Today we’re spotlighting This Times It’s Real by Ann Liang!
Read on for more about Ann, her book, and a giveaway!
Meet Ann Liang:
Ann Liang is a graduate of the University of Melbourne. Born in Beijing, she grew up traveling back and forth between China and Australia, but somehow ended up with an American accent. When she isn’t writing, she can be found making overambitious to-do lists, binge-watching dramas, and having profound conversations with her pet labradoodle about who’s a good dog. You can find her online at annliang.com.
About the Book: This Times It’s Real
Get ready to fall in love in this hilarious romcom about a girl who begins a fake relationship with the famous actor in her class, perfect for fans of Meg Cabot and Jenny Han.
When seventeen-year-old Eliza Lin’s essay about meeting the love of her life unexpectedly goes viral, her entire life changes overnight. Now she has the approval of her classmates at her new international school in Beijing, a career-launching internship opportunity at her favorite magazine…and a massive secret to keep.
Eliza made her essay up. She’s never been in a relationship before, let alone in love. All good writing is lying, right?
Desperate to hide the truth, Eliza strikes a deal with the famous actor in her class, the charming but aloof Caz Song. She’ll help him write his college applications if he poses as her boyfriend. Caz is a dream boyfriend — he passes handwritten notes to her in class, makes her little sister laugh, and takes her out on motorcycle rides to the best snack stalls around the city.
But when her relationship with Caz starts feeling a little too convincing, all of Eliza’s carefully laid plans are threatened. Can she still follow her dreams if it means breaking her own heart?
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~Excerpt~
I’m about to change into my school uniform when I notice the man floating outside my bedroom window.
No, floating isn’t the right word, I realize as I step closer, my plaid skirt still crumpled in one hand, my pulse racing in my ears. He’s dangling. His whole body is suspended by two metal wires that look dangerously thin, considering how we’re on the twenty-eighth floor and the summer wind’s been blowing extra hard since noon, kicking up dust and leaves like a mini tornado.
I shake my head, bewildered as to why anyone would put themselves in such a position. What is this—some kind of new extreme sport? A gang initiation?
A midlife crisis?
The man catches me staring and gives me a cheerful little wave, as if he isn’t one faulty wire or loose knot or particularly aggressive bird away from plummeting down the side of the building. Then, still ever-so-casual, he pulls out a wet cloth from his pocket and starts scrubbing the glass between us, leaving trails of white foam everywhere.
Right. Of course.
My cheeks heat. I’ve been away from China for so long that I completely forgot this is how apartment windows are cleaned— the same way I forgot how the subway lines work, or how you’re not supposed to flush toilet paper, or how you can only bargain at certain types of stores without coming across as broke or stingy. Then there are all the things that have changed in the twelve years that my family and I were overseas, the things I never had the chance to learn in the first place. Like how people here apparently just don’t use cash anymore.
I’m not kidding. When I tried to hand a waitress an old one hundred yuan note the other week, she’d gaped at me as though I’d time-traveled straight from the seventeenth century.
“Uh, hello? Eliza? Are you still there?”
I almost trip over my bed corner in my haste to get to my lap- top, which has been propped up on two cardboard boxes labeled eliza’s not very important stuff—boxes I haven’t gotten around to unpacking yet, unlike my very important stuff box. Ma thinks I could afford to be a bit more specific with my labels, but you can’t say I don’t have my own system.
“Eli-za?” Zoe’s voice—achingly familiar even through the screen—grows louder.
“I’m here, I’m here,” I call back.
“Oh, good, because literally all I can see is a bare wall. Speaking of which . . . girl, are you ever going to decorate your room? You’ve been there for, like, three months and it looks like a hotel. I mean, a nice hotel, sure, but—”
“It’s a deliberate artistic choice, okay? You know, minimalism and all that.”
She snorts. I’m a good bullshitter, but Zoe happens to have a great bullshit detector. “Is it, though? Is it really?”
“Maybe,” I lie, turning the laptop toward me. One side of the screen has been taken up by a personal essay for my English class and about a billion tabs on “how to write a kiss scene” for research purposes; on the other side is my best friend’s beautiful, grinning face.
Zoe Sato-Meyer’s sitting in her kitchen, her favorite tweed jacket draped around her narrow frame, her dark waves smoothed back into a high ponytail and haloed by the over- head lights like a very stylish seventeen-year-old angel. The pitch-black windows behind her—and the bowl of steaming instant noodles on the counter (her idea of a bedtime snack)— are the only clue it’s some ungodly hour of the night in LA right now.
“Oh my god.” Her eyes cut to my worn polka-dot sweatshirt as I adjust my laptop camera. “I can’t believe you still have that shirt. Didn’t you wear it in eighth grade or something?”
“What? It’s comfortable,” I say, which is technically true. But I guess it’s also true that this ugly, fraying shirt is one of the only things that’s remained consistent throughout six different coun- tries and twelve different schools.
“Okay, okay.” Zoe holds up both hands in mock surrender. “You do you. But, like, still, shouldn’t you be changing? Unless you plan to wear that to your parent-teacher conferences . . .”
My attention snaps back to the skirt in my grip, to the foreign- looking westbridge international school of beijing logo embroidered over the stiff, plasticky fabric. A knot forms in my stomach. “Yeah, no,” I mutter. “I should definitely be changing.”
Excerpted from This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang, Copyright © 2023 by Ann Liang
Published by Scholastic Inc.
Title: This Time It’s Real
Author: Ann Liang
Release Date: February 7. 2023
Publisher: Scholastic Press
ISBN-10: 1338827111
ISBN-13: 9781338827118
Genre: Romance
Age Range: YA / 12 and up
*GIVEAWAY DETAILS*
such a cute cover. 🥰🥰
This looks so cute
This books sounds like it’s going to be hilarious!!
This looks like a sweet story
This looks so cute!
This has been on my TBR for awhile. I love the cover!
The cover is cute. Ann Liang writes romance very well.
I love the cute cover and promised trope inside.
The cover is very colorful and pretty. I enjoyed reading the excerpt – it sounds like a fun, sweet story.