Category: Journal

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Editorial director Rebecca Hill has finally found a heroine to identify with in How Hard Can Love Be?…

Ball and hoop shooting wasn’t really a thing in 1980s Essex, but if it had been then my chosen career should have been to play basketball. Yes, I’m one of those gangly girls, who were always told as a child to “stop stooping”. That feeling of towering over most of my classmates, including a lot of “hot” boys, has never left me, and nowadays I rarely buy shoes that have a heel for fear of looking like the Incredible Hulk. Fear, I guess, of not being a “proper girl”.

Yes, I know, Cognitive Dissonance. Where’s Lottie when you need her?

But here’s the thing: heroines are often presented with “heart-shaped” faces, or “snub” noses, and they nearly always have “normal” height traits. Traits that mark them out as “beautiful”. What my 5ft 10″ teen self really wanted was a heroine like me – tall… Someone who was real and relatable…

At last, then, I have a tall heroine. She’s scrunched up in a tiny airplane seat and hungover when we first meet, but Holly Bourne shows that heroines come in all shapes and sizes and some of them are tall. And, do you know what, that’s okay. More than okay, that’s just normal. So let me introduce you to that heroine. Her name is Amber:

Find out where Amber’s journey takes her in How Hard Can Love Be?  Out 1st February.

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With just one week to go before publication of Holly Bourne’s How Hard Can Love Be? we thought we’d share this rather lovely email we received from Minna Watson, a buyer at Magrudy’s bookshop in Dubai. 

We sent her Am I Normal Yet? and How Hard Can Love
Be? to read. She sent us the following email…

“Well, Holly Bourne has a lot to answer for in the Watson household… She is solely responsible for my children eating cheese and beans on toast last night as I couldn’t put her books down
to prepare dinner :). Also for the dark circles under my eyes as I read
through the night….and am now in deep depression as the books are finished
and I have to let Evie and Amber live their lives without my involvement
🙁   (When oh when can I immerse myself in Lottie’s life??!!!  –
Please Holly put me out of my misery!!!!)

Am I Normal Yet? struck a personal note
as I have a niece with OCD and it is a terrifying illness that affects not just
the person who has it, but everyone around them. It is not a funny
illness, but Holly still manages to make you laugh out loud whilst really
feeling for Evie who just wants to be ‘normal’ (whatever that means!). It
is hard enough being a teenage girl with boys and friendships to
deal with without suffering a mental illness on top! I completely fell in
love with Evie and am pretty sure we have dated the same guys :). Thank
Goodness for Lottie and Amber; girls, don’t we all just long to be in The
Spinster Club? I know I do!!!! This book has such positive messages for young women and I will be making sure my daughter reads it!

How Hard Can Love Be? Well, very
hard is what every woman will cry (and probably most men) but how wonderful is
it too! Once again, Holly has made me fall in love with all of her
characters. My heart is broken for Amber who just wants her Mum to make
HER the priority in her life and not bumchin Kevin (what a wonderful image that
evokes!). If only her Dad could notice her, instead of her
(terrifyingly) awful step brother (Damien incarnate!). This book is Dirty
Dancing with depth and I absolutely loved it. How can you not love a
Winnie-the-Pooh-Tao enthusiast? Or Russ (who made me remember why I am always
going to be in Team Jacob!)? And don’t even get me started with Kyle… I am completely
besotted with him :). He is so right – we do always love the bad guy, so how
hard must it be to be the good guy? 🙂

Girl power has a new voice, and Holly, we
just want to hear more of it :).”

*hugs and squeals* Thank you so, SO, much, Minna, for your gorgeous email. If you love Holly Bourne too, please tell us – and let’s spread the love!

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The second book in Holly Bourne’s Normal series, the follow-up to Am I Normal Yet?, launches in just over a week – get excited, people! Because Amber’s story – How Hard Can Love Be? – is a stunner. We asked the incredible Holly Bourne to explain how the mysterious workings of her mind led to Amber leaving Evie and Lottie behind and jetting off to California…

“America is a very important part of my life, so it was only a matter of time before it seeped into my books. When I was the age of a YA character, I spent two summers staying just outside Yosemite National Park with my late aunt, Connie. A lot of the people and places from these summers litter the pages of How Hard Can Love Be?

Let’s face it – the boys in Am I Normal Yet? were mostly b-to-the-ell-ends. And, as this is a feminism trilogy and feminism is NOT about hating men, I thought it was important to have a healthy romance in there with a NICE boy. Because such things do exist!

Amber is everything America isn’t – pessimistic, understated, sarcastic… So the evil writer in me thought, Brilliant, let’s shove her into The States. She’s going to HATE it! I’ve had so much fun writing her reactions to the USA, and showing how it slowly wears her down and she starts to see the merit in being…happy, I guess.

How Hard Can Love Be? is also a bit of a feminist analysis of typical romantic teen set-ups. I want my readers to think about some of the cliches we see in these stories – the evil-but-pretty bitch, the absent parents, the potential romanticisation of abuse. The book has conversations about these issues, gives them words, or tries to turn them on their head.

But what’s a teen love story without a Prom King? Readers – you’re about to meet Kyle… and you’re going to fall for him. Hard.”

How Hard Can Love Be? is out on 1st February.

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If your Christmas present took the shape of a new e-reader or mobile
device, we’ve got just the thing to get your reading kick-started!

What would happen if soulmates actually existed?

How far would you go to make yourself popular?

And what on earth does being “normal” mean?

To celebrate the joy of reading this Christmas, Holly Bourne’s Soulmates, The Manifesto on How to be Interesting and Am I Normal Yet? are all just 99p on ebook.

* Download SOULMATES from Apple iBooks, Googleplay and AmazonKindle here.

* Download THE MANIFESTO ON HOW TO BE INTERESTING from Apple iBooks, Googleplay and AmazonKindle here.

* Download AM I NORMAL YET? from Apple iBooks, Googleplay and Amazon Kindle here.

And you can also pre-order the next title in the “Normal” series, How Hard Can Love Be? which will be hitting the (physical and digital) shelves in February! We can’t wait! 

* Pre-order HOW HARD CAN LOVE BE? from Apple iBooks and AmazonKindle here.

Merry Boxing day, everyone!

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In August, we launched the first book in Holly Bourne’s new “Normal” series – Am I Normal Yet? 

All Evie wants is to be normal, and now that she’s almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the-girl-who-went-nuts, Evie’s decided that she’s ready to make friends again…and maybe even dip her toe into the dating pool.

What follows is the brilliant, honest, sometimes painful, sometimes funny, eye-opening, heart-wrenching and life-affirming story of Evie as she tackles the idea of “normal”. With a revealing look at OCD, and the introduction of the “Spinster Club” – the grassroots feminism society that Evie starts with her two new friends, Lottie and Amber – this is a book that will tackle your perceptions,  question what “normality” means…and make you giggle while it does it.

With the second book in the series, How Hard Can Love Be? due out in February, we can only suggest that you put down whatever you’re doing and rush out immediately to find a copy of Am I Normal Yet?

Am I Normal Yet? has also been chosen as a World Book Night book for 2016! You can read more about it here.