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ABRAMS BOOKS - Leah Konen

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176 pages

English

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Perfect for fans of Lauren Myracle and Rainbow Rowell, The Romantics will charm readers of all ages. Gael Brennan is about to have his heart broken when his first big relationship crumbles on the heels of his parents' painful separation. Love intervenes with the intention of setting things rightbut she doesn't anticipate the intrusion of her dreaded nemesis: the Rebound. Love's plans for Gael are sidetracked by Cara, Gael's hot-sauce-wielding ';dream girl.' The more Love meddles, the further Gael drifts from the one girl who can help him mend his heart. Soon Love starts breaking all her own rulesand in order to set Gael's fate back on course, she has to make some tough decisions about what it means to truly care.

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Publié par	ABRAMS BOOKS
Date de parution	01 novembre 2016
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781613121337
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0415€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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PUBLISHER S NOTE : This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2193-9 eISBN 978-1-6131-2133-7

Produced by Alloy Entertainment 1325 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10019 www.alloyentertainment.com
Text copyright 2016 Alloy Entertainment and Leah Konen Jacket and interior illustrations copyright 2016 Jordan Sondler Book design by Alyssa Nassner
Published in 2016 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher
Amulet Books and Amulet Paperbacks are registered trademarks of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Amulet Books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.

ABRAMS The Art of Books 115 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011 abramsbooks.com
this book is dedicated to all the romantics out there, you know who you are .

never stop believing. (the rest of us depend on your optimism.)
Love s notes
No, not love notes. Love in the possessive. I.e., notes from me.
I am Love. Your trusty narrator. Frequently referenced, usually misunderstood. Often imitated, never duplicated-that kind of thing.
That s why I m here-ditching my cloak of mystery, talking to you straight-to tell you a love story. A real love story-one that actually involves me.
Before we get started, a few guidelines. A handbook, if you will-to the ways of Love.
Rule Number One:
I will never ask you to ingest poison, fall on your lover s sword, become a subhuman species, wage war, or generally cause yourself or others bodily harm. That s the stuff of books and stories, not the real deal.
Rule Number Two:
I may not give much warning. It is quite possible that I m right around the corner and you have no idea. Sometimes even I don t know where I ll be next-I m Love, not some all-knowing god.
Rule Number Three:
I cannot prevent you from going after the wrong person. In fact, it is quite possible that you think you ve found me when you haven t.
People manage to see me in the most ridiculous of places: in a stolen kiss with your best friend s boyfriend; in the soft words of the model-esque boy asking you to lose it on his basement couch. But this is True Love, you say-cue the music, soften the lighting, slap on a filter that makes you both look all dreamy and romantic!
Sorry to disappoint, but a lot of the time, that s not really me.
I refer you back to Rule Number One. Romeo and Juliet; Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere; Marc Antony and Cleopatra; Bella and Edward-history and literature are full of examples of people who have made bad decisions in the name of, well, me.
Look, humans make a lot of mistakes. I don t. Just trust me on this one.
I m asking you to forget everything you know about True Love . The real kind doesn t make you selfish and shortsighted. Real love makes you better than you ever knew you could be.
So, how do you find me? Well, I m actually the one who finds you. See below.
Rule Number Four:
I will be in your life at one point or another.
This is my promise to you, no matter if you have sparkling green eyes or a face full of acne. No matter if you live in a Paris apartment overlooking the Seine or in rural Indiana overlooking cows. When it s your turn, I ll be there. And I will help you, if you let me.
Rule Number Five:
I cannot control you-or the Harry Styles lookalike in your calculus class. When it comes to the important stuff, it s all on you.
That said, I ve been known to give little, yet effective, nudges.
Rule Number Six:
Sometimes my timing is tricky.
Take Gael Brennan. He s a serious type, a kid with a plan. A Romeo, convinced he s found his Juliet. A high school senior in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who has no earthly idea what s in store for him.
He s about to lose his faith in me. And what I hate to admit is that said faith-losing is at least partially my fault, if you can believe it. I know, I know, I said I don t make mistakes.
And I don t.
Well, I didn t .
But I m going to do everything in my power to make this right.
Because there s a reason dear Gael needs me in his life. A big one. And let s just say it s not so he ll have someone to take to prom.
Of course, half the fun of my job is the challenge. Which brings me to-
Rule Number Seven:
I am allowed to get creative.
Before you protest, let me assure you that, as promised in Rule Number Five, human free will remains intact. I can t force people to do anything. I don t have a pouch full of arrows or a curio full of potions.
But that doesn t mean I don t have my ways . . .
throwback to the first i love you
Gael bit at his thumb as Alfred Hitchcock s The Birds ended in a shot of a landscape awash with feathers.
Did you like it? he asked Anika nervously. It was entirely possible-likely, even-that she hadn t. Sure, they d already rented Vertigo , which she d enjoyed. And she d seen Psycho on her own, but he d always thought those were easier to like. The Birds was just so much weirder. Of course, Anika was pretty weird herself. But still.
I did. Anika smiled, eating the last of the fun-size Snickers bars she always pilfered when she came over and squeezing closer to him on the couch. They were cuddled up in the basement-slash-entertainment room, a comfy, ugly space with wood paneling, faded posters, a discolored rug that had somehow survived his dad s college dorm, and a huge flat-screen TV. It was the only place that had escaped his mom s meticulous decorating, holding none of the charm of the rooms upstairs, and yet it was Gael s favorite.
I mean, you may have overhyped it a tad, Anika continued, pursing her lips. But I d expect nothing less. She smiled, and Gael allowed himself to take her in: her dark glossy hair pinned into thick braids around the crown of her head-looking like some kind of badass milkmaid; her wide-open eyes that grew two sizes bigger when she was being funny or making a point; her tiny, unassuming mouth. She was a perfect, beautiful girl, who was also offbeat enough to love this movie (almost) as much as he did.
The word love stuck in Gael s mind like a peanut butter sandwich to the roof of his mouth. So delicious and at the same time so uncomfortable. (Or so I m told. From my position in the world, I don t exactly get to indulge in many PB Js.)
It was September 18, one month to the day since they d first kissed, something he would have made a big deal of, except Anika had gone on and on about how annoying it was when her best friend, Jenna, kept them posted on her relationship length just about every week.
He knew a month was fast to say it. And yet it felt so natural, so right.
Gael held her tighter as Anika nuzzled into his chest. Her body felt warm and soft against his. He and his family had spent countless hours watching movies on this ratty basement couch, but since his dad had moved out, he d been watching them almost exclusively in his room. With Anika, it somehow felt okay to be down here again. There would always be the pang of what used to be, but now there was at least the promise of what could be, too.
Gael ran his hand over her braids as his eyes flitted to the clock on the Blu-ray player. It was past 9:30, and her curfew was ten on weekdays. Anika wasn t exactly the type to care much about curfew, but Gael was the type to want to show her parents how much he respected their rules.
Anika looked up at him mischievously. Not exactly the most romantic movie. She smirked. Though I suppose more romantic than the Battlestar Galactica marathon I imposed on you last week. She didn t drop her gaze. I guess we ll just have to make up for it.
Anika ran her hands through his hair, her fingertips on his scalp making him shiver, and then pulled his lips to meet hers. Her kisses were fast and insistent, and in seconds, she was on his lap, straddling him on the couch.
Gael pulled away. Hold on. Those pivotal three words burned in the back of his throat, where they d been lodged for the past few days. Anika had already told him she had to study tomorrow night and wouldn t be able to come over, which meant that if he didn t say them soon, he d have to wait another forty-eight hours.
And for a Romantic 1 like Gael, that was an unbearably long time.
Anika gave him a playful peck of a kiss. Why? I promise I m not a maniacal seagull in disguise. She kissed him again, then raised an eyebrow. Or am I?
Gael laughed, then rested his hands on her hips and tried to ignore the urgency in his pants. Anika s face was flushed. She looked so startlingly beautiful, he knew that he couldn t not say it now.
I wanted to tell you something, he said.
That you re a maniacal seagull in disguise? I m cool with it. She pulled him back toward her, clearly uninterested in talking.
He kissed her for a second and then pulled back again.
He felt like he was going to throw up, but in the best possible way. He felt a tingling in the tips of his fingers. He felt that he could do this right, even if his parents couldn t. He wondered how long it had been since he d blinked. He knew it was now or never. (I, for one, prepared for what I knew would, inevitably, follow.)
I just wanted to say that I love you.
I caught the flash of panic as it started across Anika s face, and I sent a strong gust of wind whipping through the tiny basement windo