Crushed
Chloe & Michael’s Love Story
Redemption Series
Book Three
About
Ugly Duckling Retelling.
Eager to leave past mistakes behind in New York City, Michael starts anew in a small town in Texas where his plans of meeting his biological father put him straight into the path of Chloe, a witty outcast with a plan of her own.
This book is only available in ebook and audiobook because Penguin Random House controls all rights and has declined to make a print version available or revert my rights back to me.
Redemption
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Chloe & Michael
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Redemption · Chloe & Michael ·
Some Details
Vibe
This book takes place mostly in the country club lifestyle, where a guy from the wrong side of the tracks upsets their perfect, preppy lifestyle. Dirty Dancing vibes, except with tennis.
Heat Level
This has a couple explicit sex scenes.
POV
This book is written in alternating first person POV.
Tone
Probably the lightest and funniest of all my books, with a distinct youthful playfulness … it straddles a line between flirty YA and flirty New Adult.
Author Note
Crushed is one of my favorites of my books, and yet also quite different from almost all of my others.
It’s young; the heroine’s in the summer after high school, the hero just a year or two older. Although it’s part of the Redemption series, it has none of Broken’s heaviness or even Isn’t She Lovely’s painful past. It’s just a sweet story about two young people falling in love.
Sometimes I look at this book as a fork in the road, and wonder what my career would have been like had I let myself lean into this direction … I think in another dimension, I’m a contemporary YA author, because I so felt “myself” while writing this.
“I couldn’t stop smiling. I hated that the book had to end! Lauren Layne is a force to be reckoned with, and I can’t wait to see what she has up her sleeve next!”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken
Taylor Swift Song Pairing
This Is Me Trying
Tropes & Vibes
Ugly Duckling · Grumpy Sunshine · Fake Relationship · New Adult
A Little Excerpt
“I told you I’d drive,” I say irritably, slamming the door shut.
“Um, I’ve seen the way you talk about your car. I’d be too scared to eat snacks in there.”
“Snacks?”
“It’s a three-hour drive,” she says, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.
I glance back and see a cooler and a paper bag with Lay’s potato chips perched on top. I can just imagine what other junk food monstrosities lay beneath.
“Three hours,” I repeat.
“Lots of time to get to know each other, Beefcake.”
“Nope.”
She grins and pats my leg. “Okay, no problem. How do you feel about Broadway tunes?”
I turn my head to look out the window, hoping she’s joking.
An hour later I know she’s not.
on Book Covers
I’ve made the unusual decision not to show the official book covers on my official author website for a variety of reasons:
Most of my books have multiple cover versions depending on language/country; the US English version is only one of many.
Several of my cover designs were spot-on when they released, but are now quite dated even though the love stories within are timeless.
I have an unwavering love for neutral colors, and elegantly minimalist design. The current rom-com cover trend towards candy colored cartoons is not my jam.
My website is my chance to present my work my way.
Buy the Book
Crushed
This book is only available in ebook and audiobook because Penguin Random House controls all rights and has declined to make a print version available or revert my rights back to me.