The Geek's Guide To Unrequited Love Blog Tour {review, guest post, giveaway}

I'm so thrilled to have the Geek's Guide To Unrequited Love Blog Tour stopping by today...

The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love

By Sarvenaz Tash

June 14, 2016

Simon & Schuster BFYR

John Hughes meets Comic Con in this hilarious, unabashedly romantic, coming-of-age novel about a teenager who is trying to get his best friend to fall in love with him from the author of Three Day Summer.

Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy...
Archie and Veronica...
Althena and Noth...
...Graham and Roxy?

Graham met his best friend, Roxana, when he moved into her neighborhood eight years ago, and she asked him which Hogwarts house he’d be sorted into. Graham has been in love with her ever since.

But now they’re sixteen, still neighbors, still best friends. And Graham and Roxy share more than ever—moving on from their Harry Potter obsession to a serious love of comic books.

When Graham learns that the creator of their favorite comic, The Chronicles of Althena, is making a rare appearance at this year’s New York Comic Con, he knows he must score tickets. And the event inspires Graham to come up with the perfect plan to tell Roxy how he really feels about her. He’s got three days to woo his best friend at the coolest, kookiest con full of superheroes and supervillains. But no one at a comic book convention is who they appear to be...even Roxy. And Graham is starting to realize fictional love stories are way less complicated than real-life ones.

Goodreads / Amazon / B&N / Indiebound

Pre-Order Swag Pack

Anyone who pre-orders The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love or purchases it the week of release (up through Sunday 6/19) will receive an exclusive swag pack featuring a signed book plate, bookmarks, a postcard, and some adorkably nerdy stickers. All you have to do is to email your proof of purchase and mailing address to geeksguidepreorder@gmail.com. (This is international). More info here.

Advance Praise

“As Tash introduces a cast of charming, goofy, and diverse characters, she uses the hopeful voice of a young man in the throes of first love to gently poke fun at fandom while celebrating the passion and camaraderie of the community." 

- Publishers Weekly *Starred Review*, Best Summer Books 2016 Selection

"Captures the joyous spirit of Comic Con and fantasy’s ability to provide its devotees with a community through which to contextualize their joys and sorrows. A lighthearted and engaging romp for anyone who loves Spidey and Mary Jane’s upside-down kiss in the rain."

- Kirkus Reviews

"With the exacting eye of an anthropologist and the generous heart of a true geek, Sarvenaz Tash has crafted something very special with The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love. Hilariously funny, heart-wrenchingly true and tender, this is a book of super-heroic achievement."

- Scott Snyder, NYT bestselling author of Batman, American Vampire and Wytches

"The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love promises romantic misadventures and pop culture references but delivers so much more. Never have I fallen in love with a group of characters so quickly. Funny, fast-paced, and full of heart, this is the kind of book you'll read in one sitting, and then be a little sad that it's over."

- Paula Stokes, author of The Art of Lainey and Girl Against the Universe

What do you get when you take the oldie-but-goodie “boy meets girl, boy and girl become best friends, boy falls madly in love with girl, boy decides to tell girl” and add in all things geeky, irresistible side characters, epic wins and epic fails? You get Sarvenaz Tash’s awesome new young adult, The Geek’s Guide To Unrequited Love!

The Geek’s Guide To Unrequited Love was such a fun reading experience for me! Laugh-out-loud funny, charmingly sweet and romantic, yet full of depth and heart...I’m totally smitten with this book. The story is very reminiscent of those unforgettable 80’s and early 90’s teen movies, that always manage to feel classic, yet refreshing. The novel unfolds through Graham’s perspective and I’m so in love with his witty, unabashedly geeky, earnest, and authentic voice. Tash does a superb job of capturing and exploring the world of teenagers. Graham, Roxy, Casey, Felicia, and the other young characters just feel so real and honest and unapologetically complex.

Readers, young and older alike, will be able to relate to Graham’s situation as he tries to woo the girl he loves...and of course, in the grand tradition of teen movies, nothing goes according to plan and wild hijinks ensue! Tash throws some wicked twists and fun surprises in Graham’s way and readers will love every single moment of them.

While Graham and Roxy’s potential love story is front and center in The Geek’s Guide To Unrequited Love, there’s also another epic love story being celebrated: the love story between the world of fans and fandoms! Geeks, fanboys, fangirls, obsessed fans, newbie fans, etc, The Geek’s Guide To Unrequited Love has them all. The New York Comic Con setting is so fun and Tash brings this world, full of fans and fandoms colliding, to life with so much love, respect, and epicness!

my final thoughts: Like any great John Hughes film, The Geek’s Guide To Unrequited Love will make you laugh, charm you completely, break your heart a little, and leave you believing in love!

MY RATING

5/5 Cupcakes

The Filmmakers That Inspired The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love

By Sarvenaz Tash

Books have always been my first love but movies are a close second. In fact, I went to film school and got my degree in Film and Television Production. (I did make some movies, but I learned pretty quickly that my interest lay mostly in screenwriting. And writing screenplays eventually led me to writing books…but that is a story for a different day!)

There were certain kinds of movies that always spoke to me: funny, character-driven ones. A lot of them fall into the “rom-com” genre which, when done well, are my favorite films to watch. There are four filmmakers who very much inspired my writing, and this book in particular. (In fact, they all make a “cameo” of sorts in the book…)

1. John Hughes (Pretty in Pink [writer], Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)

Hands down the biggest inspiration for this book and, if I’m going to be honest, for writing teen stories to begin with. Hughes started my love affair with coming-of-age stories. Even though his films were over a decade old by the time I was a teenager, they resonated with me then—and I think they resonate with teens now. Why? Because the characters are so heartfelt and the comedy comes from timeless situations: falling in love, feeling uncool, getting detention…

2. Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally [writer], You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle)

As a girl in film school, I can’t tell you how much Nora Ephron’s work and success meant to me. One of the greatest gifts/compliments I ever received was a book of her essays from a college friend of mine with an inscription that I reminded him of her. I truly believe that When Harry Met Sally is the greatest romantic comedy ever written. It’s so funny and so true and the dialogue just sparkles.

3. Cameron Crowe (Say Anything, Almost Famous, Fast Times at Ridgemont High [writer])

Oh, Lloyd Dobler. The first heartbreakingly earnest geeky boy I ever fell in love with. Coupled with the untraditional love/coming-of-age story that is Almost Famous, Crowe will always have a spot in my heart for his tender and hilarious brand of storytelling.

4. Amy Heckerling (Clueless, Fast Times at Ridgemont High [director])

As much as Nora Ephron always meant to me as a female filmmaker, Amy Heckerling actually graduated from my film school. Seeing the Clueless poster hanging from the walls of our edit floors always gave me a jolt of inspiration. And don’t even get me started on how much I love that film. It makes me laugh, and swoon, and root for the popular, maybe-slightly-shallow-but-definitely-means-well, girl. It is also the only Jane Austen adaptation I like more than the original book (Emma)!

Sarvenaz Tash was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up on Long Island, NY. She received her BFA in Film and Television from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. This means she got to spend most of college running around and making movies (it was a lot of fun). She has dabbled in all sorts of writing including screenwriting, copywriting, and professional tweeting. Sarvenaz currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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Check out ALL the blog tour stops

Mon. 6/6 Beauty and the Bookshelf

Tues. 6/7 Prose and Kahn

Wed. 6/8 Read. Breathe. Relax

Thurs. 6/9 The Hiding Spot

Fri. 6/10 The Reading Nook

Mon. 6/13 Adventures of a Book Junkie

Tues. 6/14 Green Bean Teen Queen

Wed. 6/15 Word Spelunking

Thurs. 6/16 Andi’s ABCs

Fri. 6/17 What a Nerd Girl Says