"The Secrets of Attraction"

Robin Constantine is a born and bred Jersey girl who moved down South so she could wear flip-flops year round. She spends her days dreaming up stories where love conquers all, well, eventually but not without a lot of peril, angst and the occasional kissing scene.

Her YA debut, The Promise of Amazing, was released on December 31, 2013. Her new novel, set in the same world as The Promise of Amazing, is The Secrets of Attraction.

Constantine applied the Page 69 Test to The Secrets of Attraction and reported the following:

To set the scene: Front man Jesse is not entirely sure he wants to find a new drummer, but at the insistence of his band mate Tanner they run auditions. Jesse’s not happy with the people they’ve been seeing and it shows in his attitude. They’ve about had it, when in walks Grayson.

From page 69:

The classroom door creaked open.

“Just give it a chance, okay?” Tanner whispered.

A tall dude wearing a T-shirt with Animal the Muppet and the word BEAST below the picture strolled over to us with his drumsticks in his hand. Whether he was trying to be ironic or just a douchebag was anyone’s guess. He may as well have been wearing a tee with the word Drummer across it. Poser. I had the urge to yell, “Next!” just for the hell of it. I slid my Ray-Bans over my eyes.

“Hey, this is the audition for Yellow Number Five?”

“Yeah, drum kit’s over there,” Tanner said.

Animal dude’s brows bunched together.

“I’m just…I thought – It’s just me?”

“Yes,” I said, resuming dick mode.

“Your flyer said to pick a song from either--”

I held up my hand. “Don’t tell us. Just play.”

His face was blank a moment, but then he stood up straight, shoulders back, corner of his mouth curling up. “Cool.”

After a moment of adjusting the drum kit to fit his height, he stretched his wrists, bending one back, then the other. Tanner looked over his shoulder at me and crossed his eyes. Animal dude dropped one of his sticks, and picked it up with a laugh. I braced myself for some overplaying. Closed my eyes.

Confession: I hate tests but was really intrigued by the idea of putting The Secrets of Attraction through the Page 69 Test. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Page 69 is a pivotal moment in the book that informs the rest of the novel. This is the point where the members of Yellow #5 audition to find a new drummer. That drummer turns out to be Grayson Barrett, who is instrumental in pulling all of the elements of the novel together.

Visit Robin Constantine's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Promise of Amazing.

--Marshal Zeringue