Lisa Burstein: Can high school love endure to adulthood?

In her "new adult" novella The Next Forever (published by Entangled), Lisa Burstein explores the question: Can high school sweethearts stay together through college and into adulthood, despite the many obstacles?

Lisa: I think I've always been fascinated by real, sustained love between two people. This might be because my husband and I met my freshman year in college and are still together 18(!) years later. Sure we've had our ups and downs, our breaks (before we were married) and our fights, but we are still in love, in like and enamored with each other.

Most days.

There are all kinds of storylines in contemporary romance and of course the tried-and-true tropes that people turn to, but I write contemporary romance because I am most fascinated in discovering why people choose each other. Not only why they are initially attracted, but why they choose to stay together — especially when it comes to first love.

You can see above as to why. I guess my intentions are selfish. Perhaps, I am trying to work out some of mine and my husband's demons. Perhaps, I am trying to justify in some way that real, sustained love can be just as hot as a one-night stand (as long as it's not a weekday night) ;).

Considering almost half of all marriages end in divorce these days, I'm sure I'm not the only one who is interested when a couple makes it from the time they are in college through the rest of their life.

That was one of the themes I was exploring in my new novella, The Next Forever. Can two high school sweethearts make the transition to college lovers and beyond? What obstacles (people, goals, and their own psyches) could get in the way of that?

It's the classic dilemma: You find someone you think/know is perfect for you, but you are so young — how can you know they will be perfect forever?

What happens when temptation gets in the way?

Our lives our filled with temptation. Some of it is hard to say no to, like chocolate cake and wine (at least for me) and some of it is in the form of a person. When you are in a committed relationship that temptation can sometimes be just as hard to say no to. I wanted to put my two characters Amy and Joe, through a night filled with that ultimate temptation — a hot, forbidden person who seems exactly their type. I wanted to test their happily ever after, because like most authors, I enjoy making my characters squirm.

I had a lot of fun seeing if Amy and Joe would be together for "the next forever." I hope you have as much fun reading about it.

What themes do you like seeing explored in contemporary romance?

Here's the blurb for The Next Forever (courtesy of publisher Entangled):

One night in college can change everything …

Away at college, Amy just wants one night alone without her high school sweetheart, Joe. So when he invites her to go to the library, she heads off on her own instead. How she ended up at a house party with the mysterious bad-boy Trevor is another story …

Joe so isn't going to the library. He needs space from Amy, too, so he's decided to rush a fraternity, to get back the swagger he had in high school. But it doesn't take long for the brothers to invite him to the real rush — where the beer is flowing and one particular girl has set her eyes on Joe.

Over the course of one wild night, both Amy and Joe will have to decide if their futures belong with two new people, or whether the next forever will have their first loves in it.

To find out more about Lisa and her books, you can visit her website, LisaBurstein.com.