Title: Spotlight Series Boxed Set
AUTHOR: Lilah Suzanne
Publication Date: July 16, 2019
Country music superstar Grady Dawson meets celebrity stylist Nico Takahashi: The romance Kirkus Reviews called “witty, touching, nuance—and very sexy” is now is now available in one pitch perfect bundle with a special bonus story starring Grady’s musical partner in crime, Clementine Campbell. This set includes: Broken Records, Burning Tracks, and Blended Notes, and two Spotlight “B-Sides,” series short stories written exclusively for this boxed set!
BROKEN RECORDS: Los Angeles-based stylist Nico Takahashi loves his job—or at least, he used to. Feeling fed up and exhausted from the cutthroat, gossip-fueled business of Hollywood, Nico daydreams about packing it all in and leaving for good. So when Grady Dawson—sexy country music star and rumored playboy—asks Nico to style him, Nico is reluctant. But after styling a career-changing photo shoot, Nico follows Grady to Nashville where he finds it increasingly difficult to resist Grady’s charms. Can Nico make his peace with show business and all its trappings, or will Grady’s public persona get in their way of their private attraction to each other?
BURNING TRACKS: Gwen Pasternak’s got it all. Or so it seems…
In the sequel to RT Book Reviews’ Top Pick Broken Records, Gwen’s life looks perfect: She has a job she loves as stylist to the stars; a beautiful wife, Flora; and a house in the heart of Nashville. But the more she works alongside country music’s dynamic princess Clementine Campbell, the less Gwen is certain of her commitment to a life of domestic bliss.
Meanwhile, her business partner Nico Takahashi is happily settled down with reformed bad-boy musician Grady Dawson. But when Nico questions the permanence of their relationship, Grady retreats into some dangerous old habits. Will Gwen ruin the life she’s built with Flora for something new and exhilarating? Can Grady be convinced of Nico’s devotion before it’s too late? Burning Tracks is a story of tough choices, taking risks, and the pressures of living life in the spotlight.
BLENDED NOTES: Grady Dawson’s future looks bright. He’s at the top of his country music career, has a close-knit group of friends who have become his Nashville family, and has found solid ground in his personal life as he plans his intimate, private wedding with Nico, his stylist-turned-lover, turned love of his life. It seems Grady has finally left his difficult childhood and tumultuous youth behind. That is, until his past shows up on his doorstep, news of his upcoming nuptials is leaked to the media, and his record company levels demands that challenge his integrity as an artist and as a person. The foundation of Grady’s new life begins to crumble, and fast. Will he be forced to make the ultimate choice between a private life with Nico and the public demands of his career?
BUY LINKS:
“I brought a peace offering.” He pulls the white chocolate Kit Kat from the bag, along with the sixteen-ounce bottle of Mello Yello. He slides them under the curtain and into the bunk. Still no response. “I can just leave them if you—if you want me to go.” At least he apologized. At least he came back. At least he tried.
The memory of his own angry words swells up, and he knows he needs to do more than just try. “Look. I’m an asshole, okay. In case I didn’t mention that,” he says to the black curtain. “It was a low blow and it was shitty and I was upset about other things and I took it out on you and—” He scrubs a hand over his face. “I’m gonna go.”
Still nothing. Nico reaches for the curtain, but it slides open before he can touch it.
“Not like I didn’t already know you were a flight risk.” Grady is sitting up against one side of the bunk, in jeans and no shirt, feet bare, hair a bird’s nest of curls. He scratches a hand through, slides Nico a look of disappointment that cuts right to the bone. “Honestly I’m surprised you hung around this long.”
Nico presses his palm to the center of his chest. “Okay. I deserved that.”
Grady shakes his head and looks away. “I’ll be fine.”
“Don’t. Don’t do this.” Grady rolls his head back in Nico’s direction with a flat look, and Nico hauls himself closer with one foot on the bottom bunk. “Don’t pretend like everything is fine when it isn’t.”
“What choice do I have?” Grady’s eyes lift up to the low ceiling. “I either let it go and move on or I mope about it, and moping never led me anywhere good.”
Nico taps his forehead against the edge of the bunk in frustration; not in his entire life has he met someone so determined to turn shit into diamonds. It’s as inspiring as it is infuriating. “So do you want me to get lost, or can I join you in your bunk bed, please?”
Grady shrugs, and that’s good enough. Nico sets his other foot on the bottom bunk and heaves himself up and in.
Grady pulls one leg up against his chest, twists the fabric bunched under his knee. “I do know what people say about me. I try to ignore it, and I try not to care but—I know.” He looks at Nico then, in the eyes, no longer avoiding him. “It’s not who I am. No one gets to define who I am but me. And that includes you.” Jaw set and nose flared, he adds, “I thought you were different. I thought, finally, someone who gets it. Who gets me.”
“I do get it, Grady, that’s the entire problem. It would be easier if I didn’t. If I could just pretend that I don’t know how difficult and ugly all of this—” He gestures to the tour bus, to the venue outside, a wild sweep of his arms to indicate the press and fans and photographers and critics and— “Your life. What it means. How impossible it is for us to have any sort of normal relationship.” He drops his hands in defeat. “I know, Grady. I get it. I wish I didn’t.”
Grady’s eyes are wet and sad and his voice cracks when he responds, “I’m falling in love with you.”
“Me too,” Nico replies, but not with a lightness or joy, but a deep, haunting sorrow. He never meant to. He never wanted to be just one more person that Grady loves who will leave him. “But you and I both know that it’s not enough.”
Grady presses his lips at, looks up at the ceiling again to gather himself, sni s and nods, then tugs Nico’s foot closer by his ankle. “Do you think… If we’d met at a bar. Or through a friend of a friend. Or the gym.” Grady’s thumb strokes the tender skin of Nico’s calf beneath the hem of his pants. “If we had just been two regular guys? We really could have been something.”
There’s a question in his voice, a hesitancy that maybe Nico would have rejected him eventually anyway. Nico scoots across the cramped bunk, crowds against Grady, shoulder to shoulder.
“Well, we never would have met at the gym because I would have taken one look at you and gone home to mourn the body I’ll never have by consuming gallons of ice cream.”
Grady bumps his shoulder. “Shut up, you’re gorgeous.” He tips his head against the wall and grins. “If I’d first seen you at a bar I probably would have humiliated myself by trying to win you over with bad karaoke and shameless flirting.”
Nico’s eyebrows raise. “You mean to tell me you’ve been holding back on me? You have a level of flirting that’s even more shameless?”
“Oh yeah. You ain’t seen nothin’, sweetheart.”
* * *
From Broken Records, Book One in Lilah Suzanne’s Spotlight Series.
Lilah Suzanne is a queer author of of bestselling and award-winning romantic fiction. Their 2018 novel Jilted was named a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and a Foreword INDIES Award, and won a Bisexual Book Award for romantic fiction. Their critically acclaimed Spotlight series included the Amazon #1 bestseller Broken Records, along with Burning Tracks and Blended Notes. Lilah also authored the romantic comedy Spice, the novellas Pivot & Slip and After the Sunset, and the short story Halfway Home, from the holiday anthology If the Fates Allow. A writer from a young age, Lilah resides in North Carolina and mostly enjoys staying indoors, though sometimes ventures out for concerts, museum visits, and quiet walks in the woods.