EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY
Unrequited:
Girl Meets Boy Band
by Emma Grey
Description
Seventeen-year-old Kat Hartland loathes Unrequited, the world's biggest boy band. Is she the only girl in Sydney who can't be bothered with perfect-looking Angus Marsden?
Give her 5 Seconds of Summer. Now.
Or maybe the seriously-hot med student who rescued her on a train - and who could be Douglas Booth's twin! Perfect formal partner, much?
But when Kat comes face to face with Angus Marsden himself, things start to get complicated. Very. Throw in a deranged female popstar, final exams, a part in the musical and a mum who just doesn't get it - and where is her best friend?
When did life get so crazy? Kat's just an ordinary schoolgirl.
Isn't she?
Book Video
Excerpt
Kat is dialling Joel’s number but it’s engaged, and then a call flashes on her screen from ‘Bryce’. She actually falls off her bed. Seriously. She’s sprawled across a pile of clothes on the floor as she answers the phone and has to clamber up and compose herself while attempting to sound like it’s not at all disconcerting that Angus is on the line.
‘Angus, hello!’
‘Glad you answered,’ he says. ‘I was worried I might have turned you off last night.’
Turned her off? No. Not exactly the words she would use to describe his impact. ‘Of course not!’
‘Good. We have work to do.’
Yes. Work. Recording a hit song together. In secret.
‘And I’m not in town much longer, so it’s kind of urgent. I’m worried this might be bad timing for you in terms of your final exams.’
School. Ahem. Yes.
She’d given her education virtually no thought at all since the Unrequited concert, which is bad because she’s already doing the early entry subject at uni and really wants to follow through with a great university entrance score. That’s going to require a great HSC performance, which involves lots of studying and LOTS of focus. She can’t let this random singing opportunity destroy Plan A, even though as soon as that thought runs through her mind, she realises that Plan A is in fact now Plan B, and she wonders what her mum’s going to make of that.
‘I’d like to see you again, Kat. Today, if possible. We’ve got a lot to talk about and arrange. And we need to nail this song. Are you free?’
Am I free? Let me just think about that for a second Angus Marsden from Unrequited, who wants to record music with me…
‘YES, I’m free! I mean, I’m actually not free. It’s Tuesday, so I’ve got double maths this morning and a chemistry lab test, then lunch, but a free period straight after, then double PE …’
‘Skip PE,’ he cuts in. ‘See me at lunch? I’ve got soundcheck at four.’
Right. Of course. Soundcheck. Wait. Skip PE?
Kat has never once, not in all of her twelve-and-three-quarter years of formal education, skipped a class. Not to sneak off to the shops with friends. Not to binge-watch DVDs and scoff ice cream straight out of the tub while her mum’s at work. Certainly not to visit a pop star in his hotel suite, because he has soundcheck at four, right before yet another sold-out gig and can’t see her outside school hours, like a normal person.
‘C’mon, Kat. Don’t tell me you’ve never done that before?’
He doesn’t know the half of what she hasn’t done.
‘Of course I have! Gosh, Angus, what do you take me for?’
He laughs. ‘A girl who’s scared she’s going to get her first detention. Am I right?’
He might be …
‘Look, it’s okay, Kat. I get it. I really don’t want to lead you astray, but we’ve got a song to work on and a really tight schedule. I’m leaving the country soon. I’ll order sushi?’
‘How do you know I like sushi?’
‘Your impostor posted it on Twitter …’
Kat’s glad he can’t see her flush bright red. And she wants to kill her sisters.
Sushi? Just the two of them? She’s shaking with nerves already, and has to remind herself that, just eight days ago, she was ignoring Angus at his own concert. Rudely. It was easy to be confident then. Note to self: He’s just a normal boy! Albeit an extremely famous one, with whom practically everyone she knows is thoroughly infatuated. Everyone except her, of course.
‘All right,’ she says. ‘I’ll be there around one.’
‘Good. And don’t worry,’ he says. ‘If you get caught I’ll write a note for your teacher …’
[You can read the first three chapters here.]
Featured Review
Delightful tale of a young girl going through her first crush, only it’s with the star of the biggest ‘Boy Band’ of the era. Seventeen year-old Kat has to take her twelve year-old twin sisters to the Unrequited concert playing in Sydney, Australia because their mother’s plane is held up and there’s no way the twins are going to miss the concert.
Kat is not a fan, but she loves her sisters, so they take the train to the concert, and while on their way, Kat sees a boy she nick-names ‘McDreamy’ in her head. Kat can’t believe her bad luck. Here she is meeting the man of her dreams while on a bus with dozens of young fans, obviously headed to the Unrequited concert.
When the bus breaks down, Kat is thrown into McDreamy’s arms, and then drops her ticket to the show in front of him. He smiles and hands her back her ticket and then graciously offers to buy them a cab ride to the concert so that they don’t miss it. Kat is horrified when McDreamy waves her and her sisters off without asking for her phone number. Kat’s sure it’s because he thinks she’s a fan of a childish ‘boy band’.
At the concert, Kat ignores the music and listens to her headphones instead, until she finds the lead singer of the band has singled her out and is staring right at her.
The adventure continues in this sweet Young Adult novel as Kat learns about life and what she really wants out of it. It’s a coming of age with the twist of some background into the music business and how friendships can change and grow.
This is a book that has nothing in it that teens and preteens can’t read, just a fun story of a young girl and her desire to make music, while not disappointing her family. Very uplifting with a lesson in following your dreams and learning to love.
About the Author
Giveaway
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