In my June newsletter (catch up HERE if you missed it) I interviewed Cecilia Vinesse about The Girl Next Door – her latest gorgeous YA romcom, where Cleo’s boyfriend has just dumped her for the girl who was dating Cleo’s former best friend, Marianne. So Cleo and Marianne decide there’s no better way to make both their exes jealous than by fake-dating each other… except the dating starts to feel real as Cleo catches feelings for her ex-bestie. With so much history and shared exes between them, can Cleo and Marianne figure out a happily ever after?
The Girl Next Door is the perfect summer read – it has everything I love in a YA romcom, and I can’t stop (won’t stop) recommending it to readers. I also couldn’t resist finding out a bit more about the author herself…
Enter the 5 Random Questions!
Do you believe in ghosts? Why?
I actually don’t believe in ghosts at all, but I would really love to! I would love some proof that our world is much deeper and stranger than it seems on the surface. So if any ghosts are out there listening, come say hi! But only if you’re a nice ghost. And also quick hellos only, please. No hauntings.
You have a magic ticket to travel anywhere in the world for one day. Where will you go?
I spend an embarrassing amount of my time daydreaming about visiting theme parks, so I’m going to say Tokyo DisneySea, which is, hands down, the best theme park I’ve ever been to. I want to eat buckets of popcorn and go on the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride over and over again and browse all of the cute Duffy merchandise. Truly my perfect day!
What’s your favourite thing to cook?
My younger self would be stunned to hear this, but I love cooking! I love that hour or so when I put on a podcast and chop up ingredients and watch as something fragrant and nourishing materializes almost like magic. My favorite thing is always the most recent thing I’ve cooked, so I’ll say these blueberry and rosemary scones which are so flaky and packed with flavor. I went vegan about a year ago and was convinced that scones could never be as good without butter, but I was very happy to be proven wrong!
The last movie that made you cry?
Guardians of the Galaxy 3!!I started crying from pretty much the opening moment until the end. I didn’t look at any reviews beforehand so I had no idea just how harrowing it would be! (And honestly? Now that I have looked at reviews, I can say that most of them downplay it!)
There’s a time machine that can take you to any time and place in the past. Where would you go?
I’m pretty scared of the past(!), but I think I would go see an early showing of an iconic movie before anyone knew it would be iconic. Maybe Halloween because it was so low budget and so surprising and scary and innovative. I’d love to sit in a roomful of people who’d never seen anything like it before and feel their palpable shock.
About Cecilia Vinesse
Cecilia Vinesse is the author of young adult novels Seven Days of You, The Summer of Us, and The Girl Next Door. She was born in France but grew up between Tokyo, Japan and Greenville, South Carolina. Her obsession with Nora Ephron movies led her to New York City to attend Barnard College and then to live in New York for three years afterward, working in children’s book marketing and living in an apartment furnished mostly by stacks of novels. Now she’s in a small Edwardian house in England where she splits her time holding late-night writing sessions, daydreaming in libraries, and having Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathons with her fiancée Rachel and a pup named Malfi.
Connect with her on Twitter @cookieplease, Instagram @ceciliavinesse or visit her website at www.ceciliavinesse.com
If you missed my interview with Cecilia about The Girl Next Door, you can read it here. Also remember to sign up for my newsletter which goes out on the first Friday of every month – next month’s will be out 7th July, and will feature an interview with Jeanmarie Anaya about her stunning YA debut, In Between Them.
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