The Big Love Letter Event 2015: Kristen Simmons

Welcome to day one of The Big Love Letter Event! For those of you who missed the introductory post a couple weeks ago, this event will run every Friday through March 13th and will consist of love letters written by some truly amazing authors. Danny from Bewitched Bookworms and I will each be hosting different letters every week (hop over there today for a little something special from Heather Demetrios!), so be sure and check out both blogs for a bigger and better celebration of all things swoon-worthy. We'll also be hosting a fantastic giveaway, so don't forget to check the bottom of the post for all the details!

I have the pleasure of kicking this event off today with Kristen Simmons, author of the Article 5 series and, more recently, The Glass Arrow which is set to release next week. I read the Article 5 series a while back and fell madly in love with it, and then last year was able to meet Kristen at a group signing in Cincinnati. She is, and I say this with absolutely no exaggeration, one of the sweetest and funniest people I've been lucky enough to cross paths with, and I feel privileged to call her friend.

If you haven't added The Glass Arrow to your must-have lists yet, I hope this letter has you remedying that immediately :-)

(Found in the barn behind The Garden)

Aya,

It’s night in the city, though it hardly looks or sounds it. The sky’s gray as muddy water, and the trash machine behind the barn is grinding something fierce. It’s one of two things that’s kept me awake since I came here.

The other is this lumpy bedroll. (That’s a joke, Aya.)

I can see you from the slatted window in the loft, curled up on the hard ground with your wolf as a pillow. You look like all the things I want to feel. Calm and steady. Still and unburdened. The daylight will change you – but this heavy air doesn’t drag you down. It makes you taller. It makes me taller, watching you.

There are things about me you don’t know. Things I can’t tell you. If you ever found them out, you’d probably beat on me for a good while for lying to you. At least, you’d try. (That’s not an invitation to try.)

There are things I want to tell you, though. More things than there are stars in the sky outside this dirty city. Things like, you’re not as good at throwing a ball as you’d like to think. And that I’m safe, and you and me, we aren’t so different.

There are other things, too. Crazy things I’m only writing now because I know you can’t read them. I know what you sing for. Your voice stays in my head, even in the daytime. You are stronger than iron. I like your ankles, and your wild black hair, and the way you say Kiran.

And if I could talk, Aya, I’d talk to you.

Don’t give up. I won’t give up either.
Kiran

*Jenny dies a little inside*

I love you, Kiran :-)

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THE GLASS ARROW

(releases February 10th from Tor Teen)

Once there was a time when men and women lived as equals, when girl babies were valued, and women could belong only to themselves. But that was ten generations ago. Now women are property, to be sold and owned and bred, while a strict census keeps their numbers manageable and under control. The best any girl can hope for is to end up as some man’s forever wife, but most are simply sold and resold until they’re all used up.

Only in the wilderness, away from the city, can true freedom be found. Aya has spent her whole life in the mountains, looking out for her family and hiding from the world, until the day the Trackers finally catch her.

Stolen from her home, and being groomed for auction, Aya is desperate to escape her fate and return to her family, but her only allies are a loyal wolf she’s raised from a pup and a strange mute boy who may be her best hope for freedom . . . if she can truly trust him.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

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KRISTEN SIMMONS

Kristen Simmons writes young adult fiction - the kind that's dark and scary but generally involves some kissing. She's the author of ARTICLE 5 (2012), BREAKING POINT (2013), and THREE (2014), as well as THE GLASS ARROW (2015), and METALTOWN (2016). Words cannot describe how happy all this makes her.

Website • Facebook • Twitter 

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GIVEAWAY

Danny and I have (what we think) is a pretty fabulous giveaway that will run for the entirety of this event with 5 winners in total when all is said and done:

• Winners 1-4: Each will get a book of your choice from one of the participating authors. (Open internationally as long as Book Depository ships to you! )
• Winner 5  : Hardcover copy of LAILAH by Nikki Kelley plus some awesomely cute swag (international ). Prize is provided by author - thank you so much!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check back both here and at Bewitched Bookworms every Friday in February for more letters and a whole lot more love from these fantastic authors:

• Kristen Simmons (The Glass Arrow)
• Mindee Arnett (Polaris, The Nightmare Dilemma)
• Melissa Landers (Invaded)
• Sara Raasch (Snow Like Ashes)
• Emery Lord (The Start of Me and You)
• Liza Palmer (Girl Before a Mirror)
• Laura Lee Guhrke (Catch a Falling Heiress)
• Anna Banks (Joyride)
• Heather Demetrios (I'll Meet You There)
• Nikki Kelly (The Styclar Saga)
• Paula Stokes (Liars, Inc.)
• & More!