Starry NIght Scrapbook

The book was originally going to be called "Beside Me" but was changed during the rewrite/edit of the book

Publisher’s Weekly: Rights Report
August 25, 2011
Joy Peskin at Viking Children’s Books has bought world rights to Beside Me, a YA novel by Isabel Gillies, author of the bestselling memoir Happens Every Day. Set in the high society of New York City’s art world and the hip downtown music scene, Beside Me tells of the soaring highs of first love and crushing lows of first heartbreak. Publication is scheduled for summer 2013. Bill Clegg at William Morris Entertainment brokered the deal. Peskin said she acquired the book after reading Happens Every Day. "Even though it’s a memoir about divorce, written for adults," she said, "for some reason I thought, This author could write an awesome young adult novel. I guess it's because Happens Every Day was really a love story—the love she felt for her husband, and the heartbreak she experienced when he left her for another woman. There was a purity to Isabel’s view of love, and I thought that would translate well to a love story about teenagers." Peskin said she e-mailed Gillies to ask if she had ever thought about writing for teens. "She wrote right back! The very same day. And she said that she was in the midst of finishing her second memoir but the next thing on her to-do list was to write a YA novel. So she and I and her agent met for lunch and she pitched the idea to me."

Exclusive cover reveal: 'Starry Night' by Isabel Gillies
By: Joyce Lamb; May 21, 2014
HEA is thrilled to reveal the cover of Isabel Gillies' YA romance Starry Night, which comes out Sept. 2. What Isabel has to say about the cover: "I'm not sure there is any time more exciting, terrifying or fun than the time when a designer is conceiving of the jacket for your book. Who doesn't judge a book by its cover? I certainly do — it's the porthole, the introduction, the first look. What I love most about this cover is, it feels like what I very much hope the personality of the book is. This cover is generous and free. The bright blue reminds me of endless sky, or of a wide ocean. It's expansive like the imagination. When I look at it, I pretend someone said to the designer, "OK — this book is about falling in love for the first time, New York City, art and growing up — GO!" And in one inspired shot this is what came out of her. I love how Saint Remy shadows the Manhattan skyline, I love the swirls and the stars, and I LOVE that it is a watercolor. It's a friendly cover that I believe I would be drawn to on a shelf. It might even make me open up the book and start reading."

Here's the blurb about Starry Night (courtesy of publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux):
Sometimes one night can change everything. On this particular night, Wren and her three best friends are attending a black-tie party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to celebrate the opening of a major exhibit curated by her father. An enormous wind blasts through the city, making everyone feel that something unexpected and perhaps wonderful will happen. And for Wren, that something wonderful is Nolan. With his root-beer-brown Michelangelo eyes, Nolan changes the way Wren's heart beats. In Isabel Gillies's Starry Night, suddenly everything is different. Nothing makes sense except for this boy. What happens to your life when everything changes, even your heart? How much do you give up? How much do you keep?
Find out more at www.isabelgillies.com.