Tuesday, January 13, 2015


Brrrr! It's cold out there! Which means it's the perfect weather for an adorable ice skating-themed romance story like The Boy Next Door! This book was cute and fun and exactly the kind of story you need to snuggle up with when the temperature dips. Today, I've got a guest post from the author on favorite books and movies and turning what should be dating failures into something more, plus a giveaway of her Swoon Reads debut!

THE BOY NEXT DOOR
By Katie Van Ark
In stores now!!! 

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Order The Boy Next Door:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Here's the blurb:
Maddy Spier has been in love with the boy next door forever. As his figure skating partner she spends time in his arms every day. But she’s also seen his arms around other girls—lots of other girls.

Gabe can't imagine skating with anyone but Maddy, and together they have a real chance at winning some serious gold medals. So, he’s determined to keep thinking of her like a sister. After all, he’s never had a romantic relationship that lasted for more than two weeks.

But when their coach assigns a new romantic skating program, everything changes. Will this be the big break that Maddy’s been hoping for or the big breakup that Gabe has always feared?

Doesn't that just sound so cute? And kind of perfect for this time of year. :)





Favorite Romantic Books or Movies
By Katie Van Ark

I love the awkwardness of Hitch, because real love can be just that awkward. It makes me remember my first date in tenth grade, how all these things went just so wrong. For starters, the movie we'd planned to see left our local theater the day before our date. I called my date's house to let him know and accidentally talked to his dad for several minutes (they have the same first name and sound a lot alike on the phone) before his dad made enough sense of my conversation to figure out I was calling for his son. My parents wanted to meet my date and we all stood around my living room saying nothing. The movie we went to instead was cringe-worthy horrible – it ended up getting a 7% on Rotten Tomatoes! At the end of the night, I thought I'd say something romantic in German, since we were both taking German classes – except he didn't understand me and I really wasn't ready to translate what I'd said into English quite yet. It should've been a huge fail but it ended up making a great story that kept us laughing ever after – I'm still with that first date.

My favorite romantic book of the moment is Eleanor & Park. Rainbow Rowell can so work that romantic tension: the scene where Eleanor and Park first hold hands stretches out for over two pages and I love every word. I also love the slow way that Eleanor and Park become friends and then more, probably because that reminds me of my own high school dating experiences, too.

About the author:

Katie Van Ark lives in Michigan with two daughters, two cats, and one very patient husband who was also her high school sweetheart. She is a member of SCBWI and RWA and a student at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She enjoys reading, writing, and of course figure skating.

Find Katie:

Website | Twitter | FacebookGoodreads | Pinterest




Macmillan/Swoon Reads is graciously offering up a copy of The Boy Next Door to one lucky winner in the US/Canada.

Rules:
  • This giveaway is US/CAN only. The publisher will be providing the prize for this giveaway.
  • One entry per household. 
  • Entries will be verified. Any entry found to be falsified will result in disqualification of all entries for that participant. 
  • Winner will be notified via email. Winner will then have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected. Please check your SPAM folder!!! 
  • We are not responsible for lost packages. 
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The Boy Next Door Blog Tour

Find out more about The Boy Next Door by Katie Van Ark on the blog tour!

1/5: Adventures of a Book Junkie
1/6: The Compulsive Reader
1/7: The Irish Banana
1/8: Cuts of Paper
1/9: Nick’s Book Blog
1/10: Rainy Day Ramblings
1/11: Tripping Over Books
1/12: Books and Whimsy
1/13: The Starry-Eyed Revue
1/14: MacTeenBooks
1/15: Bibliophile Soprano


I'll be posting my review of The Boy Next Door soon. Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!




10 comments:

  1. Christina R. in the rafflecopter

    It's such a sweet story of how their first date turned out! It's awesome they're still together!

    I don't have a similar story - my first date was okay, just a movie and a peck on the cheek I believe.

    But I love all romantic movies!!

    I have a CAnadian address but rafflecopter might show my location outside CAnada because I"m doing a semester abroad at the moment.

    thank you so very much :)

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  2. Okay... so as far as romance books go, I don't really have a favorite, but I really enjoyed some of Nicholas Sparks' earlier books. They have been weak lately.

    My favorite romance movie would be Titanic, but following close behind is basically my favorite romcom series, Bridget Jones!

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  3. I can't wait to read this book!! I'd have to say that my favorite romantic movie is sleepless in seattle or while you were sleeping :) classics!

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  4. I pretty much love all the romantic movies I watch and books I read. Unfortunately, I've never been on a date.

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  5. this looks and sounds so fun!!! thank you for sharing :)

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  6. I love the movie The Notebook! So romantic! This looks like a great story. Added to my to-read list! Thanks!

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  7. This book sounds great! My favorite romantic movie is The First Time because it was super sweet and realistic to high school.

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  8. I don't any favorite books or movies. There's too many to choose from. I also have no dating fails that turned to successes, I just learned more about what I was looking for and what to avoid.

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  9. This is my favorite romantic movie is The Boy Next Door This Movie is very well Directed by the Rob Cohen. A single mom becomes attracted to the teenage boy who moves in next door and befriends her son.

    http://solarmoviesonline.com/watch-the-boy-next-door-online-free/

    ReplyDelete

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