Blog Tour (Guest Post/Giveaway): THE BREAK-UP ARTIST by Philip Siegel (YA)

The Break-Up Artist Blog Tour

THE BREAK-UP ARTIST

by Philip Siegel

Expected release date: April 29th, 2014

Published by: Harlequin Teen

Genre: Young Adult - Contemporary, Humor

Format: Hardback, eBook

Format read: eGalley

SUMMARY

Some sixteen-year-olds babysit for extra cash. Some work at the Gap. Becca Williamson breaks up couples.

After watching her sister get left at the alter, Becca knows the true damage that comes when people utter the dreaded L-word. For just $100 via paypal, she can trick and manipulate any couple into smithereens. With relationship zombies overrunning her school, and treating single girls like second class citizens, business is unfortunately booming. Even her best friend Val has resorted to outright lies to snag a boyfriend.

One night, she receives a mysterious offer to break up the homecoming king and queen, the one zombie couple to rule them all: Steve and Huxley. They are a JFK and Jackie O in training, master of sweeping faux-mantic gestures, but if Becca can split them up, then school will be safe again for singletons. To succeed, she'll have to plan her most elaborate scheme to date and wiggle her way back into her former BFF Huxley's life - not to mention start a few rumors, sabotage some cell phones, break into a car, and fend off the inappropriate feelings she's having about Val's new boyfriend. All while avoiding a past victim out to expose her true identity.

No one said being the Break-Up Artist was easy.

GUEST POST

There are so many "match-makers" nowadays - reality shows, etc. 

What influenced you to go the opposite way of what society seems to want? 

Why the anti-match-maker?

First off, thank you for having me! Yes, breaking up couples is not something smiled upon by society. Match-making is the norm, as it should be, because how sad would the world be if everyone was broken up with? I like matchmakers and break-up artists equally. For me, it’s all about the scheme.

I’ve always been interested in characters who scheme. These people are behind the curtain pulling strings. Something about it fascinates me. I love how these plots and schemes come together. You know those scenes when the puzzles fall into place. I guess I’ve always been a curious person, so I like learning how things work, why they work. Romance is the ultimate illogical plot point. You can’t explain why two people fall for each other; it just happens. With match-making, and anti-match-making, you get a chance to piece together, or take apart, relationships.

Two of my favorite examples are from the movies Hitch and My Best Friend’s Wedding. They represent both ends of the spectrum. In Hitch, Will Smith plays Hitch, a professional matchmaker who takes on nerdy client Albert, played by Kevin James. Albert wants to date beautiful heiress Allegra, someone supposedly out of his league who he’s never spoken two words to. Now we’ve seen that premise tons of times: the schlub who wants to date the super popular guy/girl. In the movie, Hitch shows us his multi-step scheme for getting Albert from stranger to boyfriend of Allegra. Albert defends her in public, asks her to an event that could be construed as a date, gets in good with her best friend Maggie. It makes sense as Albert and Allegra get closer. The movie does a great job of presenting a logical (well, movie-logical), thought-out plot.

My Best Friend’s Wedding is anti-match-making at its best. Julia Roberts’s character Julianne decides she’s in love with her best friend Michael. Now all she has to do is break up him and his fiancée four days before their wedding. Julianne gets chummy with the fiancée Kimmy, and plants an idea in her head that Michael needs to work for her father, a suggestion she knows Michael will hate. She even commandeers Kimmy’s dad’s email account in an attempt to get Michael fired from his job. Michael and Kimmy seem perfect when we first meet them, but through Julianne’s scheming, we notice the cracks in their façade that Julianne merely brought to the surface.

So whether it’s putting couples together or breaking them up, I’m all about the scheme. One of my favorite parts of writing The Break-Up Artist was devising Becca’s main break-up plot for her school’s seemingly perfect couple Huxley and Steve. It’s a slow burn scheme, with lots of little events and moments snowballing into a grand finale. I think it’s more fun to show characters drifting apart than magically falling for each other. But maybe I’m just cynical.

GIVEAWAY

Enter to win a copy of THE BREAK-UP ARTIST.

And, one winner will receive a fantastic grand prize package including the following Harlequin Teen titles: 

2 copies of THE BREAK-UP ARTIST, 

a copy of WHITE HOT KISS, 

THE FOREVER SONG, 

THE SECRET DIAMOND SISTERS, 

PLAYED (Hooked #2), and 

an ARC of LET'S GET LOST.

Please enter via the Rafflecopter form.

Giveaway is open to US and Canada only. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

TOUR SCHEDULE
Monday April 28 - Bumbles and Fairy Tales - Guest Post 
Wednesday April 30 - Reading Teen - Guest Post 
Friday May 2 - Scott Reads It - Guest Post 

Monday May 5 - Miss Page Turners City of Books - Author Interview 
Wednesday May 7 - Xpresso Reads - Author Interview 
Friday May 9 - Me, My Shelf and I  - Guest Post

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Philip Siegel

Philip Siegel grew up in New Jersey, which he insists is much nicer than certain TV shows would have you believe. He graduated from Northwestern University and promptly moved out to Los Angeles, where he became an NBC page. He likes to think that the character of Kenneth on 30 Rock is loosely based on his life rights. 

Currently, he works in downtown Chicago by day while he writes novels at night and during his commute sandwiched in between colorful characters on the El.

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