Friday Memes: The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash. 249 p. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, June 14, 2016. 9781481456531.

Publisher synopsis: Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy...

Archie and Veronica...
Althena and Noth...
...Graham and Roxy?

Graham met his best friend, Roxana, when he moved into her neighborhood eight years ago, and she asked him which Hogwarts house he’d be sorted into. Graham has been in love with her ever since.

But now they’re sixteen, still neighbors, still best friends. And Graham and Roxy share more than ever—moving on from their Harry Potter obsession to a serious love of comic books.

When Graham learns that the creator of their favorite comic, The Chronicles of Althena, is making a rare appearance at this year’s New York Comic Con, he knows he must score tickets. And the event inspires Graham to come up with the perfect plan to tell Roxy how he really feels about her. He’s got three days to woo his best friend at the coolest, kookiest con full of superheroes and supervillains. But no one at a comic book convention is who they appear to be...even Roxy. And Graham is starting to realize fictional love stories are way less complicated than real-life ones.

First line(s): "I know we've been friends for such a long time, Roxana. I only have about five years' worth of memories without you in them. But..."

Here's where the next panel would come. And in an ideal world, I'd ask Roxy herself to help me figure it out. She would sketch something, sometimes just a ghost of a line, and on the best of days, a dying ember would ignite and suddenly i'd know exactly what came next. I need her. I need her to help me figure out how to tell her I love her.

Page 56: "Oh, hey, I know you!" she says, grinning now. "You wrote some prequel chapters about Charlie Noth, right? With him getting his first publishing deal?"

I'm startled. "Yeah, that's me." I've never met a stranger who's read my stuff before.

"That was good," she says, her gaze livelier now. "I really like that you had the story within the story and went into what his book was about."

Whoa. And a stranger with compliments to boot.


I really enjoyed Ms. Tash's debut, Three Day Summer and am thrilled to be participating in the blog tour for this fun romance. Look for my review here on June 7.