Spotlight: Not Another Love Song by Olivia Wildenstein
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Publication date: July 7th 2020
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Synopsis:
An aspiring teenage singer finds herself playing a different tune when she falls for a boy who could jeopardize her future dreams in Olivia Wildenstein’s romantic YA novel, Not Another Love Song.
Angie has studied music her entire life, nurturing her talent as a singer. Now a high school senior, she has an opportunity to break into Nashville’s music scene via a songwriting competition launched by her idol, Mona Stone. Discouraged by her mother, who wishes Angie would set more realistic life goals, she nonetheless pours her heart and soul into creating a song worthy of Mona.
But Angie’s mother is the least of her concerns after she meets Reedwood High’s newest transfer student, Ten. With his endless collection of graphic tees, his infuriating attitude, smoldering good looks, and endearing little sister, Ten toys with the rhythm of Angie’s heart.
She’s never desired anything but success until Ten entered her life. Now she wants to be with him and to be a songwriter for Mona Stone, but she can’t have both.
And picking one means losing the other.
Excerpt
“You’re going to be drawing your partner, costume and all. It can be as abstract as you want. And you are welcome to use whichever medium you’d like.”
“I have to warn you,” I tell Ten, once I’ve recovered from the realization that we’re partners, “I’m real bad at drawing people.”
“Good thing Miss Bank said it could be abstract.”
“Yeah. I even botch abstract art.”
He drags an easel toward a chair, and I do the same. “I won’t take offense if I end up with a Picasso face.”
“You’ll be lucky if you end up with a Picasso face.” We walk to the supply closet and grab paintbrushes and tubes of acrylic paint. As we return to our chairs, I ask, “You are aware Walt Disney didn’t come up with Harry Potter, right?”
His mouth rounds in surprise. “No way!”
I’m about to say yeah, when his golden eyes spark with . . . amusement? “You’re not a Harry Potter character, are you?”
“Nope.”
I study his red graduation gown and the yellow silk scarf knotted around his neck while he starts painting me. “Are you a wizard?”
“No.”
My gaze drops to the inflatable sword hooked into a rope tied around his waist. “The prince in Cinderella?”
“You think I look like a prince?” he asks without glancing away from his paper.
My cheeks smolder. “I said the prince—never mind.” I direct my attention to my still-blank paper. I dab red paint on the paper and swirl it around until it sort of takes on the shape of a poufy gown.
“Are you giving up? I didn’t peg you for the type of girl who gave up,” Ten says.
Our gazes collide. Although several conversations buzz around us, all I can hear is what Ten just said. “About your costume?”
He returns his attention to his canvas and lifts his paintbrush. “Isn’t that we were talking about?”
My heart skitters to a halt inside my rib cage. Is he kidding? Did I just totally misread him? He wants me to guess his alter ego’s identity, but not his actual one? “I didn’t think you wanted me to keep guessing.”
He looks back at me. The gold flecks in his irises seem to have dimmed. “So you’re giving up?”
“Honestly, I think it’s better if I do.”
I jab my paintbrush against the canvas and red paint splatters over my cleavage, which is wedged too tightly into my costume’s sweetheart neckline. I should probably have bought a new dress instead of recycling the one I wore two Halloweens ago.
I try to wipe the paint away with the heel of my hand but end up smudging it and making it look like I walked off a horror movie set. I head to the sink, where I ball up scratchy paper towel and wet it to clean myself up before I give Miss Bank a heart attack.
“Arthur from The Sword in the Stone,” Ten says after I return to my easel.
“I would never have guessed that.”
For a moment, we look at each other. A long moment. And then I avert my gaze because there’s too much to see in Ten’s face. What’s the point in seeing anything if there’s no way of understanding what I’m looking at?
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About the Author
USA TODAY bestselling author Olivia Wildenstein grew up in New York City and earned her bachelor’s in comparative literature from Brown University. After designing jewelry for a few years, Wildenstein traded in her tools for the writing life, which made more sense considering her college degree.
When she’s not sitting at her computer, she’s psychoanalyzing everyone she meets (Yes. Everyone), eavesdropping on conversations to gather material for her next book, and attempting not to forget one of her kids in school.
She has a slight obsession with romance, which might be the reason why she writes it. She’s a hybrid author of over a dozen mature Young Adult love stories.
Connect:
https://www.instagram.com/olives21/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13734301.Olivia_Wildenstein
