I’m delighted to be kicking off the official blog tour for What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter, which hits stores next week. Learn more about the book below, then enter to win a copy courtesy of our friends at Simon & Schuster.
Can a love triangle have only two people in it? Online, it can…but in the real world, its more complicated. In this debut novel that’s perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Morgan Matson, Marisa Kanter hilariously and poignantly explores what happens when internet friends turn into IRL crushes.
Is it still a love triangle if there are only two people in it?
There are a million things that Halle Levitt likes about her online best friend, Nash.
He’s an incredibly talented graphic novelist. He loves books almost as much as she does. And she never has to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him in real life. They can talk about anything…
Except who she really is.
Because online, Halle isn’t Halle—she’s Kels, the enigmatically cool creator of One True Pastry, a YA book blog that pairs epic custom cupcakes with covers and reviews. Kels has everything Halle doesn’t: friends, a growing platform, tons of confidence, and Nash.
That is, until Halle arrives to spend senior year in Gramps’s small town and finds herself face-to-face with real, human, not-behind-a-screen Nash. Nash, who is somehow everywhere she goes—in her classes, at the bakery, even at synagogue.
Nash who has no idea she’s actually Kels.
If Halle tells him who she is, it will ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. Not telling him though, means it can never be anything more. Because while she starts to fall for Nash as Halle…he’s in love with Kels.
Marisa Kanter has worked in publicity for major publishers and covered YA books for MTV. Currently, she works in sales, on the distribution side of the publishing industry. She can often be found searching for the best iced chai in NYC, or reading on the 3 train. What I Like About You is her first novel. Follow her at marisakanter.com
One winner will receive a finished copy of What I Like About You courtesy of Simon & Schuster. To enter, tell us in the comments about an Internet friendship that became important to you. Then fill out the Rafflecopter form below to complete your entry & earn more chances to win.
U.S. only. Contest runs through midnight (PT) on Monday, April 6th.
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| Week 1 | ||
| 3/30/2020 | Novel Novice | BookHighlight W/ Giveaway |
| 3/31/2020 | Book Bratz | Review |
| 4/1/2020 | The Novel Knight | Author Guest Post |
| 4/2/2020 | Book Princess Reviews | Review |
| 4/3/2020 | eleven thirteen pm | Author Q&A |
| Week 2 | ||
| 4/6/2020 | Vicky Who Reads | Creative Post |
| 4/7/2020 | Pub Day (Marisa) | Creative Post |
| 4/8/2020 | Kayla Reads and Reviews | Author Q&A |
| 4/9/2020 | The Heart of a Book Blogger | Author Q&A |
| 4/10/2020 | Mary Had a Little Book Blog | Review |
| Week 3 | ||
| 4/13/2020 | Jen Ryland Reviews | Review |
| 4/14/2020 | Love in Panels | BookHighlight W/ Giveaway |
| 4/15/2020 | Forever and Everly | Review |
| 4/16/2020 | I’m All Booked Up | Review |
| 4/17/2020 | Awkwordly Emma | Author Q&A |
| Week 4 | ||
| 4/20/2020 | Rants & Raves of a Bibliophile | BookHighlight W/ Giveaway |
| 4/21/2020 | Read By Tiffany | Author Q&A |
| 4/22/2020 | A Court of Coffee and Books | Review |
| 4/23/2020 | From the Library of Alexis | Review |
| 4/24/2020 | Bookishly Jules | BookHighlight W/ Giveaway |
| Week 5 | ||
| 4/27/2020 | Lost in a Book | Review |
| 4/28/2020 | Pages and Pugs | Review |
| 4/29/2020 | Skye’s Scribblings | Review |
| 4/30/2020 | Kait Plus Books | BookHighlight W/ Giveaway |
| 5/1/2020 | We Live and Breathe Books | Review |
Novel Novice 
I have a dear friend across the country that I have known for years. She is my moms age & after losing my mom last year, we are closer than ever.
I started chatting with someone on a message board who liked the same singer I did. Soon after, we moved the chats to email. Then snail mail. After that, we started talking on the phone all the time. Finally, we ended up spending time together offline, because she lived 3 hours away. Not only were we friends, it was like I finally had a sister.
I met my friend Teddy, who is a blogger while entering one of her giveaways. Now we chat back and forth all the time about our families and our pets. We may never meet since we live so far apart but we both enjoy chatting together.
I have a good friend that shares my love of reading and books.
Oh my gosh, this sounds SO CUTE! I wish I had an internet friendship that I could talk about, but the closest I can come to that is mentioning the internet groups that have meant a lot to me. I found people that I could identify with starting back in the day when I sought out other Potterheads and eventually Twihards, etc. The EpicReads group and this blog are my favorites.
I feel blessed to have made incredible internet friendships. During a tough time in my life back in 2014, I became involved in the fandom for a show called “How to Get Away with Murder.” I became such close friends with people from that fandom that we would video chat for hours every day. We talked about the show, but we also talked about our lives, our other interests, our struggles, and achievements. Even though we lived in different parts of the world, I felt closer to them than anyone else in my life. Eventually, we all met in person to see one of the actors from the show star in a Broadway musical. Although we’ve all grown up and no longer have time to video chat for hours every single day, we still talk online all the time and remain good friends to this day.
This sounds like such a fantastic novel that is written for our times and yet about the importance of communication, which is (of course) timeless. There is something important about books that focus on identity. Kanter’s book will be a welcome addition to the YA marketplace!
ALl of the internet friendships I’ve made with other bloggers have been very important to me! In today’s world, internet friendships can easily be as important to us as those IRL!