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Monday, August 4, 2014

First Friday-Five Favorite Things - Far From You

Tes BridgeFAR-FROM-YOU-final-coverbig


by Tess Sharpe

This past Friday, August 1, Marcy and I posted our answers to Tess's debut novel, Far From You. Today, you get to read Tess's favorite's. She's obviously given a lot of thought to her answers, which isn't surprising since the novel addresses so many thought-provoking topics.


1) What is your favorite line or paragraph from the novel as it relates to the main character's development and/or growth?

Near the end of the book, Trev and Sophie burn Mina’s diary along the shore of the lake, and it includes a paragraph about how Sophie views love and her heart that I’ve always been very fond of:

“But my heart isn’t simple or straightforward. It’s a complicated mess of wants and needs, boys and girls: soft, rough and everything in between, an ever-shifting precipice from which to fall.”


2) What is your favorite chapter ending or cliffhanger?

“No help comes.
It’s just her and me.
Mina’s skin gets colder by the minute.
I still don’t let her go.”

As you can tell, I’m kind of into misery.


3) Who is your favorite secondary character and why?

I really love Aunt Macy. If I ever write the girl detective books I have in the back of my head, Macy will definitely be making some guest appearances in them.

I’m a big fan of including extended family into my teen character’s lives, because I had a lot of official and unofficial aunts and uncles growing up, and they had such a great influence on me.


4) What is your favorite line or paragraph of description?

It’s actually one that is not in the book anymore! Harper’s Bluff, where the book takes place, is based on a town in my home county. And the downtown setup is super weird. We have the county jail and the police station on one side of the main street, and directly across the street, a liquor store and a smoke shop. When I described this in the book, my copy editor asked, “Maybe we should change this? This seems a little unrealistic.” I changed it, but little did she know, it was based on real life!


5) What is your favorite line of dialogue?

Sophie and Mina’s confrontation in the girl’s bathroom, after Mina has tried to set Sophie up with Trev is one of my favorite scenes in the book, but also contains my favorite piece of dialogue, which is:

“I’ll choose you. No matter how hard it is. No matter what people say. I’ll choose you. It’s up to you to choose me back.”

I love this not only because it sums their relationship up very well, but it’s the first time Sophie has really stood up for herself in a very overt way.

Congratulations Tess on your debut novel. We can't wait to read your next book!

To read more about Tess Sharpe’s debut YA novel Far From You please go to:



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