Spotlight & Giveaway: CHERRY BRANDY by LJ Evans

Posted May 17th, 2023 by Sara @HarlequinJunkie in Blog, Spotlight / 27 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author LJ Evans to HJ!

Hi LJ Evans and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, CHERRY BRANDY!

Thank you so much for having me here today to talk about the third book in my new series. I can’t wait for people to continue The Painted Daisies series and fall head over heels for Leya and Holden.

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Leya may be one of five world-famous rock stars in The Painted Daisies, but her life has been full of doubt and insecurities. Her creative, flighty side has never quite fit with her genius, driven family. Compared to her dad, who’s the Vice President of the United States, and her mother and brother, who are renowned surgeons, her life as a rock star and artist seems… trivial. These differences come to the forefront when she’s asked to pick a date for the arranged marriage she agreed to almost a decade ago.

Panic spurs her into activities that draw the attention of a hate group targeting her father. Fearing the group is the reason her friend and bandmate was murdered, the Secret Service Agent assigned to Leya takes her into hiding.

On the run, the attraction that has simmered between Holden and Leya since the moment he stepped foot on her detail, blooms into a fiery flame. Holden continues to fight the chemistry stirring between them every inch of the way, but Leya is determined to fill the voids in their lives with each other.

No cheating and a guaranteed HEA. This intense adventure just might leave you breathless.

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

One of my favorite lines from the book is the point where Holden realizes just how empty his life has been up until now.

“He was hit with a wave of sensations that filled the empty cracks in his heart he’d never known were there. When had they shown up? When had his dedication turned into loneliness? How had she become both his ruin and salvation?”

After that, Holden can’t let go of everything they’ve become even though it means the end of goals he’s spent his life working toward. None of those dreams matter anymore. Only the one that means keeping her safe.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

Okay, here are two fun facts:

One: When I was looking for a band name for the series, I went through hundreds of them. All the cool names were already taken. I searched for names using places, objects, colors, and even feelings. I think my friends were ready to toss me over a cliff if I asked them one more time if they liked a particular name. But then I stumbled onto a type of daisy called the “Painted Daisy,” and I was like, this is it. Then, I went down an entirely different rabbit hole. Did you know there are hundreds of types and varieties of daisies? Well, there are! And that’s how each book in the series got its name. The title and the flower on each cover is the daisy representing the band member who is in it. For example, Leya’s flower in the band is the “cherry brandy” daisy which is on her equipment, her leather jacket, etc. It was kind of fun figuring out how the daisy matched the band member’s personality AND the mood for the book.
Two: Have you listened to any songs by the band Heart? It’s a classic pop/rock band and their song “Secret” was the inspiration behind this story. I was driving with my hubby on a road trip (not my favorite thing to do by the way) and the song came on. I was like “THIS! This is Leya’s story!” And that’s how she came to fall in love with her swoony, secret service agent.
If you’ve read any of my books, you know that music plays a very important role, twining itself into the words and inspiring every chapter. The songs on the playlist are the chapter titles and are meant to be listened to as you read the book. It’s a whole “mood” thing. Here’s a picture of the Cherry Brandy Playlist, and the link to it on Spotify in case you want to see how this book came to life with music. https://spoti.fi/3GDgRoj

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

I mean, Leya is attracted to him from the start. Her bandmates don’t call Holden Captain Avenger for nothing (and yes, that is a twist on several superhero names). Who could help falling for a man who is like a combination of Captain America and Thor and protects you from the world? He literally sweeps her off her feet. It would be pretty hard NOT to be attracted to all that ooey-gooey goodness, don’t you think?

Holden doesn’t understand the earth-shattering attraction he feels for Leya from the moment he steps into the recording studio. He’s protected other young females and felt nothing, but there is something in Leya’s soul that calls to him.

Later in the book, he realizes it’s because, just like Leya has said all along, “They were tied together. Their bodies and souls had already promised each other forever just like they’d done in their past lives and would do again in their future ones.”

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

While this is an intense, roller-coaster of a romantic suspense story, there are some fun, lighter moments in this book. One of the ones that made me smile was when Holden tries to draw Leya. Earlier in the book, they have a whole conversation about how he’s good at everything (superhero that he is), and he insists he can even draw (which is a lie). She forces him to take her art book and sketch a picture of her. This is what happens…

He grinned at her, putting the pencil down. “Ready for this masterpiece?”

“You’re done already?”

“Does time really matter when you’re capturing beauty?” His smile was sexy and contagious. She felt lucky to have seen so many of them over the last few days.

“Just show it to me, Captain Annoying.”

He chuckled and slowly flipped the page. She stared for a moment and then burst out laughing. It looked like a preschooler had drawn it. She was a stick figure with wild lines for hair, and she was sitting on a circle that was supposed to be a rock. Behind her, the mountains were upside-down Vs and the trees were mere lines with broccoli-like tops. The sun was a circle with straight lines for rays. It was the worst drawing she’d seen in a really long time, and yet, she loved it.

“Are you laughing at my masterpiece?” he asked, lips smirking as he set down the pad and pencil and closed the distance between them. He pushed her back on the rock, his body half on her, his palms holding his weight and their smiles matching.

“I think we found your weakness, Avenger-man.”

His smile slipped away, his gaze turned hooded, eyes darkening. “Yes, I think we have.”

Readers should read this book….

If readers love forbidden romances between bodyguard-type heroes and their protectee, on-the-run, forced proximity stories with gobs of heart, steamy slow burns, and plenty of suspenseful action, then this book is absolutely for them.

While the series is BEST read from book one, each story has its own HEA couple and its own suspense plot that gets resolved by the end, so you can read them standalone. There is a murder that happens in book one of the series, that isn’t resolved until the last story, but you don’t have to wait long! Book four is coming in June and book five is releasing in July.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I just sent the last book in The Painted Daisies series off to my publisher and Podium audio this month. Woot, woot! After taking a short break, I turned my attention to a completely new standalone in a brand-new LJ world! It’s a single-dad, new adult, suspenseful adventure I’m hoping to release late this year or early next year.

In the meantime, there are plenty of LJ stories to read with the last two books in this series releasing this summer!

LIVE NOW – SWEET MEMORY, is a second-chance, opposite-sides-of-the-track story. The world’s sweetest rock star falls for a troubled music producer whose past comes back to haunt them.
LIVE NOW – GREEN JEWEL is an enemies-to-lovers, single-dad romance. He did it. She’ll prove it. Her body’s reaction to him be damned.
LIVE NOW – CHERRY BRANDY is an opposites-attract, forbidden romance. Being on the run with only one bed is no excuse to touch her…until touching is the only choice.
June 14th – BLUE MARGUERITE, a frenemy, second-chance, celebrity romance. She’ll never forgive him for humiliating her. Not even when he offers the answers her family desperately seeks.
July 12th – ROYAL HAZE, is the stunning conclusion to the series. It’s an antihero, secret society romance. He was ready to torture, steal, and kill to defend the world he believed in. What he wasn’t prepared for…was her.

I hope you’ll get swept away in the adventure!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Signed paperback of CHERRY BRANDY and 12-pack of The Painted Daisies Character Cards. U.S. only, sorry!

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What’s one of your favorite “bodyguard/protectee” romances?

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Excerpt from CHERRY BRANDY:

From almost page one, Leya is pushing at Holden’s reserve and boundaries, but this scene is where she gets up the courage to actually say the words.

“I promise no one is going to lay a hand on you,” he growled. An actual growl that sounded like a wolf sending his possessive howl up into the sky.

“I’m not afraid for me,” she said. And it was strange because she wasn’t. Not when Holden was there. This fear was all for her family because the note had said they would suffer…

She swallowed hard, tears pricking her eyes at the thought of something happening to the people she loved, and she knew he saw them, because he took another step toward her. He’d comforted her several times—after Paisley and after Fee’s injuries. But this…this was something more. The flickering between them increased until she was sure if she put her hand between them, she’d get zapped.

Once, when she was little, she’d touched an electrical socket, and her hand had tingled for hours as if it no longer belonged to her. That was how her entire body felt now—as if it wasn’t hers. She hated it, and she loved it all at the same time. She wanted to tease and tempt it, to explore it even when she knew it was the last thing either of them should do.

“You may not be afraid for yourself, but I’m afraid for you,” he said quietly with his gaze boring into her. “And me.” Her heart did a little leap at his words and then crashed into pain at the ones that followed. “If something happens to you on my watch, I’d lose my job. I’d be the laughingstock of the Secret Service.”

Maybe it was the way her heart had leaped and then crashed, or Fee’s encouragement, or just the way she was tired of being logical and wise instead of rash and emotional, but she poked at him instead of retreating. “Of course. This is about your job.”

His shoulders went back even farther, rigid and uncompromising. “Excuse me?”

“It must be nice, being able to use your job as a shield. You can stand there, in the little bubble you’ve created, and let others live and love so you don’t have to take risks with your heart and soul.”

It was unfair because hadn’t she been doing the same thing for years now? Hadn’t she used the promise of an arrangement with Krish as a shield? An excuse to not live? To not risk? Maybe he knew it, or maybe he was just upset she’d called him out, but for the first time ever, she saw his anger directed at her. In truth, he rarely showed any emotion, and some twisted part of her reveled at having been able to force any feeling onto his blank face.

“You know nothing about me, Leya,” he said, and his voice was dark with something she wasn’t sure she understood but ached to discover. “The risks I take every day.”

“To be here. With me?” she breathed out, the innuendo and undertone clear.

Book Info:

Forbidden is another word for having everything to lose.
Being on the run with only one bed is no excuse to touch her…until touching is the only choice.

As the Vice President’s daughter and his current assignment, Leya Singh is completely off-limits. Special Agent Holden Kent refuses to let his desire for The Painted Daisies singer and sitar player cost him the future he’s worked his entire life to achieve. Not when his goal of working on the Presidential detail is finally within his grasp.

Leya always believed great passion wasn’t in the cards for her. But the way her body lights up around Holden has her questioning everything she thought was true, including the arranged marriage waiting for her.

When a hate group targeting Leya’s father sets its sights on her, the fear that she was the intended victim the night her bandmate was murdered blooms into reality. Determined to get answers and protect her, Holden is forced to take her into hiding, where his carefully guarded walls start to crumble. Having only one bed is still no excuse to touch her…until touching is their only choice.

Meet the Author:

Award-winning author, LJ Evans, lives in Northern California with her husband, child, and the three terrors called cats. She’s been writing, almost as a compulsion, since she was a little girl and will often pull the car over to write when a song lyric strikes her. A former first-grade teacher, she now spends her free time reading and writing, as well as binge-watching original shows like Ted Lasso, Wednesday, Veronica Mars, and Stranger Things.

If you ask her the one thing she won’t do, it’s pretty much anything that involves dirt—sports, gardening, or otherwise. But she loves to write about all of those things, and her first published heroine was pretty much involved with dirt on a daily basis, which is exactly why LJ loves fiction novels—the characters can be everything you’re not and still make their way into your heart.