Fire & Ice Blog Hop: Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill - Guest Post + Giveaway

I am sooo happy to be taking part in the Fire & Ice Blog Hop!  I'm also super excited to be featuring the author of my new favorite YA contemporary!  My 4yo daughter even loved the cover so much it inspired this post.  So, without further ado, I'd like to welcome Lauren Morrill, author of Meant to Be, to the blog today!

A lot of my readers have asked me if I'm writing a sequel to Meant to Be, and the answer to that is ... not right now! I wouldn't rule it out, but I'm pretty pleased with how Meant to Be ended. However, I do like to think about what Julia and Jason did after they left London. Which is why I'm bringing you -- exclusively! -- Julia & Jason's first date after they get back to Boston ... well, Cambridge! I think Julia would have insisted on paying a visit to the mothership, aka Harvard University. You know she's busily preparing her application!

Dinner at Bartley's Burger Cottage

Bartley's is a Cambridge landmark, and with Julia and Jason both sharing healthy appetites for junk food, I can only imagine that Bartley's would be one of their favorite places. Julia would order the Tom Brady (a burger topped with cheddar, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, and red onion) and a side of fries, while Jason would favor the Mark Zuckerburg (boursin cheese and bacon) with sweet potato fries. If it was a particularly warm night, they'd take one of the sidewalk tables, where Jason would slip fries to all the passing dogs.

Movie at the Brattle Theater

After dinner, the pair would wander through Harvard Square, stopping for a movie at the historic Brattle Theater. Here, they'd partake of a little Brit flashback, with a double feature of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian. It would be the perfect movie compromise for Julia and Jason: he goes for the slapstick, she goes for the smart British humor. Popcorn and cokes, of course!

Dessert at LA Burdick

After a double feature, they're ready for dessert, and there's no place better than LA Burdick. As much as Julia would like to split a famous chocolate frappe with two straws, they both know they'll need their own! They'd also order an assortment of Burdick's chocolate goodies. Jason would take a bite out of everything, while Julia methodically worked her way through trying to figure out her favorite item. I think she'd be partial to the raspberry macarons, while Jason would be wolfing down their chocolate mice.

A stroll along the Charles

After a sugar boost, Julia and Jason would cap off their evening with a stroll along the Charles River, where Jason would attempt to reenact their London pond plunge (but this time, Julia knows what's up and dodges!).

Thanks for letting me share Julia and Jason's first date with you! It let me relive my four years I spent living in Boston and Cambridge, and if you ever see on Twitter that I'm visiting, you'll now know where to find me! And if you look hard, you might just see one tiny little swimmer with a book in her purse alongside a gangly redhead in a Red Sox cap!

Holy WOW!  I love this post!  Julia & Jason's first date!!!!  And we got to be a part of it!  Thanks ever so much to Lauren Morrill for putting this together for my readers!

Title:  Meant to Be
Author:  Lauren Morrill
Series:  stand-alone
Publisher:  Delacorte
Publication Date:  November 13, 2012
Purchase:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").
 
But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.
 
Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

About the author:

LAUREN MORRILL grew up in Maryville, Tennessee, where she was a short-term Girl Scout, a (not so) proud member of the marching band, and a trouble-making editor for the school newspaper. She graduated from Indiana University with a major in history and a minor in rock & roll, and now lives in Macon, GA with her husband and their dog, Lucy. When she's not writing, she spends a lot of hours getting knocked around on the track playing roller derby. Meant to Be is her first novel.

Find out more about Lauren & her novels:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

And to support the author and celebrate my love for this book, I'm giving away a Meant to Be prize pack featuring:

• a copy of Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
• a pocket Shakespeare (you'll understand it's significance once you read MtB)
• a set of Shakespearean magnetic poetry

Rules:

• This giveaway is open to residents of the US only, sorry.  But I do have another international giveaway coming soon!
• One entry per household.
• All 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 folders!
• I am not responsible for lost packages.

And now on to the fun stuff!  You only have to follow my blog to enter, but all other entries/follows are appreciated!  :D

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you enjoyed this peek at life after Meant to Be for Julia and Jason!  Thanks for stopping by & happy reading!

Read More

Labels: extras, favorites, fire and ice, giveaway hops, giveaways, guest post, lauren morrill, meant to be

Judging a Book By Its Cover #1: A Kid's Perspective on Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

Okay, so I totally stole this idea from Sara at Forever 17 Books, who got the idea from an article on Babble called Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All About.  I just discovered her lovely segment yesterday, and I immediately requested forced my own four-year-old daughter Katie to provide me with some of her own cover art artwork and then asked her what she thought the book was about.  (We don't have a nifty meme image yet, like Sara and Shawn, but we're working on it. :D)









Behold our first attempt:  Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill (which I loved...my review can be found here)

"I think it's about love or something."

Cover Art:

Meant to Be by Katiebug

So, what do you think of my little artist?  Isn't this the neatest way to bond over our love of books?!?  I mean, besides me actually reading them to her?  :P  And how astute is she?!?  This book is all about love!!!  :D

Read More

Labels: cover art, favorites, judging a book by its cover, katiebug, lauren morrill, meant to be

Review: Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

Title:  Meant to Be
Author:  Lauren Morrill
Series:  stand-alone
Publisher:  Delacorte
Publication Date:  November 13, 2012
Source:  galley from publisher via Netgalley
Purchase:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").
 
But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.
 
Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

This book.  THIS BOOK!  It may just be my favorite YA contemporary EVER!  If you know me at all, you know I was once – okay, am still – very skeptical of contemporary novels.  I’m afraid of finding them vapid and shallow and then having to review the insipid things.  So, even before I started Meant to Be, I prayed to the book gods that it would be as good as My Life Next Door for me because prior to reading this novel, that was the best YA contemporary I’d ever read.  But Meant to Be was even better…it surpassed my wildest expectations and then some!

I identified with this book on a level I never thought possible.  So maybe I’ve never been in this exact situation before, but the way the author portrayed the characters and their interactions just made it so legitimately real that it was as if I had…like I was reliving a past memory and not simply reading a novel.  I was transported to London, walking the streets with my classmates, taking in the culture and the people.  I was sneaking out with my trip buddy to take in a party, even though that’s totally not my style.  And even though this book isn’t about me….I really want it to be now.  It was just so cute and quirky and full of awkward that I need to make it real and commit those moments to memory.

So, remember that antagonistic relationship Cole and Isabel had in The Wolves of Mercy Falls series?  Yeah, that’s exactly how Julia and Jason behave towards each other throughout the entirety of the book.  You see the chemistry from the get-go, but Julia’s narrating and it’s pretty obvious she’s kinda clueless about the male gender in general.  She’s got the hots for this stuffy guy named Mark who was her playmate when they were younger. He moved away and only recently moved back to town and is attending her high school.  And man, is Julia crushing hard.  She seriously believes this guy is her “meant to be”, hence the premise of the story.

She may be book-smart, but poor Julia has got a lot to learn.  And that’s where Jason comes in.  He’s going to help the girl out, if she helps him out by writing all of his papers for the class trip.  So they have tons of little adventures in London because this guy is not going to let Julia off the hook.  She is super up-tight and needs to let loose, and Jason is just the guy to show her how.  Julia is a very reluctant pupil, though, and hijinks ensue.  Jason isn’t your usual swoony rogue, and so it’s going to take more than a little convincing for Julia to see the light.  But he’s got some things working for him…namely, a great sense of humor, but best of all?  He’s a GINGER!!!!  I have so much love for this romance…you don’t even know!!

I don’t think it’s too spoilery to tell you to forget about that Mark guy…just forget he exists entirely.  Don’t be mad…you can read the synopsis and figure that much out on your own.  Trust me….I knew where it was going from the onset but the ride was sooo much fun! And in the end, that's all that matters, right?  It was just too freaking adorable to be upset that I’d predicted it all.  So, just sit back, relax, and enjoy this crazy, wild, TOTALLY AWKWARD ride for what it is.  I’ve already pre-ordered my own copy so that I can go again.  J  Plus, that cover is gorgeous and somehow, just knowing I’ll be able to look at it whenever I’m feeling down puts a smile on my face.  The story is seriously that much fun.

Favorite quote:

“Julia, you are my ‘buddy,’” he says, using the requisite air quotes.  “I would never put you in harm’s way.”

“Oh, right.  You’d only take me to a party full of strangers in a foreign country and abandon me.  Then get me caught in a street brawl, where I lose all my stuff including my pocket Shakespeare.”

“Your pocket what?”  He raises an eyebrow.  He probably thinks I’m talking about a mini-Shakespeare action figure.  (Actually, I do have one of those.  But I left it back in Newton, thankyouverymuch.) – p. 62 of galley

Rating: 

Read More

Labels: contemporary, favorites, lauren morrill, meant to be, must-read, random house

Teaser Tuesday #16: Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


This week's teaser comes from the following book:

Title:  Meant to Be
Author:  Lauren Morrill
Series:  stand-alone
Publisher:  Delacorte
Publication Date:  November 13, 2012
Source:  galley from publisher via Netgalley
Purchase:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").

But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.

Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

My teaser:

"If you're soooo obsessed with Mark, if he's your MTB or whatever"--here he makes air quotes--"then why are you chasing after this dude Chris?  For someone who probably irons her underpants, you're pretty all over the place, aren't you?  Just like all the girls you look down on." -- p. 133 of galley

Omegah, I already love this Jason character.  He seems fun.  LOL.  But this whole book seems fun.  While I was scanning the page for a good teaser, I got way caught up in the story and read several pages past this spot.  Oops!  :D

So, what are you teasing us with this week???

Read More

Labels: contemporary, lauren morrill, meant to be, random house, teaser tuesday