Tanya Lee Stone

Full disclosure: The book I am about to tell you of is the same book causing me to suffer from extremus flatterus. I mean, in my YA, I refer to an author by name (Ms. Judy Blume), as well as one of said novelist's novels that hit home with me. Now, in living color (well actually, in black and white) there is a new novel, SPLIT BY A KISS by Luisa Plaja, that in its pages refers to ME by name, as well as an aspect of A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl that apparently hit home with this author. Full circle. I am honored. Truly. Seriously, I haven't been this verklempt since I heard from the teenager who wrote her heart out in the back pages of her Bad Boy copy, ala my Josie, put it in the library stacks at her school, and revisited it to find lots of scrawled messages from other wronged girls. This is that feeling you get when you realize: I have been heard. I wrote something and they get it. It's why we express ourselves. To be understood. To make a connection. To communicate with others and make the world a closer place instead of a more distant one.

I digress. The real reason for this post is to tell you about SPLIT BY A KISS, a great romp that mixes romantic comedy with split personalities with across the pond humor. This is a vair, vair cute book. And it has its heavier, more profound moments, to boot. In all the best ways, it reminded me of one of my favorite movies--Sliding Doors. I don't want to give anything away, but I'm proud of that main character. Go Jo, Go! Or should I say Josie? Well, I'll never post a spoiler here, so go check it out and find out what all the snogging is about!

And to Luisa Plaja, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart.