Author Name: Lilah Suzanne
Book Name: Broken Records
Series: Spotlight
Book: One
Release
Date: December 17, 2015
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?
Pages or Words: 280 pages
Categories: Bisexual, Contemporary,
Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance
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?”
Buy the book:
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.
Where to find the author:
Facebook: Facebook.com/lilahsuzanne
Twitter: @lilahsuzanne
Goodreads
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26223139-broken-records
Publisher: Interlude Press
Cover
Artist: Victoria S. with CB Messer
ALPHA BOOK CLUB REVIEW
Broken Records
Lilah Suzanne
4 Stars
The story is about the entertainment world and the people behind the scenes, who make the stars shine. The makeup artists, costume designers, etc.
The book had me a bit confused at times, I loved Nico and his relationship with his new client Grady. It was a quick read.
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