I am SO pumped to be sharing an exclusive excerpt + the playlist for IN REAL LIFE by Jessica Love, a YA contemporary novel that I absolutely adored. And to make this post even more sweeter? Today is IN REAL LIFE's pub day!!! *throws all the confetti* Before I share the content, check out the details on this fabulous book...
About the book: Hannah Cho and Nick Cooper have been best friends since 8th grade. They talk for hours on the phone, regularly shower each other with presents, and know everything there is to know about one another.
There's just one problem: Hannah and Nick have never actually met.
Hannah has spent her entire life doing what she's supposed to, but when her senior year spring break plans get ruined by a rule-breaker, she decides to break a rule or two herself. She impulsively decides to road trip to Las Vegas, her older sister and BFF in tow, to surprise Nick and finally declare her more-than-friend feelings for him.
Hannah's surprise romantic gesture backfires when she gets to Vegas and finds out that Nick has been keeping some major secrets. Hannah knows the real Nick can't be that different from the online Nick she knows and loves, but now she only has night in Sin City to figure out what her feelings for Nick really are, all while discovering how life can change when you break the rules every now and then. [goodreads]
Doesn't this novel sound amazing?! Well, that's because it is! The concept of connecting with your best friend over the internet will resonate with so many readers. Today's society lives and breathes by the internet. Finding a connection with someone, friendship or romantic, across the miles is part of the ordinary these days. However, as someone who grew up in the age of the internet such as AOL and instant messenger, this story really connected to me, bringing forth nostalgia from my younger years. We've heard the horror stories of "meeting someone online" (I may have encountered a few myself), but there's also a reality living and breathing within this virtual reality that allows introverts to really express themselves. I adored this story because it highlights the connection two souls can have through words and texts, yet also shows the reality of what happens when those words come face to face.
Need more reasons to read this fabulous story? Check out the exclusive excerpt below. [Credit In Real Life by Jessica Love; Courtesy of Thomas Dunne Books)
My best friend and I have never met.
We talk every day, on the phone or online, and he knows more about me than anyone. Like, deep into my soul. But we’ve never actually seen each other in real life.
Sometimes, when I’m talking to Nick, I wonder how we managed to get ourselves into such a bizarre, complicated friendship. At first glance, our relationship probably doesn’t seem all that odd.
Like right now, it’s the Friday afternoon that kicks off the spring break of my senior year. I’m lying out next to my pool with my feet dangling in the chilly water, my back flat on concrete, and I’m talking to him on the phone. This is how I spend pretty much every Friday from 3:30 to 4:25-ish, before he goes off to band practice and I have one of my various school or family obligations. Sounds pretty normal.
But the thing is, Nick lives in a different state, 274 miles away. Yes, I looked it up.
“Ghost,” he says, because he never calls me Hannah, “you know I will do anything for my best friend, and this is no exception. I’ll have this girl killed for you without a second thought. Just give me twenty-four hours.”
I laugh as I swish my feet back and forth in the pool. “There’s no need to resort to murder. It’s just a stupid student government trip. I’ll be over it by the end of the week.”
As tempting as it is to plot Aditi Singh’s violent end, the only reason she applied to go to the national leadership conference when it should have been a given that the senior class president (aka me) was going was because I got into UCLA and she didn’t, so a big ol’ middle finger to her. But she can’t see my middle finger, because she’s in Washington, D.C., for spring break and I’m at home with no plans like a big loser.
“Well, if you change your mind,” Nick says, “just let me know. That’s how much our friendship means to me. The code word is ‘Platypus.’ Just say it, and—poof!—I’ll make her disappear.”
I sit up and pull my feet from the pool, crossing them in front of me. “And how can you do that?”
“Hey, I live in Vegas. I have connections to the mob. Everyone here does.”
“You’re a senior in high school, and you live in a tract home in Henderson. You’re not exactly Al Pacino.”
“You don’t know. Everything I’ve told you for the past four years could be a front. I need to have a cover. No one suspects the quiet, nondescript white boy.”
“You’re right. There is a lot I don’t know about you. I mean, there are any number of huge secrets you could be keeping from me.” I say it just because I’m playing along, but it’s not true at all. I’m pretty sure I know everything there is to know about Nick Cooper.
I know when my sister met his brother at a concert four years ago and they told us we should start talking online, he thought I was one of his brother’s friends playing a joke on him until I e-mailed him a picture. I know in the middle of junior year, he shaved his head when his favorite English teacher started chemo. I know the gravelly scratch of his voice when he wakes up in the middle of the night to answer one of my random “I’m bored, talk to me” phone calls. I know the hole in the sleeve seam of the lucky Rage Against the Machine T-shirt he inherited from his brother, Alex, since I’ve seen so many pictures of it. I know his middle name (Anthony), the date and time he was born (September 24 at 3:58 A.M.), and his favorite color (gray). And he knows more about me than absolutely anyone else, even the über-embarrassing stuff. We’ve IM’d, texted, sent a million pictures, mailed each other packages, video-chatted, and talked on the phone.
We’ve just never been in the same place at the same time.
I don’t think it’s strange to be so close to someone I’ve never met. Yeah, he’s in Nevada and I’m in Southern California, but I talk to him more than to people I’ve been in classes with since kindergarten. I do wish we could go to the movies together or something normal like that, but we watch the same movies at the same time and mock them over video chat, which is pretty much the same thing.
On the other end of the phone, his laugh stops abruptly and his voice changes. “Secrets? What kind of secrets could I have?”
“Who knows!” I try to sound shocked and serious, but I can’t keep a laugh from creeping in. “For all I know, you do have a secret mob life. Do you have some sort of gangster name I’m supposed to call you?”
His voice lightens again when he realizes I’m joking. “Oh yeah. Knuckles Nick. Or, no. Wait. Nick the Click.”
“What does that even mean?”
“I don’t know. It rhymed. Don’t those names always rhyme?”
“I know nothing about mob names, Nick the Click. But rhyming names do make mobsters seem a bit less murder-y.”
There’s a shuffle, a thump, and a squeak on his end of the phone, and I imagine him collapsing backwards onto his twin bed. “I just hate that you’re still bummed over missing out on the trip.”
“It’s not that I’m bummed, it’s just . . . I followed all the rules, Nick. I did exactly what I was supposed to do. Serving four years as class president means I go on that trip, not Aditi Singh. Onetime vice-presidents don’t get to go! It’s supposed to be my year. She broke the rules, but she got picked. How do you break all the rules and get what you want like that? It isn’t fair.”
“Well, you know what they say. . . .” “Life’s not fair?”
“Well, that, too. But I was thinking rules are made to be broken.”
Now, have a listen to the IN REAL LIFE playlist on spotify:
Spotify link to playlist: CLICK HERE
Are you dying to get your hands on this novel now??! Well, here's your chance! One lucky winner will receive a copy of IN REAL LIFE by Jessica Love, courtesy of St. Martin's. The giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only. Good luck!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jessica Love is a high school English teacher in Los Angeles, California, where she met her husband and her two tiny dogs online. She is the co-writer of Push Girl with Chelsie Hill.
SOCIAL LINKS:
Author’s Website
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ReplyDeleteThis book sounds so good, thanks for the giveaway! I've made many friends on the Internet throughout the book community. I've had a great experience and have met up with some of them that live in my area.
ReplyDeleteI have! And they're some of my best friends now!
ReplyDeleteI have never met a friend through the internet
ReplyDeleteYep, I have made friends on the internet.
ReplyDeleteI haven't met anyone through the internet.
ReplyDeleteAwesome excerpt!! I haven't made a true friend over the internet like the main character has, in the sense that then you share phone calls etc, but I have internet friends who share the same bookish interests :)
ReplyDeleteI have a Canadian address but rafflecopter might show my location outside Canada because I'm doing a semester abroad.
thank you so very much :)
I haven't met many but a few friends of friends and it's been nice chatting with them.
ReplyDeletebilliondollarprincesss @hotmail dot com
I've met many friends through the internet and it's so fun making them and sharing things in common!
ReplyDeletecaylasmither5@gmail.com
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