Are you freaking out from the title yet? Well you should be! I can already hear the shouts of “Casey are you crazy why on earth would you love instalove, I think we need to talk” just hear me out for a minute or five.
Okay so what is it about instalove everyone hates? It is that in young adult book it seems impossible for a 14 year old to find love, It’s that loving someone instantly sounds cliché and love is based on solid mature relationships, It is that you cringe when teens say I love you after two weeks because THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS WHAT IS THIS MOCKERY OF ROMANCE *head explodes*.
I have a confession to make and I ask you to please save all gasps for the end people. I fell in love at 14, I said I love you after a very short amount of time, I was a sappy, doe eyed, obsessed teenager who spent every waking minute on the phone or with my boyfriend. I am literally the story that makes people roll their eyes and think as if, my whole relationship started via insta love. And don’t get me wrong I have hated stories based on insta love and cringed with the rest of you as those two 15 year olds declared their un dying love, then I realised wow I’m a hypocrite that was actually me in real life so I guess it’s still cringe worthy but not that unbelievable.
I love my own instalove and I guess that makes me appreciate others instalove.
My love story is a different one, it’s a story that started when I was 14 and I became infatuated with this tall nerdy boy with blues eyes that have yellow around the iris, he is tall and olive skinned, he forced me to watch all the Dragon Ball Z episodes with him and wrote online FAQs about his favourite video games. He spray painted a rose for me and I pressed it between the pages of my favourite book, we became one person to our friends, I landed my dream boy. Like all love stories I wish it was all rose’s and kisses in the rain. He was kicked out of home when he was 16 moved in with me and my parents, got in trouble with the police for doing some stupid teenage stuff, he also helped me with my year 12 exams and started doing too many courses trying to figure out who he was and what he wanted, we moved out together and he supported me every time life got to much and I tried to disappear into my books, supported my constant career changes and dark days, we bought our first home this year, we have stayed up covered in paint and singing at the top of our lungs to really bad pop songs and all the hard work has finally paid off and we’re happy which is really the biggest achievement.
It has been 8 years together today, I fell in love with this impossibly amazing, caring boy in 2008 and am more in love with this compassionate, beautiful amazing man in 2016. So before I become impossibly sappy I’d just like to say insta love is cliché and cringe worthy but so am I, so I will always appreciate a teenage love story and mine will always be my favourite.
Just to be even more heart eyed today here are a few of my love stories and why I love the romance in them.
“The way I feel about him is like a heartbeat — soft and persistent, underlying everything.”
Why I love it: For being the messy love story of two teens trying to figure each other out.
“I was his and he was mine, and we were the beginning and middle and end. We were a song that had been sung from the very first ember of light in the world.”
Why I love it: For Rhys showing Feyre that she is strong and letting her realise that for herself, for showing that sometimes all you need is a little support and for always believing the damsel in distress can save herself as well as everyone else. 
“You’ve read the books?”
“I’ve seen the movies.”
Cath rolled her eyes so hard, it hurt. (Actually.) (Maybe because she was still on the edge of tears. On the edge, period.) “So you haven’t read the books.”
“I’m not really a book person.”
“That might be the most idiotic thing you’ve ever said to me”
Why I love it: For Levi being the smilest human on the planet and listening to Cath explain books because even though he doesn’t read he still loves the stories she tells.
“Maybe Park had paralyzed her with his ninja magic, his Vulcan handhold, and now he was going to eat her.
That would be awesome.”
For being the best little nerds I could ever ask for and finding love in outcast ways that could rock all the rom coms and staged kisses in hollywood.
“The past is with me; the present is here. The future is unmapped and changeable. Ours for the imagining: spreading out before us. Sunlight filled, deep blue, and the darkness.”
Why I love it: For bestfriends falling in love, for the love of books and the words they hold and the different ways different people can love the same book.
“Words brought us together though they almost kept us apart.
You trusted me with your secrets and then you stole my heart.”
Why I love it: For the way they fall into friendship before love, for the love of the same indie bands and the sharing of music, for the hidden weirdness in us all.
Okay so that’s enough sap from me, I would just like to dedicate this post to my amazing partner Peter and our 8 year anniversary. You are my fictional dream in real life and I will forever fangirl over you.
adoptabookaus.com 
This is such a cute post! ❤️
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Thank you! 😀
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Oh what a cute love story! So glad it has had a happy ending ❤
I'm completely okay with instalove; I feel like it is the human condition to love one another. And often in books the characters are isolated together in some way and then fall in love. It seems realistic to me 😛
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Nawww Thank you! Hahah I am to XD I think the same thing, of course love changes over time but I’m a firm believer in love for loves sake 😀
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Such a great post,Casey.I love instalove too sometimes 🙂
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Thank you so much Angel 🙂
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Oh this is such a sweet story!!!! I am with you though, I love instalove or anything love related. And I think a big reason for it is because of my relationship with my husband (I met him when I was 17, married when I was 22, all up been together for 13 years), I can totally relate!
Seriously though, this post gave me the warm and fuzzies. Congrats to you and your boo for 8 years, here’s to another 100 more 🙂
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Thank you! I don’t know how well we would both survive each other for 100 more but I’m sure we’d try XD
Yes! I think that’s why I love romance to its so great to read someones love story and see there happy ending. Wow to 13 years 😀 Doesn’t it go way to fast? I feel shocked everytime I think about it and try to put it in perspective but I wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂
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Hahaha! Well I didn’t want to say here’s to another 8 more…I always feel like I am setting a very specific timeframe lol. So 100 was the best option hehe.
It goes soooooo fast!!! I think the best way to be in a relationship is to take everything as it comes and be bff’s, sounds like you have that which is super awesome 🙂
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I should start saying that to people “here’s to 8 more years”
“oh wow thankyou… wait WHAT DO YOU KNOW THAT I DONT!” XD bahahaha
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Hahahaha!! Yes!
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LOVE THIS POST. I fall in love quick and easy so I’ve always had a soft spot for the insta love ya books too… I think it also comes back to the argument of people expecting too much of characters in YA books. They’re teenagers and teenagers while being intelligent, deep thinking, emotional individuals, also see the world entirely different. It’s a unique experience of everything more now, where it’s all heightened emotions and overwhelming new experiences. So if kids say they’re in love then maybe they actually are. Love is a relative thing especially at different life stages. Also… Me and my partner met, moved in, got engaged all within 7 months and we’re now nearly 5 years happily together so it happens 🙂
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I’m so happy you love it! I completely agree, emotion ranges and maturity are so varied from teen to teen depending on how they’ve been raised, not everyone is going to be ready for love at a young age but some grow up fast and are 🙂 Also yes to love being relative it grows and changes with experiences and events in a persons life 🙂 You and your partner sound amazing! I love whirl wind meetings that turn into a happily ever after 😀 So sweet!
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Aaaaw!! Casey! This is such a sweet cute post and you and your boyfriend are adorable and defunitely NOT cringey!
“I fell in love at 14, I said I love you after a very short amount of time, I was a sappy, doe eyed, obsessed teenager who spent every waking minute on the phone or with my boyfriend.” hahaha! That’s literally me but mine didn’t turn out so well, I guess that reinforced my distaste for insta-love ?! I don’t know haha! But I actually don’t mind it as long as it has some sense to it and there are some books with insta-love I adore.
Great post ❤
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Don’t get me wrong their are definitely some books with insta love that I hated just because it didn’t seem real or the characters didn’t click well for me 😀 But there’s also some really well done instaloves that I enjoy 🙂 I’m sure your teen love not turning out well was for the best I mean there’s no point being with someone who isn’t going to be the best part of you and missing out on the one who is 😀 Thank you for thinking we are not cringey (although in all honesty we might be who knows XD)
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Yeah I definitely got that from your post 😊
Yes that’s for sure, I have ni regrets whatsoever and you make love sound so good, seriously 😅😂
You’re welcome ! (All couples are from time to time to be honest haha)
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Awwwww, you two are adorable!
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Nawwws thank you!You’re too sweet xX
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I don’t hate instalove perse, but sometimes the person acts so extreme after falling in love, like “we just met 3 days ago but now I am willing to sacrifice myself in order to save you”. It is the things like that, that annoy me.
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The Romeo and Juliet?! XD I can def see how that’s annoying and I’ll get annoyed at it at times and then realise that was me in real life (although I’d like to say I had more brains then self sacrifice because lets be honest I just don’t think I’d have that in me) I would have definitely sacrificed a fave book to save a life after 3 days and I feel like that enough commitment for me XD bahahaha
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Haha I didn’t make that link, but there are other books in which they do it as well and that’s just a bit too much if you ask me. Sacrificing your life is just a little too extreme, sacrificing other things, okay, but not your life! 🙂
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Oh congratulations on yours and Peter’s eight year anniversary, this is such a beautiful post as well! 😀
One of my best friends fell in love as a teenager, she stayed with her boyfriend all through high school and now they’re married with one kid and another on the way, so I guess I’ve seen proof as well that teenagers do fall in love at a young age.
Also the books I’ve read are favourite YA contemporaries of mine as well; Kasie West is such a brilliant author, I binge read pretty much every book of hers I could get my hands on, and I am a massive fan of Sarah J Maas as well.
Great post, and congratulations again! 😀
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Thank you Beth! Your friends relationship sounds super sweet 🙂 Everyone I know from highschool either has a baby or is having one and I’m just like I have dogs and there already so much responsibility I can’t have a child XD Plus I have all my friends babies that I can give back at the end of the day XD
Kasie West is such a good writer I mean a lot of her books sound pretty cliche but there just so good and the characters are all so relatable it makes the stories so fast and fun to read 🙂 SJM is definitely an auto buy author for me as well I love her work and I was blown away by ACOMAF I wasn’t expecting it to be as amazing as it was (I should have know better) 😀
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That’s all right, and yeah they’re kind of relationship goals for me and my other friends now. I’m the same, I can barely take care of myself some days let alone a child. In fact the only reason my potted plant is still alive because other people in my house water it for me.
I think sometimes people like to read cliche books, you know where you are and if you’re looking for something light and fluffy they’re always a perfect pick aren’t they?
Same here, and oh I am so excited for the third book now! 😀
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All my plants are fake if that makes you feel better XD I went to a friends and her kitchen is amazing with all this boho art and plants everywhere and I touched one plant and was just like THESE ARE ALL REAL? How are they alive XD
Cliche books are always great for me to read when I’m in a slump because I know what I’m getting so its just fun to read 🙂
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That does, but part of me thinks if anyone ever managed to kill a fake plant it would be me! 😀
That’s how I feel as well, whenever I’m in a reading slump I’ll pick up a sweet cliche book to read. 🙂
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Freaking love Bookstagram!!!! Come find me! We can share all the ❤️ on insta haha
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Damn! You mean instant love!!! Hahaha 🙈 I love that too!! Haha
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hahaha! It’s all good I love instagram just as much to be honest so I’ll go follow you there and we can stare at pretty books together XD
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Wow, that is definitely beautiful. Congratulations on so many years together, it’s definitely something worth holding on to and fighting for! 🙂 Here’s to many more years to come!
– Lashaan
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Thank you! It doesn’t feel like that long tbh I swear all the years are starting to merge together in my brain XD
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Aw this was an adorable post!! I have to say I’m not usually toooooo bothered by insta love – I’ve only ever read one book where it’s been writing and I’ve wanted to faceplant into a cactus (the book was called Kindred if you’re curious) but in that case it was just like lkdsjfian. However, your story sounds absolutely beautiful and I wish you all the happiness in the world!! ❤
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I love that! they should have had you blurb the book! “have you ever wanted to face plant a cactus but not had the motivation to? Well this book gives you that motivation” bahahahah!
Thank you Kirstie I’m glad my sappyness didn’t make you want to faceplant a cactus, it’s the little things in life right? XD
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Aww this is such a sweet post!!! I don’t really enjoy instalove in books, but there are always classic cases that would be considered instalove that I’m totally down for (eg Romeo and Juliet) I think my problem is less people falling in love fast and falling in love really young, and more how after they’ve declared *this is true love* they proceed to act in a way that doesn’t make me think of love at all… but maybe that’s just me 😉 But your story sounds lovely- so happy for you!!!
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I completely understand what you’re saying! I can’t think of what book it was but all through the romance I was just like ummm this is lust not love pls stop tiny humans XD
Thank you! 😀
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Yes I know right!! That’s exactly what I mean!! 🙂
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OMG this was the cutest post EVER!!!! I loved reading about your love story… It actually is very similar to my own. My husband and I were high school sweethearts. No one understood our relationship. He was the quiet kid, and I was the loud annoying one. We are literally polar opposites. We have been through so much together… so many of the highs and lows of life, but we did it. We have two beautiful children, a roof over our heads, and lots of other things to be thankful for. How could we ask for more?
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Aww Amanda you and your husband sound like the cutest! Opposites can attract and I will yell that to anyone that tells me different, my and my partner have a lot of things in common but in so many ways were opposite. I reckon our relationship is the opposite of yours as in I’m the quite one and he’s more outgoing and makes friends with everyone one. Although I feel like I’m getting a bit better at talking to people it still doesn’t come as easy to me as it does to him 🙂
Thank you! Xx
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Yup that’s us! I have never met a stranger lol I walk right up to people and strike up a convo all the time 😅
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Aw, Casey. This is so sweet! Congrats on 8 years. You guys look so cute together!!! You’re making my cold, dead heart feel things 😂 I think my dislike for instalove comes from being aromantic. I just can’t connect whatsoever. I definitely understand that it can happen for people irl though. If I can feel the characters love for each other and it’s believable then I can deal with instalove. I find so many times it’s just so one dimensional though and the characters aren’t developed properly. That’s obviously totally different to real life though because people are /real/ haha.
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this is honestly my favourite blog post – beautiful
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Nawwww you are so sweet *blushes* XD
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