{Blog Tour} Guest Post + Giveaway: T.M. Franklin on "Awww...Young Love"

Hi! Today, we are joined by the lovely and talented T.M. Franklin, as she shares with us what it means to fall in love at a young age and also talking about her book, How To Get Ainsley Bishop To Fall In Love With You! Have fun guys!

Awww…Young Love

By T.M. Franklin

There’s nothing quite like the blush of first love. That first eyes-across-a-crowded-cafeteria moment. The first dance. The first kiss. That warm, bubbly feeling in your stomach, the sweaty palms and the pounding heartbeat.

I love the idea of falling in love, which is why my books tend to focus on that aspect of romance. And of all my books, How to Get Ainsley Bishop to Fall in Love with You is the one most zeroed in on it. Oliver has a crush on a seemingly-unattainable girl, Ainsley Bishop. But he has a plan to win her heart, and he’s not giving up easily.

That aspect of Oliver I can trace back to my own high school years. I had a crush, too. To protect the innocent, let’s call him Ethan Edwards. Ethan was tall and beautiful – an athlete and in all the college prep classes. He was perfect. And I had a crush on him pretty much all through junior high and high school. 
I was absolutely ridiculous. Looking back, I cringe at some of the things I did to get his attention. I stared. I doodled his name in my notebook. I sent him a dozen carnations on Valentine’s Day from a secret admirer. It might have been easier to give up if he hadn’t been so incredibly nice.
Yes, he was nice too. He said hello to me in the halls and was kind to everyone.
*sigh* Oh Ethan…
But it was not to be, and eventually Ethan graduated and I moved on. But I remember the joy when he’d talk to me… and the heartbreak when he got another girlfriend. That’s something that I definitely pulled from for Ainsley.

Let me tell you something. All the movies got it wrong. Being in love isn’t soft tingles and warmth and breaking out into song. It’s . . . panic and pain and fear and nausea.

It sucks.

What was I going to do?

I needed help. I needed advice.

I ran through my rather short list of the people I could go to in such a situation. Viney was at school, and I didn’t see myself returning there anytime soon. Not to mention that, as great as Viney was, he was even less experienced in this kind of thing than I was. Both my parents were at work. That left . . .

I took a shuddering breath and started the truck, flipping a U-turn…

- How to Get Ainsley Bishop to Fall in Love with You, Chapter 12

Aw, poor Oliver. First love can be a trial. I have a feeling things will turn up for him, eventually, though, with a little help from his friends.

Seventeen-year-old Oliver Wendell Holmes (Yes, his parents are just that peculiar, but his brother's name is Sherlock, so it could have been worse) knows that he's different. He's quirky, awkward, and he's okay with that. Oliver also likes making lists-meticulous procedures for achieving his goals, step-by-step. Whether it's "How to Get an A in Chemistry" or "How to Get Accepted to MIT," he has a process, and it's worked for him so far. He doesn't even care that the popular kids mock him. Oliver's got his eye on the prize.
So when he decides it's time to declare his feelings for Ainsley Bishop, the girl of his dreams, it's only natural for him to make a list-a point-by-point strategy to win her heart. He knows it will take a grand gesture for her to see all he has to offer, and her approaching birthday provides the ideal opportunity for Oliver to put his plan into action.
Finding the perfect gift is a challenge Oliver meets with his usual dogged determination. He'll need to watch her carefully for clues to pinpoint exactly what he should give her. And along the way, he might just learn that what Ainsley really needs is not quite what he expected.

Ainsley is available now!

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T.M. Franklin started out her career writing non-fiction in a television newsroom. Graduating with a B.A. in Communications specializing in broadcast journalism and production, she worked for nine years as a major market television news producer, and garnered two regional Emmy Awards, before she resigned to be a full-time mom and part-time freelance writer. Her first published novel, MORE, was born during National Novel Writing month, a challenge to write a novel in thirty days. MORE was well-received, being selected as a finalist in the 2013 Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book Awards, as well as winning the Suspense/Thriller division of the Blogger Book Fair Reader’s Choice Awards.
In addition to MORE and its sequel, The Guardians, Franklin penned the Amazon best-selling short stories A Piece of Cake andWindow, which also won a Blogger Book Fair Reader’s Choice Award for Short Story/Fantasy. Her new YA romance, How to Get Ainsley Bishop to Fall in Love with You, is Franklin’s first love story without a paranormal or fantasy element, although she believes love is the best kind of magic.
TWELVE, the final installment in the MORE Trilogy will be released in the fall of 2014.

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