#ChooseYou Bad Romance Blog Tour – Guest Post

Bad Romance

Author: Heather Demetrios

Publication Date: June 13th, 2017

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Synopsis: Grace wants out. Out of her house, where her stepfather wields fear like a weapon and her mother makes her scrub imaginary dirt off the floors. Out of her California town, too small to contain her big city dreams. Out of her life, and into the role of Parisian artist, New York director—anything but scared and alone.

Enter Gavin: charming, talented, adored. Controlling. Dangerous. When Grace and Gavin fall in love, Grace is sure it’s too good to be true. She has no idea their relationship will become a prison she’s unable to escape.

Deeply affecting and unflinchingly honest, this is a story about spiraling into darkness—and emerging into the light again.

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How to make sure that your relationship is a healthy one

One of the perks of being a writer is that you can use the worst stuff that happened to you and turn it into an opportunity to help others. I would give almost anything to have not fallen in love with my bad romance when I was in high school, but I can’t go back and change that day I wrote him that damn love letter in disguise, and so I’m taking over two years of pain and putting it to good use, hoping that any reader who’s in her own bad romance will see a way out through Grace’s story.

My new book, Bad Romance, is about the dark side of love. It’s about what happens when something amazing and beautiful gets twisted into a nightmare, a dream gone way, way wrong. Grace gets her dream guy that she’s been crushing on for years: Gavin Davis, a rock god who wears his heart on his sleeve. At first, he’s everything she imagined he’d be, and more—he’s a total romantic, completely devoted to her, and loves her more than anything in the world. But this quickly morphs into over a year of arguments in parking lots and cars and parties, crippling self-esteem, and sacrifices Grace never thought she’d have to make. She goes from being a fairly well-adjusted girl to suicidal. Grace eventually finds her way to the light, but it’s a long hard road—one I’m hoping my readers won’t have to walk themselves.

The tumblr that I created for the book is a great resource with tons of info, encouragement, and inspiration—plus a kickass break-up playlist to pump up the readers who need to get out of their own bad romances. There’s also a quiz on there to see if your current relationship is healthy or not. A lot of people are asking me about how to have a healthy relationship and it’s weird that I’ve accidentally become a bit of a guru in the relationship department. I learned a lot of lessons during my bad romance and the years after it—all, unfortunately, the hard way. If I were to trace all the mistakes I made in that relationship and others it comes down to this: I didn’t value myself, so why would those guys have valued me? The only way to have a truly healthy relationship is to respect yourself and believe you are worthy of love, gentleness, and respect. You are worthy of trust and support and admiration. You deserve happiness. Until you believe this, you won’t have a healthy relationship. The people I know who are happiest stand strong in their power as women. They don’t take any shit. They stand up for themselves, have their own backs. They surround themselves with other women who will hold them up when they need it. They have no trouble saying boy ‘bye and meaning it.

Don’t look for the things you want outside yourself—you won’t find them. You have to be comfortable in your own skin, have passion, and a couple of really good friends who will tell you what’s up. Then you bring the boy or girl into the picture—and make sure they are worthy of your time, attention, and love. The minute they start cutting you down, make you feel bad about yourself, or don’t respect your boundaries and mess with your head—GET OUT. That way you can say, as the oh-so-wonderful Lady Gaga puts it, “I’m a free bitch, baby.” That, in my opinion, is the best kind of happy ending.

When she’s not traipsing around the world or spending time in imaginary places, Heather Demetrios lives with her husband in New York City. Originally from Los Angeles, she now calls the East Coast home. Heather has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a recipient of the PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award for her debut novel, Something Real. Her other novels include Exquisite Captive, the first in the Dark Caravan Cycle fantasy series, I’ll Meet You There and the multiplatform serial novel, The Lexie Project. She is the founder of Live Your What, a project dedicated to creating writing opportunities for underserved youth. Find out more about Heather and her books at www.heatherdemetrios.com, or come hang out with her on Twitter (@HDemetrios) and any number of social media sites.

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Week One:

May 30th – Dark Faerie Tales – Blogger: 5 advice tips to give my younger self

May 31st – Swoony Boys Podcast – Author Interview

June 1st – Tales of the Ravenous Reader – Blogger: Tips for encouraging self worth

June 2nd – Pink Polks Dot Books – Blogger: Red Flags to Look Out For

June 3rd – It Starts at Midnight – Blogger: Some signs that I wish I had seen

Week Two:

June 4th – Paper Trail YA – Blogger: What things I wish I’d had during my Bad Romance

June 6th – Alexa Loves Books – Blogger: Relationship advice

June 7th – The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club – Blogger: Bad Romance story along with some tips

June 8th – A Perfection Called Books – Blogger: Tips for Self Worth

June 10th – Forever Young Adult – Blogger: List of Bad Romances in Pop Culture

Week Three:

June 11th – The Book Nut – Blogger: Bad Romance Story

June 12th – The Eater of Books! – Blogger: Bad Romance Story

June 13th – Here’s to the Happy Endings – Guest Post: How to make sure that your relationship is a healthy one