My Life as a Country Album by L.J. Evans
Series: My Life as an Album #1
Publication date: April 17th, 2017
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
Tomboy Cam Swayne is determined that football hero Jake Phillips keep his eyes firmly on her. After all, she's been his since before she was born.
Cam has grown up literally next to Jake. They live next door and share a tree house. They've played together on the street and at the lake since she could walk. Plus, they've saved each other in some pretty miraculous ways that even their parents find hard to believe. So, it's only natural that when hormones kick in, Cam feels like Jake belongs only to her. And heaven help anyone that stands in Cam's way.
What does get in the way? Just their three-year age difference while she's in middle school, and he's in high school. And his long line of "gaggling geese" that follow him like he's a boyband superstar. And the illness Jake hides from everyone until his devotion to Cam makes it an impossibility.
Will Cam and Jake ever get their country love song happy ending?
Inspired by Taylor Swift songs, this is a story of aching love and loss and learning to live through life in all its pain and glory.
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My Life as a Pop Album by L.J. Evans
Series: My Life as an Album #2
Publication date: January 30th, 2018
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
Good Girl Mia feels guilty for her brother's death. It was her kidney that killed him after all...
Mia Phillips is a Good Girl. You know, one of the ones that help everyone else and make sure the rules are followed. But, she's also got a tiny body, too many curves, and her brother Jake's mosaic eyes which often get her the wrong kind of attention. On the outside, she's got it all together. She's graduated college and is set to take over running the family car dealership. She's good at it. She lives it. But, on the inside she's a mess, recovering from a broken heart and failing to escape years of guilt. She's never been on any real adventures. Instead, she reads about them in books by the hundreds and avoids anything where dirt could be a side effect. She's also made promises to her parents, her dead brother, and herself that she's determined not to break including to never make her mama cry again.
Derek Waters is a gritty, soul singing musician with dark hair, tattoos, and book worthy abs. He and his band have just signed on with a major record label and are touring the country. He's glad to be far from L.A. and his alcoholic father. He has his own set of baggage that he hides behind a huge smile and a famous Johnny Cash quote. He definitely isn't looking for any kind of female distraction because after the way he grew up, he has a repulsion to having sex just for sex.
When Derek walks into Mia's dealership, her shattered soul seems to call to all of his broken pieces, and they find themselves throwing their best laid plans aside to tour together for three weeks. But what will happen to Good Girl Mia and Derek Waters when the tour is all done?
From award winning author, L.J. Evans comes the second novel in the my life as an album series. Inspired by Ed Sheeran love songs, this contemporary romance is about forgiveness, love, & healing.
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Excerpt
From "My Life as a Country Album"
That's when Seth hit the ground next to me. Hard. Blood pouring from his nose. Strong arms wrapped themselves around my waist and pulled me up against a body I knew like the back of my hand.
"Let's go," your voice was deep and angry too.
Seth started to get up, but Keith and Matt stepped forward and I think he knew he'd lost. Mia ran up with my bag, and you almost ripped it out of her hands. "You need a ride?" you asked her. She shook her head, "No, Matt's driving Tim and I home."
You shoved me into your car, and didn't say a thing. I didn't know how you'd gotten there. I didn't even know that you'd come home. I just knew that you were there. And I was a mess.
You stopped at the Quick Stop, and I stayed in the car. When you came back you had a Dr. Pepper, some MoonPies, and a bag of frozen peas. I looked up at you with teary, puzzled eyes. You took the peas and placed it against my cheek bone. It hurt like hell. I hadn't realized that it hurt like hell.
You were so gentle holding the peas to my face, but when I managed to meet your eyes, I could still see anger there. A lot of anger.
"You're killing me, you know," you said to me.
And my own fury soared back to life. I remembered your words from ages ago when I told you that your make out sessions in your room with your girlfriends were killing me, and I threw them back at you. Seth had taught me to fight dirty.
"I'm not trying to kill you, I'm just a teenage girl trying to get laid."
You cussed under your breath, and slammed the car into gear. You sped out to the lake, drove out over the grass to our tree, and parked.
I slammed my way out of the car and ran to the shore. You let me go. I stormed back and forth for what seemed like forever. Cursing you. Cursing Seth. Cursing me. Eventually, I took off my fancy shoes and sat down with my feet in the lake, the edges of my prom dress seeping in the water.
Excerpt
From "My Life as a Pop Album"
"Little Bird, please look at me." This time when he tugged gently at my chin, I let him turn my face to his, but I was still not brave enough to look up. To meet those eyes which had to be saying "this-chick-is-lame" even as he was trying to reassure me.
I could feel him taking in every inch of my face, and he reached up his thumb and ran it along the very edge of my lip, and my body instantly melted. He leaned toward me and whispered gently, "He didn't deserve someone as loving and loyal as you."
Finally, I risked looking up at him and couldn't suppress the intake of breath at what I saw in his eyes. It was admiration at a minimum. Maybe something more. Something I was a little terrified to name.
"I'm going to kiss you," he took me, as his lips inched towards mine. It was as if he was afraid I'd fly away if he did it without warning me. That I really would be that Little Bird he'd taken to calling me.
And when I didn't pull away or protest, he closed the tiny space that was left between us and touched his lips to mine in a kiss that was so light and so reverent that it started to break my walls, leaving behind solitary blocks and tiny little crumbs that would not likely to be able to be put back together again anytime soon.
About the Author:
L.J. Evans lives in California's Central Valley with her husband, daughter, and the three terrors called cats. She's been writing almost as a compulsion since she was a little girl where she was both inspired and spurred on by her older sister. While she currently spends her days teaching 1st grade in a local public school, she spends her personal time writing, of course, as well as being a voracious reader, binge watching original shows like The Crown, Stranger Things, and Downton Abbey, and traveling with her family. She is the author of several completed screenplays that have gone to the quarter and semi-finals of such contests as The BlueCat Screenplay Competition, The International Screen Writing Awards, and the Writer's Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition.
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