Guest Post & Giveaway: C.K. Kelly Martin (Author of Come See About Me)

Hi guys!  A few days ago I just finished C.K. Kelly Martin's new-adult novel Come See About Me. And I loved it (see my review here). It was a very poignant and heart warming story that touched me and even taught me lessons. Today, I'm happy to present to you a guest post from her as she shares a very insightful message for us. Aside from that, she kindly offered two lucky person to win a copy of her book! A signed hardcover for the 1st winner and an e-copy for the runner up! Yay! Now go check out the guest post and giveaway below! :D

Guest Post: C.K. Kelly Martin

A few days ago I watched the first few episodes from season 2 of Felicity. If you’ve never seen the show the basic premise is Felicity follows her high school crush (a guy named Ben who she’d barely spoken to at school) to college in New York City where their lives often intersect. By the start of season 2 they’ve actually started to date and Felicity is over the moon about the turn of events. But when Ben finds out she may be in love with him he can’t hack it and cools things off. Felicity pretends that’s no big deal for her – they’ll still hang out, after all. However, one night when they’re supposed to go to an outdoor movie together Ben doesn’t show. Felicity is left sitting alone in a crowd, glancing around trying toscope out Ben’s face and eventually registering how much it sucks that he isn’t coming. Not long after she breaks things off entirely, realizing how the pretence that she can be casual with Ben is hurting her. 

Why am I going into so much detail about a fourteen year old episode of Felicity? Because I personally recognize that sinking feeling Felicity was experiencing in front of the movie screen. The bending yourself out of shape in the hope that eventually your efforts will get you what (or often who) you want but simultaneously feeling kind of sick about it. While you can, of course, get royally screwed up at any age for me personally the early twenties was primetime for that. I think the same is true for a lot of people at whatever period/age they get their first sustained taste of independent living, whether that’s going away to college, moving into your own place, travelling somewhere or whatever. You can really go off the rails (emotionally or otherwise) when you’re not sharing an address with your parents anymore, have no curfew, don’t need approval to bring potential romantic partners home and are no longer forced to share things like your grades with your parents. This is the time in your life when suddenly there’s no one around to rein you in except your friends (who often have a similar experience level to your own). Unprecedented freedom. 

All of this is a big part of the reason why when the editor of my young adult books initially asked me if there was any chance Come See About Me was YA (she hadn’t read it), I was positive that the answer was no. In the novel twenty-year-old Leah’s been experiencing the beginnings of a grown-up life, going to university while living with her boyfriend Bastien (also a college student). When tragedy strikes and Bastien is killed in a car accident sending Leah into free-fall, her parents can’t force her to come home across the country. Legally she’s an adult who demands to be allowed to grieve her boyfriend in the way she chooses. However protective her parents feel, ultimately Leah has to be allowed to stand or fall on her own. 

For a long while there’s more falling than standing. In time things begin to shift and Leah starts reconnecting to life in various ways, including the casual sexual relationship she develops with Liam. There’s a moment in Come See About Me where Leah makes a similar realization (whether ultimately wrong or right) to Felicity’s alone at the movies – that she’s crossed a line that doesn’t feel right. As corny as it sounds, a big part of your development during your late teens and early twenties (particularly that period I mentioned earlier – when you have your first sustained taste of independent living) is about learning how to be true to yourself when there are no boundaries in place except the ones you erect for yourself. It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times. Losing the person she believes is the love of her life makes this period even more acute for Leah but I think, if you’ve already been through that period, there are elements in Come See About Me you may recognize and if you haven’t yet, you may well encounter some of those things down the road a ways. Just don’t say Felicity and I didn’t warn you.

GIVEAWAY!

There will be two winners for this giveaway: 1 for the signed hardcover and the other for the ebook copy

Giveaway is open international and will end on August 31
To enter, leave a comment and answer the question: What is the name of the girl who followed Ben to New York City in the t.v. series C.K. just recently watched? (You can find the answer on the guest post above)
You can gain extra entries by following the instruction in the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

C.K. Kelly Martin is the author of many young-adult novels, among are I know It's Over, One Lonely Degree, My Teenage Beating Heart, The Lighter Side of Life and Death and Yesterday. And the latest new-adult novel, Come See About Me.

You can find and follow her at:

 www.ckkellymartin.com/, twitter, goodreads, and blog.