Happy Birthday to Me, with a Guest Post and Giveaway!

Hey, everyone, I'm so excited today because, well, first it's my birthday, but second, I have author Merrie Destefano, author of "The Lost Girls", here to do an exclusive guest post! So first of all, a bit about the book, but make sure you read to the end of this post, because I have an extra special surprise in store!!!

Book Info:

Book Title: Lost Girls

Author: Merrie Destefano

Release Date: 1/3/17

Genre: YA contemporary, YA psychological thriller, YA dark contemporary

Purchase Link: http://entangledpublishing.com/lost-girls/

Synopsis: Yesterday, Rachel went to sleep listening to Taylor Swift, curled up in her grammy’s quilt, worrying about geometry. Today, she woke up in a ditch, bloodied, bruised, and missing a year of her life.

She doesn’t recognize the person she’s become: she’s popular. She wears nothing but black.

Black to cover the blood.

And she can fight. Tell no one.
She’s not the only girl to go missing within the last year…but she’s the only girl to come back. She desperately wants to unravel what happened to her, to try and recover the rest of the Lost Girls.

But the more she discovers, the more her memories return. And as much as her new life scares her, it calls to her. Seductively. The good girl gone bad, sex, drugs, and raves, and something darker…something she still craves—the rush of the fight, the thrill of the win—something she can’t resist, that might still get her killed…

The only rule is: There are no rules.

Author Bio:

Born in the Midwest, magazine editor Merrie Destefano currently lives in Southern California with her husband, two German shepherds, a Siamese cat, and the occasional wandering possum. Her favorite hobbies are reading speculative fiction and watching old Star Trek episodes, and her incurable addiction is writing. She loves to camp in the mountains, walk on the beach, watch old movies, and listen to alternative music—although rarely all at the same time.

Author Links:

Website: merriedestefano.com

Blog: merriedestefanoauthor.blogspot.com                                                   

Tumblr: http://merriedestefano.tumblr.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MerrieDestefano

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/merrie.destefano

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/merriedestefano/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/816280.Merrie_Destefano

Newsletter: http://merriedestefano.weebly.com/newsletter.html

So I asked my guest author, Merrie Destefano, if she could put a playlist of songs together for me for this post. It could be either songs that inspired her during her writing process, or songs that she thought her characters would love, or songs that reminded her of certain scenes in the book, or even just her favourite songs of the moment. Merrie was happy to oblige, and here is what she said:

Music and headphones are two of the Must-Have items I need when I’m going to write. In fact, having the perfect playlist is so important I’ve been known to search through my existing songs for almost an hour, sometimes even hunting through iTunes for new music, before I can even begin writing. I need the right tempo, the right voice, the right intensity and just the right combination of songs that meet all three of those criteria. Below are some of the songs I listened to over and over again while writing Lost Girls. If you listen carefully to these songs, you’ll hear the angst in the main character, Rachel Evans’ heart as she is desperately searching for clues to her past, clues that will help her understand the person she has mysteriously changed into during the past year—for this is a person even she doesn’t recognize. Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds wrote “I Bet My Life” about his relationship with his parents and, to me, this is the song Rachel Evans would sing to her father.

1.       “West Coast” by Lana Del Rey

2.       “Ultraviolence” by Lana Del Rey

3.       “I Come With Knives” by IAMX

4.       “The Last High” by The Dandy Warhols

5.       “Bohemian Like You” by The Dandy Warhols

6.       “Ordinary Love” by U2

7.       “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” by Raign

8.       “Red” by Taylor Swift

9.       “Seven Devils” by Florence & The Machine

10.    “Hurricane Drunk” by Florence & The Machine

11.    “You’ve Got The Love” by Florence & The Machine

12.    “Blinding” by Florence & The Machine

13.    “Letters From The Sky” by Civil Twilight

14.    “Counting Stars” by One Republic

15.    “I Bet My Life” by Imagine Dragons

Wow, thanks so much Merrie! I've heard of some of these songs, but not all, so I'll be checking them out really soon!

And now for the icing on the cake (which I'll hopefully be eating later tonight, heehee!): Merrie and the folks at Entangled Teen are allowing me to give away a finished copy of "The Lost Girls" to one lucky commenter! Isn't that INCREDIBLE???!!! All you have to do is leave me a comment, answering Merrie's question to you:

Have you ever read a book that reminded you of a song? If so, which book and which song?

Contest open to US/National

Music Monday! A Playlist Inspired by "The Bad Boy Bargain" by Kendra C. Highley

Hey everyone, I'm really excited for this post, because I have author Kendra C. Highley here as a guest! Woohoo! Read on for more info about her new book, "The Bad Boy Bargain", an excerpt, and an exclusive playlist she's put together especially for my blog!!!

Baseball player Kyle Sawyer has many labels: bad boy, delinquent, ladies’ man, fearless outfielder… Only one of them is actually true. But then sweet ballet dancer Faith Gladwell asks him to help wreck her reputation, and everything goes sideways. Faith knows a thing or two about love, and what she had with her cheating jerk of an ex wasn’t it. When he starts spreading rumors about her being an Ice Queen, Faith decides it’s time to let a little bad into her life. Lucky for her, Kyle Sawyer–dark, dangerous, totally swoonworthy Kyle Sawyer–is landscaping her backyard over Spring Break. Shirtless. And if she can convince him to play along, ” dating” Kyle will silence the rumors. But Faith’s plan threatens to expose Kyle’s biggest secret of all…and that’s a risk he’s not willing to take. Disclaimer: This book contains drop-the-book-and-fan-yourself kisses…and touches. Fall in love with a bad boy at your own risk.

Excerpt:

By the time she made it home, took a smoothie from Mom’s outstretched hand, and went upstairs to shower, six Snapchat notifications, all from different people, had popped up on her phone:

A sad-faced Skye: I’m so sorry about last night. I should’ve warned you. I feel awful.

An angry Piper: I’m at the mall and there’s some asinine shit coming out of Cameron’s mouth right now. Should I punch him?

A gossipy Fiona: Is it true that Cameron dumped you?

A sneering Mitchell: You as cold as Cam says?

A dumbfounded Katrina: Holly is telling everyone at the mall that she stole Cam from you because you don’t put out. Want me to dump a Slurpee in her hair?

A smirking Jackson: My car overheated. I heard you could cool it down for me. How about it, ice queen?

Tears of rage filled Faith’s eyes, especially when a new Snapchat chimed: Cameron, sending her a picture of Holly sitting in his lap at the party last night.. The message read: Trading up.

She squeezed her phone in her hand. What was she going to do? She had half a mind to tell Kat to pour that Slurpee down Holly’s shirt and Piper to punch Cam in the throat. But that wouldn’t solve anything. Not at all.

No, she needed something bigger. Faith wandered to her window, to stare outside and organize her thoughts. Except, when she caught sight of the ripped, shirtless guy in her backyard, she forgot what she’d been thinking about.

“Who’s that?” she whispered, touching the glass.

His back and shoulders flexed under tanned skin. A black tattoo—was it a bird?—was on one of his shoulder blades. There was a bruise on his side, too, but she couldn’t make herself wonder about it. The guy’s dark hair was in his face as he tugged hard at a holly bush, yanking it from the ground.

Look at those arms. Faith stared, her mouth open. Who was he?

The holly bush gave way and he tipped back, dirt flying. Faint laughter drifted up through her window as he climbed to his feet with his prize, and she caught a look at his face.

She gasped. Holy crap, that was Kyle Sawyer. The stories she’d heard about him were numerous, and if a quarter were true, he was not the kind of guy she’d want to talk to. He shoplifted, vandalized buildings, drank, hung out with college students—girls. College girls. And rumor had it he ran illegal street races with his Charger.

So why did he look like he was having a blast ransacking her backyard? He had an awfully nice smile for such a bad boy.

A thought exploded in her brain—wait a minute…bad boy. Kyle was the one guy at Suttonville High who’d seen enough action to have his own lore. His exploits were darker than sin, and being with him was an instant reputation killer for any girl at Suttonville.

This was it. Kyle would be her revenge.

The Songs of The Bad Boy Bargain

Music is one of the most important “must-haves” of my writing process (well, that and dark chocolate M&Ms). Faith is a ballerina, and music is the palate for her art. But, more than that, this entire book germinated from a song my editor heard by a young man on The Voice: Sawyer Fredericks, “Please.” Here’s “Please” and the other songs that inspired The Bad Boy Bargain:

1.      “The Fall” by Imagine Dragons

2.      “Please” by Sawyer Fredericks

3.       “Cecilia and the Sattelite” by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

4.      “Renegades” by X Ambassadors

5.      “People Will Say We’re in Love” from Oklahoma, Rogers and Hammerstein

6.      “Up&Up” by Coldplay

7.      “Something” by The Beatles

8.      “Captain” by Dave Mathews Band

9.      “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star

10.  “Beautiful” by Moby

11.  “Burning Bridges” by One Republic

12.  “Who Are You, Really?” by Mikky Ekko

13.  “How Do You Like Me Now?” by The Heavy

14.  “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths

15.  “Feel Again” by One Republic

Kendra C. Highley lives in north Texas with her husband and two children. She also serves as staff to four self-important and high-powered cats. This, according to the cats, is her most critical job. She believes in everyday magic, extraordinary love stories and the restorative powers of dark chocolate.

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Playlist for "Lyric and Lingerie" by Tracy Wolff and Katie Graykowski

Hey guys, when I was approached by the authors of "Lyric and Lingerie" to participate in their blog tour, I couldn't say no! I've read a bunch by Tracy Wolff before, and loved them all, and "Lyric and Lingerie" sounds like a total hoot! So, I've got a bit of info about the book for you, and both Tracy and Katie have put together an awesome playlist, just for my blog!  EEEE, so excited! Read on for more...

Release Date: September 27, 2016

From New York Times Bestselling author Tracy Wolff and International Bestselling author Katie Graykowski comes a sexy tale of love, laughter and lingerie …

Lyric Wright is an off-beat astrophysicist whose life is falling apart around her. After losing her fiancé to a hula dancing astrologer and losing her dress to an ill-fated leap of faith, she’s sure there’s nowhere for her life to go but up. At least until she sits down on a trans-Pacific flight next to the one man she never wanted to see again—the boy she’d lost her heart and her virginity too back before she’d learned that friendship and football don’t equal true love.

Broken down quarterback Heath Montgomery is on a plane ride to nowhere. Dodging the phone call he’s certain will end his professional football career for good, he might be Texas bound, but he knows there’s nowhere for him to go but down. But that’s before his childhood best friend and confidante plops back into his life wearing nothing but duct tape and a bad attitude. Determined not to lose her again (especially since he isn’t sure why he lost her the first time) and desperate to outrun his own shadowy future, Heath sets out to take Lyric on the ride of her life. Too bad she only dates men who actually know what her butterfly nebula is … and can find it without the help of a star chart.

Add in one passive-aggressive flight attendant with delusions of couture, a cherry red car with a crush on Neil Diamond, an over-protective sister with a black belt in Krav Maga, two parents determined to marry their spinster daughter off to the hometown hero no matter the cost, and a whole lot of lingerie popping up in all the right places at all the wrong times and you’ve got an unforgettable love story that fans of Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Rachel Gibson won’t want to miss!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31921673-lyric-and-lingerie?ac=1&from_search=true

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2c5EEkY

Hi Everyone!  I’m so excited to be here today talking about my new book, Lyric and Lingerie.  Music plays an important part in this book--largely because of Cherry Cherry, a red 1980s Cadillac with a massive crush on Neil Diamond.  But music also played an important part of writing this book, as I’m always listening to something to get me in the mood for whatever scene I have to write.  Which is why I thought it might be fun to post a Lyric and Lingerie inspired Playlist here, songs that kind of fit the emotional order of the book if you follow along.  Hope you enjoy!!!!!! 

Go check out the playlist here:  https://play.spotify.com/user/1294940676/playlist/07lv3uKNOZQvsjfFJqbcEF