Blog Tour and Giveaway – If You Stay – Interview with Courtney Cole

We’re happy to share with you that
Courtney Cole has just released a new book!

If You Stay is a great read…
you can see my review here!!

But first, check out our
interview with Courtney
and enter the great giveaway!!

About the book:

24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole.
Seriously.

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match.

But he’s got his reasons.

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count.

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade.
So he slipped far, far from it.

Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right?
Wrong.

And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila.
Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’s got to figure it out because he needs her to breathe.

When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness.

But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it.

He knows that. And he’s working on it.

But is that enough to make her stay?

Buy the Book:

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

Our Interview with Courtney!

It’s great to have you back with us at the Book Hookup, Courtney!

Thanks for having me, Ana.  You know I love you and the Book Hookup!

We’ve read and enjoyed so many of your books and you’re always able to surprise us with what you do next.  So, we thought we’d ask you a few questions about what you’re doing these days and about your new book, If You Stay!

Awesome!  Fire away!

You first captured our attention with the Bloodstone series.  Those books were young adult.  But now, you’ve branched out and are writing New Adult (NA).

First, we’re finding that New Adult seems to mean different things to different people.  Would you give us your definition of NA?

My definition of NA is a genre that focuses on 20-somethings who still have growing-up issues of some sort to deal with.  These books can be explicit and deep, as they focus on raw subjects sometimes.

What do you think differentiates NA from adult books?

To me, it’s the age of the characters.  If they are college age or early twenties, it’s an NA book.

Why did you decide to go in this new direction?

Because I have an unruly Muse.  The stories form in my head and I can’t control them. 

You’re still writing YA books in the form of your Paradise Diaries series.  Do you plan to write any adult books in the future as well?

I do.  I actually have one Adult series started, the Minaldi Legacy.  Book one is Of Blood and Bone.  The sequel will be out this year sometime. 

Let’s talk about this new book, If You Stay!  Please tell us a bit about this story and what drew you to it.

I know someone who struggled with drugs, but wasn’t addicted.  If he hadn’t changed his ways, his life would have gone down a tragic path.  Luckily, he changed, but he really made me think about all of the people out there who are in that same place.  I knew I had to write this story.

This story focuses on Pax, a tattooed bad boy with a boat-load of issues.  Was it difficult to write from a male’s point of view?

I am almost embarrassed to say that it wasn’t that hard.  I have a husband and two teenage sons so I have been schooled in what men really think.  Pax simply doesn’t have the filter that most men use when they are around other people.

Do these slightly darker story lines appeal to you more?  If so, why?

I think they might. And I don’t really know why.  I really like to write things that make people feel something, whatever it might be.  One of my strengths is writing an emotional scene, so I guess I just play to my strengths.  It’s what I always gravitate to.

Will If You Stay be a stand-alone book or are you planning a series around gorgeous, troubled, broken bad boys?

Ha!  You know me so well!  It will actually be a series and it will focus on different main characters each time.  I’m working on book two right now—it’s called If You Leave and it focuses on Madison Hill, Mila’s sister.  She’s got issues, but so does her love interest, Gabriel.  Together, they are downright explosive.

Thanks for your time, Courtney!  We appreciate you stopping by and we look forward reading more of your books and falling in love with more of your characters!

Thanks for having me, Ana.  You know I adore you! (Ana smiles and blushes here!)

More about Courtney:

Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could. She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. She loves chocolate and roller coasters and hates waiting and rude people.

Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.

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And now for the Giveaway…good luck!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway