K-lee Klein: Unbreak My Heart Book Tour

Today I have the pleasure of having a wonderful friend and author, K-lee Klein to A Little Bit of Naughty. She's come loaded with some Q & A for us along with a tidbit from her newest release, Unbreak My Heart. (Now I have that song floating around in my head....lol)  Anyway, please give a warm welcome to K-lee. I hear she's giving away some stuff so be sure to check out the rafflecopter at the bottom as well.  

Hi everyone, I'm K-lee. Thanks for stopping by my Unbreak My Heart book tour, and thank you very much, Dakota, for having me. Unbreak My Heart was released on August 25th and is my first book with Amber Quill. I've been doing a few of these posts on my tour so finding new ideas can sometimes be a chore. 

Today I've decided to answer some questions that I found on a questionnaire on-line. Then afterwards I'll share the blurb for my new book, and give you information on how you can win a copy. Okay—here we go.

1. Where did the title of your book originate?

It's a 1996 song by Toni Braxton. I was completely stumped even after I finished the book so I did a little searching and the title just fit.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

Originally it was for a submission call, but it didn't fit the overall theme or maximum word length.

3. What sort of hash tags would you assign? 

Hurt/comfort, cowboys/ranchers, opposites attract, the arts, slow love

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Brett Taylor was inspired by Christian Kane so, of course, I'd have to say him both in looks and sexy voice. 

I think a good JT Campbell would be Jared Padalecki, and it just so happens that they know one another so it all works out just fine. Lol.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Can a city kid's love and patience breathe life back into a musician turned rancher living in a world of pain to unbreak his heart?

6. Describe your main characters in three words or less, all starting with the same letter. Brett Taylor – Sexy, Southern, Sadness

JT Campbell - Patient, Pensive, Puppy

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Start to finish about six months while I was writing another book of almost the same word count (100,000). It was a hard few months since it's such an emotional story so I was both thankful and stressed to be working on something else at the same time.

8. What came first the characters or the plot?

In most cases I'd say the characters, but for Unbreak My Heart it was the plot. Brett arrived pretty instantly in my mind when I thought out the concept though.

9. Are there any other memorable characters besides your MCs?

Millie—Brett's kick-ass Southern mama, and his sassy foreman, Ray.

10. Is there any part of your book you can single out as being most proud of?

That's hard to say about any story, but I'm still in love with Brett. I tormented him more than any other character I've written, which made it hard on both of us, but at the same time, I think he grew the most of any character, as well. Yeah, he's special and I love him. ;)

Now here's the blurb and excerpt from Unbreak My Heart.

Blurb:

Brett Taylor has been doing just fine living in his own little world for the past three years, thank you very much. Losing someone special is life changing, and Brett doesn't understand why everyone and their damn dog thinks they can get all up in his business about him needing to move on. He managed to make the transition from musician to rancher without relying on anyone else's opinion or help, and he certainly doesn't need some city kid coming into his life to disrupt his routine--one that involves grief, isolation, and a whole lot of Jack Daniels.

Moving from one meaningless job to the next, JT Campbell is on a quest to escape his old life and figure out who he is and where he belongs. He's not looking to save anyone, let alone a secretive, hotter-than-hell rancher who wears his heart on his sleeve. JT likes working for Brett, but Brett's made it perfectly clear that any relationship between them other than a professional one will never see the light of day.

But when JT's lust turns to love, and he gives in to his desire to find out what makes Brett tick, will his interest push Brett away? Or will he, through his patience and support, be the one who can finally unbreak Brett's heart?

Excerpt:

The first shot went down like he was gargling with glass. The second burned just as bad, but by the fifth, the whiskey was smooth as silk. Brett pushed the bottle to the corner of the desk as he scrubbed his hand over his face. He should have gone to bed, or cranked up the hot tub and spent the rest of the night looking at the stars. Instead, the yellow pad of paper sat in front of him—the page still blank.

He knew he had something to say, but the words wouldn’t come. Usually the alcohol helped. Usually the fog in his head cleared and he was able to concentrate by the third shot, but he still felt stuck, still felt like there was something hidden in the gray of his brain—something important.

He picked up the pen, letting it hover over the page, twisting it between his fingers, willing the damn thing to write on its own. He didn’t know why he was so wound up. He’d even dropped his goddamn beer bottle in the sink because he couldn’t control the shaking of his hands or the force of the need to shut himself away in his office with a different bottle altogether, the photo in the frame, and his words on the page. He studied the happy couple staring back at him in the frame, barely recognizing himself as he purposely drew his gaze to Walt.

“Gonna help me out here, Darlin’? Don’t seem to have the mind to help myself tonight so I sure could use the assistance.”

Pulling the bottle so it sat smack dab in the middle of the daunting yellow page, Brett caressed the shape, fingers running the full length, then down again. He’d never even liked the damn stuff until Walt died. The first bottle he’d finished had been Walt’s, and he’d downed it in an attempt to feel closer to him—like drinking the damn stuff would somehow make Walt stick to his insides. But all it had done was send him running into town the next day to get another bottle, and only The Good Lord himself knew how many more there’d been after that.

His anniversary blues didn’t generally last more than the day itself, but today had been different. He’d already assured himself he’d been productive so it hadn’t been a complete waste, and he’d even made that damn phone call he’d been fretting about for over a week. Supper had gone better than he’d expected, too, and talking to the kid afterward had been pleasant enough, but something still felt unsettled inside him.

Maybe he’d revealed too much about himself when he’d actually been planning on saying as little as possible. But the kid was comfortable to be around, and the conversation hadn’t been one-sided by any means. They’d both talked and listened, and it had been nice.

Nice. Familiar. Safe. All those things were good, but there was still a leftover confusion in his head. He was generally a forthcoming type of man, not hemming and hawing about things that could be said outright, but now he couldn’t remember a time when he’d blatantly told someone he barely knew that he was gay. He didn’t consider it to be a secret or anything to be hidden…at least not anymore, but once JT started stealing glances at him, he’d suddenly felt like a trapped animal.

The last thing he wanted was for the kid to get some weird idea in his head about seducing his boss, and Brett definitely didn’t want to lead him on. Not that JT looked the type to be interested in forty-year-old ranchers with bad dispositions. The idea would have been funny if it weren’t so damn nice to think about holding someone close again. Brett knew that person was not JT though, and he’d have to nip any ideas to the contrary in the bud before they flowered up into something neither of them could handle.

By the time JT had run his eyes over him for the fourth time, Brett hadn’t been able to get the damn bottle in his hand fast enough. It just wasn’t right—not JT’s interest, not the alcohol, not the stir of warmth in his groin, and not the pang of guilt in his heart. It wasn’t something he’d given into with such determination in a while. Yet there he was with five shots under his belt, his mind still reeling and not a goddamn word written on the page.

He forewent the tumbler for his sixth and seventh swallows, the amber liquid finally warming his belly and washing away the fog in his brain. Unfortunately, it didn’t cloud the shame in his heart so once he’d screwed on the cap and shoved the bottle away again, he put the frame back in the drawer.

Unbreak My Heart is available at Amber Quill/Allure and All Romance in ebook form right now. It'll also be available in the Kindle store, B&N, Rainbow e-books, and eventually Kobo. Then mid to late September it will come out in print, as well. I'll have a few copies with me at GRL too. ;)

Buy at Publisher   Buy at All Romance Ebooks

Now for the give-away. I'm doing a draw for 2 ebook copies and 1 print copy of Unbreak My Heart. Leave a comment on this post and fill out my Rafflecopter for additional chances to win. Thanks so much for having me, Dakota. Have a good week everyone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BIO

K-lee Klein has lived in one part of Western Canada or another for her entire life. She’s a doting mother of three now-grown kids, and has had characters and plots running around her head for as long as she can remember.

She lives with a patient husband who totally does not get her thing for gay men, two spoiled but wonderful sons (who don’t get it either), and two also spoiled but beautiful cats. Her days are filled with texts and phone calls with her daughter who has already left the nest, and an abundance of fabulous gay men, large and small, bouncing off the walls of her skull, competing for their turns to tell their stories.

You can find all of K-lee’s books on her website:

www.kleeklein.com

And K-lee herself at

K-lee's Blog   Twitter   Facebook