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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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NOT EXACTLY A LOVE STORY

Audrey Couloumbis

The debut YA novel by the Newbery Honor-winning author of GETTING NEAR TO BABY. A quirky, flirty, and smart story that will appeal to fans of Stephen Chbosky's THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, Frank Portman's KING DORK, and John Green's AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES.
It's 1977.

Fifteen-year old Vinnie isn't having a good year. He's recovering from the worst case of galloping acne his dermatologist's ever seen. His girl moved to California without even saying good-bye. And the ink on his parents divorce papers is barely dry, when his mom announces that they're moving from Queens to Long Island and she’s getting married. To his gym teacher.

The silver lining in all this is that they move next door to Patsy—everyone's dream girl. Not that she'd ever notice him. But when Vinnie calls Patsy one night, it leads to a chain of anonymous midnight conversations. Under the cover of darkness, Vinnie becomes Vincenzo, Patsy's mystery caller, and the two share a side of themselves they would never reveal in daylight and develop a surprisingly real connection (despite the lies it's built on). As Vinnie gets to know Patsy in real life though, it becomes clear both identifies can't survive and he'll have to find a way to hang up the phone and step into the daylight. Fraught with complications and crackling with witty dialogue, and all the angst and electricity that comes with always being just a phone line away from the one you want, acclaimed author Audrey Couloumbis's YA debut is a smooth-talking Cyrano meets Saturday Night Fever. It's not exactly a love story . . . but it's pretty close.

Audrey Couloumbis won a Newbery Honor for her first book GETTING NEAR TO BABY in 2000. She is the author of THE MISADVENTURES OF MAUDE MARCH, MAUDE MARCH ON THE RUN, LOVE METENDER, JAKE, LEXIE and WAR GAMES, written with her late husband Akila Couloumbis. Like Vinnie, she spent many years in Queens, New York. She now divides her time between New York and Florida.
Available products
Book

Published 2012-12-01 by Random House

Book

Published 2012-12-01 by Random House

Comments

Readers will grow to love his vulnerability and sincerity. Not exactly a perfect story. But it comes pretty close.

Couloumbis’s novel, refreshingly sweet and nostalgic, is a solid choice for teenage romantics.

Couloumbis's Newbery Honor book, Getting Near to Baby, broke my heart…Couloumbis's new book, her YA debut, is about a boy and a girl and a telephone: It's 1977, and, through a series of anonymous phone calls, 15-year-old Vinnie develops a relationship with the neighbor he has a crush on. Does this sound kind of odd? Yes. Am Ireally looking forward to letting Couloumbis blow my doubts out of the water again? Yes.