Category Archives: romance

My Literary Boyfriends *revised*

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helpIt’s time for an update on my love life.

(Please note: my entire love life is fictional.)

(For now.)

And so I present to you …


My Top 8 Literary Boyfriends

1. Silas Hart of Truest
Is it unfair that I put the boy from my own book first?  I essentially created him to be my perfect boyfriend, were I seventeen years old.  A deep-thinking, goofy-as-all-get-out, handsome young poet.  Yup.

2. Augustus Waters of The Fault in Our Stars
He takes metaphorically fraught freethrows, for goodness sakes.

3. Jonah Griggs of Jellicoe Road
Causing a riot is what he does best.

4. Sean Kendrick of The Scorpio Races
My newest love!  He can swallow you with his eyes.

5. Will Trombal of Saving Francesca and The Piper’s Son
“His voice is deep and gravelly. I once heard one of the girls say that he had the voice of a sex god, but because I’ve never really heard what a sex god sounds like, I can’t verify that.” Works for me.

6. Gilbert Blythe of Anne of Green Gables
Oh Gil!  You can call me “Carrots” anytime!

7. Max Vandenberg of The Book Thief
I want a Jewish fist-fighter to protect me.

8. Joe Fontaine of The Sky is Everywhere
The smile.  It always comes back to that smile.

Your turn!!

sorry

 

 

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

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jellicoeI just recently re-read Jellicoe Road for the trillionth time, and you need to read it too.  For the last couple of years, this has taken the spot of my #1 most suggested book.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Jellicoe Road is a hard book to summarize, but let me give it my best shot:

There’s a territory war happening between the boarders (at the Jellicoe boarding school), the townies (from Jellicoe/Jellicoe High School), and the cadets (the military academy students who are camping on the boarding school property for the next six weeks).  While the three “factions” negotiate, Taylor Markham– the leader of the boarders– is trying to work out where Hannah, the woman in charge of her boarding school house, has disappeared to, using Hannah’s disorganized manuscript for clues.  The manuscript tells the story of five teens– three boarders, a townie, and a cadet– and Taylor is starting to wonder just how much of the manuscript is fiction.

There.  I know, I know: my description probably doesn’t make you want to run out and read it, so you’re just going to have to trust me.  Let me lay out my reasons why you should read this book:

1) The characters.

Taylor, the vulnerable leader of a boarding school community; Jonah, the cadet with whom she has strange history; Chaz, the townie enemy with a soul; and Raffaela, who sustains them all with her strong beliefs.  Not to mention Ben, the violinist; the Mullet Brothers; Anson Choi; Jessa and Chloe P.; and Richard, who wants to stage a coup.  (And beyond that … the five fascinating teens in Hannah’s unfinished manuscript!)

2) The dialogue.

Melina Marchetta is a master of teenage dialogue.  It’s so funny and spot-on and meaningful and good.

jellicoe23) The masterful writing.

A couple, non-spoilery quotes for you:

‘Guess what?’ Fitz said.
‘I don’t know,’ Jude said. ‘What? Narnie smiled?’ He glanced at her for the first time.
‘When you guys see a Narnie smile, it’s like a revalation,’ Webb said, gathering her towards him.
Jude stopped in front of her and, with both hands cupping her face, tried to make a smile. Narnie flinched.
‘Leave her alone,’ Tate said.
‘I need a revelation,’ Jude said. ‘And you’re the only one that can give me one, Narns.’ 

What kind of freak is this kid who’s giggling hysterically with the girls in the neighbouring beds, each with a crush on the other for being the same age when the rest of the world seems so old?

For reasons he couldn’t understand a sadness came over him and it was then he saw the girl standing on the other side of the dirt road, her eyes pools of absolute sorrow, her light brown hair glowing in the splinters of sunlight that forced their way through the trees.

jellicoe34) The mystery & the way it all fits together like a puzzle.

This book is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, so at first you won’t understand just how everything fits together.  But it does.  Oh, how it does.  In fact, after you read it once, you might do what my sister did, and immediately re-read it to catch everything you missed the first time.

5) Did I mention it’s funny too?  

There are parts that will make you want to laugh aloud!

So, all in all, Jellicoe Road is deep, funny, sad, poignant, fascinating, original, and well-written.

What are you waiting for?

Hanson: Reliving My Youth

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mmmbopHere’s what you have to first understand:

It was 1997, and I was in love.

I’d heard the song, and I’d seen the music video, but when YM posted pictures in their September issue, I looked into the (2-D, glossy-page) eyes of Zachary Walker Hanson and knew I belonged with him.

Sure, he was only 12.  But I was only 16.

I had recently learned the word inevitable, and it started showing up in my poetry about this hyper young drummer who had so stolen my heart.

My sister Kristin called dibs on Taylor, the middle brother, but my love and energies were directed at the youngest.  We plastered our walls in centerfolds, grew addicted to Tiger Beat and BOP, needing each new issue because ohmygoshdidyouSEEthepostersinside?!

I was more than 100% sure that I would marry him.  I just had to meet him.  I started to set aside money to travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and meet my future husband.  I checked the daily weather in Tulsa thanks to this new-fangled internet-thing, and I checked out books about Oklahoma from the library.  I wrote poems about Zac, about his drummer hands, about the Tulsa sky, which I was convinced was a blue you could not get anywhere else.

In a safe on my parents’ farm there is an envelope; inside, my sister and I wrote down what our lives would be like 15 years later.  I can’t remember all the details, but I know I was Mrs. Zac Hanson and our daughter played on the floor by our feet.  In the time capsule that is buried on the farm, there is a story about how we would meet when I finally raised the money and took a roadtrip to Tulsa.

(Believe it or not, I did make it to Tulsa.  We were in Branson, Missouri, on vacation, and Dad asked if I wanted to drive into Oklahoma.  Um, YES.  And then in this Father of the Century manuever, Dad let us go all the way to Tulsa, where we stayed overnight.  The money I had set aside to meet Zac was collected to pay for this rendezvous, and I considered it money well spent.  Tulsa was, after all, where the magic was.)

Anyway, fast forward 16 years to the summer of 2013.  Hanson is playing a free concert at the Minnesota State Fair.

“Kristin, should we go?”

“Um, duh.”

statefairIt was incredible.  They played every song I wanted them to play (including “Madeline,” my favorite!), and I stared in awe at these (married) men who had grown tremendously as musicians, who joked around on stage with each other, and who– yes– exuded sex appeal so effortlessly.  I kept looking at Zac and his magnificent mane of wild hair, thinking how well I had thought I’d known him through teenybopper magazines and music videos.  It made me laugh and smile all night.

Zac and his majestic mane of sexy hair

Zac and his majestic mane of sexy hair

My sister and I rocked out to “MMMBop” and “Penny and Me” and “Where’s the Love,” as well as newer songs that were just incredible.  They really put on a great concert, and I loved every single minute.

Afterward, a mass of girls crowded up by their bus, and though we walked over and took a look at the bus, Kristin and I didn’t stay and wait for the guys to come out.  I’m 31.  She’s 28.  We realized a long time ago that we weren’t going to marry rockstars.

statefair3But it was sure fun for a night to remember a time when we believed it would happen, believed the impossible was actually inevitable.

Review: The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan

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lover's dictionaryHaving enjoyed David Levithan’s recent YA book (Every Day) as well as his co-authored book with John Green (Will Grayson, Will Grayson), I was excited to see he had another novel out, The Lover’s Dictionary.

I read it in about an hour.

It’s a delightful little novel/poem/dictionary with short entries and unnamed main characters, just “you” and “I.”  I didn’t know how much I’d get to know the characters through the tiny little vignettes, but the answer was a lot.  And it was a story too– a novel, though a non-traditional one.  The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, but it seemed quite satisfying for it to end that way.

I hope you’ll enjoy it.  It includes delicious little lines like these:

“Knit me a sweater out of your best stories.”

“It was after sex, when there was still heat and mostly breathing, when there was still touch and mostly thought …”

“Cranes, the birds with the rubber necks, don’t always find carnage.  Sometimes it’s just rain.”

Best Kisses in Literature!

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lipsTop Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme over at The Broke and the Bookish.  Today’s topic is a FREEBIE!

So, in light of my recent 7 Favorite YA Romances post, I decided to blog about my

TOP TEN* BEST KISSES IN LITERATURE.

*Blogger reserves the right to include more than ten.  Also, she may change up the format a little.

FUNNIEST DESCRIPTION: Lennie and Joe
“Our tongues have fallen madly in love and gotten married and moved to Paris.”
Jandy Nelson, The Sky is Everywhere

MOST CONTROVERSIAL KISS: Jace and Clary
“He bent down, his lips against her cheek, brushing it lightly—and still that light touch sent shivers through her nerves, shivers that made her whole body tremble. ‘If you want me to stop, tell me now,’ he whispered. When she still said nothing, he brushed his mouth against the hollow of her temple. ‘Or now.’ He traced the line of her cheekbone. ‘Or now.’ His lips were against hers.

‘Or—’

But she had reached up and pulled him down to her, and the rest of his words were lost against her mouth. He kissed her gently, carefully, but it wasn’t gentleness she wanted, not now, not after all this time, and she knotted her fists in his shirt, pulling him harder against her. He groaned softly, low in his throat, and then his arms circled her, gathering her against him, and they rolled over on the grass, tangled together, still kissing.”
Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

BEST PROSE DESCRIPTION: Ky and Cassia
“Lightning. Once it has forked, hot-white, from sky to earth, there is no going back. It’s time. I feel it, I know it. My eyes on him, his on me, and both of us breathing, watching, tired of of waiting. Ky closes his eyes, but mine are still open. What will it feel like, his lips on mine? Like a secret told, a promise kept? Like that line in the poem– a shower of all my days– silvery rain falling all around me, where the lighting meets the earth?”
Ally Condie, Matched

BEST THIRD-PARTY OBSERVED KISS: Finnikin and Evanjalin
“He just watched the way Finnikin’s hands rested on Evanjalin’s neck and he rubbed his thumb along her jaw and the way his tongue seemed to disappear inside her mouth as if he needed a part of her to breathe himself.”
Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

BEST LEAD-UP TO THE KISS: Froi and Quintana
“Our bodies aren’t strangers,’ he said, his voice ragged. ‘Our spirits aren’t strangers’. He held her face in his hands. ‘Tell me what part of me is stranger to you and I’ll destroy that part of me.’
Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn

BEST KISSING QUOTE (MALE): Jonah and Taylor
“What do you think would happen if we kissed right here, right now?” he asks, digging his hands into the pockets of his khaki pants, grinning right back at me.
“I think it would cause a riot.”
“Well, you know me,” he says, lowering his head towards me. “Causing a riot is what I do best.”
Melina Marchetta, Jellicoe Road

BEST KISSING QUOTE (FEMALE): Frankie and Will
“Will Trombal sees me from the other side of the room and he grins and he makes a beeline for me and my mind is buzzing with the best opening. Hi. Hey. How’s it going? Great party. Love your shirt. Great music. Crap music. And he’s coming closer and closer and the way he’s looking at me makes me think that I’m going to have the most romantic night in the history of my life. I open my mouth to say something and he sticks his tongue down my throat. We’re in a corner, pashing, and I don’t even know what’s got me to this point. A look in a corridor? A flirt outside my nonna’s house? All I know is that no one exists around us. I don’t know whether we’re kissing for five minutes or five hours and my mouth feels bruised, but I can’t let go. Because it feels so good to be held…Will’s arms tremble as they hold me and his heart beats hard against me and I know that whatever I’m feeling is mutual. For a moment I taste the alcohol on his breath, and it brings me back to reality. ‘Do that sober and I’ll be impressed,’ I say before walking away.”
Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

SADDEST KISS: tie between Liesel and Rudy and Lir and Amalthea
“She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Leisel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchist’s suit collection. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled herself away, she touched his mouth with her fingers…She did not say goodbye.”
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“The unicorn bowed her head, and her horn glanced across Lir’s chin as clumsily as a first kiss.”
Peter Beagle, The Last Unicorn

MOST (LITERALLY) MAGICAL KISS: Celia and Marco
“As he kisses her, the bonfire glows brighter. The acrobats catch the light perfectly as they spin. The entire circus sparkles, dazzling every patron.”
Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

BEST MAKES-MORE-SENSE-IN-CONTEXT KISS: Perry and Aria
“He kissed her slowly. Everything went slowly so he could follow her temper, and search into her eyes. When they joined, her scent was brave and strong and certain. Perry took it into himself, breathing her breath, feeling what she felt. He’d never known anything as right.”
Veronica Rossi, Under the Never Sky

SWEETEST KISS: Eleanor and Park
She didn’t move, so he thought it was probably okay to touch her face. Her skin was as soft as it looked, white and smooth as freckled porcelain.
“I’ll just say, ‘Eleanor, follow me down this rabbit hole…'”
He laid his thumb on her lips to see if she’d pull away. She didn’t. He leaned closer. He wanted to close his eyes, but he didn’t trust her not to leave him standing there.” 
Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor and Park

 

My 7 Favorite YA Romances

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pinkiesIn real life, I usually think high school dating is silly.

But in BOOKS … well, that’s another story.  A completely other story.  Here, for your reading pleasure, I count down my seven favorite YA romances.

7. Hazel and Augustus (The Fault in Our Stars)

Theirs was a tumultuous, wonderful, devastating romance.  “It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.”  Wow.

6. Brigan and Fire (Fire)

This is still YA though not technically a high school romance, and it does read like one more mature.  There is something so deep and attractive about the slow burn.

5. Lenny and Joe (The Sky is Everywhere)

I love these two together.  ““He doesn’t have to say it, I feel it too; it’s not subtle– like every bell for miles and miles is ringing at once, loud and clanging, hungry ones and tiny, happy, chiming ones, all of them sounding off in this moment.”

4. Eleanor and Park (Eleanor and Park)

What is not to love about these two???

“Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive.”

“Damn, damn, damn,” she said. “I never said why I like you, and now I have to go.”
“That’s okay,” he said.
“It’s because you’re kind,” she said. “And because you get all my jokes…”
“Okay.” He laughed.
“And you’re smarter than I am.”
“I am not.”
“And you look like a protagonist.” She was talking as fast as she could think. “You look like the person who wins in the end. You’re so pretty, and so good. You have magic eyes,” she whispered. “And you make me feel like a cannibal.”

I want someone to like me because I look like a protagonist, LOL!

3. Ron and Hermione (Harry Potter)

We watched the friendship and sexual tension build for seven books, until we finally got our kissing scene while, “OI!  There’s a war going on here!”  Delicious.

2. Jonah and Taylor (Jellicoe Road)

Oh, Jonah Griggs and his steady, loyal devotion.  Supposedly this scene wasn’t supposed to be romantic, but I’ve always found it dreadfully so: “He stops and looks at me. ‘I’m here because of you. You’re my priority. Your happiness, in some f***ed way, is tuned in to mine. Get that through your thick skull. Would I like it any other way? Hell, yes, but I don’t think that will be happening in my lifetime.”

1. Will and Frankie (Saving Francesca and The Piper’s Son)

As it says in my blog bio, I have a thing for cute nerds.  That’s probably why this romance takes the cake for me.  I want a smart, dorky boy in leadership to love calculus and ancient Roman warfare and me.

“Come here,” she says.
“No, you come here.”
“I said it first.”
“Rock paper scissors.”
“No. Because you’ll do nerdy calculations and work out what I chose the last six times and then you’ll win.”
Will pushes away from the table and his hand snakes out and he pulls her toward him and Tom figures that Will was always going to go to her first.”

a crush

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crush

I miss this.

I miss the earliest days of flirting, the butterflies, and all the awkwardness.  I miss being excited to go certain places at certain times just because you know he will be there.  I miss the stumbling, bumbling nonsense chatter just to make him stay another five minutes.  I miss missing someone the second he walks out the door.

Gosh, I’ve been single for too long.  I need a crush.

a bunch of v-day-related ranting

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Oh, February 14th.  Seems like just last year I was thinking, Ahhh, but I won’t be alone next Valentines Day.

Ooops.  Wrong again!

Sometimes I can sound a little bitter about being single, but I actually don’t always hate it.  I can be super selfish with my time, go to Barnes & Noble whenever I want, buy whatever I want.  I can drop everything and go to California for a weekend.  I don’t have to cook for anyone.  More time for ministry over the years.  And, though this might sound strange, years of watching friends marry and be married has taught me a ton about what I want in a husband, in a marriage, even in a wedding ceremony.

But good old V-Day.  It’s never very fun to be single on Valentines Day.

I have nothing against Valentines Day.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with choosing a day to make a big deal out of love.  I don’t really care about the commercialism even.  I think, if you’re blessed enough to have someone you love, you should celebrate your relationship every day.  But why not make a big fuss over it one day a year?  Sometimes it seems like the couples who don’t celebrate V-Day are trying to make a statement I don’t exactly understand.

I was talking to a friend the other day about how I’m glad I didn’t marry young.  It’s true, even though at the time, it was all that I wanted.  I think students at Christian colleges get married way too young; the culture expects and demands it.  It’s not their fault.  They feel ready, and hey, maybe some are.  But I know I am so much wiser now, healthier now, Jackie-er now than I was ten years ago.  I have been forced to learn and do things that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.  I know every facet of my identity in a much clearer way– heck, when I was in college, I was only starting to tiptoe into those waters!

I’m not saying college students shouldn’t get married or that it’s bad to marry young.  Well, maybe I am, a little.  Let’s be honest, there’s no formula to these things.  (Although I will say that almost every failed marriage I’ve seen has come from couples who married pretty young.)

Meh, I’m going to get myself in trouble on my blog.  On Valentines Day.  Listen, don’t yell at me too much.  Remember that I am all alone and show me grace.

I still love love.

Also,

Ahhh, but I won’t be alone next Valentines Day …

😉

v-day