RiYA: Opposites Attract or Similars Mesh? (Extra Entry)

 

Hi everyone! RiYA is not only about author features and giveaways. It’s also about answering questions about YA romance. It is super fun to read about opposites falling in love but it’s also surprising and thrilling to encountering very similar characters fall for one another. Today the authors of RiYA will answer this question…

Opposites Attract or Similars Mesh?

Shelena Shorts said: Opposites attract...definitely!:D

Cheryl Herbsman said: I’m a hopeless romantic, or as my character Savannah likes to call it – a hopeful romantic. I definitely think it can be true that opposites attract and that similars mesh. I think it can be more challenging for an opposites-attract relationship to go the distance. But love is powerful and can overcome just about anything!  

 

Kim Culbertson said: I think everyone’s an opposite because we’re all such individual creatures.  The longer I teach high school, the more I realize there isn’t a hard and fast rule about what people want from each other.  I’ve seen students who look like they should just get married and settle down right now they are so dang perfect for each other not make it past a first date and I’ve seen students who I thought “no way is that going to work” and now they’re married and sending me pictures of their kids.  Ultimately, I think it has to come down to crafting interesting.

Angela Morrison said: Both. Seriously. I want my characters to be complex enough that they have things in common and things that clash. Learning to love, appreciate and even take good advantage of the things that clash are part what falling in love is about. And it makes for dramatic fight scenes, break-ups, and make-ups. All good fodder for a YA romance. I include an element of coming of age, a journey of change and growth, in my love stories. Changing to make a relationship work is a big part of that. When I write a novel, it engulfs everything in its path. I don't think one or the other is enough. 

Cat Clarke said: I think in YA it's always fun to read about opposites attracting -the good girl and the bad boy (hello, Simone Elkeles!). Although I do like it when the girl ends up falling for her sweet, reliable male best friend (especially after dabbling with a highly unsuitable, leather-jacketed bad boy).

Jennifer Hubbard said: I think people need common ground on which to build a relationship, but then it helps if some of their strengths and weaknesses are complementary, i.e., one is weak where the other is strong, so that they can help each other and learn from each other.

In The Secret Year, the characters seemed opposite on the surface, because they had very different backgrounds. But they had certain key similarities that drew them together: a similar sense of humor, a fondness for certain kinds of risk-taking. The areas in which they were practical, and the areas in which they were impulsive, were the same.

Sara Bennett Wealer said: Opposites may attract in the short term, but it's hard to have a lasting relationship with someone who's your polar opposite. If you need a peaceful early bedtime, for example, and your lover's up all night raising the roof, you're going to be too exhausted to feel all lovey dovey.

Conclusion: Opposites attract and similar mesh but it depends on the two persons and the situation they are currently in. 

 

What is your answer? Opposites Attract or Similars Mesh? Comment with your answer for an extra entry to the Giveaway of a Signed Copy of The Pace by Shelena Shorts! (Open Internationally.)