Guest Post: Tera Lynn Childs + Sophie Jordan

I'm super excited today to be a part of a blog tour organized by Big Honcho Media and Harper Teen for Tera Lynn Child's Sweet Venom and Sophie Jordan's Vanish. I've read both of these titles (you can read my reviews HERE and HERE) and absolutely adored them! I'm therefore truly thrilled to allow Tera and Sophie to take over the blog to give us some of their very best romantic advice.

BEST ROMANTIC ADVICE - TERA LYNN CHILDS

My parents met when my mom was nineteen and my dad was twenty-two and this year they celebrated their forty-fifth wedding anniversary, so I have a pretty amazing romantic example to follow. They met, knew they wanted to get married by the next weekend and got married the next year, after a year apart on opposite sides of the country.

If their relationship has taught me one thing it’s that when you know, you know. My mom knew my dad was the one the moment she saw him. When my grandfather asked her if she was sure, she said she was sure. She never doubted, has never doubted. Not once.

I’ve been in plenty of situations—whether it’s a guy, a literary agent, or a pair of shiny new shoes—where I find myself making the argument. Trying to convince myself that the thing in question is right, that it’s worth the love or the trust or the money. Whenever I realize I’m doing that, I always try to make myself walk away. Because if I’m having doubts now, chances are I’ll regret the thing later.

If you have to talk yourself into something, then it’s not the right thing in the first place. Make things easier on yourself by walking away now, before it’s too late.

BEST ROMANTIC ADVICE - SOPHIE JORDAN

Make sure you like him.

Yes, this is the best romantic advice I’ve ever received and ever given. It’s so simple, but true. Of course, you’re first drawn to a “partner” due to that special zing! That first toe-curling moment when you both first see each other. This isn’t to say I’m discounting the importance of chemistry. In the beginning, it might seem like the only important thing. Chemistry. Attraction. I get it. It’s what I write about – partly. The other part, believe it or not, has to do with liking. Both in real life and the stories I make up.

When I craft a book, I create those moments where gazes meet, where hearts race, hands touch and sparks fly. As a writer, I love writing the “steamy” scenes. But just as important are what I call the “quiet” scenes … where a hero and heroine are learning about each other, when they’re discovering common ground and respect for one another. When they’re laughing and having a genuine exchange that sets the groundwork for a healthy future relationship.

If chemistry is the only thing a relationship has going for it … it’s not going to go very far. The same goes for the believability of a romantic couple in a book. Make sure you like each other. Make sure you are friends.

Thanks so much for stopping by ladies! This should be a really fun tour, so be sure and stop by Anna Reads on Monday to see what they have to say next!

Sophie and Tera are going to be making several physical tour stops as well at the following locations. I'm hoping to make it to the Dayton event as that's not far from me, and I would love to see some of you there!

September 7 @ 7 PM Blue Willow Bookshop - Houston, TX

September 8 @ 7 PM Books & Co - Dayton, OH

September 9 @ 7 PM Magic Tree Bookstore - Chicago, IL

October 1 - Austin Teen Book Festival - Austin, TX

SWEET VENOM

Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.

Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.

Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they’re triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.

These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful Gorgon maligned in myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.

VANISH

An Impossible Romance. Bitter Rivalries. Deadly Choices.

To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She betrayed the most closely guarded secret of her kind. Now she must return to the protection of her pride knowing she might never see Will again—and worse, that because his mind has been shaded, Will’s memories of that fateful night and why she had to flee are gone.

Back home, Jacinda is greeted with hostility and must work to prove her loyalty for both her sake and her family’s. Among the few who will even talk to her are Cassian, the pride’s heir apparent who has always wanted her, and her sister, Tamra, who has been forever changed by a twist of fate. Jacinda knows that she should forget Will and move on—that if he managed to remember and keep his promise to find her, it would only endanger them both. Yet she clings to the hope that someday they will be together again. When the chance arrives to follow her heart, will she risk everything for love?

In bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s dramatic follow-up to Firelight, forbidden love burns brighter than ever.