A Love Letter from Starstruck

To celebrate the release of my new novella Passing Notes, which involves a boy learning how to write a love letter, I’ve invited a number of Young Adult and New Adult authors to play with their stories and create love letters from their main guys to their main gals. Brenda Hiatt is my first guest. I’m a big fan of her romantic science fiction novel Starstruck, and I’ve read two of the 4-book series so far. I was thrilled when she agreed to participate in this blog theme. 

Nerdy astronomy geek Marsha, M to her few friends, has never been anybody special. Orphaned as an infant and reluctantly raised by an overly-strict "aunt," she's not even sure who she is. M's dream of someday escaping tiny Jewel, Indiana and making her mark in the world seems impossibly distant until hot new quarterback Rigel inexplicably befriends her. As Rigel turns his back on fawning cheerleaders to spend time with M, strange things start to happen: her acne clears up, her eyesight improves to the point she can ditch her thick glasses, and when they touch, sparks fly--literally! When M digs for a reason, she discovers deep secrets that will change her formerly mundane life forever . . . and expose her to perils she never dreamed of.
 
Book 1 of the award-winning Starstruck series, where teen romance blends with science fiction to open a whole new world of action, adventure and discovery.



There’s a part of the story when Rigel and M have to pretend not to be involved with each other to fool the enemies and keep attention away from her. If Rigel wrote a letter to her then, this is what it might say:



Hey, M--

I’m guessing all this staying away from each other – and especially not touching each other – has you feeling nearly as lousy as I do by now. You get why this is necessary, though, right? Just know that no matter how much I act in school like I’m over you, it’s only an act and only to keep you safe! I’ve got to say, sometimes you play your part so well it kind of drives me nuts. Like when you were laughing with Jimmy Franklin the other day. Makes me wonder if it also bothers you to see me flirting with somebody like Trina. Really, it’s just part of the act. No matter how popular she is, she can’t hold a candle to you, M!

Anyway, this note is to remind you (remind both of us!) that what we have between us is still real, even if we’re pretending it’s not for right now. I sure hope it’s only for right now, and not from now on! Don’t think I could survive that. In fact, just thinking about staying away from you for good freaks me out. So I thought it might help to look ahead to when these bad guys are gone for good and we can just be like normal girlfriend and boyfriend, you know? Think about it – holding hands between classes anytime we want, sneaking off to our favorite place in the cornfield in the afternoons after school. Especially once football season is over and I don’t have to go to practice. How great will that be? Just you and me together for whole hours at a time. Makes me warm just thinking about it. And a little less queasy. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, especially now, but I dream of you kind of a lot, M. Maybe someday, when this is all over, I’ll tell you about those dreams. Do you ever dream about me? (Don’t tell me if the answer is no.)

Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all mushy and make this separation worse for you. If it’s as bad for you as it is for me, it’s pretty awful already. But I want you to know that I miss you a lot, even if I can’t show it when anyone else is around. Looking forward to that wonderful day when we can be together for real.

Your Rigel

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Did that pique your interest? I hope so. I really enjoyed these books, and I think you will too. Here's where to get some copies. At this very moment, the ebook versions seem to be free on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Amazon
Book Depository
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