fun fact and a book 3

So of course I met one of my favorite actors from one of my favorite movies when I had the worst haircut ever. That staircut from Keep Holding On? Unfortunately happened to me.

I have so much love for The Station Agent I can’t even. This movie is life. Bobby Cannavale, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Dinklage, and Michelle Williams bring some kind of magical chemistry you will never see in any other movie anywhere. It was shot in Newfoundland, NJ at and around the train depot, which you can visit anytime and I TOTALLY DID AND FANGIRLED HARDCORE THE WHOLE TIME.

My latest dorktastic video, Fun Fact and a Book 3, explains how the staircut happened (in excruciating detail), and shows photographic evidence with Bobby Cannavale that I swore I would never share. Cheers!

city love trilogy cover models

How much do I love behind the scenes stuff? SO much. Which is why whenever I get to see photos of the models on my book covers, I’m obsessed. You can’t quite see the models’ faces on the City Love trilogy covers. But now you can!

The City Love trilogy models were en fuego. They had the right look, the right clothes and accessories, and their poses were on point. Gustavo Marx, the cover photographer, shared some fun outtakes from the two-day photo shoot. The first day was on a rooftop in Brooklyn to capture the Manhattan skyline in the background. The second day was on a pier near the Brooklyn Bridge.

The City Love cover models were adorbs. They looked super comfortable together as Sadie and Austin, and I love the look of their clothes and sunglasses here.

They played around a little. With the Empire State Building in the background.

Brilliant cover designer Erin Fitzsimmons went with different outfits for the cover. They were still hot.

Speaking of hot, this photo shoot went down over two days in the summer of 2014 during a crazy heat wave. Erin said she didn’t know how the models weren’t drenched in sweat. After seeing how cool they look in these photos, I suspect that models may have anti-sweat superpowers.

Lost in Love is my favorite cover of the three. And these were my favorite models. Darcy and Jude were totally represented.

Love the clothes. Love her topknot. Love how she looks like Keira Knightley. Just. Freaking. Love.

And the lighting at sunset? Stunning.

The backlighting is so gorgeous, and that radiant shine of the sunlight on the water made the Lost in Love cover stand out.

The Forever in Love cover is a bit different. The models’ faces are the most visible. The focus is the sharpest. And the pose is super romantic. Ironically, Forever in Love is the least romantic book of the three, but we didn’t know that back in 2014! Back then I had no idea so much devastation would come crashing down at the end of the trilogy. But as this trilogy unfolded, I knew I needed to push my girls harder so they could push themselves out of their comfort zones. If you want big changes in your life, you have to make big changes, and that doesn’t happen when you’re stuck in a comfortable routine.

This girl looks like Brooke Shields here.

Rosanna and Donovan, of course. D is looking extra preppy here. And on the cover with that watch! But it was a good way to distinguish the unique characters.

HarperCollins did a behind-the-scenes photo shoot video you can watch here. You can watch my City Love trilogy tour featuring locations from the books on my YouTube. And Forever in Love can be ordered from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, or your local bookshop.

Happy summer reading, friendly neighbors! xoxo

full-circle in the park

As always during a book release week, I’m doing giveaways of Forever in Love here and there. Like this giveaway on Amazon. But Epic Reads is giving away the entire trilogy! With five winners! Their giveaway runs until July 24, and it’s open to residents in the US and Canada. You can enter here.

The final City Love trilogy tour video is up.

I did videos at five different New York City locations from the books, and tied in a theme from the books at each location. The final tour stop is Washington Square Park, which brings it back full-circle from the first chapter of the trilogy. Even filming the video was a full-circle moment because there was a magician performing who looked a lot like Jude, and in that first chapter of City Love Sadie and Rosanna are walking through the park and they stop to watch Jude perform. They just don’t know he’s Jude, because Darcy hasn’t even arrived yet and…well. No spoilers. PS That boy running through the fountain was not choreographed, but was amazing.

Thanks to everyone who made Forever in Love release week a blast. Your warm fuzzies, excitement, and support of the trilogy means so much to me. I will be forever in love with your positive energy, friendly neighbors. Shine on ❤

xoxo-
Susane

girl boy stuff

SO THIS HAPPENED.

I have been a hardcore Blake Nelson fangirl ever since I discovered Girl in 1994. I was in college and it was in the adult section because we really didn’t have a teen section yet except for a few sorry shelves in the children’s section and I could not even wait for another Blake Nelson book to come out. But that was before, like, the internet, and way before socials, so there was no way to just contact Blake directly and be like, “Do you have another book coming out?” I stalked the area where I found Girl for a long time afterwards. No new books were ever there.

Years later when YA was established, you can imagine how stoked out of my head I was to discover that Blake Nelson had several books on the shelves. They are all amazing and brilliant and I highly recommend you read each and every one of them.

For the past 10 years of my author life, I have been hoping to be on a panel with Blake. And then BOOM! My Forever in Love book launch event happened at Books of Wonder, the best indie bookstore in New York City that has hosted all of my City Love trilogy launch events, and we were finally on a panel together. Perfect timing so we could celebrate shiny new Boy and fresh faced Girl.

Basically? Don’t stop believing.

What else. The City Love trilogy tour videos are rolling out on my YouTube. The third location is 43 5th Avenue, the building where Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna are sharing an apartment together the summer before college. Which was also the dorms where Felicity Porter and her friends lived on Felicity! This building was University of New York (which doesn’t exist IRL) student housing, so I brought it back in the trilogy as UNY student housing again because Felicity is one of my Top Five Fave Shows and hopefully the trilogy has some Felicity feels.

The theme is resilience. Story of my life.

More soon. xoxo

forever in love today

Today is here! Today is here!

Forever in Love is out in the world!!!

For those of you who missed the billboard I rented about it, Forever in Love is the final book of my City Love trilogy. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, or at your local bookshop.

Speaking of online booksellers, if you read Forever in Love and enjoy it or have read City Love and/or Lost in Love and enjoyed those, would you kindly consider sharing your review online? Your opinion matters to me and to others. Those bright stars attract new readers!

I’ve been doing online Q&As with giveaways this week. Tomorrow, July 12, I will be answering your questions all day in my Goodreads Q&A group. On Thursday, July 13, I’ll be doing a Twitter chat 7-8pm EST. Everyone who asks a question will be entered to win a signed copy of Forever in Love, two winners per event. My goal is to answer as many of your questions as possible, but I usually don’t get to them all. A remaining one that made me smile is this:

Q: What are your Top Five Reasons to Love the City Love trilogy?

A: The summer before college, New York City, finding your people, embracing change, and dreaming big beyond fear. Oh, and summer love.

To show you what I mean, I am rolling out videos all week of my City Love trilogy tour. Each tour stop features a location from the book, and I tie in a theme from the books at each location. Of course the tour had to begin at the High Line.

Stay tuned to my YouTube for more tour videos rolling out this week!

Thanks to everyone who has read the City Love trilogy and is excited for this final book. I love connecting with you on socials, and am eternally grateful for your enthusiasm and support. You are why I write.

Forever in love with the infinite possibilities the future holds…

xoxo-
Susane

forever in love in three weeks

Only three weeks to go until Forever in Love is out in the world!

Until then, you can watch me geek out playing my City Love trilogy girls.

There is definitely a part of me in each of these girls. I can relate the most to Sadie now. In college, I was totally Rosanna. And Darcy…she is the kind of confident I aspire to be.

Or maybe it’s just that we wolf down pancakes the same way…

forever in love in one month

Only one month to go until Forever in Love is out in the world on July 11!

Of course I am stoked to have the final book of the City Love trilogy, a series that takes place over one summer that forever changes the lives of three girls sharing an apartment in New York City, come out in the middle of the summer. Taking summer reading up a notch, yo. The summer after high school was the first time I began feeling empowered, like I could take control of my life and live on my own terms, and that’s the exact quality I wanted to capture in this trilogy. The total freedom was a rush, everything from staying out all night if I felt like it to having a boy sleep over for the first time. Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna are three very different girls with very different backgrounds, but they all have this in common: the desire to live their dream lives.

For those of you who are interested in catching up on the City Love trilogy before Forever in Love comes out, good news! Lost in Love is now out in paperback.

When you write a book called Lost in Love and then you find this top that says Get Lost in Love, you kind of have to make a dorktastic video to celebrate the paperback release. Not that I set out to make a dorktastic video per se. It’s just that all of my YouTube videos are dorktastic because that’s how I roll. In this one, I share how Lost in Love takes the City Love trilogy to deeper levels.

The first book of the trilogy, City Love, takes place over the last 10 days of June. This is when Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna first meet each other. They are each running from dark secrets of their past, hoping to create a brighter future. So when the girls first meet in City Love, they are presenting polished versions of themselves to each other and hiding their secret pain. They each want to appear strong, like they have it all together. But when their lives are ripped apart at the end of City Love (cue major cliffhanger action), they begin to open up to each other and share the truth about who they are and where they came from. That’s why Lost in Love takes the trilogy to deeper levels, as these girls develop a bond of friendship that will last a lifetime.

In Forever in Love, my girls come to realize that, despite the pain they’ve endured and the challenges in their way, they can create their dream lives. Who you were does not have to define who you will become. You are the architect of your own destiny. The title refers to the girls being forever in love with the infinite possibilities their future holds, a positive, inspiring note I was happy to end the series on. I hope the City Love trilogy ends in a good way for those of you who read it!

Forever in Love can be pre-ordered from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, or directly from your local bookshop. If you do read any of the City Love trilogy books and enjoy them, kindly consider sharing your review online. Your stars can encourage new readers to get into the trilogy, and your book love is much appreciated.

Wishing you amazing summer reading adventures, friendly neighbors ❤

big talk

Small talk has never been my thing. Before I forced myself to get better at it so I wouldn’t die of boredom at cocktail parties where I didn’t know anyone, I totally dreaded any situation that would require the meaningless fluff and filler of small talk.

I swore that if one more person asked me the top two small talk questions:

“What do you do?”
“Where are you from?”

I would retaliate with questions that were meaningful and actually interesting to explore, thus encouraging some kind of genuine connection between us, like one of these:

“What’s your biggest dream?”
“On a scale of 1 to 10, how has your week been and why?”

These deeper questions aren’t serious enough to make people run screaming from me at parties, but are authentic enough to actually inspire a real conversation that isn’t a complete waste of time.

I didn’t want to make small talk anymore. I wanted to make big talk. But I didn’t know what to call it until Kalina Silverman gave a super impressive TED Talk. Kalina wanted to go out of her way to meet new people and skip the small talk, to have deeper conversations, and make more meaningful connections with them. So she created Big Talk, an initiative that inspires people to focus on what matters in this world. For her Big Talk video, Kalina asked strangers these big talk questions:

“What do you want to do before you die?”
“What would you do today if you knew you were going to die tomorrow?”

The results were magnificent.

Spread the big talk love, friendly neighbors ❤

holiday magic from asteroid b-612

If you’ve seen any of my dorktastic YouTube videos, you might have noticed the one in which I fangirl over my Little Prince collection. The Little Prince is my favorite book of all time and I have been collecting all things Little Prince for many years.

Which makes this the best. Christmas present. EVER.

A Little Prince tote with the text of the entire novel printed on it!!!

Dude. This bag is seriously ready to dazzle at my next book events. Hopefully I will see fellow YA author Nicola Yoon at one of them so I can share it with her. Nicola is also a Little Prince fan. Which you know if you’ve read her outstanding novel Everything, Everything. I had to rave about her book here. And that video I mentioned earlier? Was one of my Fun Fact and a Book videos featuring Everything, Everything.

So yeah. Lots of fun connections.

Wishing you holiday magic and a beautiful new year. xoxo

help wanted 5 – fear

TGIM! Here’s some Monday Motivation from me to you.

Is there a big dream you want to make reality, but fear is stopping you from following your heart? Do you want to break out of a bad situation you’re stuck in, a negative group of friends, a job you don’t like, or habits that make you feel worse about yourself? My Help Wanted 5 video is all about overcoming fear to create your dream life.

Fear is like an indicator pointing you toward a better life. Breaking out of your comfort zone will allow you to make the big changes necessary to improve your life immensely. Here’s how you can start turning your dreams into reality right now!

Stay gold, friendly neighbors ❤