There are few things more wonderful than watching a friend achieve their dreams or receive good news. So, when I learned that my dear friend and former blogger, Katie of One Page At A Time, was to have her debut novel published this year, I couldn’t have been more thrilled for her. A touching coming of age story that follows the life of one Grace Wilde as she travels from Nashville to South Korea in order to attend school and begin life anew in the wake of tragedy, Hello, I Love You would make the perfect choice for those searching for a cute contemporary romance. Today, I’ve partnered with St. Martin’s Press and Griffin Teen to share with you a small excerpt from the novel, which is available for purchase in stores now! Please read on to discover a little more about this delightful debut.
Title Hello, I Love You
Author Katie M. Stout
Pages 304 Pages
Genre Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Publisher St. Martin’s Griffin
Publisher On June 9th, 2015
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon.com ● Chapters ● The Book Depository
Grace Wilde is running — from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.
She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can’t stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can’t deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.
Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she’ll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.
We climb the stairs up to a chrome building with red Korean characters, which Sophie tells me reads Dining Hall. The cafeteria has its own building? How big is this place? I mean, I know it’s a school for rich kids, but still.
The dining hall is easily three times the size of my high school lunchroom, and anxiety pools in my stomach as I peer around the room — I’m in way over my head. Light filters in through the sloped glass ceiling, illuminating the myriad of long tables and benches filled with students, and providing a view of the mountains surrounding the grounds. I get in line behind Sophie, listening to the languages swirling around us. They buzz in my ears like white noise, none of them distinct from the others.
As we draw closer to the serving line, I sniff at a scent unlike anything I’ve smelled before. Sophie picks out some kind of soup with green leaves floating in it, but I steer clear of anything I don’t recognize and opt instead for an omelette that I think has vegetables in it, maybe some kind of meat, I can’t tell.
When we get to our table, I realize the only utensils available are silver chopsticks. Sophie fishes out the green bits from her soup with her chopsticks like a pro. How she’s going to get the broth out of that bowl is something I’d like to see.
Hesitantly, I cradle the chopsticks with my thumb and middle finger. I pick up a piece of egg, which almost instantly slips back onto my plate. This process continues for a solid thirty seconds before I’m able to successfully transfer food into my mouth. I finally elect to hold the plate close to my lips and rake the salty omelette into my mouth. Other people are doing it, so it can’t be bad manners.
Sophie checks her phone with a frown. “I don’t know where he is,” she mutters.
She scans the cafeteria, and I follow her gaze, searching faces for one that looks anything like hers. But I can’t pick out anyone specifically in the sea of people I’m currently drowning in.
A wide smile breaks out on Sophie’s face, and she waves her arm frantically above her head. I turn and spot a guy in a blue-and- white striped sweater left unbuttoned, with sleeves bunched at the elbows over a V-neck T-shirt. He strides toward us, hands stuffed into the pockets of his skinny jeans. He’s taller than most of the other guys I’ve seen here, with inky black hair that sweeps across his forehead and full lips that look a lot like Sophie’s.
He’s the hottest boy I’ve ever seen.
About Katie M. Stout
Katie M. Stout is from Atlanta, Georgia, and works for an international charity that sends her to fun places like Spain and Singapore. When she’s not writing, you can find her drinking an unhealthy amount of chai tea and listening to Girls’ Generation, Teen Top, and all her other favorite K-pop tunes. Hello, I Love You is her first novel.
