Swoony Boy Alert!! Noah Shaw (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer)

Welcome Back!!! It’s time for another Swoony Boy Alert!!

CAN I TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE THESE POSTS?? I love reading your comments and tweets, and it’s so fun to be goofy and swoon right along with you. You’re all lovely and awesome and smart and I just ADORE you. Meep, sorry. Got a little nuts carried away there. Not everyone’s a hugger. Let me just fix your hair…

OKAY. For the newcomers: What are Swoony Boy Alerts, you ask? SBA’s are reoccurring posts in which we, and you, YES YOU, amazing reader, gather around a cup of tea/coffee/something with a fancy umbrella and squeal over our favorite male characters in fiction. They can be old faves (Oh, Romeo), or new boys we’re meeting for the first time.

Up this week: NOAH SHAW from The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin. (we had a ton of emails about this one so THANK YOU to everyone who suggested it!)

From the summary: Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

**SEMI SPOILERISH**

I just finished this book. Like yesterday. And although I closed it feeling a little confused (it’s the first volume of a series, and I swear there are more questions than answers), it was a great read and I couldn’t put it down.

If you follow me on Twitter, you saw me flailing. A LOT. And this boy encompasses pretty much every single characteristic (both good and bad) that I seem to be drawn to in books. Gorgeous: check. Smart: check. Funny: check. Cocky-full-of-himself-manwhore: check. WHERT? I know I know! But remember, I said in fiction. Because let’s face it, average real life rarely equals an awesome story, and what makes for an awesome thrilling compelling read isn’t usually something you’d want to live through. Nobody wants to read: We woke up and were really, really respectful to each other. Again. amIright? BUT AS USUAL I’M LETTING MY ENTHUSIASM GET AHEAD OF ME. Let’s meet our boy…

“Lolita,” he said, turning my book over in his hands. His eyes widened over the pink-lipped mouth on the cover, then handed it to me. Our fingers brushed, and a warm current coursed through them. My heart thundered so loud he could probably hear it.

“So,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. “You’re a smuthound with daddy issues?” The corner of his mouth turned up in a slow, condescending smile.

I wanted to smack it off his face. “Well, you’re quoting it. And incorrectly, by the way. So what does that make you?”

His half-smile morphed into a whole grin. “Oh, I’m definitely a smuthound with daddy issues.”

Now imagine all that in a British accent. And she’s down. brb… getting the smelling salts.

Mara meets Noah on her first day at Croyden Academy. *button down shirt tie blazer smirk* He’s charming and persistent, but she isn’t interested. And rightly so. Her entire life has been turned upside down (but why??), people are dead (but are they??), her sanity is hanging by a thread (but is it really? see??? SO MANY QUESTIONS) and the last thing she needs is to become attached to some boy who’s rumored to have been with half the girls at school. But like I said, Noah is too charming for his own good and he’s just. so. freaking. sweet. And did I mention a smidge naughty? Yeah.

“Is there any point asking what you’re going to make me do on Sunday?”

“Not really.”

Okay. “Is there any point asking what you’re going to do to me?”

He grinned wickedly. “Not really.”

Fabulous. “Does it involve the use of a safe word?”

“That will depend entirely on you.” Noah moved impossibly closer, just inches away. A few freckles disappeared into the scruff on his jaw. “I’ll be gentle,” Noah added. My breath caught in my throat as he looked at me from beneath those lashes, ruining me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re evil.” 

In response, Noah smiled, and raised his finger to gently tap the tip of my nose.

“And you’re mine,” he said, then walked away.

And just when you think it couldn’t possibly get better:

Suddenly, he crouched down.

“What are you-“

In my rush, I hadn’t tied my shoelaces.

Noah was tying them for me. He looked up at me through his dark fringe of lashes and smiled.

The expression on his face melted me completely. I knew I had the goofiest grin plastered on my lips, and I didn’t care. 

“There,” he said as he finished tying the laces on my left shoe. “Now you won’t fall.”

Too late.

*HEARTCLENCH* Seriously, guys, Michelle Hodkin knows how to make you fall for the boy.  And if you’d like to experience Noah for yourself, you can OF COURSE order a copy. Which you should totally do. OR LEAVE US A COMMENT and through a complex process (ok, my daughter draws a name from a hat!) we’ll select a winner and it’ll be on its way!

AND stay tuned because we have… wait for it… ANOTHER COPY OF SHATTER ME TO GIVE AWAY. Look for that in our special Spooky Recs post later this week. Thanks for playing guys!