A Blogversation: YA Romance by Lynn Lovegreen

Unlike genres, young adult (YA) is a category or age range. The main characters are teens, roughly 12-18 years old. You can find YA contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, mystery, and many other genres. I write YA historical fiction set in Alaska, and there’s always at least a thread of romance in there. YA romance is a perennial favorite. Why not—who can resist the first kiss, the high school date, all the heady experiences of teenage romance?

 

Some young adult novels focus on the love story and can be called true or straight YA romance. For example, Chris Cannon’s Boyfriend Chronicles series starts with Blackmail Boyfriend (http://www.chriscannonauthor.com/book-store/):

Sometimes, blackmail is the only weapon a girl has…

Haley Patterson has had a crush on golden boy Bryce Colton for ages. But when she hears a rumor that he hooked up with her she gives him a choice: be her boyfriend for a month to show other guys that she’s dateable—despite her overprotective and very intimidating brothers—or deal with the angry, cage-fighting boyfriend of the girl he actually did hook up with.

Bryce didn’t know the other Haley even had a boyfriend. He was just trying to get his ex off his back. And now, not only is he being blackmailed, he's being blackmailed by an honor student. His new “girlfriend” has two three-legged dogs, her father mows grass at the country club, and she's…well, difficult. And different.

Can something so fake turn into something real?

 

 

 

Pintip Dunn’s upcoming Dating Makes Perfect (http://www.pintipdunn.com/dating-makes-perfect) is another good example:

The Tech sisters don’t date in high school. Not because they’re not asked. Not because they’re not interested. Not even because no one can pronounce their long, Thai last name—hence the shortened, awkward moniker. But simply because they’re not allowed.

Until now.

In a move that other Asian American girls know all too well, six months after the older Tech twins got to college, their parents asked, “Why aren’t you engaged yet?” The sisters retaliated by vowing that they won’t marry for ten (maybe even twenty!) years, not until they’ve had lots of the dating practice that they didn’t get in high school.

In a shocking war on the status quo, her parents now insist that their youngest daughter, Orrawin (aka “Winnie”), must practice fake dating in high school. Under their watchful eyes, of course—and organized based on their favorite rom-coms. ’Cause that won’t end in disaster.

The first candidate? The son of their longtime friends, Mat Songsomboon—arrogant, infuriating, and way too good-looking. Winnie’s known him since they were toddlers throwing sticky rice balls at each other. And her parents love him.

If only he weren’t her sworn enemy.

 

Others integrate romance into the plot, like Sherry Thomas’ The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan(https://www.sherrythomas.com/the-magnolia-sword-a-ballad-of-mulan.php):

CHINA, 484 A.D.

A Warrior in Disguise
All her life, Mulan has trained for one purpose: to win the duel that every generation in her family must fight. If she prevails, she can reunite a pair of priceless heirloom swords separated decades earlier, and avenge her father, who was paralyzed in his own duel.

Then a messenger from the Emperor arrives, demanding that all families send one soldier to fight the Rouran invaders in the north. Mulan's father cannot go. Her brother is just a child. So she ties up her hair, takes up her sword, and joins the army as a man.

A War for a Dynasty
Thanks to her martial arts skills, Mulan is chosen for an elite team under the command of the princeling--the royal duke's son, who is also the handsomest man she's ever seen. But the princeling has secrets of his own, which explode into Mulan's life and shake up everything she knows. As they cross the Great Wall to face the enemy beyond, Mulan and the princeling must find a way to unwind their past, unmask a traitor, and uncover the plans for the Rouran invasion . . . before it's too late.

Inspired by wuxia martial-arts dramas as well as the centuries-old ballad of Mulan, The Magnolia Sword is perfect for fans of Renee Ahdieh, Marie Lu, or Kristin Cashore--a thrilling, romantic, and sharp-edged novel that lives up to its beloved heroine. 

 

 

Let’s talk! What do you prefer, straight up YA romance, or a young romance woven into the story? Or maybe you have a title or author to recommend?

A Different Drummer by Lynn Lovegreen

(Note: this was previously posted on www.lynnlovegreen.com.)

I was the nice, quiet kid who read a lot. I had friends and could be social when I was in the mood or circumstances called for it, but I was a bit weird. One of my favorite things to do was find a quiet place in the woods and tell myself fairy stories. While other kids played sports, I curled up with a book or listened to Beatles records with my oldest sister. (For those of you who missed out on records, the best part was the LP covers. They were huge canvases for art and often had the lyrics inside or on the back, so we could follow along and analyze them in a way that’s hard to do with downloaded songs on our phones.) 

In high school, I had requisite crushes on cute guys, but I also had a thing for Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe and Romantic poet John Keats. I was a drama geek who memorized the soundtrack of A Chorus Line years before I ever saw it. I listened to music in my room for hours. The Beatles were still sacred to me, but I also learned lyrics by Billy Joel, Elton John, and others. Starting to notice a pattern here—words and stories?

It was no surprise to anyone that I became an English teacher. I loved reading and writing with teenagers. And sometimes they did, too. There’s nothing more rewarding than giving a teen a book and watching them fall in love with it. And a class NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) project led to writing my first novel and a new passion connected to words.

Skip a few years, and here I am, writing young adult historical fiction set in my home state. I hope to inspire and entertain teens (and those who love them) with stories of old Alaska. I am still marching to a different drummer, as there are few of us in this particular niche. But I couldn’t be happier about my current calling. It feels right for me, and gives me joy. Whether it’s researching, writing, connecting with other writers, or hanging out with teens, teachers, and librarians, it’s all fun, interesting or both at the same time. 

How are you stepping to the music of a different drummer? What are the rewards you’ve found in doing that?

Lynn Lovegreen has lived in Alaska for over fifty years. After twenty years in the classroom, she retired to make more time for writing. She enjoys her friends and family, reading, and volunteering at her local library. Her young adult historical fiction is set in Alaska, a great place for drama, romance, and independent characters. See her website at www.lynnlovegreen.com. You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram.

Lost in YA stories

Hi everyone! I am YA, and now MG author Barbara Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them.  My newest book, Courage, is middle grade fiction that will be coming out this summer from Harper Collins.


At the ALA Midwinter conference, I saw very few adult romances. Publishers attend the conference in droves for the opportunity to get their books in front of librarians from across the country. There are literally thousands of advance reader copies of books handed out to attendees to build hype for up-and-coming releases.

I grabbed an advance reader copy of What A Difference A Duke Makes by Lenora Bell by Avon from their booth. Outside of titles in the Harlequin booth and a few in some of the Indie booths, there was little or no other adult romance books at vendor booths during the librarian conference. I know, I actively searched for romance books. While there may be more during the larger, summer conference in New Orleans (Unfortunately I will not be able to attend) the lack was disturbing.

What A Difference A Duke Makes is a classic, and joyously funny, story of a governess and her employer, a Duke with a set of headstrong twins. His father abused his power and position with the more comely servants and he is determined not to continue that tradition.  Mari knows how to deal with rebellious orphans, surely she can deal with two pampered Duke's offspring without having to smother her rebellious nature for their father's benefit. Thus begins a game of governess versus duke, where even loosing is a victory.

What A Difference A Duke Makes goes on sale at the end of March, 2018.

On the other hand, there were tons of YA, including booths dedicated to them. Just as some people turn their backs on “bodice rippers”, too many adult readers continue to shun a fantastic area where authors are taking risks and readers are loving it.

Why Not YA?

Young adulthood is a time when passions run high. Witness what is happening in Florida and across the United States right now. I still remember the days when I too eschewed the dictum that you can’t beat city hall, when I fully believed that with right on my side I and my peers could accomplish anything. That’s an element that sets YA apart from other books, that youthful passion and belief that somewhere there has to be rightness and justice. The right books shows how that passion and optimism bleeds over into romance.

YA stories are seldom about people seeking happily ever afters. Very few of us find soul mates at sixteen (although I know some people in long term marriages who met in high school and would argue that point). It is about firsts, finding your place in the world, hopefully including a happily for now. As a result, books about younger protagonists present something special and different. That's what many readers of any age want, the same...but different.

A few of the YA gems I uncovered while at the ALA conference:

Me and Me by Alice Kuipers explores the “road not taken” a la Robert Frost’s poem. The fork in Lark’s life comes the day she has to chose one life to save. Either the five year old child she used to babysit for, or her boyfriend. The future will be different depending on who she selects to go after. She knows this, because in the book she splits and lives both timelines, just like in an episode of Star Trek. We journey with her as she explores both possible futures, the loss of the boy she loves or the end of the child she cares about. It’s a journey inside ourselves most of us never face, but she uncovers clues that say her mother also once had a similar split.

Me and Me goes on sale in October, 2018.

In Twelve Steps To Normal, author Farrah Penn describes Kira’s attempts to reclaim a lost love, a familiar theme in adult romance novels. What is unfamiliar, is the reason why she lost him. She's been away for almost a year while her father was in rehab for his alcoholism. Now he's been released and she is back home with him, her ex-boyfriend Jay,  the former best friend who is now with Jay, and Alex, a boy she has known forever and whom she liked, until he sent her a shocking text when she first left home.

Thanks to social media she has kept up with events back home, at least enough to be unsure how she will handle the grand reunion. She puts together a list of twelve steps for returning her life to normal. One of those steps is forgiving her father. Another is getting back with Jay. She also has to decide if she can still be friends with Alex and the information in that text.

Twelve Steps To Normal was just put on sale this week.

We Regret To Inform You is the young person’s version of an unsuccessful job hunt, even when your resume is perfect. Mischa Abramavicius (I kid you not, that is her name) finds that her star student status at an elite private high school is not enough to get her accepted into any college, not even her safety school. On paper, she is perfect and any school would be thrilled to have her and her many class and extracurricular accomplishments - unless the paper was altered. (I did say YA was a time of passion, and no passionate person will take rejection easily.)

Mischa sets out to discover who tampered with her record. She enlists the aid of Nate, even if it is embarrassing to be his "poor" friend. Armed with that youthful passion, she ends up exposing a school conspiracy that goes beyond her. Life in high school is exactly like Game Of Thrones where there are only so many spots at the top. That means someone has to be at the bottom. The conspiracy she and Nate uncover could land her a birth at a prestigious college - as long as she is willing to keep silent and preserve the status quo.

We Regret To Inform You will be released in August, 2018.

And of course there is my upcoming novel, Courage. At seventh grade life is more about developing friendships, initial relationships with peers, instead of genuine romance. T'Shawn, the protagonist, doesn't want the impossible. He just wants life to continue being good. Unfortunately,  that's impossible with his ex-con brother returning home, and preparing to live in the same bedroom with him.

This becomes an area where friendships are tested, including his budding interest in Carmela and Linda, two girls in his class ready to help him deal with the problem that is his prodigal son brother. Unfortunately, they hand him contradictory advice on how to handle the future, and, in the end, what to do next has to be his own decision.

Courage is being released in July, 2018.

GIRL ON THE VERGE by Pintip Dunn

It is a dream come true for me to share my stories with the world. My newest book, GIRL ON THE VERGE holds a very special place in my heart because it features a heroine who is Thai-American, just like me. 

My love for reading began at a young age. In fact, I read nearly every book in the children’s section at my public library. But as much as reading was my joy and solace, it also cemented my feelings of not belonging. 

I can't remember reading a book back then with a main character who looked like me. Even worse, I never even tried to imagine a character with my same physical features. In my few years of life, the message I'd received from the world was abundantly clear: People like you don't belong in books. People like you don't belong on the screen. People like you have no place in our collective creative consciousness.  

I've wanted to be an author ever since I was six years old, but I grew up believing that if I wanted to publish a book, I could only write about Caucasian characters. This wasn't so much an opinion but a fact of life. Just as the sky is blue. Just as the grass is green. Just as my skin is yellow. 

Fast forward thirty or so years, and something happened in the publishing industry. Something exciting and wonderful and ground-breaking, and I would be lying if I said it didn't completely blow my mind.  Campaigns like #WeNeedDiverseBooks and #OwnVoices emerged, and I learned that I could write about characters who looked like me.

PINTIP DUNN

Let me say that again because it was such a revelation: I could write about characters. Who. Looked. Like. Me. 

My first thought, of course, was of my children. As a parent, I try to give them all the things I lacked as a child. And now, I can give them the ultimate gift of all: a main character who shares their cultural heritage. 

I think this is vitally important for my children to see. I want them to grow up knowing that they are loved and valued and worthy. I want to give them a childhood where they don't feel erased, an existence where they aren't pushed to the edges of society. Stories like this help me do that.

I am so very grateful I was given this opportunity.  

 Author bio:

Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of YA fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the YALE LAW JOURNAL.

FORGET TOMORROW

Pintip is represented by literary agent Beth Miller of Writers House. Her novel, FORGET TOMORROW, won the RWA RITA® for Best First Book. In addition, it is a finalist for the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, the Japanese Sakura Medal, and the MASL Truman Award. In addition to the FORGET TOMORROW series, her other books include THE DARKEST LIE and GIRL ON THE VERGE.

She lives with her husband and children in Maryland. You can learn more about Pintip and her books at www.pintipdunn.com

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GIRL ON THE VERGE releases June 27, 2017!

From the author of The Darkest Lie comes a compelling, provocative story for fans of I Was Here and Vanishing Girls, about a high school senior straddling two worlds, unsure how she fits in either—and the journey of self-discovery that leads her to surprising truths.
In her small Kansas town, at her predominantly white school, Kanchana doesn’t look like anyone else. But at home, her Thai grandmother chides her for being too westernized. Only through the clothing Kan designs in secret can she find a way to fuse both cultures into something distinctly her own.

When her mother agrees to provide a home for a teenage girl named Shelly, Kan sees a chance to prove herself useful. Making Shelly feel comfortable is easy at first—her new friend is eager to please, embraces the family’s Thai traditions, and clearly looks up to Kan. Perhaps too much. Shelly seems to want everything Kanchana has, even the blond, blue-eyed boy she has a crush on. As Kan’s growing discomfort compels her to investigate Shelly’s past, she’s shocked to find how it much intersects with her own—and just how far Shelly will go to belong…