in turn led Neve to be really open with Max and share with him some of her fears and concerns about how she can maintain a healthy relationship with another person. I am glad that Neve and Max are open about their pretend-relationship right from the start, and I found them to be utterly adorable together. Despite Max's initial persona as a womanizing cad, he is actually quite lovely. He seems to really care about Neve and try to steer her towards having a better and more positive body-image.

Neve's transformation throughout the entire novel was really wonderful, if at times a little extreme. Her fixation on her diet and dress size leads her down a dangerous path, but it seemed believeable to the reader, if a little infuriating. I really wanted to shake some sense into Neve. Also, within her personal career, I thought the information about Neve's book about an unknown author to be utterly fascinating! I loved all of the secondary characters, from Neve's sister Celia to the WAGs to Neve's horrid sister-in-law! It also put a big smile on my face to see some reoccuring characters from Sarra Manning's previous adult novel, Unsticky.

All in all a truly wonderful reading experience. Despite being over 500 pages, I flew through this one. I hated the idea of putting it down! I will always eagerly anticipate Sarra Manning's new books. I love her and her books.

Guest Post: Favourite couples in YA

Today I'm very lucky to introduce Kirsty from The Overflowing Library to my blog. (Hi Kirsty!) Kirsty is another one of my absolute favourite book bloggers and friends. Her interest in historical fiction aside, we do share a lot of favourite books in common and I always eagerly await her posts. Over to you Kirsty...


Couples from books I love....

While not essential for me to like a book I do love a story with a great couple in it. Forget all these love triangles that keep popping up everywhere, I much prefer a novel where the couple in question are rock solid and generally a bit loved up. In no particular order these are my favourite couples from books I have read in recent months.



Sally Lockhart and Fred Garland from The Sally Lockhart Series by Philip Pullman
Maybe it's the historian in me, but I loved these two as a couple. I loved how modern they were despite being set in the Victorian period and ended up completely devastated at how things turned out for the two of them. If you've not read this series you really ought to!




Claire and Henry from the Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This is one of the very few adult books I have actually read and I loved it and loved them. Again another one with a bit of a sad ending (I almost cried - which is saying a lot, I do not cry at books ever). I loved how their story unravelled with the time travel element thrown into the mix.





Will and Lyra from His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
Possibly a bit of a controversial one as they are both quite young in the books, but I think the potential Will and Lyra had as a couple would have been amazing. I loved their story and my heart broke a little bit at the end when they were forced to give each other up and return to their own worlds at the end of the series.




Daniel and Lucy from My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares
I loved this book and I loved the lead couple in it. I loved the idea that souls were destined to be together throughout time and how they kept finding one another time and time again.





John and Meg from Going too far by Jennifer Echols
Officer After made my knees go weak! I'm not going to lie to you there were times in this book when I was jealous of Meg and wanted to keep him for myself. He is just so gorgeously hot in his policeness. That said I did love them as a couple. I loved how she played the rebel but actually Mr straight-laced was the one to rescue her!





Who have I missed?? Which other couples do you think are worth a mention?


Thank you Kirsty! I would have never remembered Sally and Fred or Will and Lyra, but now that you've mentioned them how could I have forgotten them?! They're brilliant, and so are you! Everyone, head over to The Overflowing Library and tell Kirsty how brilliant she is!

Post-It Love

N showed me this video and I thought it was just too adorable not to share it with the rest of you!

Guest Post: Portia and Vance

Hello and welcome to my blog today, Susan K Mann! I've recently started reading Susan's blog and I love the mixture of her content, from the books she reads, posts about her children to her writing. There's always something interesting to read! It's an honour to have you Susan...


I normally blog over at SusanKMann which is my own blog, where I blog about my life as a mother of two gorgeous boys, being a wife, working, book reviews and my writing when I can. It’s a little varied to say the least. Come by for a visit sometime.



Love, now what can I write about? My love for Damon Salvatore, now that would be boring, me
gushing on about how hot he is? How sexy Edward Cullen is in the books, not so sure about the
films? No, none of them are right. I decided to write on one of my favourite couple in love and a poem about their first kiss.

My favourite book couple in love is Portia Mullins and Vance Magnum from Lacey Weatherford’s Of Witches and Warlocks series.

Of Witches and Warlocks, is a series of books written by my favourite author Lacey Weatherford. She is an amazing and talented writer, not to mention a wonderful wife and fantastic mother to six, yes six children. How she finds the time to write as well I will never know, but I’m grateful she does.

Lacey has created a strong, role model worth, protagonist called Portia Mullins. Portia is an ordinary teenager, living an ordinary life until she reaches her sweet sixteen birthday. Instead of being given a dress or some frivolous gift, she is told she is a witch. A very powerful witch at that. She is a descendant form a long line of witches and warlocks on her father’s side.

Her Grandmother is the high priestess of a coven, in which she meets Vance Magnum. A leather clad, motorbike riding, bad boy. Who turns out to be her soul mate, they are destined to be together. But fate, throws a few spanners in the works.

The chemistry and romance is breathtakingly deep, as Portia struggles to balance love, life, magic, family and being a teenager.



First Kiss

Standing face to face,
Our eyes lock,
Our heads tilt before the embrace,

The butterflies in my stomach flap intensely,
The anticipation of what is to become overwhelms me,
The hairs at the back of my neck start to tingle,

We move closer,
I feel your breath on my lips,
A shiver goes down my spine,

Our lips touch,
And the butterflies become bats,
The tingling becomes electrified,

Our kiss becomes more intense,
I intertwine my fingers in your hair,
Our breathing becomes faster, becomes one,

Then it’s over, WOW...

AWWW, Thank you Susan. That was lovely :) I really, desperately need to pick up this book that so many people are raving about! It sounds fab. Please stop by Susan's blog and say hello!

Romantic couples from history: Part 1

Cleopatra and Marc Antony - I can't say that I knew much about Cleopatra or Marc Antony before now, which is why I'm hugely excited to have written this post. William Shakespeare wrote a play, Antony and Cleopatra, dramatising the events of history and the romance between these two. Cleopatra was a very strong, beautiful and intelligent woman who was aligned to both Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, both (obviously) high-ranking Roman generals. When Marc Antony and Cleopatra were wed, Marc Antony bestowed her with a huge amount of land which caused jealousy and resentment to other Romans. War broke out and Marc Antony either heard news of Cleopatra's death and fell on his sword and died or was taken prisoner and committed suicide. Cleopatra, devastated, was also taken prisoner and arranged for a poisonous snake to be brought to her in order to commit suicide. What a sad, tragic love story!


Tristan and Isolde - The story of Tristan and Isolde has been told time and time again. Even so, I only became aware of them recently. Set in medieval times, during the reign of King Arthur - Isolde is the daughter of the King of Ireland, who is betrothed to King Mark of Cornwall. When King Mark sends his nephew, Tristan, to escort his bride-to-be back to Cornwall the two fall in love. And despite Isolde's marriage to King Mark, Tristan and Isolde carry on with their affair, despite both of their strong feelings of loyalty to King Mark.


Abelard and Heloise - You know, beloved, as the whole world knows, how much I have lost in you, how at one wretched stroke of fortune that supreme act of flagrant treachery robbed me of my very self in robbing me of you; and how my sorrow for my loss is nothing compared with what I feel for the manner in which I lost you. So wrote Abelard to his Heloise. In 12th century Paris, a young, beautiful and intelligent student, Heloise and her mentor, Abelard fall in love. Despite falling pregnant and being secretly wed, Heloise's uncle interferes and Heloise and Abelard and forced into becoming a nun and a monk. Despite the separation, the two's love continues for the next 20 years with the most romantic letters possible. Absolutely heart-breaking.

Later in the week, I will be posting a more recent list of romantic couples, but for now -

Can you think of any other romantic couples from history?

Review and Guest Post: Siren by Tricia Rayburn

Vacationing in Winter Harbor, Maine, is a tradition for Vanessa and Justine Sands, and that means spending time with the Carmichael boys. This summer, Vanessa is determined to channel some of her older sister’s boldness, get over her fear of the ocean, and maybe turn her friendship with Simon Carmichael into something much more.

But when Justine goes cliff-diving after a big family argument, and her body washes ashore the next day, Vanessa is sure that it was more than an accident. She is more certain of this, when she discovers that her sister was keeping some big secrets and Caleb Carmichael’s gone missing. Suddenly, the entire oceanfront town is abuzz when a series of grim, water-related accidents occur, with the male victims washed ashore grinning from ear to ear.

Vanessa and Simon team up to figure out if these creepy deaths have anything to do with Justine and Caleb. But will what Vanessa discovers mean the end of her summer romance, or even life as she knows it?

I absolutely ADORED Siren by Tricia Rayburn. Really, really. I thought the mixture of romance and mystery as the events of Siren unfolded were blended beautifully. Each of the characters were done very well and I was drawn into the story and into Vanessa's head and emotions right from the start.

Siren begins with two teenage sisters, Justine and Vanessa, coming to their summer home with their parents. Living next-door are the Carmichael brothers, Caleb and Simon. Together, the four spend time together and hang out. That is, until Justine dies suddenly in a diving accident. As Justine and Vanessa's parents go home to grieve, Vanessa is determined to return and find out more about Justine's thought patterns and seek closure through learning more about Justine and her relationship with Caleb Carmichael. With the help of hot weather-nerd, Simon, what they uncover is much bigger and more sinister than they could ever have imagined as men start washing ashore dead.

There's so much to say about this book. I loved the way that information about each of the characters and the mystery surrounding this beach-town trickled through the story. We know enough about the people that populate the story and little bits of information are given to propel everything forward at just the right pace. The transformation of Vanessa, from a shy and afraid girl living in the shadows of her more charismatic sister into somebody who is bold and goes after answers and justice was wonderful to witness. You could tell immediately how much Justine and Vanessa cared about each other, and one particular scene that showed the extent of Justine's protection of Vanessa had me crying. I love reading about close family relationships.

The paranormal element is one that I've never come across before in a YA novel, and it was refreshing to read about as well as fascinating. I was absolutely riveted hearing the details and story around the people or persons responsible for the deaths of the men in Winter Harbour.

And then there's the romance. Vanessa's love interest in Siren is quite a gentle and sweet sort of romance. But as, Tricia Rayburn writes (in her amazing guest post) below, how could it be anything different? Vanessa's entire life has shifted with the death of her sister and the new information she is learning about the community of Winter Harbour and she needs somebody who's there for her, who's been there for her all along. And what can I say? I found Simon to be utterly fanciable. I love his loyalty to Vanessa, his protective nature, and his nerdiness! I'd quite like a Simon Carmichael for myself, thank you!

Amazing book, I'm really looking forward to seeing how things continue in the sequel, Undercurrent. A huge thank you to the folks at Faber for sending this book for review! Siren comes very highly recommended from me.



I asked Tricia Rayburn if she would like to write a guest post for Love Month, and she sent me this incredible piece about the characters in Siren.

Tricia Rayburn is the author of Ruby’s Slippers and the Maggie Bean trilogy. Despite fearing all creatures of the deep, she’s still drawn to the water and makes her home in a seaside town on eastern Long Island in America. To learn more about Tricia Rayburn, please do visit her website!

The Good Guy

Let’s face it: Simon Carmichael, Vanessa’s love interest in Siren, is no Edward Cullen. He’s a teenager. He eats regular food. He drives an old green Subaru. He can’t race through the woods at lightning speed. His idea of a good time is monitoring the tides and predicting the weather. When he wants to see the girl he likes, he doesn’t magically appear in her bedroom while she’s sleeping; he knocks on the door and hopes she’ll answer.

Compared to other paranormal paramours, Simon’s perfectly ordinary. But that doesn’t make him any less a romantic hero.

Since Siren’s release, many readers have told me how happy they were to discover that Simon was a “good” guy. I have to admit, I was a bit surprised the first few times I heard this. Not because readers were pleased, but because I wasn’t really thinking of “good” versus “bad” when considering who’d be the one to steal Vanessa’s heart. Instead, I thought of the kind of person a girl could fall in love with while experiencing some of the worst trauma and heartache imaginable—and unimaginable. Because during that fateful summer in Winter Harbor, Vanessa suffers many losses. She learns things about herself and her family she wishes she didn’t. The world she’s known for seventeen years, and everyone in it, comes crashing down around her. These are the kinds of circumstances that make an already shy, introverted person want to turn in and shut out others even more. And that’s exactly what Vanessa would’ve done with anyone else…except Simon.

Simon is good. But the reason he and Vanessa work runs much deeper than that. In the bigger picture, their time together has been fairly limited; Vanessa and her family only spend summers in Winter Harbor and are in Boston the rest of the year. The boy/girl-next-door situation that often leads to young romance is hindered by calendar and geographic limitations. Simon, however, hasn’t wasted a minute. He recognized early on that Vanessa was always too busy idolizing her fearless older sister Justine to be too concerned about herself. So he looked out for her. It didn’t matter whether they were playing hide and seek in their backyards, hiking in the woods, or just hanging out and watching movies. Without ever making her uncomfortable, he made sure she was always comfortable. It’s this protective yet non-intrusive attention that helps him know her better, in some ways, than she even knows herself. And it’s what Vanessa realizes and embraces when her world spirals out of control and she needs someone to hold on to.

Of course, as strong as their relationship is it’s not without complications. When Vanessa finally learns who—or what—she really is, she’s too scared to tell Simon the truth. He’ll eventually find out, though, and when he does, both he and Vanessa will ask themselves one question they never thought they would. It’s something countless literary couples, regardless of who’s good, bad, or somewhere in between, have wondered.

Can love—the real kind, complete with understanding and acceptance and compassion— really survive anything?

The answer?

Absolutely…at least if Simon Carmichael has anything to do with it.

-Tricia Rayburn

Thank you Tricia for such a wonderful guest post! Simon already has my heart. Find more about Tricia at her website, follow her on Twitter, or become her friend on Facebook!

Guest post: A Love poem

And now for something a little different. John O'Halloran is an amazing poet that a friend of mine brought my attention to. He's agreed to share with us one of his own original poems today. Thank you John, for being so brave and for sharing something so personal with us...

Never

I never bought you flowers for your birthday or for Valentines
I never bought you chocolates, bought you jewellery or exotic wine
I never gave you presents, or my presence, for you were not mine
I never felt you sleeping, there beside me, for the hundredth time

I never had the courage to be brave enough to make you mine
My physicality gave not the strength to me to make you see
I never held you in my arms, or held you close, or kissed your lips
I never held you close to me, my fingertips upon your hips

I never knew what others knew, the ones who seemed so wrong for you
I never felt you had a clue, you carried on, like people do
I never felt I had the right, to be with you, like others do
I never felt they had the right, they stayed with you, for just one night

A night would never be enough, enough for me, to be with you
I'd rather not have you at all, but let it be, the fantasy
In truth you see, I loved you more than any man you ever saw
You never saw, I never showed, and nothing more and nothing owed

I never bought you anything, I never gave you any ring
You never were my queen and I was way too weak to be your King
And now that we are parted with a permanance that can't be bridged
I find that I am haunted by the many things I never did


Wow. Isn't that incredible. I really feel like giving John a hug now. Be sure to check out John's other poetry and writing on his blog.

Guest Post: Susie Day on the books she writes

Susie Day is the absolutely wonderful author of Big Woo: My Not-So-Secret Teenage Blog and the hilarious Girl Meets Cake (both books titled differently in the US: Serafina67 and My Invisible Boyfriend - click on the link to her website in order to read exerpts from both books!) I am so excited to welcome Susie to my blog today!

I write ‘pink’ books. You know the ones. They aren’t always pink, but that’s what they get called: sweet girly romance for teens, probably with sparkles and shoes on the cover.

I also happen to be a lesbian.

So how does that work, exactly?



For starters, I’m fairly sure ‘making stuff up’ in is the job description. As it happens, my own teenage experiences were with boys - so creating my main female character’s adorkable love interest as a fella? Not such a giant leap. Being gay doesn’t make me immune to the concept of The Hot Guy (just as most straight women can go ‘hey, that Beyonce looked kind of smoking in the Single Ladies video, no?’ without their entire self-perception melting in panic). Supernatural’s Dean Winchester is a pretty, pretty man whoever is looking at him.



I write funny, contemporary fiction about learning to be the young adult a girl grows into – with all the embarrassment, glee, physical weirditude and lost lonely gloom that it can entail. Sex and sexual identity is a portion of that – and that’s scary and baffling whether it’s down to orientation, or the conviction that everyone else has DONE RUDE THINGS and you haven’t even looked at yourself naked in the mirror yet. Being a teenager can be relentlessly terrifying, and that’s universal.



I don’t mean to make light of the issues specific to LGBT teens: the genuine threats, hostility, violence and rejection that some have to endure. There are unique anxieties within the community, that YA lit can and does speak to directly and powerfully. (There’s a cracking list here.)

But as a comic writer, there’s only so much grit I want to include – and LGBT characters aren’t only there to ‘represent the issue’, just as ‘pink’ books are never only about romance. Even the most love-addled teenager (gay or straight) also has to deal with friendships and school and zits and sweaty bits and parents and The Looming Future and music and movies and bad decisions and burnt toast and money and facebook and the continuing tendency of the human race to knacker itself and its planet for no logical reason – and that’s without throwing in mental illness or bereavement or divorce or any of the million curveballs that real life involves. Real people don’t fall in love in a vacuum: bullies don’t vanish, the laundry doesn’t wash itself just because you distractingly like someone. (Boo.) Love is one piece of the pink puzzle, not the picture itself.

That doesn’t mean LGBT invisibility: it means giving my gay characters a place in a smarter world, where they have the same status as everyone else. Dai and Henry in Girl Meets Cake nearly break up because former fat-boy Dai worries he’s not good enough; Cam in Big Woo fights with her mum for dating rubbish blokes. Those worries could belong to any of their friends: they aren’t defined solely by sexuality.

To some that might seem like a cop-out: an erasure of difference. But what’s important to me is that they are there, visible, out and ordinary. It still startles me how frequently I read teen fiction in which not one character is other than straight and cisgendered.

If an author isn’t LGBT themselves, you might ask, why would they bother? Why should they, when the rest of our popular culture doesn’t? Or perhaps those characters are there, somewhere, like Dumbledore. The author just never got around to mentioning it on the page, it never seemed relevant to the story, it just didn’t crop up...

It matters because representation matters. Numbers matter. Names and faces matter. The It Gets Better project in the US – tragically prompted by multiple teen suicides – opened my own eyes to just how empowering it could be to see real individuals unafraid to be counted. Maybe it’s because I stayed in the closet for so long, or grew up in a place where I knew ONE gay teen, and even that was a secret. Maybe it’s because I associate silence on the subject with my own cowardice: because not taking every opportunity to say ‘yes, hello, lesbian in the room!’ feels disingenuous. (I am SO much fun at parties.) And, yeah, maybe those are my problems, and I can’t import them into every flippin’ book I read without going a bit barmy.

But – the reason I write for teenagers is because they’re important. All of them. The books they read are important: even the flip, sweet, funny ones; maybe especially those. We have a responsibility as writers of YA to offer them something of value. Hope. A voice. Guidance on how to be an ally. A perspective wider than the one in their front room. I know not every book can achieve world peace and a lifetime supply of KitKat Chunkys, but we’re writers. We’re daft by default. We can shoot for the moon.

Me, I’m still aiming. Maybe next I’ll write a funny, fluffy teen romance with a gay main character. The pink book world is ready for a Georgia Nicolson who’s torn between snogging Davina the Laugh and the Robyn the Sex Goddess, right?

What an amazing post! Thank you for sharing this with us. Visit Susie Day at her website, where she blogs intermittently, or follow her on Twitter. And I would recommend reading her books as well :)