Blog Tour: Broken Records By Lilah Suzanne

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Broken Records (Spotlight 1) by Lilah Suzanne

Blurb: Los Angeles-based stylist Nico Takahashi loves his job—or at least, he used to. Feeling fed up and exhausted from the cutthroat, gossip-fueled business of Hollywood, Nico daydreams about packing it all in and leaving for good. So when Grady Dawson—sexy country music star and rumored playboy—asks Nico to style him, Nico is reluctant. But after styling a career-changing photo-shoot, Nico follows Grady to Nashville where he finds it increasingly difficult to resist Grady’s charms. Can Nico make peace with show business and all its trappings, or will Grady’s public persona get in the way of their private attraction to each other?

Excerpt:

Grady presses his lips flat, looks up at the ceiling again to gather himself, sniffs and nods, then tugs Nico’s foot closer by his ankle. “Do you think... If we’d met at a bar. Or through a friend of a friend. Or the gym.” Grady’s thumb strokes the tender skin of Nico’s calf beneath the hem of his pants. “If we had just been two regular guys? We really could have been something.”

There’s a question in his voice, a hesitancy that maybe Nico would have rejected him eventually anyway. Nico scoots across the cramped bunk, crowds against Grady, shoulder to shoulder. “Well, we never would have met at the gym because I would have taken one look at you and gone home to mourn the body I’ll never have by consuming gallons of ice cream.”

Grady bumps his shoulder. “Shut up, you’re gorgeous.” He tips his head against the wall and grins. “If I’d first seen you at a bar I probably would have humiliated myself by trying to win you over with bad karaoke and shameless flirting.”

Nico’s eyebrows raise. “You mean to tell me you’ve been holding back on me? You have a level of flirting that’s even more shameless?”

“Oh yeah. You ain’t seen nothin’, sweetheart.”

“That is truly terrifying.”

Grady laughs, bright and uninhibited. Nico is so relieved to hear it, a moment of light in the darkness. Grady’s hand rests on Nico’s knee, Nico watches his own hand brush his fingers there, but he doesn’t linger.

“We aren’t, though. Just two random guys.”

Grady’s fingers flex, curving over his kneecap. “No.”

Nico exhales harshly. “I have never wanted to be a groupie so badly.”

Grady shoves at his leg. “Come on, you didn’t really think that I would do that to you—”

“In my weaker, more insecure moments?” Nico scrunches his face, embarrassed. “Yeah, I did.”

“You think that little of me, huh?” He says it with a teasing grin, but Nico’s heart sinks.

“No, Grady. I think you’re…” A million adjectives flash through his head: beautiful, amazing, stunning, compassionate, kind, generous. A supernova. He settles on, “Really special.”

Grady gives a skeptical lift of his eyebrows. “Uh oh. I’m really special, huh?”

“I’m so, so into you and it’s…” He cringes at the words but it’s true, “It’s not you, it’s me.”

“Oh lord.” Grady laments with a laugh. “Not that, please.”

“I’m the guy on the sidelines. I’m the one who makes everyone else shine. I don’t belong there, in the spotlight. I like that at the end of the day I can go home and just walk away from the cameras and the red carpets and the scrutiny. And you—you’re a star. And you can have anyone.”

Grady turns, the cramped space of the bunk making his limbs bump and nudge and curl around Nico’s body. During Grady’s shows, in the moment just before he starts singing the opening line of “Broken Records,” there’s this pause, this moment suspended in the air when the audience is silent and waiting and doesn’t even dare to inhale because in that moment, Grady’s soul is laid bare. He looks at Nico just like that and Nico can’t breathe around it.

“I don’t want anyone,” he says, voice low and serious. “I want you. How do you not get that?”



Meet the author: Lilah Suzanne has been writing actively since the sixth grade, when a literary magazine published her essay about an uncle who lost his life to AIDS. A freelance writer, she has also authored a children’s book and has a devoted following in the fan fiction community. She is also the author of Interlude Press books Spice and Pivot and Slip. Broken Records is Book One in Lilah’s Spotlight Series.

1) Is there a character in your books that you can’t stand? (Antagonist for example) And what makes them someone you don’t like?
You know, there isn’t. I tend to still like the bad guys because I hope there’s something relatable and human about them, even when they’re being terrible. Maybe I should try writing someone with absolutely zero redeeming qualities! That could be interesting.

2) Are there misconceptions people have about your genre?
In romance in general I think there is a misconception that it isn’t as well-thought or carefully written as other books, which isn’t true, of course. In LGBT romance, I think there’s still this idea that it’s niche, and just for a small subset of readers, when in reality the love stories I write are just like any other love story. They’re for anyone.

3) Is there message in your novel that you hope readers grasp?
There is the struggle that Nico grapples with in the novel of wanting happiness and fulfillment, and if that’s something you achieve and find, or if it’s a state of mind. Can we find happiness from within, no matter what situation we’re in? That’s the idea I hope readers come away with.

4) How has your writing evolved since your first book? (If this is your first book, how do you hope it evolves?)
I’ve gotten better at slowing down, better at resisting the urge to solve everything quickly because I like when my characters are happy. This is my third book, but I hope it continues to evolve. There’s always room for improvement.

5) One food you don’t care if you never eat it again.
I’m not much of a foodie, so there are a lot of foods I could happily never eat again! I’ll go with anything from the squash family. Bleh.

Where to find the author:
Facebook: Facebook.com/lilahsuzanne
Twitter: @lilahsuzanne
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26223139-broken-records

Tour Dates & Stops:
17-Dec: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Hearts on Fire, Cheekypee Reads and Reviews, Dawn’s Reading Nook, Velvet Panic, Michael Mandrake, Mikky's World of Books
18-Dec: My Fiction Nook, Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings, All I Want and More Books, Nautical Star Books, Havan Fellows
21-Dec: Prism Book Alliance, It’s Raining Men, V's Reads, Bayou Book Junkie
22-Dec: Books A to Z, Wake Up Your Wild Side, Cathy Brockman Romances, MM Good Book Reviews
23-Dec: Unquietly Me, Sassygirl Books, The Day Before You Came
24-Dec: Love Bytes, Lee Brazil, Happily Ever Chapter
25-Dec: Divine Magazine, Inked Rainbow Reads
28-Dec: QUEERcentric Books, Alpha Book Club, TTC Books and More
29-Dec: BFD Book Blog, Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves, : Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews
30-Dec: Jessie G. Books, Molly Lolly, Just Love Romance, Moonbeams Over Atlanta



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