Spotlight & Giveaway: Stay With Me by K.L. Grayson

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author K.L. Grayson to HJ!

Hi K.L. Grayson and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Stay With Me!

To start off, can you please tell us a little bit about this book?:

Stay With Me is about a two young lovers who are ripped apart only to reconnect several years later. Now, he’s a damaged country music star, and she’s a single mom struggling to get by. This book is about their journey, forgiveness, strength, courage and love. It has all the feels and a few twists that will hopefully bring the reader lots of satisfaction.
 

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

1. She’s my beginning, end, and everything in between.
2. God, Allie, when I’m inside you, I feel like I’m home.
3. I own her past, now I want her future.
4. There’s only one place for you in this life, and that’s beside me.
5. I need you to choose me.
6. “If we do this, you’re mine, Allie.” “I’ve always been yours.”
7. I grieved. I healed. I tried to move on. But my heart always stayed with my first love… my only love.

What inspired this book?

I’m a nurse practitioner, and several years ago I was with a young couple when they found out at thirty weeks that their baby had died in utero. It was tragic. And to make matter worse, the girl had to deliver the child due to how far along she was. I was with them through the entire delivery process. I saw their tears, watched them hold their little girl and struggle to keep it together when they had to let her go. I never saw them after that, but I’ve always wondered what happened to them. Did they stay together? Did that tragedy rip them apart? That couple inspired this book.

How did you ‘get to know’ your main characters? Did they ever surprise you?

They surprised me at every turn. I had absolutely no control over my main characters. I’m generally a slow writer and have to do a ton of character development on paper before I write a book, but not with this one. This book just sort of wrote itself and that has never happened to me before. I sat down at my laptop and the words just flowed. There were a few plot points I was ready to write, but while I was writing them, the book took a completely different turn. I swear to you, it was like I had no control over these characters. As frustrating as it was, it was also fun.

What was your favorite scene to write?

My favorite scene to write was Jackson singing a song he had written about their love “Love Machine” to her… but he added a verse at the end… that’s how he told her he wanted her back and it was so swoony. I won’t put all the lyric in because it’ll be too long, but here is a small snippet of the end of the song.

“Come back to me, darlin’
Our story isn’t over
Because you’re my love machine
After all these years
You’re still my everything.
Tears race down my cheeks. Did he just write that? For me? I set my mug down and move to the edge of the porch. Jackson plays the final chords of the song. He props his guitar up against the railing, rests his elbows on his knees, and takes a deep breath.
I count one, two, three before he turns and looks up at me.
That look is everything I need.
My feet carry me forward, down the stairs and onto the soft grass. He watches my every move. He doesn’t seem surprised that I’m going to him. If anything, he looks relieved.
He stands up and takes a step toward me and another and another and—Oh God, I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t get to him fast enough. I run, desperate to be together.
“Jackson.” The sound of his name on my lips sounds foreign as I pick up my pace, running as fast as my feet will carry me into the arms of the man I love. We collide with enough force to steal my breath, but that’s okay, because I’m finally in his arms. Jackson drags me in close. The tingle inside me explodes, shooting sparks through my body.
I’ve hugged him since he’s been back, but not like this. This is different. This is—
“Allie.” My name is a whispered prayer from his lips, and it’s never sounded so good.
Say it again.
His warm breath fans the side of my face; it smells like peppermint, and my mouth waters. Jackson cups my cheeks in his hands. We’re an inch apart as his eyes search mine.
“Kiss me,” I breathe.
I don’t have to tell him twice.
Our lips crash. I loosen my grip on his shirt, pushing my hands over his chest and up to his neck. My fingers tangle in his hair as I tilt my head. His tongue slides into my mouth, exploring a territory that is familiar yet foreign.
His hands don’t move. They stay wrapped around my face as though he’s afraid if he lets go I’ll disappear.
No way in hell.”

What was the most difficult scene to write?

A grainy black-and-white image pops up on the screen, and I know instantly that something’s wrong. The usually squirmy blob is still. There’s no whoosh whoosh whoosh of a heartbeat, just the sound of my own blood rushing through my ears.
And Allie’s screams.
Oh God, I’m going to be sick.
All words from the doctor go in one ear and out the other—muted sentences that make no sense because all I can do is concentrate on my little girl. My little girl who isn’t moving.
“…fetal death…unsure of the cause at this time, but we’ll know more when…labor should begin spontaneously within two weeks…do you have any questions?”
Allie’s face is buried in my chest. Her grip on my shirt is tight, and when I look up at Dr. Freeburg, my vision blurs with tears.
“Why aren’t you doing anything? Why are you just sitting there?” I shout.
“I’m sorry, Mr. McCoy, but there isn’t much we can do. The baby is already gone.”
“You knew, didn’t you?”
Dr. Freeburg nods. “It’s what I suspected after the stress test.”
“But you didn’t do anything? What kind of doctor knows a baby is dying and doesn’t do anything?”
“I understand that this is difficult for you—”
“Do you?” I yell. “Have you lost a baby of your own?”
“No,” she whispers, shaking her head.
“Then how can you understand? You should’ve done something—an emergency C-section to get the baby.”
“It wasn’t—”
“How did this happen?” I say, cutting her off so I don’t have to hear her pathetic excuse.
“There can be many causes for fetal death in utero. We may or may not know more after she delivers the baby.”
“Delivers the baby?” Allie wrenches out of my arms. “Wh—what do you mean? I—I can’t…how am I s-s-supposed to…”
“Shhhh.” I pull her back into my arms and try my best to console her with words that mean absolutely nothing in the wake of this news.
“I’m going to give you two a few minutes alone.”

Would you say this book showcases your writing style or is it a departure for you?

That’s such a hard question because I’m such a tough critic on my own work. I would like to think it’s a good showcase for my writing style. It isn’t too different from my other books.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

Right now, I’m working on a co-write with my dear friend, Kristen Proby. Already Gone is going to be such a fun, sexy, romantic read and it is set to release on August 27th. I’m also working on All of Me which will be my next standalone and will hopefully release in early fall.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A Signed copy of Stay With Me by K.L. Grayson

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Book Info:

Stay with me.
Three simple words.
One impossible request.

I’ve loved Allie McCallister for as long as I can remember. Her happiness and well-being mean more to me than anything else, which is why when the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself, I had to take it. Three months was such a short amount of time to be apart to provide the financial stability we needed to start our lives.

It wasn’t supposed to catapult my band to stardom, and it sure as hell wasn’t supposed to set off the chain of events that pushed my relationship with Allie to the brink. Our hearts were shattered, our love tested, and when everything fell apart she begged me to leave.

Eight years ago, tragedy broke us. Now we’re back in the same little town where we once dreamed of building our future.

She’s a divorced, single mom.
I’m a damaged country music star.
There are a hundred reasons for us to stay apart.

But all it takes is one look, one touch, one kiss to know our story isn’t over. Now I have to convince her to let me stay.

Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo |
 
 

Meet the Author:

K.L. Grayson resides in a small town outside of St. Louis, MO. She is entertained
daily by her extraordinary husband, who will forever inspire every good quality she
writes in a man. Her entire life rests in the palms of six dirty little hands, and when the
day is over and those pint-sized cherubs have been washed and tucked into bed, you can find her typing away furiously on her computer. She has a love for alpha-males,
brownies, reading, tattoos, sunglasses, and happy endings…and not particularly in that
order.
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