Guest Post: The Most Important Qualities in a BFF (Since You've Been Gone Blog Tour)

I'm really excited to launch the blog tour for Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson.  I love her books so am so pleased to have her stop by today to talk about friendship and what it means to her...
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In my new book, Since You’ve Been Gone, there is a big focus on friendship. Friendship is hugely important to me, and I’m lucky to be friends with some of the most awesome, funny and kind people in the known universe. In thinking about what friendship means to me, and why friendship is important, I thought I would make a list of the most important qualities in a BFF (to possess yourself AND to find in others!)

1. Sense of humour
This is HUGE for me. I think my BFF is hysterically funny, and even if she doesn’t think the same about me, she laughs at my jokes, which is very kind. But we can always make each other laugh, and we get a kick out of the same shows and movies. I think this is CRUCIAL in a friendship. You don’t want to always be explaining to someone why something is funny.

2. Snack compatibility
Again, VERY important for me. My BFF is a vegetarian, so we get a lot of veggie food, but she also doesn’t care if I scarf down a burger in front of her. And we like the same movie snacks, which is crucial. We also know each other’s snack preferences, and so she knows what to bring me (and what I need to bring her) if we’re taking a trip together. The one thing she likes that I can’t get on board with is black licorice (EW) but I figure that nobody’s perfect.

3. Kindness
This is such a simple thing, but it seems to be missing from so many friendships, especially those horrible toxic drama-filled ones. It doesn’t have to be that way! You need a BFF who is going to be rooting for you, who’s on your team, who’s happy when good things happen to you and wants to celebrate with dance parties or ice cream or both.

4. Hangout time
This also seems simple, but it’s really a huge bonus if you and your BFF like to do the same stuff. My best friend and I spent more time than I can calculate wandering around New York City, getting Starbucks, and ducking into stores. Sometimes we wouldn’t even try anything on, and sometimes we spent money we REALLY didn’t have. But the actual shopping didn’t matter – it was just a way to keep talking, to keep the endless conversation going. We could have done any number of things. But liking to do the same stuff just makes hanging out for hours (crucial in any BFF-ship) so much simpler.

5. Nothing is too trivial
One of the best things about having a BFF is being able to call someone up because you’re just having too many feelings about the episode of TV you’re watching. Or because your haircut turned out horribly. Or just because you read a tabloid story about Jennifer Lawrence and are concerned. I think one of the best things about BFF-dom is having them there for the big, important stuff, but also the little trivial stuff.
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Thanks Morgan. I concur with all of these!

Since You've Been Gone is published 3 July.

Make sure you check out the rest of the tour - details are below:

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

For Review: Simon & Schuster
Published: 7 June 2012

From Goodreads: From the Flying Start author of Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, a powerful novel about hope in the face of heartbreak.

Taylor Edwards’ family might not be the closest-knit—everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled—but for the most part, they get along just fine. Then Taylor’s dad gets devastating news, and her parents decide that the family will spend one last summer all together at their old lake house in the Pocono Mountains.

Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get to know each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere. Her former best friend is still around, as is her first boyfriend…and he’s much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve.

As the summer progresses and the Edwards become more of a family, they’re more aware than ever that they’re battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance—with family, with friends, and with love.

I really enjoyed Amy and Roger's Epic Detour when I read it last year so this was a definite on my lists of books I really wanted to read. It sounded so good - sad obviously - but it hooked my interest. And all I can say is WOW! I absolutely loved it.

Taylor is one of those characters I just instantly loved. She has flaws - she doesn't do the perfect thing. In fact most of the time she runs in the other direction but I loved that. And she goes on a journey in this story. She's forced to face a situation she ran away from when she was 12 and she'd forced to deal with what is happening in her family. That is not something she can run from - and that makes her have to look inside herself and decide who she wants to be.

The storyline with Lucy and Henry was sweet. I could understand why it still played such a big role in her life - even with everything else going on. Plus I loved Henry - I'm really liking this tendency for stories to have nice male characters as opposed to the bad boy, treat them mean kind. Henry is sweet and very understanding of Taylor and what she is going through. A great friend who could make a really great boyfriend!

The true brilliance of this story though is the family dynamic and Taylor's relationship with her dad. There is a section of the book titled 'The Best of Times, the Worst of Times' and what happens that summer just completely embraces what that means. I imagine it would have been the hardest thing they have ever had to face but at the same time there would be so many memories from that summer that the whole family would treasure.

I loved her dad. I loved their breakfasts together - the way he allowed Taylor to really get to know him. The way he reached out to all his children despite the pain he must have been going through. I tear up even writing this review because I was so invested in their story that I cried my eyes out at the end. The whole 'I love you daddy'! Honestly! Thank the heavens I was reading it at home and not in public!

I don't know what else to say, except it's beautifully written and a story that will capture your heart. I can't praise it enough. Seriously brilliant!

I want to read that...

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

From Goodreads: Taylor's family might not be the closest-knit – everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled – but for the most part, they get along fine. Then Taylor's dad gets devastating news that changes everything. Her parents decide that the family will spend the summer together at their old vacation home in the Pocono Mountains.

Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get to know each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere. Her former summer best friend is still around, as is her first boyfriend. . . and he's much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve.

As the summer progresses, the Edwards become more of a family, and closer than they’ve ever been before. But all of them are very aware that they’re battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance – with family, with friends, and with love.

I loved Amy and Roger's Epic Detour so I can't wait to read more by the author. And this sound seriously fab!

It's published May 2012 (US) and June 2012 (UK)

Amy & Roger's Epic Blog Tour: Extract

I'm delighted to be part of the Amy & Roger's Epic Blog Tour and have an extract for you.  Enjoy:)

“So,” I said after a moment, “we should probably get back on the road, right?”

Roger nodded. “Probably.” He took a sip of his root beer and looked out at the freeway. “You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I don’t think it’s going to take us four days. Some friends of mine drove cross-country, and they did it in thirty-six hours.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Though I don’t think they ever stopped—I think they just drove straight through. And they probably sped a lot,” he added.

“Huh,” I said, not exactly sure how to respond to that. It hit me that, while I didn’t want to do this, Roger probably wanted to do it even less. Why would a college almost-sophomore want to spend four days transporting a high schooler across the country? Maybe this was Roger’s way of saying that he wanted to get it over with as fast as possible.

“Have you ever taken a road trip?” he asked.

I turned to squint at him and shook my head, feeling very lame. I knew that he didn’t mean a family excursion to see a historical landmark. He meant a road trip, the kind that cool people took in college. “Have you?” I asked, even though I had a feeling the answer was yes.

He nodded. “Just in-state, though. Up to San Fran, down to San Diego. And I don’t know . . .” He paused and peered into the bag. He shook it hopefully, fished around inside, and came up with three fries. He took one and offered the rest to me. “Last two,” he said. “Go for it.” I took one, leaving one for him. He smiled and ate it, looking pensive. “I guess I just thought that this trip might be more of a real road trip,” he said. “I don’t know. More interest­ing places. And at least a route we could pick ourselves.”

I took a sip of my shake, hoping my relief wasn’t obvious. So it wasn’t me he had a problem with, just my mother’s version of the trip. Which was entirely understandable, given the places that she’d chosen for us to stop.

I thought about what I’d just reread in my father’s book. About going out and just driving, and how you can only do it when you’re young. For the first time, it struck me that this trip could be some­thing worth recording in the scrapbook, after all. “Well,” I said, not entirely able to believe I was about to suggest this. “I mean, I guess we could go other places. As long as we’re there in four days, does it really matter which way we go?”

“Really?” Roger asked. “What about your mother’s reservations?”

I shrugged, even though my heart was pounding. It was a legitimate question. Knowing my mother, she’d probably be call­ing every hotel to make sure we’d checked in. But there was a tiny, reckless piece of me that wanted to be the difficult one for once. That wanted to make her worry about me for a change. That wanted to show her what it felt like to be left behind. “I don’t care,” I said. This wasn’t exactly true, but I liked the way it felt to say it. It was something Charlie would have done. And something Amy! would never do in a million years. And as I thought about the four hundred dollars in my front pocket, it occurred to me that we might be able to use it to buy just a little bit of freedom.

Roger blinked at me. “Okay,” he said. He turned to face me more fully and leaned back against the window. “So where should we go?”

“We’ll still get there by the tenth, right?” I asked quickly. My mother was not going to be happy we were ignoring her route, but I knew she would have a conniption if we took longer than the allotted time. “This is just a detour,” I clarified.

“Just a detour,” Roger agreed, nodding. He smiled at me, and I felt the impulse to smile back. I didn’t, but the feeling was there, for the first time in months.

The In-N-Out employee to our left suddenly raised her vol­ume and began screaming at her soon-to-be-ex. Apparently, his name was Kyle, and he knew exactly what he’d done. Feeling like I was overhearing something I probably shouldn’t, I jumped to my feet and began to walk around to the front of the car when I saw that Roger hadn’t moved. He was still listening to the breakup with a slightly nauseated expression on his face.

“Roger?” I asked.

"Right,” he said quickly, getting up as well and crumpling the white paper bag. We buckled ourselves in, and Roger started the engine. “So if this is going to be a real road trip,” he said, backing out of the parking space and heading toward the exit, “we need to get some road trip essentials.”

“Like gas?”

“No,” he said. “Well, yes,” he amended, looking down at the gauge. “But there are two things that are absolutely necessary if you’re going to be hitting the road.”

“And what are those?”

Roger smiled at me as he paused at a stoplight. “Snacks and tunes,” he said. “Not necessarily in that order.”

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You can read my review for Amy & Roger's Epic Detour here. 

You can check out the next stop on the tour over at Wondrous Reads tommorrow.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

For Review: Simon & Schuster
Published: 7 July 2011

From Amazon: Amy Curry is having a terrible year. Her mother has decided to move all the way across the country and needs Amy to drive their car from California to the East Coast. There's just one problem: since the death of her father, Amy hasn't been able to get behind the wheel of a car. Enter Roger, the son of an old family friend, who turns out to be unexpectedly cute...and dealing with some baggage of his own. Meeting new people and coming to terms with her father's death were not part of Amy's plans for the road trip. But then neither was driving on the Loneliest Road in America, seeing the Colorado Mountains, visiting diners, dingy motels and Graceland. But as they drive, and she grows closer to Roger, Amy finds that the people you least expected are the ones you need the most - - and that sometimes you have to get lost in order to find your way home.

I've always wanted to go on a Road Trip across American.  I went to America when I was 14, feel in love with it and have always wanted to go back.  Reading Amy and Roger's Epic Detour felt the next best thing to actually doing it - and probably the closest I will ever get -  but never mind!

I was pretty much hooked from the first page.  I loved meeting Amy and learning why she is the way she is.  Roger is instantly likeable and you get the feeling that the two of them will get on really well from the first time they meet.  I completely fell in love with both characters and loved watching there friendship grow.  Both have things they need to deal with and they seem very good at helping each other do just that.  I really enjoyed that the focus is not just a possible romance between the two - and found Amy's internal journey trying to cope with her father's death was excellently portrayed.

I also loved the additional material that's included - photographs, receipts and Roger's playlist.  All of it made me feel as if I was right there, experiencing it all with them.  And boy did it make me hungry every time they stopped for food!  And frozen custard?  I really want to try some of that!

There are some superb secondary characters along the way (Lucien being my favourite!) and I can honestly say I enjoyed every minute of it.  I loved how it ended but at the same time I wanted a little more closure on the story involving her mother and brother - I thought it played quite a large part of the story so I wanted to see more of how that panned out.   Otherwise,  I wouldn't change a thing - I really, really loved it!

Amy & Roger's Epic Blog Tour Schedule

I'm really excited to be taking part in Amy & Roger's Epic Blog Tour - details are below (and on my sidebar).  Make sure you click on the banner below - it takes you to an exclusive Spotify playlist with a selection of 12 tracks from Amy & Roger's many playlist! 

Here's the schedule with links:

4 July  - Daisy Chain Books: Q&A with Morgan Matson.

5 July  - I Want To Read That:  Extract from Amy & Roger's Epic Detour.

6 July  - Wondrous Reads: Behind the music of Amy & Roger.

7 July  - The Bookette: Morgan Matson's road trip research.

8 July  - The Book Smugglers: Inspirations & Influences.

9 July  - The Crooked Shelf: Deconstructing Amy & Roger's America.

10 July - Book Babblers: Giveaway competitions!

Hope to see you back here on the 5th July:)