Sunday Street Team Interview: Kissing in America

 

Title: Kissing in America

Author: Margo Rabb

Publisher: Harper

Publication Date: May 26, 2015

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Acclaimed writer Margo Rabb’s Kissing in America is “a wonderful novel about friendship, love, travel, life, hope, poetry, intelligence, and the inner lives of girls,” raves internationally bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love).

In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels—118 of them, to be exact—to dull the pain of her loss that’s still so present. Her romantic fantasies become a reality when she meets Will, who seems to truly understand Eva’s grief. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head-over-heels for him, he picks up and moves to California without any warning. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness—and, perhaps, her shot at real love—Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the west coast to see Will again. As they road trip across America, Eva and Annie confront the complex truth about love.

In this honest and emotional journey that National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr calls “gorgeous, funny, and joyous,” readers will experience the highs of infatuation and the lows of heartache as Eva contends with love in all of its forms.

An Interview with Margo Rabb: 

1. Kissing in America is labeled as a YA romance (among other awesome genres). Who are some of your favorite YA couples?

Despite its title, Kissing in America is actually not a romance novel--it’s really a coming of age novel about love. My favorite YA couple of all time is Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables. It doesn’t get any better than Anne and Gil!
I definitely sensed the coming-of-age aspect for Eva while I was reading. I don't want to ruin it for readers who haven't read it, but I liked how you plotted Eva's growth.

V-J Day Kiss

2. How did you come up with the title of the book?

In the book, the title is partly in reference to the iconic photo from V-J day of a sailor kissing a nurse--it’s about the fantasies we have of love and romance and freedom and starting over.
I love that photo! It's such an iconic moment in American history.

3. Kissing in America is a road trip novel. How did you plot out where Eva and Annie would travel to/through in the book?

Eva and Annie stop in Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, and L.A.--all places where I’ve lived or spent a lot of time, so I was familiar with them. I loved writing the Texas and Tucson sections most of all--I lived in both places for many years, and I loved re-visiting them in the book.
Okay! The Texas and Tuscon scenes were among my favorites. They had their differences, but I love the warm feelings that I got while reading through those parts of the novel!

4. What inspired you to write the Eva/Annie friendship? A certain best friend? A longing for a friendship like that?

Their friendship is based on my friendship with two of my closest female friends--a couple of Annie’s lines (especially the one about manroots) are actually direct quotes from my friend Dika.
That's awesome! I love knowing when authors put pieces of their friends in books. It's such a sweet way to thank them.

5. Are there any plans for a sequel to Kissing in America?

I wrote it as a stand alone novel, but who knows? Maybe Eva will demand a sequel at some point!

6. I read that both of your parents passed away when you were young, and I’m very sorry for your loss. What advice do you have for kids/teens who have lost a parent?

The thing that helped me most was reading books, and fiction was actually more helpful to me than traditional “self help” books about grief, because fiction often portrays experiences with more honesty and complexity. After my father died, I devoured both Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes and Alice Munro’s short stories--extremely different writers, but their work was enormously comforting.
I completely understand. While I've never lost a parent, my cousin died when we were both in eight grade. Self-help and counseling books never helped, but reading about characters going through similar events really helped me feel like I wasn't the only one going through something bad.

A Pinterest-Inspired Collage Based on Kissing in America

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Blog Tour and ARC Review: Kissing in America

Title: Kissing in America

Author: Margo Rabb
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: May 26, 2015

Source: eARC via Edelweiss 
Purchase it Here:
Amazon || Barnes & Noble || iBooks || The Book Depository || Kobo

I loved romances because when you opened the first page, you knew the story would end well. Your heart wouldn't be broken. I loved that security, that guaranteed love.

In real life, you never knew the ending. I hated that.

Sixteen-year-old Eva has never been in love. But when she meets Will, everything changes. With him, her grief over her father's death fades, and she can escape from her difficult relationship with her mother. Then, without any warning, Will picks up and moves to California. So Eva—with the help of her best friend, Annie—concocts a plan to travel across the country to see him again. As they leave New York City for the first time and road-trip across America, they encounter cowboys, kudzu, and tiny towns without stoplights. Along the way, Eva and Annie learn the truth about love and all its complexities.

My Review

I'm not going to lie to you... When I first saw the book cover and title for Kissing in America, I honestly thought it was going to be a really cheesy YA novel that would come and go quickly. Then I read the synopsis, and I knew that I had to at least give it a chance because it seemed like it would be an extremely emotional read with a lot going on. There is a lot going on, but it's definitely not a cheesy read, but a wonderful tale of a fatherless daughter trying to find herself.

The first thing that you need to know about Kissing in America by Margo Rabb isn't the love of romance novels. It's that the book is a beautifully written novel with a diverse cast of characters. The book's narrator, Eva, is a Jewish-American teenager growing up in New York City, and her best friend is a Korean immigrant. They aren't the only diverse characters in the book, but I loved how both main characters didn't fit into the typical character mold.

Another great piece of the puzzle in this book is that Rabb focuses on other people that have come before Eva and her mother. The stories in the novel give readers Eva's family history that goes back to World War II that you won't want to miss. Yes, they are sad, but they are touching because Ms. Rabb makes them feel extremely personal to her readers. Some of these stories, especially the ones about Eva's grandmother, made me want to climb in my Kindle and give Eva, her mother, and her aunt hugs.

I also love how the book doesn't exactly read like the YA romance I expected it to be, even though there are a lot of allusions to the genre and many romance novels included within the text. There is some heartbreak, but I wasn't too concerned about it because Kissing in America actually reads more like a coming-of-age novel because of many of the themes that Ms. Rabb includes. Eva and Annie do a lot of growing up on their road trip, and it was enjoyable to see them leave home to travel the country, discover new things, lose things, fight, and reconcile. If you want to read a book about discovering yourself and finding your inner-strength, read this book!

About Margo Rabb

Margo Rabb is the author of the novels Kissing in America and Cures for Heartbreak. Her essays, journalism, book reviews, and short stories have been published in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic, Slate, The Rumpus, Zoetrope: All-Story, Seventeen, Best New American Voices, New Stories from the South, One Story, and elsewhere, and have been broadcast on NPR. She received the grand prize in the Zoetrope short story contest, first prize in the Atlantic fiction contest, first prize in the American Fiction contest, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award. Margo grew up in Queens, New York, and has lived in Texas, Arizona, and the Midwest; she now lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and children.

Soundtrack Saturday (25)

Welcome back to another Soundtrack Saturday, everyone! I hope your weekend is great and that you're getting everything you want to accomplish done.

As you might remember, there was a three-week hiatus on my Soundtrack Saturday posts, but they are back! If you've been following The Hardcover Lover for a while, you know that I have my own small, little bookish meme. Yup! That's right - Soundtrack Saturday!

If you've never noticed the meme before or are just new to the blog, I'll explain things for you:

Soundtrack Saturday is a book meme created and hosted by me so I can share my love of music with my readers. But this is a book blog, so of course, books are involved! The soundtracks are actually book soundtracks! As I'm reading, or as soon as I finish, I compile a list of songs that go well with the book.

As with all bookish memes, there are a few steps to follow to help you create your own Soundtrack Saturday post:

• Choose a book that you've read or that you're currently reading (it doesn't matter... just as long as it's a book)
• Create a mini (four songs) or full soundtrack (ten-fifteen songs) for that book based on characters and plot details
  • For more detailed instructions, please visit the meme's homepage.
• Please credit me somewhere in your post
  
  • It can be as simple as "Soundtrack Saturday was created and hosted by Erin at The Hardcover Lover."
• Leave a comment on my blog post if you enjoy the feature or want me to check out your Soundtrack Saturday post (Hint hint... I check them all out, and I leave a comment on them. I also Tweet their links!)
• Add your name to the link-up tool at the bottom of the post so other people can see your post

The Friday 56 (18)

The Friday 56 is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. The rules are super easy to follow, and this feature is a great way to share the books you're reading with other bloggers and readers. I've discovered so many great books through this meme, and I always have a blast trying to figure out what quote I like the most.

So what do you need to do to participate in The Friday 56?

• Go to page 56 (or 56% for e-readers like Kindle and Nook) of the book you're currently reading
• Grab a few sentences to share with your blog's readers, but be sure not to spoil anything too major
• Add your name and link to the link-up on Freda's blog

I just finished reading Kissing in America by Margo Rabb yesterday, but I enjoyed it so much that I had to include a quote from it in this week's Friday 56 post, and I'm sure you'll see why as soon as you read the excerpt I've chosen. 
 
*This excerpt has been quoted from an uncorrected proof, so it may not reflect the final printing.*
 

"In our neighborhood in Queens, almost everybody's family was from another country - our local library had books in Korean, Spanish, Romanian, Chinese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, and Turkish. Even the Jews were from Israel or Yemen or Ethiopia, or their grandparents, like mine, were born in Europe."

What do you think of this excerpt? Will you be reading this book when it releases next month? Are you a fan of how diverse it appears from this quote? Let me know in the comments.

Also, feel free to leave links to your Friday 56 posts. I'd love to see what everyone's been reading and enjoying this week!

Waiting on Wednesday (20)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly bookish meme created and hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights the upcoming releases that bloggers and readers are currently anticipating.

It's very easy to participate in the meme. All you need to do is make a post about an upcoming release that you're waiting on, make sure you've linked back to Breaking the Spine, and then add your name to the link-up tool.

What I'm Waiting On...

Title: Kissing in America
Author: Margo Rabb
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: May 26, 2015

Acclaimed writer Margo Rabb’s Kissing in America is “a wonderful novel about friendship, love, travel, life, hope, poetry, intelligence, and the inner lives of girls,” raves internationally bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love).

In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels—118 of them, to be exact—to dull the pain of her loss that’s still so present. Her romantic fantasies become a reality when she meets Will, who seems to truly understand Eva’s grief. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head-over-heels for him, he picks up and moves to California without any warning. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness—and, perhaps, her shot at real love—Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the west coast to see Will again. As they road trip across America, Eva and Annie confront the complex truth about love.

In this honest and emotional journey that National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr calls “gorgeous, funny, and joyous,” readers will experience the highs of infatuation and the lows of heartache as Eva contends with love in all of its forms.

Why I'm Waiting...

Okay... I'm cheating again because I also have an ARC of this title, and I'm participating in the blog tour. I promise you that I haven't read it yet, though!

I'm not sure if many people who follow my blog know this, but I kind of love poetry. I've always loved reading it, and I've actually been writing poetry since I was a small child. When I saw that Margo Rabb was including poetry in this one, I knew I had to have it. I'm also particularly drawn to emotional books, and this novel seems like it's going to have plenty of what I enjoy reading about.

What Are You Waiting On...

Now I want to know what you're waiting on! Feel free to let me know in the comments by either saying what book or books you're eagerly waiting for, or leave me the link to your own Waiting on Wednesday post! I'd love to see what everyone is waiting for and possibly add more books to my TBR!