It’s one of the best Valentine’s Day gifts I’ve ever received: a box of advance reader copies of my new book.
Naturally, having received the love from my publisher, I want to spread the love on to my readers. So this blog post kicks off a series of giveaways that I’ll be doing over the next six months as I wait for the book to be released.
To see all the ways you can enter to win the first ARC and a trinket–your choice of a necklace or a keychain–visit the full giveaway site.
But the first step starts here. If you follow my blog, you can enter by commenting on this post and telling me what your favorite love story is. Do you love tragic and doomed like Romeo and Juliet? Do you love tragic but then requited like Maurice? Are you a Pride and Prejudice reader or a fan of Gone with the Wind? Wuthering Heights or Like Water for Chocolate?
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is ultimately a love story, because for me, those are often the stories that shape our lives. Who we love, how we love, what we’ll do to be with the one we love. So tell me about yours and you might win a copy.
Bryn Greenwood 
Congrats on getting your advance copies! Must be very exciting 😀
Love stories really do come in all shapes and sizes and I think it’s hard to say which type you like that best since there’s good stories in every genre. If I had to choose though I’d say one of my all time favorite love stories (and books) was ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ by Mary Ann Shaffer. It’s just an awesome book will make you laugh and cry and give you a warm fuzzy feeling at the end to boot :p
I’ll have to give it a try. I worry sometimes that I’m too crass for warm fuzzy love stories, as that may explain my own checkered past in love.
It’s not exactly a warm fuzzy kind of book, it’s about WW2 and all the horrible things that happened then, but the writing style is amazing and the end is sweet
Natural Born Killers.
LOL! Of course.
The guy who goes on a killing spree with you is a keeper.
I … hesitate to agree with this.
I do love Like Water for Chocolate, but I think I’d have to pick Peel My Love Like an Onion. It’s not traditional, but that’s the appeal.
Congratulations on the ARCs and the upcoming publication!!!
You really can’t go wrong with flamenco dancers.
Yay, ARCs! So exciting! And what lovely swag you have!
I think my favorite love stories aren’t actually love stories at all, at least not in the traditional sense of romantic love. I love me some murder and backstabbing in a good love story. Like Hamlet, except maybe someone actually stays alive in the end.
I’m pretty sure this means you like tragic and doomed loved stories. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Congratulations on the ARCs.
I tend to like love stories that are tragic but not quite doomed. A few novels that come to mind are The Time Traveler’s Wife, The History of Love, and Corelli’s Mandolin.
That’s often my favorite, too. Or what I think of as “true love but not pretty.” The Time Traveler’s Wife had a bit of that, too. Like it was never really going to work out, but true love. That’s how I feel about The Princess Bride, as well. True love, but always going to be a bit of a struggle.
Congratulations on the advance copies! What a big squee moment!
Ladyhawke is my favorite love story, with those moments of just barely connecting at sunrise and sunset. And then when they finally reunite, Rutget Hauer’s line isn’t anything poetic, but the very endearing, realistic “You cut your hair!”
Plus a wisecracking sidekick. You can’t go wrong with a wisecracking sidekick.
Aww. I do like Ladyhawke. My favorite love stories are not very poetic or even very romantic.
Is LadyHawke the one with Matthew Broderick in it? He ruined it for me and made me really dislike him as an actor because I thought he was so awful. That’s all that I remember about it. Maybe I’ll give it another try.
HA! It’s funny how a particular actor can sink a movie for you. But I feel like Rutger Hauer saves the movie for me.
This is going to sound all brown-nosy, but I love damaged characters and happy endings. It’s 530 am and the best love story I can think of right away is Last Will. 😛
LOL! No, go ahead and butter me up, Lauri.
Cool! It must be exciting to see your book completed and “in the flesh”? I re-read His Dark Materials over the holidays, I think the story of Lyra and Will might be my favourite love (? sorta) story.
Well, I feel like it’s always open to interpretation whether some stories are love stories or not. Depends upon how we feel about the relationship.
Ladyhawke is delightful and swoony. I may or may not have written fanfic about it (shifty eyes).
I do like a mostly-happy ending. I can’t stand love stories with plots that turn on the non-reveal of one damn thing. I know having a direct conversation is tough, but try it sometimes. Or at least ask WTF.
Right now, b/c it’s fresh in my memory and fulfills the previous paragraph, I’m gonna have to go with Beth Bernovitch’s “River of Souls” trilogy. Lots of different love stories in there (straight, gay, bi), along with palace/kingdom intrigue, swashbuckling, and magic galore. Also excellent descriptions of different weather and climate. I don’t know why this didn’t get ALL THE ATTENTION when it came out a couple years ago.
HA! Yes, the minor misunderstanding is the romance trope I have the least patience for. I think especially because Pride and Prejudice put that one to bed. Even Mr. Darcy was willing to stoop to explaining himself in a letter.
We have a shelf of favorite books above the fireplace and the only romances on it are the ones in the complete Shakespeare. There’s definitely some love stories, or at least, stories with a lot of love in them — American Gods, Nation, Watchmen are all nice and lined up together, for example. But no one ends up together. I utterly enjoyed Lois McMaster Bujold’s romance, A Civil Campaign, but I don’t think I would have had I not already had tremendous affection for the main character. And it does not haunt my soul the way a favorite book should.
I’m a much bigger fan of love stories than romances. The kind of thing that disregards obstacles of time and space, that crosses all the narrow boundaries of properly defined relationships. I’m convinced I have a book like that, but I haven’t found it a home yet.
Oh how I’d love to win a copy!
My favorite love story is: Message in a bottle by Nicholas Sparks.
I haven’t read this, but I associate Sparks with like tragic love story. It seems like someone is always dying in his books. Does this fit that trend?
This is such a great idea and congratulations! Though I can’t say I have a favourite, I believe that Romeo and Juliet was definitely a revolution in romantic fiction and writing, and it has a very deep plot if you look at it all up close rather than just star crossed lovers sacrificing themselves. I have to say that one of my favourite romances will have to be Never Let Me Go, it’s just so raw and really is quite unusual compared to others. I love the development of the story and how they never really confess anything but they’re so willing to go so far for just a longer time together, beautiful~
This is on my to-read list. I’ll have to bump it up a little further.
Ok…you’ve twisted my arm…I’m going to comment and try to win a free book. I love to read any and all love stories. My favorite kind of love stories are the sappy ones that end all happy-like. I love Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Belle gets the fantastic library and the caring man in the end. aaahhhhh 🙂 My heart melts at the sight at that library…..
That is a great library. I confess, however, that I’m always disappointed when the Beast turns back into a prince. I’m just the sort of girl who prefers a beast, I guess.
I guess I’d have to say Jane Eyre, although it only really worked out when she was the one with all the money and power. Come to think of it, that’s not so far off from my current relationship. Huh.
LOL! There’s something to be said for finding a relationship that fits with your favorite love story.
Hello Bryn!! First of all I want to congratulate you for this AMAZING achievement!! You must be so excited about this huge success!!! And let me tell you that as soon as I saw your book, I fell in love with the cover!! It’s gorgeous and I must admit that most of the time I buy books depending on the fact that the cover is nice!! It would be a huge honour for me to read and review your book!! I’m sure I would love it!! And I really hope to see it in the Italian libraries! I wish you all the best for your like and career!! I have to say that I read too many books and they all are romance books!! My favourite love story is the one of the series by Tiffany Reisz between Søren and Nora! It’s not a common love story at all but for me it’s perfect! Or maybe if I have to chose another love story, I would choose Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover!! I cried a lot reading that book!! Thank you very much again and kisses from Italy!!
I got to spend some time with Tiffany Reisz at a convention a few years ago. Always interesting to meet the mind behind the characters.
hope I can use a movie as my favorite romance story. “Truly Madly Deeply” with the late much lamented Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson. it’s a love story that asks: if love could outlast death…would we want it to?
LOL! Well, as someone who found that “til death do us part” was waaaaay longer than I was interested in, I’d say no?
I love the book All the bright Places by Jennifer Niven!!
This is in my substantial TBR pile, so hopefully I’ll get to it at some point.