The Anti-Relationship Year by Katie Wismer 💕 Book Blitz & Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (New Adult Romance)

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Johanna Palmer is very much over relationships.

After a scarring experience her freshman year of college, she’s decided she’d much rather have something fun than something serious.

Her best friend Miller has seen it all—the tears, the parties, the drunken phone calls at four in the morning when she needed a ride. In fact, there might be several things Miller saw that Jo herself can’t remember.

Things Miller can’t forget.

With the whirlwind of senior year underway, Jo just wants to move on, get her degree, and land her dream job. But her past might not be as easy to outrun as she’d hoped.

The Anti-Relationship Year is a friends to lovers college romance that acts as a companion to The Anti-Virginity Pact. Both books can be read as standalones.

She sucked in a lungful of air as she plunged out the side door. The night was cold, but every inch of her skin felt like it was on fire. She scowled at the line of people waiting on the driveway—it would take forever to get a DD. The music pulsed out onto the lawn, and she covered her ears, trying to block out the words.

When that didn’t work, she started walking.

“Where are you going?” someone yelled after her, but she ignored them and headed across the backyard while simultaneously trying to get her phone out of her bra. She squinted at the screen, trying to force her vision to focus, and jabbed the call button, hoping she’d found the right contact.

“Hello?” Miller’s voice was rough, like she’d just woken him up. She squinted again at the screen, trying to see the time.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—have called. It’s late.”

“Jo?” There was rustling in the background. “Where are you?”

“I’m f-fine. I’m just gonna walk home.”

“Walk home?” Miller’s voice was clearer now, louder. “Jo, it’s like ten degrees outside. Where are you?”

“It’s only like a block from the frat houses. I’ll be finnnne.”

“Jo, that’s like three miles. I’m coming to get you.”

Jo paused on the sidewalk and glanced both ways. The street was utterly empty, and her vision was too blurry to see the signs. “Which way do I go again?”

“Jo,” Miller snapped, his voice suddenly hard. “Stop walking. Go inside somewhere. I’m leaving the dorm now.”

“It’s a little cold out here,” she mumbled.

“You think?”

“Miller.” She sighed, paced back over to the grass, and laid down. The entire world wobbled around her, the ground bobbing up and down like she was on a boat. “I’m a liiiiittle drunk.”

“I can tell.”

She pushed her bottom lip out. “Are you mad?”

“No, Jo, I’m not mad.” She heard a car engine roar to life on the other end of the phone. “Are you inside?”

“I’m in some grass.”

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered. “Okay, I’m using Find My Friends. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Can people freeze to death in five minutes?”

“Not people who go inside. What are you wearing out there anyway?”

“Ooooh, what are you wearing?”

“Jo.”

She sighed, put the phone on speaker, and tossed it aside so she could run her hands through the grass. It was hard and crunchy, like it had frosted over, and she realized her teeth were chattering. Maybe a tube top hadn’t been the right call. But it had been so hot inside the party.

“You have a hot over-the-phone voice, Miller,” Jo murmured. “You should be a phone sex operator.”

He made a choking sound.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed before headlights appeared on her right, and Jo sat up, squinting against them. If it wasn’t Miller, whoever was behind the wheel was probably going to think she was dead lying there. She climbed to her feet, then doubled back for her phone. When she turned around again, the car was stopped in the middle of the street, and the driver’s side door flew open. Miller appeared in pajama pants, bare feet, and a hoodie. He hurried toward the sidewalk, yanking his hoodie off as he went, even though he wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Before Jo could react, he tugged the sweatshirt over her head.

She blinked at him—or the two versions of him—standing in front of her. He had abs? Since when did Miller have abs?

Preachers’ daughters aren’t supposed to be atheists.

They’re also not supposed to make pacts to lose their virginity by the end of the year, but high school senior Meredith Beaumont is sick of letting other people tell her who to be.

Spending the last four years as Mute Mare, the girl so shy just thinking about boys could trigger panic attacks, Meredith knows exactly what it’s like to be invisible. But when a vindictive mean girl gets her manicured claws on the anti-virginity pact and spreads it around the school—with Mare’s signature at the bottom—Mare’s not so invisible anymore. She just wishes she was.

Now the girls mutter “slut” as they pass her in the hall, and the boys are lined up to help complete her checklist. When she meets a guy who knows nothing of the pact, their budding romance quickly transforms from a way to get her first time over with to a genuine connection. But when the pact threatens to destroy her new relationship and the fragile foundation of her seemingly perfect family, Mare has to decide what’s more important: fixing her reputation and pleasing her parents, or standing up for the person she wants to be.

The Anti-Virginity Pact is a dark and emotional full-length YA Contemporary Romance novel that can be read as a standalone, or the reader can continue on with Johanna's friends-to-lovers college romance in The Anti-Relationship Year.

Katie Wismer is a diehard pig-lover, semi-obsessive gym rat, and longtime sucker for a well-written book. She studied creative writing and sociology at Roanoke College and now lives in Colorado with her cats Max and Dean. She spends most of her free time on her Youtube channel Katesbookdate where she chats about books, life, and veganism. You can find her online at katiewismer.com or @katesbookdate on Instagram and Twitter.