Blog Tour, Book Review, Guest Post and Tour Wide Giveaway: Broken At Love by Lyla Payne

Title: Broken At Love
Author: Lyla Payne
Series: Book One in the Whitman University Series
Published: March 12, 2013
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance

Book Description:

When a knee injury ends twenty-year-old Quinn Rowland’s pro tennis career, he’s not only dumped by his hot Russian girlfriend but ordered to attend college by his disinterested billionaire father. A rich kid who’s not used to being disappointed by life, Quinn and his sociopathic half-brother Sebastian create a frat house game intended to treat girls how they see them—as simple game pieces to be manipulated for their pleasure.

College sophomore Emilie Swanson knows Quinn’s reputation—after all, he did send one of her sorority sisters into therapy earlier in the semester—but the game and his charm bring them closer together and soon she starts to believe there’s more to Quinn than people think.

But what if the more is something darker than a game of toying with emotions and breaking hearts?

Quinn and Emilie might be falling for each other, but there are secrets he’s not ready to tell—and lifestyle changes he’s reluctant to make. She willingly stepped on the court, but if Emilie finds out she started out as nothing as a pawn in Quinn and Sebastian’s twisted game, she might never forgive him.

To his surprise, Quinn finds that he might finally care about someone more than he cares about himself…even if that means letting Emilie walk away for good.

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About the Author:

I’ve long had a love of stories. A few years ago decided to put them down on the page, and even though I have a degree in film and television, novels were the creative outlet where I found a home. I’ve published Young Adult under a different name, but when I got the idea for Broken at Love (my first New Adult title), I couldn’t wait to try something new – and I’m hooked.  In my spare time I watch a ton of tennis (no surprise, there), play a ton of tennis, and dedicate a good portion of brain power to dreaming up the next fictitious bad boy we’d all love to meet in real life.

Author Website: http://lylapayne.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lyla-Payne/355992971175349
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lyla_Payne
Tumblr: http://lylapayne.tumblr.com/
Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6903785.Lyla_Payne

Guest Post:

I love this topic! There are so, so many things that writers don’t know before they hit publish (or sell) their very first novel. None of them would probably make you change your mind about doing it, not if you love writing as much as I do, but being prepared for the future is half the battle. I’m happy to share the five biggest things I wish I’d known before I published my first book with all of you.

So, here we go:

1. Organization is something you want to do before, not after, you get buried. By this, I’m talking about email tags/rules/folders, spreadsheets to track sales, promotions or ads you’ve tried, and their results, spreadsheets of who you sent your review requests to, which bloggers responded, which actually followed through with the review, newsletter signups, website hosting, etal. Once your book comes out, you’re going to be busy with promotion and marketing, not to mention writing the next book, and you’ll be so glad you don’t have to take time out to get organized after the fact.

2. You’re most likely not going to be a famous gabillionaire after you publish one book. This might go without saying for most of you, but there are people who assume they can slap up a book and people are going to a) know about it, b) buy it, and c) tell a million of their closest friends to buy it, too. The truth is, there is no trick to making money from writing books, except maybe to write more books. Write a lot of them, make sure they’re well edited and proofread and designed, and put them out as fast as you can while maintaining that quality. You get into this because you love writing books, and in the end, that’s what’s going to make you successful.

3. Build time into your schedule to be available to readers, and also to pay it forward to writers who are a step or two (or fifteen) behind you. In this day and age, YOU are as much of a product as your book(s). People expect not only a lot of content, but they expect the content provider to be willing to contact and/or interact with them on the internet. In the same way, other writers will ask you questions, advice, for recommendations, to critique for them, to blurb their upcoming novels. It might not be part of writing, but it is part of having a writing career.

4. Say yes to promotional opportunities, at least at first. You need to exposure, and no guest post, no interview, no ARC sent out for review or Twitter chat engaged in can possibly be bad. No publicity is bad publicity may be an old saying, but it’s on the money. Say yes. You

can’t sell copies of your book if no one has ever heard about your book, and you need help to get that done.

5. Learn how to say no. I know, this kind of sounds contradictory to the last piece of advice, but the truth is, you can’t do everything. You can’t be constantly present on every form of social media, you can’t respond to every single reader email with an in depth response to their very flattering deconstruction of your story or characters, and you can’t possibly read and critique for every single person who asks. You can try, but down that path lies (further) madness. This one was probably the hardest for me—before I published, I pretty much said yes to everyone, but now, it’s impossible. You’re going to have to find a way to be okay with that.

Well, I guess that’s about it for today! There are a ton of things I figured out AFTER I published my first book, but these are the biggest five that come to mind. It’s quite a balance, between writing and promoting, and really nothing but experience can prepare you for exactly what it’s like—if it’s your dream, I certainly hope you get there one day!

My Thoughts and Review:

Quinn, oh how I love to hate thee. 

Really, I didn't not love Quinn in the beginning. Let's face it, the man was a dog. Treating women like there were nothing but a game. He had no feelings for them and certainly no respect. Very little remorse for the things he did and said to them and even less sympathy for the way he used them. 

It was pretty hard to like him. He didn't make it easy.

But then he managed to weasel his playboy self into my heart, like all good bad boys do. 

Oh my. I wasn't expecting this to be such an emotional read for me but it was. I really felt for Quinn. I wanted to smack him and give him a hug all at the same time. He completely stole my heart, even with his sleeziness. I couldn't help it, I saw through all the bad ways and pain into the man that I knew he was and wanted to be inside. 

Quinn was so very broken which we know coming into the story and anyone that knows me, knows I am a sucker for the broken ones. And while Emelie wasn't broken necessarily, she wasn't exactly whole either. They both had parents that expected way too much of them and wanted to control their lives. They both had heartache from a painful past but Emelie was so much stronger than Quinn and consequently everything that he needed to help him finally feel loved and learn to love.

I just love stories like this one and forever will. The author did a great job portraying two people that came together and were better for it. Better than they ever could be apart. 

I give this one 4 Stars!

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