GCC Tours Jennifer Echols and LOVE STORY

Love Story

By Jennifer Echols

From Jennifer Echols, the award-winning author of Going Too Far and Forget You, comes LOVE STORY(Gallery Books; July 19, 2011; $11.00), a provocative and powerful story of teen romance, set against the bustling world of a New York City university.

She’s writing about him. He’s writing about her. And everybody is reading between the lines.

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions – it’s her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family’s racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin’s college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a local coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter… so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she’s sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He’s joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin’s heart with longing. Now she’s not just imagining what might have been. She’s writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter… except this story could come true.

“A tremendously talented writer with a real gift for developing relationships.”

– Romantic Times Magazine

Jennifer Echols is the author of teen romantic dramas for MTV Books and teen romantic comedies for Simon Pulse. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her family. Please visit her online at www.jennifer-echols.com.

Because of the upcoming release of the anthology I co-edited, DEAR BULLY (HarperTeen, Sept. 6, 2011), I've asked all the members of the GCC to share a personal bullying story here during their blog tour. Jenn was kind enough to stop by and share hers with us. Check it out:

Thank you Megan!

I have known my husband for a long time. In fifth grade, when he moved to my hometown in Alabama, population 15,000, he was the only Asian in my school. He seemed to get along great with everybody. It was only after we started dating when we were in high school that he told me how mean some kids had always been to him because of his race. Today he is a salesman, and he is served well by his knack for making a connection with strangers. Now I understand that knack is partly natural, but partly cultivated out of necessity.

We still live in Alabama, and our biracial white and Asian child is pretty unusual around here. So far, he seems to share my husband’s social prowess, but I am always on high alert for signs that he is having trouble. I guess that’s why some of my books feature people of color who are having trouble fitting in. My latest book, LOVE STORY, goes in the opposite direction. The hero and heroine are both white, and they grew up on the same Kentucky farm. But they find it impossible to get along with each other or make a real connection, whereas their friendships with characters very different from them, with very different backgrounds, are never questioned. So sometimes I’m interested in addressing the problem head-on, and sometimes I like to create a little utopia, with the kind of unjudgmental friends I hope my son will have growing up.

LOVE STORY

By Jennifer Echols

Publisher: Gallery Books

Publication date: July 19, 2011

Price: $11.00

ISBN: 9781439178324

Gallery Books is an imprint dedicated to publishing a wide variety of must-read books on a wide array of topics. The imprint was designed to showcase established voices and to introduce emerging new ones—in both fiction and nonfiction, and across a variety of genres. Some of Gallery Books’ bestselling titles include Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea by Chelsea Handler, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, sTori Telling by Tori Spelling, and Oh My Dog by Beth Stern. Upcoming titles include I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee, Gunn’s Golden Rules by Tim Gunn, I Remember You by Harriet Evans, and Lisa Genova’s new novel, Left Neglected.

Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website athttp://www.simonandschuster.com.