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You are here: Home / Archives for romance

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

February 22, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 23 Feb 2021

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“Each conflict is resolved authentically and naturally, moving the story along at the perfect speed. The scenes between Flávia and Nishat simmer, and their mesmerizing relationship unfolds with just the right amount of complexity. Most satisfyingly, each character gets the ending she deserves. Impossible to put down.” KIRKUS

A heart-warming, queer YA love story.

Nishat and Flavia are rivals at school, but Nishat can’t help the secret crush burning in her heart – even though her parents disapprove of the fact she likes girls.  When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants – as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to lose her family, but she also doesn’t want to hide who she is, which only gets harder once Flavia walks into her life. Beautiful and charismatic, Flavia takes Nishat’s breath away. But as their lives become tangled, they’re caught up in a rivalry that gets in the way of any feelings they might have for each other.

A new voice in young adult fiction, Adiba Jaigirdar was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and moved to Dublin, Ireland from the age of ten. She has a BA in English and History from University College Dublin, and an MA in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Kent.
The Henna Wars was f.p. hardback June 2020.
Follow the author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dibs_j/

The author’s next book Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating is out in May (2021)

Filed Under: Blog, BookOfTheDay, Books, YA Tagged With: coming out, family, lesbian, LGBT, LGBTQ, love, queer, romance

I Am The Minotaur by Anthony McGowan

January 4, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

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Matthew is 14 and is struggling to fit in – something that’s extra hard when you’re taking care of your mum, being bullied at school, and have earned the nickname Stinky Mog because of your poor personal hygiene. On top of all that, he wants to catch the attention of one of the coolest girls in school, Ari. Ari doesn’t walk: she floats, like mist on the water. And she’s as sporty as she is cool.
When Ari’s brand new bike is stolen, Matthew spots his chance to make a good impression by getting it back for her… But will he just end up in even more trouble or is Matthew is about to learn that friendship and heroes can be found in unlikely places?
A gritty and touching story of one teenager’s struggles with bullying and isolation.

Anthony McGowan was awared the Carnegie Medal last year (2020) for Lark.
See also: 
The Truth Of Things
Rook

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: bullying, love, outsider, romance

Rosie Loves Jack by Mel Darbon

September 8, 2018 By achuka Leave a Comment


Shortlisted for Branford Boase Award 2019

A YA novel told from the perspective of someone with Down’s syndrome. A love story inspired by the author’s experiences alongside her severely autistic brother.

Waterstones

Filed Under: YA Tagged With: autism, difference, disability, Down's, inclusion, love, romance

Kook by Chris Vick

May 4, 2016 By achuka Leave a Comment

9780008158323

 

A heart-pounding love story that grips like a riptide, and doesn’t let go…Fifteen-year old Sam has moved from the big city to the coast – stuck there with his mum and sister on the edge of nowhere. Then he meets beautiful but damaged surfer-girl Jade.

“I read Kook with my heart in my mouth the whole way…” Emily Drabble, Guardian Children’s Books

Waterstones

Filed Under: YA Tagged With: love, romance, surfing

Falling out of love with YA – A Guardian Blogger Speaks Out

July 23, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

This Guardian book blogger writes well, and speaks a lot of sense. She should read Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine to help her fall back in love with YA 🙂

guardiansmallRecently… I have been falling out of love with the literature that has been parading around me. They flaunt their crisp and shiny covers with stunning typography, photography and models, yet to me their insides are far from beautiful. I have my favourite authors and books, but at the same time everything negative about any novel I have recently read has waved a red flag and emitted a spine-chilling peal in my ear.

Love triangles: why are there so many in teen fiction?
Read more
All I see is fantasy/dystopian genres attempting to conform to popular film ideals. It almost seems like there is a checklist being passed round: star-crossed lovers and/or a love triangle/love square? Tick. Fight-to-the-death competitions? Tick. The swinging bait of a sequel at the end of a novel because all recent YA films have not been standalone? Tick. I’m obviously not saying everyone does this, but I do feel as if there are certain “ingredients” authors feel they must include if their book is going to be published and become a success.

via Falling out of love with YA | Children’s books | The Guardian.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: derivative, fantasy, formulaic, romance, YA

Bloomsbury Launch New Clean-Teen YA Romance Series

April 16, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

Bloomsbury to counter “dreary, end-of-the-world fiction” with new “happy” romances…

Bloomsbury has announced the worldwide launch of a new clean-teen If Only line of young adult romances. The first two titles, Fool Me Twice by Mandy Hubbard and Wish You Were Italian by Kristin Rae are launching in the US in May and the UK in June 2014.

The If Only novels centre on teens who fall for someone they shouldn’t. Each high-concept book will feature the If Only logo and design branding. Some titles will be stand-alone, while others will be the start of a new series within If Only. The novels will each highlight the theme “you want what you can’t have.”

Ellen Holgate, UK Editorial Director for Children’s Fiction said: ‘After a glut of new adult fiction, these “clean teen” romances are perfect holiday reading for those looking for a bit of real-life escapism. We are very pleased to have such a talented group of authors writing for this list.’

‘With all the dreary, end-of-the-world fiction out there, it’s refreshing to offer a series about new love, the tantalizing thrill of should-I-or-shouldn’t-I, and the exciting roller coaster ride of real life to our teen readers,’ says Cindy Loh, US Publishing Director for Bloomsbury Children’s Books. ‘It’s time to bring back the happy!’

The If Only titles will be supported by a global marketing campaign which will include a tumblr promotion, blog tour, social media outreach and more.

The line will continue with the next book, Not in the Script by Amy Finnegan, in Autumn 2014.

via Book Trade Announcements – Bloomsbury Launches If Only, A New Line Of YA Romances.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: Bloomsbury, happy, romance, series, YA

Guardian Feature: K. M. Peyton

February 17, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

This excellent feature article about K. M. Peyton appeared in Guardian Review on Saturday

guardiansmall

"Flambards has been my old warhorse, it made me a lot of money because it sold a lot of books. It’s funny because I’ve written better books, but that’s the one that keeps on going. Most of my others are out of print now."

So it’s an irony that Peyton did not actually intend Flambards to be a children’s book, but the first in a series of romantic novels. "The first one was definitely an adult book but it started with the girl at about 13, that was my mistake, and then carried on with her love life later on."

She recalls a tussle with her publisher at the time over how it would be published. She didn’t want it to go out under a children’s imprint. Her editor offered to give it a more adult cover, but the disguise didn’t work. "I got the most vitriolic letters from mothers saying they knew what my work was like, and they were shocked at this book," she says. "It was quite sexy actually."

Nowadays Peyton’s stories of adolescent romance would be published as teenage or young adult fiction. As these didn’t exist as separate categories in the 1960s, the books were addressed to girls of indeterminate age, their burgeoning sexuality sometimes more or less buried in their passion for horses and at other times exploding out of the stable yard and into romances with a series of dashing young men.

via KM Peyton: 'I got the most vitriolic letters from mothers. They were shocked at Flambards. It was quite sexy' | Books | The Guardian.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: feature, gorses, interview, K. M. Peyton, ponoies, romance, sexuality

Black Wings [ACHUKAbooks] Today FREE – Tomorrow Full Price!

July 7, 2013 By achuka Leave a Comment

Today FREE – tomorrow Full Price

As a fifteen year old, Sophie Masson once wrote a short story called ‘Les Chouans’, which was her first attempt at trying to get to grips with the savagery, fear, courage and mystery of that time of Revolution, and the riven loyalties and terrible choices made by people on both sides of the civil war. Much later, she wrote an article, ‘Remembering the Vendée’, which has had many readers, but it wasn’t until many years later again that she first conceived the project of writing a novel about the tumultuous early years of the Revolution and the wars it unleashed.
Framed by a prologue and epilogue set decades later, the main body of the novel is narrated by a young man facing execution in 1794, who tells his story and that of his friends, all from very different backgrounds. Masson succeeds movingly in giving the reader a feel for the way in which these things were experienced, not as great events, but as part of people’s lives, affecting them in myriad ways, both great and small. She evokes a portrait of a whole community, and of a country, caught in the grip of massive change, of rebellion and counter-rebellion and the havoc of war, whose echoes remain in the Vendée and in France to this day.

 

“Masson writes like a native of the time Black Wings is set; when her characters speak, we hear the authentic voice of the 18th Century. Detailed, erudite and elegant, its characters lovingly drawn, this absorbing and deeply felt novel brings home to us the curse of living through interesting times. It will not let us forgive the French Revolution for The Terror so easily.”
Cassandra Golds, author of Clair-de-Lune, The Museum of Mary Child and The Three Loves of Persimmon.

 

“Masson’s tale about the limits of friendship, set against the backdrop of those best and worst of times, captures perfectly the contradictions of revolution – the appeal of the brave new world, the ruthless destruction of old ways, the romance along with the tumult and the terror. Her tale of ordinary folk helplessly caught up in the maelstrom of history, made extraordinary by chance and circumstance, offers a vision of a past that isn’t dusty, archaic and over, but vivid, engaging, alive.”
Wendy James, author of the award-winning Out of the Silence, The Steele Diaries and The Mistake.

 

“With skilful attention to detail, author Sophie Masson weaves a compelling tale of a nation caught up in a madness fuelled by a reckless and unrealistic idealism, and the four friends who, wittingly or not, were its victims. Set against this chilling account of the collective madness that led to the murderous rampages and bloodthirsty executions of the French Revolution is the story of Jacques’ love for Flora – a love that will test everything he believes and holds dear. A great read for lovers of historical fiction with a dash of romance.”
Felicity Pulman, author of A Ring Through Time.

via Black Wings [ACHUKAbooks] eBook: Sophie Masson: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: ACHUKAbooks, eBook, historical, Kindle, novel, Rench Revolution, romance, romantic, Sophie Masson

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