Spotlight & Giveaway: THE LAST ONE YOU LOVED by LJ Evans

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, THE LAST ONE YOU LOVED!

 
Thank you so much, Sara, for having me here today to share about my new release.
 

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

This book started as a random scene I wrote for my newsletter subscribers after listening to Jon Pardi’s “Aint Always the Cowboy” about a million times. I saw Maddox and McKenna so clearly. What they’d been through together, but also what they still had to do on their own before they could really get their HEA. Then, my friend Leisa kept asking and asking and asking about WHEN they would get their HEA, so when I finally had a chance to write the standalone novel, I knew this was the one to bring to life. Just like McKenna and Maddox, I was haunted by the memories that wouldn’t let me go until I had them on the page and running toward each other again.

Anywhoodle, if you adore swoony single-dads, cowboy-sheriffs, second chance HEAs, friends-to-lovers, small-town stories, taunting siblings, and a hint of suspense, this might be the story for you.
 

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

One of my favorite quotes from the book is, “We danced our way across each other’s bodies with fingers and tongues. Silent promises marking our souls.” I think it’s because you can still feel the ache deep inside that they were feeling before they collided again.

But one of the quotes that a lot of ARC readers have been tagging is this one: “You are my favorite thing. My favorite memory. My favorite gift. My favorite person.” This is funny, because it’s right at the beginning of the book, setting the stage for alllllll the heartache and love that’s still to come.

What inspired this book?

So, I already told you how the story got its start, but in addition to Jon Pardi’s song that kicked it off, these songs were also instrumental to the story:

Lee Brice’s “Memory I Don’t Mess With”
Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood’s “If I Didn’t Love You”
Jason Aldean’s “Even If I Wanted To”
Cole Swindell and Lainey Wilson’s “Never Say Never”
AND
Joel Taylor’s “Little by Little”

The tone of these songs and their lyrics are written across the pages of this book. The songs are the reason Maddox and McK have certain scenes together, but they also made me want to make sure they got their HEA like some of the songs didn’t.

I’ve got 40 songs on the playlist, if listening to songs that inspire books is your jam:
https://spoti.fi/3Pp12T5

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

I’m not a plotter by nature. Meaning, most of the time when I write, I have a rough idea of the story and the characters, but I just open the page and start typing. This leads me to allllllll kinds of surprises along the way. Like I had no idea that McKenna would hate her birthdays so much or that Maddox would have little quirks like quoting percentages. Or that Maddox’s daughter would be such a bundle of joy and light.

What I did know was that Maddox would be entrenched in a family that was full of laughter and love, and that McKenna would always see herself on the outside looking in at the Hatley family. She’d want it for her own, but she’d be afraid to reach for it.

The pain of these two finding their way back to each other, and McKenna finally finding “home” were important parts of this story I wanted to convey from the very beginning.

What was your favorite scene to write?

I had a ton of fun writing this entire book. So many scenes that I smiled and laughed and cried at. But the taunting and teasing that the two main characters engage in, always made my heart happy. Here’s a little snippet:

I reached behind her, tugged the pull-out sprayer from its hole, and flicked it on with my pinky. Then, I shot water all over her face and chest.

She screamed and blustered, pulling away. “Maddox!”

Water dripped from her hair, and her thin top was now completely see-through, clinging to her.
I laughed, enjoying the sight of her disheveled and sticky. God, I wanted her that way for other reasons. She reached for the faucet, trying to turn it off or grab it from me, and I easily kept it away, spraying her more and drenching us both in the process.

“You’re on your own now,” she said as she stepped away and put the island between us. “You can clean it up. I’m going to shower.”

My laughter followed her as well as my gaze, taking in the way her hips swayed across the room. At the archway, she looked down the hall, as if making sure Mila wasn’t there, then she pulled the tank top over her head, and my body, that had already been hard, jumped to full alert.

“Too bad I’m too old to have help in the bath,” she said with a sultry smile.

I let the faucet go with a clang and set chase. She shrieked and took off down the hall with laughter bubbling from her lips, but by the time I got to the guest bath, she’d already closed and locked the door behind her.

“You’re never too old for that kind of help, McK. I promise after I’ve made you too sore to walk, I’ll give you a bath,” I said through the door. She laughed, and I knocked on the wood. “Just remember, you started this.”

“You’re the one who sprayed me,” she said.

“You’re the one who tempted me,” I told her.

“Just go help Mila.”

I chuckled, my entire body stiff with desire as I walked away, thinking about every single thing I was going to do to McKenna Lloyd and just how much we were both going to enjoy it.

What was the most difficult scene to write?

The hardest scene to write was when McKenna comes back into town and encounters Maddox for the first time in the house she doesn’t expect to have him in. They both are so tortured by things happening in their lives, yet so stunned to see each other, but it doesn’t go the way either of them expect.

Here’s a little snippet:

“Mad-Maddox?” I said his name in a stunned, breathy whisper.

I’d known I’d see him while I was in town. But there was no way I was prepared for it tonight, not after the long drive and the loss of my dreams that had followed me back to my childhood nightmares.

As I watched, his expression changed from startled surprise to pure panic.

“You can’t be here!” he growled. “You have to fucking leave.”

My heart slammed against my chest, and tears pricked my eyes. I deserved his response. Deserved the harshness―the anger―but dang did it still hurt.

“I don’t understand,” I said, hand pulling on my ponytail.

“You have to go!” he said.

“Daddy! You’re missing the best part!”

A little body ran from the open archway down the hall and slammed into his legs. He didn’t even budge. He just reached a large hand down to surround a head of hair the color of hay drenched in sunshine.

My chest exploded with pain.

I’d known he’d be married with kids.

I’d known he’d have moved on. I’d told him to. Begged him to. So why did it seem to rip my soul in half?

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

Writing this book was absolutely like coming home again to me. I feel like it blends everything that my readers have come to expect from me. The heart wrenching backstories of the My Life as an Album series in the little town of Willow Creek, the strong yet broken characters of the Anchor Novels, and the hints of suspense from my suspense series. If you love books with “All the feels” including laughter, teasing, sorrow, heartache, and joy, then I think you’ll love Maddox and McKenna’s HEA.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

First and foremost, I want people to close the book with the biggest, goofiest, happiest smile on their face.

Then, I hope they see, as in all my books, the importance of family. That doesn’t mean family by blood necessarily, but the people you find who help you through this wild ride called life with grace and joy and forgiveness.

One of my ARC readers, Leticia, also wrote this at the end of her review, and it hit me hard in my heart, but it’s also very true:

“There’s a lesson to be taken from their story. Sometimes you leave to chase your dreams, without realizing you’re actually leaving them behind.”

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

I’m so excited to be back to work on The Painted Daisies series which is coming in 2023. It’s a brand-new interconnected, slow-burn series with an all-female rock band, alpha heroes, and a murder mystery that will keep you guessing till the very end. Each book has a different couple who get their own HEA with a suspense element that gets resolved, but there is also an overarching murder plot that doesn’t get solved until book five. Phew! I absolutely adore working on it and am feeling challenged and pushed out of my comfort zone. I cannot wait to share it with the world.

Book One, SWEET MEMORY, is a second-chance, opposites-attract romance.
Book Two, GREEN JEWEL, is an enemies-to-lovers, single-dad romance.
Book Three, CHERRY BRANDY, is an opposites-attract, forbidden romance.
Book Four, BLUE MARGUERITE, is a Hollywood celebrity, frenemy romance.
Book Five, ROYAL HAZE, is an antihero, secret society romance.

You can add them on your Goodreads TBR now, if that’s your sort of thing:
https://bit.ly/PaintedDaisiesGR

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: $10 eCard and an eBook ARC of The Last One You Loved. Winner must be able to claim eCard via US Amazon store or PayPal.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: I loved coming home to my small town of Willow Creek to write this story, and it made me wonder, what are some of your favorite small-town romance books?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Excerpt from THE LAST ONE YOU LOVED:

When McK and I showed up at the ranch later than I’d planned the next day for Thanksgiving, the entire family sent knowing looks our way. McKenna blushed a pretty pink, reminding me of the flush that had coated her for hours the night before and made it almost impossible to stand in my parents’ kitchen.

Mila saved the day, running in to hug me and then McKenna as if we’d been gone a year. In some ways, it felt like we had. I’d changed overnight, unlocked secret pieces of myself I’d kept aside because they’d only ever belonged to McK.

“Uh-oh, Ryder,” Sadie said, bumping his shoulder with hers. “I think the monk might have finally lost his V card.”

Ryder grinned, but Mama swatted at her with a kitchen towel, shooting an eye in Mila’s direction. “Watch what you say, Sadie.”

“What should his new title be?” Ryder asked, rubbing his scruff and trying to hide his smile.”

“I have a title,” I groused. “It’s called sheriff.”

“Sheriff Quick Draw.”

McK’s comeback was so quick it caused my head to twirl, and when I looked at the grin on her face, there was not one ounce of me that was upset, even as Ryder and Sadie burst out laughing. Instead, I headed toward McK. She squealed and ran, and I gave chase. When I caught her, I threw her on the couch and pinned her down with my weight as I jerked off her ankle boots and reached for her feet.

She was laughing and gasping. “Don’t do it, Sheriff. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Take it back, McK. Tell them the truth. Tell them what you were really screaming last night.”
She shook her head, and I let my fingers slide down over her arch. I barely touched it, and she was already bucking and trying to escape with laughter still bubbling from her. My chuckle joined hers as I watched her squirm, remembering every single time we’d ended up this way as kids, including the time she’d knocked me so good I thought she’d broken my nose.

Mila ran in with a smile as wide as McK’s as she watched us tussle on the couch. Not wanting to be left out, she crawled onto us, reaching for McK’s stomach and getting her own tickles in.

“Stop…stop,” McKenna breathed out between laughs. Mila and I shared a look and just picked up the pace of our fingers. “I’m going to pee my pants if you keep it up.”

Mila immediately stopped, looking very serious. “It’s okay. It happens to everyone, even grown-ups. That’s what Daddy told me when I had an accident at the store and was afraid everyone saw, but they didn’t because Daddy wrapped me in his coat and took me home.”

“When you three have had enough of that horseplay, I could use your help in the kitchen with the turkey, Maddox,” Mama said. Her words were a scold, but her face crinkled up in a huge smile, joy radiating from her instead of the worry she so often sent my way.

“Why can’t Dad or Ryder do it? Aren’t the oldest members of the family supposed to carve?” I asked.

“You know you have the best knife skills,” she said. “They’ll just butcher it.”

I sighed, picking Mila up and setting her aside, then I looked down at McK, leaned in real close to her ear, and whispered, “You’re going to pay for that later.”

“Promises, promises, Mads,” she said, eyebrow lifting, smile still wide and glorious.

“You know I keep my promises.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Maddox
Between my badge, my daughter, and my hometown, I’ve got a busy life. It’s a mostly happy one. But late at night, when the house is quiet, I still see her face. McKenna may have left me and this town behind a decade ago, but a century wouldn’t be long enough to get over her.

There’s only one thing worse than never seeing her again. If she came back, the secret I’ve been keeping would destroy lives. Mine included. As long as she stays gone, everyone is safe.

McKenna
When my world catches fire, destroying the dreams I’ve sacrificed so much for, there’s only one place I can think to go. One man I can run to. But going back is no homecoming. Sheriff Maddox Hatley hasn’t forgotten me. And he sure hasn’t forgiven me either.

He’s hiding something beneath all that anger. I think I’ll stick around until I find out what it is.

Inspired by Jon Pardi’s “Ain’t Always the Cowboy” and Lee Brice’s “Memory I Don’t Mess With,” this second-chance, single-dad, forced-proximity love story will tug at your soul, make you laugh and cry, and leave you with a smile on your face.

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

Meet the Author:

Award-winning author, LJ Evans, lives in Northern California with her husband, child, and the 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 The Crown, Ted Lasso, 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.

Her novels have won multiple awards including CHARMING AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, which was Writer’s Digest’s Self-Published E-book Romance of the Year in 2021.
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