Review and Giveaway!! The Boy Next Story (Bookish Boyfriends #2)

The Boy Next Story

 by Tiffany Schmidt

Synopsis:

The second book in a series where your favorite literary characters come to life, inspired by the timeless classic, Little Women!

There’s no one better than the boy next door. At least not according to Aurora Campbell, fourteen, who has been in love with Tobias May since their very first sandbox kiss. The problem is, he’s in love with her older sister, Merrilee. And Merri is already dating one of his best friends.

Rory is learning all about pining as her class reads The Great Gatsby, a book she doesn’t find “great” at all. Also not great—her GPA, something she needs to fix, quickly, if she’d like to apply for the chance to spend a week studying art with her hero in New York City over winter break. But when Ms. Gregoire assigns her to read Little Women for extra credit, Rory discovers more than she expected—both about herself and Toby. Maybe she wasn’t in love with the boy next door. . . but the boy next story.

Love is complicated, and it’s all about to get even trickier for Rory at Reginald R. Hero Prep . . . where with the help of one quirky English teacher, students’ fantasies come true, often with surprising consequences.

My Take:

I knew that I was going to be smitten with this book as soon as I read the Booklist review, "This contemporary rom-com series starter is a fun introduction to classics... wittily making old stories new again".  I probably should have read Little Women first, since the book is loosely based off of this classic, but alas I did not.  So, I may not have been able to get some of the hints, nods or references to the original title, but even still, I was in awe of Rory and her journey. 

I admit I couldn't fully relate to Rory because of her being only 14, and I'm well, not 14, but I could totally relate to the feelings of not being seen or heard and for those reasons, I imagined myself as Rory.  I also love her relationship with art.  Though I never really appreciated it as a kid, as I've gotten older, I find it so powerful for so many different reasons and I think that also helped me to relate to Rory a bit more.  

Tobias was a wonderful character though.  One of the best young males I've read of in a long time.  I prefer my guys a little on the shy side and I totally got that with Toby.  I couldn't have asked for a better male lead.

I wasn't quite expecting so much of the sisterly bonding though that is on me, because I know Little Women and also that was explained more in the first book, which admittedly I did not read, the good news is that you don't have to read the first book to get this one!  Just that like me, you might be a bit surprised to find a lot more than what's on the back cover, and that is totally a badass quality by the way!  I thoroughly enjoyed The Boy Next Story and can't wait to see what else Tiffany has up her literary sleeves!

Favorite Quotes:

"His hand squeezed mine before he pulled away to flag down our waitress. "Could I have the check?"

"If I stayed stuck in the past, it would destroy me.  It was time to move on. It was time to let go."

"Don't decide you can't before you discover you can."

"It was an accidental declaration in all its messy glory."

"And maybe families weren't a game of balancing a seesaw but of playing Red Rover.  You held on as tight as you could and protected that bond from the forces that flew against you and tried to tear you apart."

About the Author 

Tiffany Schmidt 

Tiffany Schmidt is the author of Send Me a Sign, Bright Before Sunrise, and Hold Me Like a Breath (Once Upon a Crime Family book 1).  She’s found her happily ever after in Pennsylvania with her saintly husband, impish twin boys, and a pair of mischievous puggles. You can find out more about her and her books at: TiffanySchmidt.com, TiffanySchmidtWrites.Tumblr.com or by following her on Twitter @TiffanySchmidt.

Tour Schedule

https://fantasticflyingbookclub.blogspot.com/2019/04/tour-schedule-boy-next-story-bookish.html

Givewaway

Prize: Win a copy of BOOKISH BOYFRIENDS: THE BOY NEXT STORY by Tiffany Schmidt (US Only)

 Start Date: 21^st May 2019

End Date: 4^th June 2019

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d9681b86368/?

GIVEAWAY and Guest Post of Love is Both Wave and Particle

Bog Tour:  Love is Both Wave and Particle

By: Paul Cody

 LOVE IS BOTH WAVE AND PARTICLE

“My First Book for Teens”

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Release Date: August 1, 2017

Genre: Young Adult,  Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

This achingly beautiful novel considers how to measure love when it has the power to both save and destroy.

Levon Grady and Samantha Vash are both students at an alternative high school for high-achieving but troubled teens. They have been chosen for a year-long project where they write their life stories and collect interviews from people who know them. The only rule is 100% confidentiality—they will share their work only with each other. What happens will transform their lives.

Told from the perspectives of Levon, Sam, and all the people who know them best, this is a love story infused with science and the exploration of identity. Love Is Both Wave and Particle looks at how love behaves in different situations, and how it can shed light on even the darkest heart.

Goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31145041-love-is-both-wave-and-particle

Amazon- https://www.amazon.ca/Love-Both-Wave-Particle-Paul/dp/1626726884

B&N-https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-is-both-wave-and-particle-paul-cody/1124116008?ean=9781626726888&st=AFF&2sid=Goodreads,%20Inc_2227948_NA&sourceId=AFFGoodreads,%20IncM000004

BookDepository-https://www.bookdepository.com/Love-Is-Both-Wave-and-Particle-Paul-Cody/9781626726888

Kobo- https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/love-is-both-wave-and-particle

I didn’t intend to write Love Is Both Wave and Particle for teenagers. I had always written dark literary fiction for adults, usually about people who were mentally ill, or somehow living at the margins of society—in prisons, or mental hospitals, or on the streets.

But I taught at colleges and universities for more than fifteen years, and nearly all my students were anywhere from seventeen to twenty-one years old. One course I taught often was focused on personal essay and writing from experience.

The very nature of that course encouraged students to write about their lives, their hopes, fears, the things that had upset them or gave them joy. The students often wrote about cutting, eating disorders, sexual assault, depression, alcohol and drug problems, and serious problems with their parents.

I got to know the students unusually well, because they were writing from the heart. It made me realize how even “normal-seeming” students were often carrying heavy emotional burdens, and how often, writing about the burdens would somehow ease the pain.

I also have two sons who had recently passed through their mid to late teens. So, I felt I knew kids of that age.

Kids that age are in flux. Not quite adults, not only teenagers. They have driver’s licenses, are only a year away from voting or joining the military. Many drink alcohol, at least a little, some smoke weed.

I wanted to write a novel about two seventeen-year-olds, each with some history of mental illness or disability, and throw them together, in a fairly small setting, to see what would happen.

Would they hate each other?

Understand each other?

Might they fall in love?

Might they even change each other in big or small ways?

Part of being a teenager, I’d always thought, was growing up and away from the influence of parents and home, and finding different influences in the world, from friends, teachers, musicians, books, and the internet. Many things go into the process of growing up.

As I got deeper in the writing of Love Is Both Wave and Particle, the characters deepened and changed for me. Often, a character who I thought was a certain kind of person, who was cynical and heartless, turned out to have lots of heart and a real sense of decency. It had just been buried beneath a façade of cynical cool.

My main characters, Sam and Levon, were often contradicting my expectations for them. I wanted them to go left, and they wanted to go right. And in pretty much every case, I tried to watch and listen carefully, and I nearly always followed their leads.

Characters become alive to me as I’m writing, and I develop great respect and affection for them during the creation of a novel.

When I finished the novel, and sent it to the woman who’s now my agent, she read it and said, “This is a terrific young adult novel.” 

I was absolutely surprised, but very curious about the genre. I thought of Huck Finn and The Catcher in the Rye, and that in many ways those are young adult novels, and those are also novels I had loved for decades.

And then when I thought of the thousands of students I had taught, and when I looked at my two sons and their many friends, it made perfect sense that I had written a novel about young adults for young adults.

Just as my characters had surprised me, I had surprised myself.   

Paul Cody earned an MFA at Cornell University, and has published several novels and a memoir for adults. He lives in Ithaca, New York, with his wife, the poet Elizabeth Holmes, and their two sons. Love Is Both Wave and Particle is his first novel for teenagers.

Links:

Website- http://www.paulcodywriter.com

Goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21771.Paul_Cody

August 1st

Pink Polka Dot Books- Welcome Post

August 2nd

Little Library Muse- Promo

August 3rd

Serial Bibliophile- Review & Bookstagram

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August 4th

Mind of a Book Dragon- Guest Post

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August 5th

Never Too Many to Read- Guest Post

A Dream Within a Dream- Promo

August 6th

JusticeReads- Guest Post

Here's to Happy Endings- Review

August 7th

When Curiosity Killed the Cat- Review

ABOUT THE GIVEAWAY:

1 copy of LOVE IS BOTH WAVE AND PARTICLE by Paul Cody

US/Canada only

No Giveaway accounts

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