Yes, it's THAT Type of Love Story
Whatever trope you're thinking of, it's that one
This is the third (but not final, just the last one I’ve drafted) in a contemporary YA series I’ve written with connected characters. The first two (This Year and One Year) feature an ensemble cast of friends. This story, however, has one main character – Shay and Mabel’s younger sister, Clara. She’s outgoing and fearless and super cringe. I crammed every embarrassing moment that I can remember from my teenage years into this story, and invented a few more for good measure. I cackle to myself – still – when I read the blurb I wrote for it. So, without further ado, here’s what you need to know about THAT Type of Love Story.
THAT Type of Love Story
If she can’t have the friends-to-lovers romance of her dreams, she’ll find her happy ending in another trope. Any other trope.
Clara Morgan always wanted the childhood-friends-to-romance trope to be her reality. Fox is her neighbor, her parents’ best friends’ kid, and her movie critique partner. Every Friday night growing up they went back and forth between their houses for a movie night while their parents went out. Once they were too old for babysitters, their parents went out together and Clara and Fox continued to hang out, stuffing their faces with jalapeño popcorn (him) and chewy, fruity candy (her), pulling apart the story structure, dialogue, and cinematography of every film they watched.
When Clara takes a chance and reveals her feelings for Fox in his yearbook, he pretends it never happened, and she ends up with the unrequited romance she dreaded. Wanting to maintain their fragile friendship, Clara decides the best way to get over him is to move on. And to do that, she’s going to date every trope there is: the coworker (a classmate who volunteers at the animal shelter with her), the newcomer (cute new guy who moved here to train for the Winter Olympics), the enemies-to-lovers...wait, no, not that one. Clara would never date Maverick, the smug boy she’s forced to partner with in her Life Skills class – a partnership that turns into a fake marriage with a robot baby.
After a night full of bad decisions, their Life Skills teacher pronounces their electronic child dead and Clara faces failure in a class that should be a piece of yellow cake. Desperate for redemption, she brings home the geriatric dog who follows her around the shelter, taking care of him to make up her grade and give him a more comfortable place to live his little doggy life.
This semester, Clara gets to experience all the love stories she’s ever dreamed of, but is a happy ending really what she’s pictured all this time?
Confession: I stopped writing this 75% of the way through, though it’s the only novel I’ve had an extremely detailed outline for. Like I mentioned last month, the first book in this series died while querying, and I lost motivation to continue writing in this world. The good news is I plan to finish it up in the coming months and send it to my critique group, hopefully to laugh their fannies off.
Are you wondering what the word “querying” means? Have you read my last few emails about the books I’ve written, and wondered why you can’t read them yet? My critique partner, Patrice, wrote an excellent post about what the publishing process is like. She specifically wrote it for friends and family of writers.
I don’t have any answers for you yet about when you might be able to read my books, but this will be the place to hear about it when I do.
May you find the right dose of romance (or anti-romance) with the right person this month of love, just like Clara.
Love, Heidi
P.S. Do you read romance? Have a favorite trope? Share it in the comments!
This is exciting Heidi!
Sounds like a super fun read. I can't wait for you to finish it!