Crystal Schubert

My favorite TV couple of all time. Prepare for the cuteness.

THE KISSERS: Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts from The OC

THE KISS:

WHY IT ROCKED: I think this one is all about the PDA. Seth puts himself completely out on the line, in front of tons of their classmates. He gets on top of the freaking coffee cart to profess his love for Summer. It’s all or nothing.

The public announcement/kiss is something that shows up in a ton of rom-coms. I haven’t yet deciphered why this is such a thing. Is it because the guy is putting himself in a dangerous position with a lot of rejection potential? Is it because everyone else is looking on and getting jealous? Or is it something else?

With this kiss, Summer had been hiding her relationship with Seth from everyone at school. She liked him, but she was embarrassed to like him since he’s so dorky and awkward and she’s popular with an image to protect. In this case, the public display was a remedy to their situation. He says, “Acknowledge me now or lose me forever.” And thankfully she does!

What do you think is so appealing about the PDA? Do you like people watching you kiss your significant other? Because I don’t, so I don’t know why it’s romantic in movies…

OK, this is the fourth Friday Frenching, so I suppose it’s time to get a little complicated. This kiss has a book version and a movie version, and they couldn’t be more different.

THE KISSERS: Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark

Let’s do a little comparison, shall we?

THE MOVIE KISS:

THE BOOK KISS:

“Peeta,” I say lightly. “You said at the interview you’d had a crush on me forever. When did forever start?”
“Oh, let’s see. I guess the first day of school. We were five. You had on a red plaid dress and your hair… it was in two braids instead of one. My father pointed you out when we were waiting to line up,” Peeta says.
“Your father? Why?” I ask.
“He said, ‘See that little girl? I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner,’” Peeta says.
“What? You’re making that up!” I exclaim.
“No, true story,” Peeta says. “And I said, ‘A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner if she could’ve had you?’ And he said, ‘Because when he sings… even the birds stop to listen.’”
“That’s true. They do. I mean, they did,” I say. I’m stunned and surprisingly moved, thinking of the baker telling this to Peeta. It strikes me that my own reluctance to sing, my own dismissal of music might not really be that I think it’s a waste of time. It might be because it reminds me too much of my father.
“So that day, in music assembly, the teacher asked who knew the valley song. Your hand shot right up in the air. She stood you up on a stool and had you sing it for us. And I swear, every bird outside the windows fell silent,” Peeta says.
“Oh, please,” I say, laughing.
“No, it happened. And right when your song ended, I knew—just like your mother—I was a goner,” Peeta says. “Then for the next eleven years, I tried to work up the nerve to talk to you.”
“Without success,” I add.
“Without success. So, in a way, my name being drawn in the reaping was a real piece of luck,” says Peeta. For a moment, I’m almost foolishly happy and then confusion sweeps over me. Because we’re supposed to be making up this stuff, playing at being in love not actually being in love. But Peeta’s story has a ring of truth to it. That part about my father and the birds. And I did sing the first day of school, although I don’t remember the song. And that red plaid dress… there was one, a hand-me-down to Prim that got washed to rags after my father’s death.
It would explain another thing, too. Why Peeta took a beating to give me the bread on that awful hollow day. So, if those details are true… could it all be true?
“You have a… remarkable memory,” I say haltingly. “I remember everything about you,” says Peeta, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “You’re the one who wasn’t paying attention.”
“I am now,” I say.
“Well, I don’t have much competition here,” he says. I want to draw away, to close those shutters again, but I know I can’t. It’s as if I can hear Haymitch whispering in my ear, “Say it! Say it!”
I swallow hard and get the words out. “You don’t have much competition anywhere.” And this time, it’s me who leans in.”

WHY IT ROCKED:I’m a bit torn on this one. Here’s the thing–the book kiss didn’t make me swoony. At all. I don’t think it was meant to. Katniss is acting, and her romancing of Peeta is meant for the viewers at home. Yes, this is the point where she sort of realizes that it’s not as fake for Peeta as it is for her, but this book kiss is a bit disingenuous.

The movie kiss is something else entirely. Now, I’m not the kind of girl that goes around choosing teams (ie, Team Peeta/Team Edward/Team whatever), so I’m not trying to hyper-romanticize a relationship that wasn’t that romantic in the book. And during my first viewing I was appalled that they don’t relate the reality of this kiss–that Katniss is mostly faking it. But after I got over the initial THIS IS NOT HOW IT WAS IN THE BOOK! I was able to appreciate it for what it was. In the movie, I suppose, Katniss is beginning to realize her feelings for Peeta at this moment. It’s barely even recognizable as the same kiss, since the motivations seem so off. But right after, when Peeta says that now he definitely can’t let her go–I die. It’s so cute. So, in a rare case, I felt that this movie kiss trumped the book kiss by a wide margin.

What do you think about movie adaptations of kisses? How did you feel about the changed kiss in THE HUNGER GAMES?

So, I just finished Kristen Halbrook’s NOBODY BUT US, as part of the 2013 Debut Author Challenge, hosted by The Hobbitsies. I’d been anticipating this book ever since I read somewhere that it was Bonnie and Clyde meets IF I STAY. Yes please!

From Goodreads:

Will

Maybe I’m too late. Maybe Zoe’s dad stole all her fifteen years and taught her to be scared. I’ll undo it. Help her learn to be strong again, and brave. Not that I’m any kind of example, but we can learn together.

When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.

Zoe

Maybe it’ll take Will years to come to terms with being abandoned. Maybe it’ll take forever. I’ll stay with him no matter how long it takes to prove that people don’t always leave, don’t always give up on you.

I had high expectations going in, which may have clouded my judgement a bit here. In my opinion, it wasn’t the story it was made out to be. Bonnie and Clyde? Kind of. They’re on the run, anyway. IF I STAY? Um… I have no clue where they got that comparison. That being said, the story that NOBODY BUT US really is is intriguing. I fully believe that if I’d never read anything but the jacket copy, I’d have been much more enthusiastic about this read.

Kristen Halbrook does a great job with both Will and Zoe’s voices, making both sound authentic and three-dimensional. She didn’t pull her punches, which I appreciated, and the pace is pedal-to-the-floor once you get about half-way through. The story gets more tragic by the moment, and though the ending was something I easily predicted, it was no less heartbreaking when it played out.

It’s a slow-starter, but I’d definitely say it’s worth a read. Halbrook brings out a lot of emotions in her very VERY damaged characters, and I like how she dealt with them. Their relationship was unhealthy, and damaged kiddos flock toward unhealthy relationships. It wasn’t the romance I expected–and it certainly wasn’t romantic, but it was a realistic depiction of two teens who feel bound to each other, want to save each other, but ultimately lack the maturity and know-how to help anyone–even themselves.

Have you read NOBODY BUT US? What did you think?

This is my new favorite day of the week! Friday! Kissing! I am loving this new weekly feature thing.

THE KISSERS: Troy and Lalaina from Reality Bites

THE KISS:

WHY IT ROCKED: This kiss was predestined to be gorgeous. Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke could never have an unattractive kiss. It’s just not possible.

Plus, this: “She breaks my heart, again and again, but I love her.”

But what I love about this kiss is that it is almost a microcosm of their shifting relationship. It starts out as two friends talking. As Troy goes to comfort Lalaina, he kisses her on the side of her head. Her cheek. He’s still in friend territory here. If she pulled away, he could cover for himself and still maintain their friendship. But then there’s that awkward, beautiful moment before they figure out where there mouths should go. Charting foreign territory in such a familiar relationship. And finally the long-awaited kiss that brings their friendship into a whole new light. Once they cross the line, they both dive headlong into the kiss and Troy–notorious for masking his real emotions–allows himself to be raw and passionate in a way that he’d been too afraid to be until that moment.

I still get excited when I watch this movie. It’s an oldie but goodie.

What’s your favorite friend-to-relationship romance?

I believe this is the German cover for Anna and the French Kiss--adorable, right?

Today’s kiss is scandalous and perfect.

THE KISSERS: Anna and St. Clair from ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins

THE KISS:

We are kissing like crazy. Like our lives depend on it. His tongue slips inside my mouth, gentle but demanding, and it’s nothing like I’ve ever experienced, and I suddenly understand why people describe kissing as melting because every square inch of my body dissolves into his. My fingers grip his hair, pulling him closer. My veins throb and my heart explodes. I have never wanted anyone like this before. Ever.

He pushes me backward and we’re lying down, making out in front of the children with their red balloons and the old men with their chess sets and the
tourists with their laminated maps and I don’t care, I don’t care about any of that.

All I want is Étienne.

The weight of his body on top of mine is extraordinary. I feel him—all of him—pressed against me, and I inhale his shaving cream, his shampoo, and that extra scent that’s just . . . him. The most delicious smell I could ever imagine.

I want to breathe him, lick him, eat him, drink him. His lips taste like honey. His face has the slightest bit of stubble and it rubs my skin but I don’t care, I don’t care at all. He feels wonderful. His hands are everywhere, and it doesn’t matter that his mouth is already on top of mine, I want him closer closer
closer.

WHY IT ROCKED: I mean, you read it. Come on, that’s hot. But aside from the sexy writing skills of Stephanie Perkins, there’s a lot of sexy tension in this scene. Their kiss is capital W, Wrong, for starters. He has a girlfriend. Her roomie is in love with him. Plus they’re in the middle of a public park, where they could easily be found out. All of that built-up tension leads to a rocket-fueled kiss that actually feels like real kissing. The desire, the passion, and my favorite line, “…it doesn’t matter that his mouth is already on top of mine, I want him closer closer closer.” Perkins has completely encapsulated the unmistakable desperation of YA love.

How do you like your book/movie/TV kisses? Sweet and sappy? Passionate and desperate? Somewhere in between?

I am a terribly inconsistent blogger. I brainstorm posts from time to time and it’s so harrrrrd to come up with anything worth reading. What I keep coming back to is kissing. I want to write about kissing. A lot.

I’m 28, and I’m a kissaholic. That’s probably why I love YA so much.

So I’m starting a new series that will simultaneously allow me to talk about kissing and blog more! Win/win.

This new development will henceforth be known as Friday Frenching. Each Friday, for as long as I can sustain it, I will highlight a favorite kiss in movies, literature, TV, etc. The first kiss is crucial to YA romance, so I am telling myself that this is research. Awesome, sexy, fun, awkward, hilarious, beautiful research!

This week’s kiss is a recent development on the show New Girl. If you have a bunch of episodes backed up on your DVR, do yourself a favor and STOP READING HERE. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Yeah, that happened.

THE KISSERS: Jess and Nick from the TV show New Girl

WHY IT ROCKED: Nick, who is uniformly awkward in everything he does, has a rare smooth moment. At the perfect time. It’s the lady’s trench coat he got in the mail. Trench Coat Nick is bold and confident–far superior to Regular Nick. But even Trench Coat Nick can’t kiss Jess when they’re propelled together during a drinking game. He wants it to mean more. For it to be real.

But when Jess is scared by a noise at the door later that night, it isn’t her boyfriend that she calls to check it out–it’s Nick. The noise ends up being a neighbor’s dog, and Nick is forced to give back the lady’s trench coat he’d been wearing as a suit of armor for the whole episode. But before Nick goes back to being Regular Nick, he decides to be Trench Coat Nick one last time and swings Jess back into his arms. They have their first awkward kiss, which leads into the better, more exciting second kiss–the one where Jess knows that it’s Nick she’s kissing. Nick, her roommate. Her best friend. And even with her boyfriend in the other room asleep, she can’t help but kiss him back.

Sigh.

Have you read/seen any great kisses lately? Give me your favorite kiss scenes in the comments!

I love this cover art.

I mentioned in this post that I signed up for the 2013 Debut Author Challenge over at The Hobbitsies, and I am so stoked to have a reason to read more current books. I always get so behind on my TBR list–reading 2011 debuts in 2012, 2012 debuts in 2013. Anyway, this is my first debut read of the year!  BLAZE (OR LOVE IN THE TIME OF SUPERVILLAINS) by Laurie Boyle Crompton.

From Goodreads:

Blaze is tired of spending her life on the sidelines, drawing comics and feeling invisible. She’s desperate for soccer star Mark to notice her. And when her BFF texts Mark a photo of Blaze in sexy lingerie, it definitely gets his attention. After a hot date in the back of her minivan, Blaze is flying high, but suddenly Mark’s feelings seem to have been blasted by a freeze-ray gun, and he dumps her. Blaze gets her revenge by posting a comic strip featuring uber-villain Mark the Shark. Mark then retaliates by posting her “sext” photo, and, overnight, Blaze goes from Super Virgin Girl to Super Slut. That life on the sidelines is looking pretty good right about now…

One word, over and over: voice voice voice voice voice! Crompton gives us a comics-obsessed girl who talks and thinks like a comics-obsessed girl. There are lines from old comics, superhero references galore, and even some beautifully drawn comic frames that showcase Blaze’s talent. If anyone was confused about how to imbue their novel with voice, I would throw this novel into their TBR pile.

Voice aside, though, I have to be honest. Blaze didn’t necessarily appeal to me at the start of this story. She was a bit judgmental and some of her choices were tough to understand. That being said, I ended up really liking her by the end. Blaze comes into her own and–what do you know?–her story is all about getting past those same traits that I didn’t like about her.

Mark the Shark is the villain here, but he’s anything but one-dimensional. There are hints at other sides to his character, and I think Crompton did a great job making me actually feel a little bad for the guy who posted a half-naked pic of the MC on the Internet.

I wish we’d gotten more of Quentin, aka Comic Book Guy, but what we did get I thoroughly enjoyed. Messy hair boys always do it for me

Are you doing the 2013 Debut Author Challenge? Have you read BLAZE yet?

I’m back on the west coast now! Yay! It was a long process, and we still don’t have any of our furniture or dishes or internet or TV, but we are in Seattle again and I am so stoked!

This week’s Road Trip Wednesday over at YA Highway seems so appropriate:

In celebration of the release of Kristin Halbrook’s NOBODY BUT US (hooray!!) we’re asking: Zoe and Will set off on the road to seek a better life and encounter loads of drama on the way. What’s the most dramatic road trip you’ve ever been on?

Since my husband and I can’t seem to decide on a coast, I have driven cross-country with him thrice. I also drove cross-country with one of my friends and my sister a decade ago (side note: OMG I’m old). So road trip stories. I have them.

Probably the most dramatic road trip story is from the Seattle-to-Virginia trip we took in April, 2010. My husband had to get to his new job and the deadline was tight. Like, two days tight. We left Seattle, WA at 8 pm, heading to Richmond, VA, only stopping for gas and for ONE four hour stay at a hotel. Our cat was not pleased. I don’t blame him; it was absurd. I am pretty sure we thought we were still capable of all-nighters–my husband was. I was not. When I say that WE drove that whole way, I mean that I drove for about eight hours out of the gate and blew all my energy at once, only to keep nodding off the rest of the trip and only taking one or two hour shifts for the rest of the time. I don’t function on no sleep.

Yeah, yeah, I’m a jerk. But I was such a tired jerk. I vaguely remember standing in front of a Subway counter in West Virginia, wanting to cry because I couldn’t figure what I should eat.

Oh, and that hotel stay? We were in Colorado, and we figured we could cut ourselves a tiny bit of slack. Weather was great and we were making good time. We took the shortest ever nap, and then gathered our things to leave again–only to see that it was snowing. We still had to drive through Vail Pass, which is nearly 10,000 ft. elevation. We got a quarter of the way across in my little Nissan-Sentra-that-could and then the wheels just wouldn’t stay on the road. We sat on the side of the road with no chains and no cell service and snow piling up on our windshield fast. Trucks whisked by and my husband attempted to flag one down, but there was so much snow that it would be a wonder if they could’ve even seen him.

Finally, a tow truck pulled over and hooked us up to his truck. Then he proceeded to tow us while we were STILL INSIDE OUR CAR. If you have ever experienced that, it is not a pleasant thing. The shocks were ineffective. Every bump felt like an enormous pothole. And dude was speeding, because they were about to close the pass. In fact, they DID close it, and our truck was literally the last one allowed over to the other side.

He unhooked us in the next town and we paid him an embarrassing sum of money. It was worth it.

Do you have any fun road trip stories? I’d love to hear them! Also, are you planning to buy NOBODY BUT US? Because I absolutely am.

As much as I read, I realized that I don’t really put enough reviews up on my blog.

So, I discovered this book while I was browsing in Barnes & Noble for gifts before Christmas, and I pointed it out to my husband. I’m always pointing books out to him and saying how much I want to read them–especially before Christmas. And lo and behold, I unwrapped CHARLOTTE STREET by Danny Wallace on Christmas morn. A heartwarming, everyday tale of boy stalks girl. It says so right on the cover.

The Goodreads blurb:

Jason Priestley (not that one) has just seen her. They shared an incredible, brief, fleeting moment of deep possibility, somewhere halfway down Charlotte Street.

And then, just like that, she was gone – accidentally leaving him holding her old-fashioned, disposable camera, chock full of undeveloped photos…

And now Jason – ex-teacher, ex-boyfriend, part-time writer and reluctant hero – faces a dilemma. Should he try and track The Girl down? What if she’s The One? But that would mean using the only clues he has, which lie untouched in this tatty disposable…

It’s funny how things can develop…

I really loved this story and Wallace’s voice hooked me right away. A few things bugged me–the insistence on withholding information in order to cliffhang EVERY chapter, for one. But overall, this was so sweet and funny. Jason is despicable and selfish, but also funny, self-aware, and rarely unlikable. All of the characters were so well-rounded, especially Dev, the video game obsessed roommate with the used game store under their flat. The story is propelled by Jason’s search for The Girl in the pictures, and while there are definitely elements of a delightfully cheesy rom-com, I felt that CHARLOTTE STREET went beyond that and became more of a story about a guy trying to find his direction, and determining how to “make it happen” and leave his mark on the world.

Wallace has also written a whole bunch of non-fiction books (including YES MAN, which was made into that Jim Carrey movie), and I intend to get my hands on them ASAP.

One of my goals for the year is to read 100 books, so when I saw this post about the Debut Author Challenge on Jaime Morrow’s blog, I decided to go for it! The challenge is being hosted at The Hobbitsies blog–participants must read and review at least 12 debut authors in 2013. Read more about the challenge here.

They’ve even got a list of 2013 debut authors over at Goodreads, and I’m super lazy so that rocks.

Here are a few that I definitely hope to read and review over the course of the year, along with their release dates:

• The Symptoms of My Insanity by Mindy Raff (April)
• After Eden by Helen Douglass (July)
• Taken by Erin Bowman (April)
• The Falconer by Elizabeth May (May)
• Severed Heads, Broken Hearts by Robyn Schneider (June)
• Starglass by Phoebe North (July)
• Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke (August)
• Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan (February)
• Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross (June)
• When the World was Flat (and We Were in Love) by Ingrid Jonach (unknown)
• These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner (unknown)
• OCD Love Story byCorey Ann Haydu (July)
• In the After by Demitria Lunetta(June)
• Fault Line by Christa Desir (November)
• The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller (May)
• Broken by A.E. Rought (January)
• Uses for Boys byErica Lorraine Scheidt (January)
• Cinders and Sapphires by Leila Rasheed (January)
• The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd (January)
• Nobody but Us by Kristin Halbrook (January)
• Blaze by Laurie Boyle Crompton (February)
• Pivot Point by Kasie West (February)
• The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door by Karen Finneyfrock (February)
• Starstruck by Rachel Shukert (March)

Woah, that list got out of hand pretty quickly. I’m really not that rich, and about to move across the country, so we’ll see how I do with it once real life sets in. But there are just so many book descriptions that sound amazing for 2013 debut authors! Yay for them and yay for us for getting to read their wonderful stories!

Are you excited about any debuts or other releases in 2013? Any recommendations?