Blog Tour: Uses For Boys + Author Guest Post!

I'm really excited to be part of the Blog Tour for Erica Lorraine Scheidt's new book Uses For Boys! She kindly agreed to do a little guest post for me to share with all my lovely followers, so here you go! :)

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My question: What do you love the most about YA books?

Taylor, what do I love about young adult fiction? Good question. My answer? Everything.

I tell this story pretty often: About seven years ago, I walked into a bookstore in San Francisco (Christopher’s Books on Potrero Hill) and bought two books by Francesca Lia Block for no other reason than I liked the covers. They were Echo and Violet & Claire. After I read those, I bought everything I could by Francesca Lia Block and read those and then I fell into this universe of young adult books and each was better than the last. 

I read Stargirl and then It’s a Kind of Funny Story and The Wrong Hands and The Book Thief and Looking for Alaska and How I Live Now and I couldn’t stop. I would walk out of my library with stacks and stacks of books. And more recently, Imaginary Girls and Brooklyn, Burning and Sacred and Wonder. 

These books have had such a huge influence on me. Here were all these stories, as diverse and wondrous and startling as there were kids. And it made me want to write again. I think what happened, in that first moment with Francesca Lia Block, is that I discovered whole world of writers who were curious about the interior lives of kids. And I wanted to be a part of that world.

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Thanks again for doing the post Erica! :)

Now for those of you who haven't heard of her book here's all the details for ya ;)

Title: Uses For Boys

Author: Erica Lorraine Scheidt 

Genre: YA/New Adult - Contemporary

Publication Date: January 15, 2013

"Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know.
Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical, Uses For Boys is a story of breaking down and growing up." ~See it on Goodreads

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Be sure to check out Erica's Official Site and follow her on Twitter! Now last but definitely not least, did I 
mention that there was a giveaway? Yep, that's right! It's tour wide and all you have to do to enter is fill out the Rafflecopter form below :D

a Rafflecopter giveaway