Spotlight & Giveaway: The Girl in the Love Song by Emma Scott

Posted June 8th, 2020 by in Blog, Spotlight / 48 comments

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Emma Scott’s new release: The Girl in the Love Song

 

Spotlight&Giveaway

 

At Santa Cruz Central High School, they called them the misfits, the outcasts, the weirdos. But most of us knew them as the Lost Boys…

 
Miller Stratton is a survivor. After a harrowing childhood of poverty, he will do anything it takes to find security for himself and his mom. He’s putting all his hopes and dreams in the fragile frame of his guitar and the beauty he creates with its strings and his soulful voice.

Until Violet.

No one expects to meet the love of their life at age thirteen. But the spunky rich girl steals Miller’s heart and refuses to give it back.

Violet McNamara’s life hasn’t been as simple as it looks. Her picture-perfect family is not so perfect after all. Her best friend Miller is her one constant and she is determined not to ruin their friendship with romantic complications.

But the heart wants what it wants. As Miller’s star begins to rise to stratospheric heights, what will it take for Violet to realize that she’s the girl in all of his love songs?

Lost Boys is a new series of interconnected coming-of-age standalones from USA Today Bestselling author Emma Scott, coming in 2020.

 

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from The Girl in the Love Song 

“Hey,” I said.
“Hi,” she said, breathy and nervous. “I’m so glad you came. It’s been awhile.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, Vi. I’m sorry I’ve been cold lately. And I wanted—”
“It’s all right,” she said, waving her hands. “I know things haven’t been great for you since Chet arrived.”
“Yeah, he’s a fucking barnacle. Don’t know how to scrape him off.”
“I do,” Violet said. “Well, not directly. But I know how you can make a ton of money to take care of your mom and get rid of him forever.” She held up her cell phone. “YouTube.”
I leaned against her desk. “I know where you’re going with this.”
“I’ve been doing my homework. Shawn Mendes is literally a superstar because of his Vine videos. Billie Eilish put a song on SoundCloud and now look where she is. After the reaction to your playing at the party, it’s a no-brainer. We put videos of you out there, and the world is going to beg for more.”
I smiled, warmed by her confidence in me. “It’s just that easy, huh?”
“With your talent? Yes.”
“Not that it’s going to happen, but I don’t want to be famous like Mendes.”
“What do you want?”
You.
“To…uh, I don’t know. I like performing in front of people. I didn’t realize how much until I did it at the party. It felt like all the shit I walk around with all day had an outlet. A safe one, where I don’t have to talk about my dad or my past or…”
What I feel for you.
“Or whatever…I can just feel it through the song. And the audience hears and maybe they sort of understand. They understand me.” I shrugged. “Make me feel less lonely.”
Violet’s dark blue eyes were miles deep, so beautiful the way she looked at me, seeing and accepting every flawed and broken piece of me.
The air thickened and turned heavy.
I cleared my throat. “Short answer, I want to make music and earn enough money to live without being so goddamn stressed out all the time. And to help my mom.”
Violet smiled softly. “I get that. But with talent like yours, being famous or not might be out of your hands.”
I smirked. “I think that’s overstating it.”
“I don’t.”
God, her faith in me was total. As if superstardom was a matter of when, not if. My every honorable intention to be the friend she wanted me to be walked away, and the neutral song I’d been thinking about playing followed it out the door. “All I’ll Ever Want,” the song I’d wanted to sing to her on the eve of the first day of school, was now front and center.
“Ready?” she asked.
“What do I do?”
“Introduce yourself and tell us the name of the song you’re about to destroy us with.”
I sat on the edge of Violet’s bed, and she sat beside me, cross-legged, phone held up.
“Five, four, three…”
“So, hey. I’m Miller Stratton,” I said, suddenly nervous without the liquid courage of tequila I’d had at the party. The eye of Violet’s phone camera stared me down. “Uh, I’m from Santa Cruz, California…”
Suddenly, my knit beanie was itchy as hell. I took it off and scrubbed my hand through my hair. A few locks fell over my brow. Violet’s eyes widened and her breath caught. Probably because I was messing this all up. I whipped the hair out of my eyes, cleared my throat, and put my attention safely on my guitar.
“I’m going to play a song called ‘All I’ll Ever Want.’”
My fingers found the strings and strummed, creating sounds that helped make order out of my chaotic feelings. The emotions and harmonies were like twin currents that carried my voice, and my voice spoke the words—a hundred different ways of saying the same thing. Asking Violet the same thing—to fall in love with me the way I loved her.
At the last chorus, my voice rose up and my heart clenched, squeezing hard and emptying itself, giving everything.

Feels so good and feels so weak
This love cuts until I bleed
Don’t touch me, baby, don’t look at my scars,
Until you want to know which ones are yours
All I’ll ever want
All I’ll ever want
Is for you to fall in love with me tonight

The last note wavered then dissipated. Violet held the phone a moment more, then hit stop and dropped her hands in her lap. Her mouth was open, her lush, full lips parted. Her porcelain skin was flushed and her eyes lit up. I saw me reflected in her eyes. Someone who just might make it out of this shit life after all with whatever talent God or the universe saw fit to give me.
“Miller, my God…” she breathed. “That was…”
For you. That was for you. You’re the girl in every song.
“That was…unreal,” she said.
“Yeah?”
Violet put her hand over her heart. “Yeah. Yes. Oh my God, Miller…”
She reached across the short distance between us with both arms and hugged me. I slid my guitar away and held her tight, closing my eyes and sinking into the circle of her embrace. Soft, warm…it smelled of her skin, her hair, her sweet breath on my neck.
“You’re going to go all the way,” she said, her lips against my shoulder. “I can feel it.”
And in that moment, bolstered and enveloped by her faith in me, I felt it too.
My head moved a little, led by my mouth that wanted hers. Her smooth cheek brushed against my stubbly one. Another small movement, hesitant, but with my entire heart bared behind it, and my lips brushed the corner of her mouth. She pulled back but only far enough to meet my gaze that was full of naked want. Her lips parted with a breathy little gasp, stripping away any restraint I had left.
With a small, rough sound of pure need, I kissed her.
I kissed my best friend. I altered us forever. No going back nor wanting to. Not wanting anything ever again but this.

Excerpt. ©Emma Scott. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: One signed paperback copy of The Girl in the Love Song by Emma Scott

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and post a comment to this Q: What did you think of the excerpt spotlighted here? Leave a comment with your thoughts on the book…

 
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Meet the Author:

Emma Scott is a USA Today and Wall St. Journal bestselling author whose books have been translated in six languages and featured in Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, New York Daily News and USA Today’s Happy Ever After. She writes emotional, character-driven romances in which art and love intertwine to heal, and in which love always wins. If you enjoy emotionally-charged stories that rip your heart out and put it back together again, with diverse characters and kind-hearted heroes, you will enjoy her novels
 
Connect with Emma:
SS buy links: https://amzn.to/2QoxQRa
Amazon author link: https://amzn.to/2yUnFKJ
Webpage: emmascottwrites.com
 
Stay up to date with Emma by joining her mailing list: http://bit.ly/2nTGLf6
Facebook: http://bit.ly/EmmaScottFB
Reader group: http://bit.ly/EmmaScottEntourage
Bookbub: http://bit.ly/EmmaScottBB
Instagram: http://bit.ly/EmmaScottIG
Twitter: http://bit.ly/EmmaScottTW
Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2zw0XvR
 
 
 

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48 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: The Girl in the Love Song by Emma Scott”

  5. Diana Hardt

    Nice cover. I liked the blurb and excerpt. It sounds like a really interesting book. Thank you for sharing.

  14. Tiffany Greene

    Wow that excerpt was wonderful, made me want to read more! Can’t wait to read this now! I love Emma Scott’s books! Thanks so much for the opportunity!

  17. Karina Angeles

    Wow! Can’t wait to read how Miller get Violet to express her feelings for him!

  18. dbranigan

    What a sweet moment! This story sounds like a lovely read.I adore the cover. Best wishes to the author on the novel.

  30. Artemis Giote

    This sounds great!!!! I love Emma Scott, I love musicians and I love second chances….

  36. Lilah Chavez

    Omg! Santa Cruz is right over the hill from me!!! I love reading books that are in my back yard!