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Out this month is the wonderful Love Song by Sophia Bennett, author of You Don’t Know Me, The Look, and the Threads series. Told with Sophia’s trademark warmth and authenticity, Love Song explores every teen girl’s dream: going on tour with the world’s biggest band. Well, every teen girl except for our heroine, Nina ... 

Here, Sophia tells us why page 282 is the most important page in Love Song. 

I don’t usually re-read my books unless I have to. All I see is things I want to change. But recently I had to re-read bits of Love Song to decide which reading I was going to do for my launch party, and I found myself pausing on page 282 and thinking – Yes! It’s all here. This is what I wanted to say.

Love Song is the first book I’ve written as a romance, and I often had Pride and Prejudice in mind when I was writing. If I’ve learned anything about the genre, I hope I’ve learned it from Jane Austen. So readers won’t be surprised to find there’s a moment when the boy declares his love for the girl, and she’s taken by surprise and doesn’t want it. He may have finally discovered her inner qualities, but she’s not ready for him yet.

Nina is falling for a rock star. And to her astonishment, he’s falling for her. The speech he makes explains why he loves her. And it’s not because she looks amazing on her Instagram page. (She doesn’t have one.) It’s not that they felt an immediate attraction. (She did, to him, because he’s an uber-sexy rock star, but he didn’t return it, or even particularly notice her.) It’s not that she’ll do whatever he wants to make him happy. (She most certainly won’t, and isn’t doing so now.)

The speech on page 282 is about what love is really all about, to me. It’s about getting to know someone, deeply and slowly. It’s about seeing what’s under the surface, and caring, and loving their unusual quirks. If one of the couple happens to be famous, it’s about finding that a distraction and caring only about the person behind the public façade. (I love the love story of Iman and David Bowie. She once said that she didn’t marry David Bowie, she married David Jones – his real name. That was the man she wanted, and the one who adored her until the day he died.) It’s also about getting on with your own life, and being an interesting person. Nina can paint, and grow tomatoes, and fix an engine. She loves the same poets as the rock star, but isn’t fazed by his famous friends.

Love is about respect as much as it’s about chemicals, and the speech on page 282 suggests to me that this love stands a chance, even after the first rush of chemicals has faded. Nina isn’t impressed, but I think if someone had made a speech like that to me at seventeen, I might have been! And when a man came along, much much much later in my life, and made a speech a little bit similar … well, Reader, I married him.

What are you waiting for? Order your copy now! 

Follow Sophia Bennett on Twitter: @sophiabennett