Lola Carlyle's 12-Step Romance
by Danielle Younge-Ullman
Release Date: 05/05/15
Entangled Teen
Lola Carlyle is lonely, out of sorts, and in for a boring summer. So when her best friend, Sydney, calls to rave about her stay at a posh Malibu rehab and reveals that the love of Lola’s life, Wade Miller, is being admitted, she knows what she has to do. Never mind that her worst addiction is decaf cappuccino; Lola is going to rehab.
Lola arrives at Sunrise Rehab intent solely on finding Wade, saving him from himself, and—naturally—making him fall in love with her…only to discover she’s actually expected to be an addict. And get treatment. And talk about her issues with her parents, and with herself. Plus she has insane roommates, and an irritatingly attractive mentor, Adam, who’s determined to thwart her at every turn.
Oh, and Sydney? She’s gone.
Turns out, once her pride, her defenses, and her best friend are stripped away, Lola realizes she’s actually got a lot to overcome…if she can open her heart long enough to let it happen.
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Excerpt From The Book
Thanks for having me! For today’s blog post, I am posting an excerpt from my debut YA novel, LOLA CARLYLE’S 12 STEP ROMANCE. In this scene, Lola finally gets the chance to spend some time on the beach with her crush, and the boy she faked her way into rehab to rescue/forge a love connection with.
We both laugh, and water swirls around my ankles.
“But Carlyle, what happened?” he says, his expression getting serious again. “Last I knew, you were a kid and now you’re here. What’s the deal?”
“Oh,” I say with a dismissive wave, “just a bit of a drinking thing. You know how it goes.”
“Right…”
“Yeah…”
“I wondered about something,” he says, coming closer.
“What?”
“You, ah, you kissed me, Carlyle.”
“Oh, you noticed,” I say, trying to be nonchalant even as my heart rate increases.
“Yeah, I noticed. Hard to miss.”
“Well then, so I did.”
“So…? What was that about?”
“Poor impulse control?”
“Really?”
“No.” I swallow. “Actually, I always wanted to kiss you. Figured I’d check it off the list.”
“Off the list?”
“Yep.” I shrug like it’s no big deal, even though my legs feel like Play-Doh. “So, now I have.”
“And?”
“And it was fun,” I say, and then turn and start walking back along the shore toward Talia.
Wade follows, half walking, half paddling in the shallow water.
“Wait, wait! So…you had a crush? During the movie? Are you saying you had a crush on me?”
“I wanted to kiss you, that’s all,” I say over my shoulder.
“That’s a crush, Carlyle. I call that a crush.”
“Maybe.”
“Why didn’t you say something? I know we lost touch for a bit, but you could’ve called me. Or friended me on Facebook, followed me on Twitter,” he says, all the while struggling to get out of the water and balance his board.
“Followed you on Twitter? Please. I’m not some cheesy fangirl.”
I searched Facebook early on, but he wasn’t there. By the time I looked again he had three thousand “friends,” most of them female. And I do follow him on Twitter, but not as me and not that I’d admit it, ever.
“But you’d have been my cheesy fangirl.” He comes up beside me, carrying the board by his side. “I’m very fond of cheesy fangirls.”
“You have enough of those.”
“My loss.”
“I’d be a bad cheesy fangirl. I’d get bored. I’m too fickle, I’m crap at the adulation thing, and I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing you on a T-shirt.”
He howls with laughter.
“Plus, I have trouble sharing.”
He stops laughing and looks at me. “Sharing, huh? You sure?”
I feel a moment of eww, but brush it away. “Very.”
We get closer to Talia on her rock and the lifeguard station, and our walking slows almost to a stop, as if by silent agreement.
“By the way,” Wade says, “I’m sorry about your parents.”
“Aw, no big deal.”
“Of course it’s a big deal. It’s your parents.”
“Sure, but it happens all the time, right?”
“Not where I’m from. Well, not as much.”
“That’s why you started out sweet, W.A.D.E.”
About the Author
Danielle Younge-Ullman is a novelist, playwright and freelance writer. She studied English and Theater at McGill University, then returned to her hometown of Toronto to work as professional actor for ten years. Danielle’s short story, Reconciliation, was published in MODERN MORSELS—a McGraw-Hill Anthology for young adults—in 2012, her one-act play, 7 Acts of Intercourse, debuted at Toronto's SummerWorks Festival in 2005, and her adult novel, FALLING UNDER, was published by Penguin in 2008. Danielle lives in Toronto with her husband and two daughters.
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