Guest Post: Love and Pizza - Kim Askew & Amy Helmes

I am absolutely delighted to welcome Twisted Lit Authors Kim Askew and Amy Helmes to the blog today to share a Guest Post on Love and Pizza. 
I have had the opportunity to read their first two Twisted Lit books and I'm definitely looking forward to reading Anyone But You.
So without further ado let me turn the blog over to Kim and Amy....

For our third Twisted Lit novel, Anyone But You, we decided to put our own spin on the ultimate teen romance, Romeo and Juliet. Our approach? Exploring a question that’s always been at the back of our minds: Why did the star-crossed lovers’ families hate each other so much anyway? The lynchpin in our story was Italy’s tastiest contribution to American culture, pizza. We decided to set the story in Chicago’s Little Italy, where two families with competing Italian restaurants have had been at odds for as long as anyone can remember.

Part of the fun of writing the novel was researching the fascinating history of Italian-Americans in Chicago (Anyone But You travels between the 1930s and ’40s and present day) and discovering how pizza became so popular here in the States. As lovers of the perfect slice ourselves, we’d like to share our favorite super-simple pizza recipe with Say It With Books readers. We humbly recommend it as the perfect accompaniment to a book club discussion of Anyone But You :) 

Amy & Kim’s Twisted Thyme Pizza 

Ingredients:

Cover Reveal + Giveaway: Anyone But You

Love re-tellings? Authors Kim Askew and Amy Helmes have put their own spin on Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet in their new Shakespeare-inspired YA novel, Anyone But You! The third book in their Twisted Lit series is being published by Merit Press, Anyone But You will be released in January, and is currently available for pre-order at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

From the authors' website

Authors Kim Askew and Amy Helmes

Last year. I read both Twisted Lit #1 and #2 and enjoyed them very much! Tempestuous - Twisted Lit #1 is inspired by Shakespeare's Tempest and Exposure - Twisted Lit #2 is a modern-day Spin on Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Read my reviews of the books here:

• Tempestuous - Twisted Lit #1
• Exposure - Twisted Lit #2 

Check out the cover for Anyone but you!

Title: Anyone But You: A Modern-Day Spin on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet (Twisted Lit #3)
Authors: Kim Askew & Amy Helmes

Expected publication: Jan 18 2014-Merit Press

Website: twistedlitbooks.com

Synopsis:

Review : Exposure: A Modern-Day Spin on Shakespeare's Macbeth

Author: Kim Askew & Amy Helmes

Series: Twisted Lit #2

Published: January 18th 2013 by Merit Press

Format: ebook

Website: twistedlitbooks.com

Source: Received a review copy from the publisher/author in exchange for a honest review

 Double, double, toil and trouble. Sometimes, the quest for high school royalty can be deadly! In this emotionally-charged twist on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a self-conscious shutterbug named Skye Kingston navigates a treacherous school year in Alaska fraught with unspoken secrets and tragic twists of fate. Along the way she encounters three strangely prophetic BFFs; one social-climbing, sociopathic cheerleader; and a heart-stopping hottie named Craig McKenzie: the man who would be Prom King. Can Skye save the boy she loves — and herself — before they get caught in the crosshairs?

My Thoughts

Exposure is yet another Shakespeare retelling by Amy Helmes & Kim Aksew. While Tempestuous was an enjoyable retelling of Shakespeare's Tempest,Exposure is based on Macbeth.
Macbeth was a compulsory part of my literature curriculum in high school so I did have a vague idea of what Exposure was based on.