Aftereffects by L.J. Greene 💕 Book Tour & Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Contemporary Romance)

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What could be more terrifying than falling in love with the person who is your good place? Maybe realizing just a smidge too late that there can be dire consequences to becoming your best friend’s lover.

The lives of Keir Stevens and Selene Georgiou serendipitously collide midspan on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, one jarring step ahead of fate. He’s a temporary transplant from Seattle; she’s facing the biggest career opportunity of her life. They have no notion of the common thread that connects them.

As they come to discover they share a similar adversity, their relationship evolves from a fun and frivolous infatuation with nowhere to go into a true friendship with sincerity, humor, and respect at its heart.

It’s awfully hard not to fall in love with that—even if you’re pretty darn certain you shouldn’t.

But when love and friendship suffer their own devastating collision—their interests brutally conflicting—the consequences of blurring the lines between the two suddenly become real. In the end, which one will be the stronger? And more importantly, can either survive?

AFTEREFFECTS is a standalone dual POV adult contemporary romance about the things we choose in life out of all the things that are beyond our choosing—a tale of love and friendship, of time and how we spend it, and of the inner wars that ultimately show us what really matters.

“Oh Yes, Baby!” And Other Things I’ve Learned About Writing

Suffice it to say, for an author, every book written is a learning experience. Some lessons come in the form of a pleasant surprise–like the discovery of five bucks in the pocket of a jacket you haven’t worn in a while. Who knew you had it in you? But some lessons come like the discovery of a black whisker on your chin. Makes you wonder how long that little lovely has been there, and who might have noticed it before you did. Seriously, don’t dwell on that.

So here are a few things I’ve learned about writing:

1. Writing is like an angsty teenage romance.

One minute, it’s all sweet, sweet ecstasy and you swear you’ve landed Thor himself (the movie version!), all perfect and beautiful, and muscles on top of muscles. The next minute, you’re kicking him to the curb, drinking boxed chardonnay to the music of Adele and planning your satisfying life with cats.

Because let’s face it, writing is hard. Whenever I hear authors say their books just flew out of them, I fantasize about extending my foot and tripping them as they walk by. (I’ve never actually done that, by the way, but damn if it wouldn’t be tempting.) Writing often gives you those high highs and low lows, with very little in between. It’s something you have to be willing to truly work at. And it should be that way. After all, earning even one reader is a privilege. But at the same time, you also have to be kind to yourself. You have to believe in the value of your words. And most of all, you have to trust that your voice is worthy to join the chorus.

Of all of my books, Aftereffects was the most arduous to write, probably because it’s my most personal and the bar was set very high to get it just right. It’s a gorgeous friends-to-lovers story with a squeal-worthy HEA and two utterly loveable characters. I adore the book. But it wasn't that way every day. Many days, it was Adele and chardonnay and cats…

2. Not every idea is a good idea.

Oh sure, as an author, you covet all lightening bolts of divine inspiration, but let’s face it – in the light of day, some ideas are just stinkers. To be fair, my first encounter with this bit of wisdom came while writing Ripple Effects. I’m very glad to report that before publication of that novel, I had the good sense to delete a particular scene involving a Butterfinger. Yes, you read that right. A Butterfinger. And trust me on this; you really don't want to know.

But armed with that bit of experience, I came to understand as I wrote Sound Effects and then Aftereffects that knowing which scenes to cut was every bit as important as knowing which scenes to write. In fact, I deleted nearly ten thousand words from the final version of Aftereffects, and its pacing is one of the things of which I’m most proud. This book builds momentum from the start and doesn’t let up until the very last page. No mid-novel sag here! And no Butterfingers. You have my word on that.

3. ‘Oh yes, baby!’ only gets you so far in the writing of great love scene.

Well, sure, we do love our oohs and ahs. But it turns out that love scenes are very tricky, and much harder to craft than one might expect. Too much description with too little emotional context for the scene and you have wandered into “hokey pokey” territory. Readers deserve much more than just being told where the right arm presently is. To me, the measure of a great love scene is that it could only be written for those two specific characters in that particular moment in time.

In fact, I’ll tell you that the first love scene in Aftereffects, told from both Keir and Selene’s perspectives, required at least a dozen re-writes before hitting those critical notes. On more than one occasion, that scene made me want to curl up in a ball and eat cake, but now it’s one of my very favorites.

4. It’s good to break with convention.

I tend to write the stories I need to tell, rather than the stories that are the most commercial at the time. I realize that puts me not exactly in vogue, but I also think there are a lot of us out there who want to see our experiences reflected in real ways, with characters that feel authentic. The most important thing a writer can do is to write something she believes in. The rest will take care of itself.

She rose from the table without looking at my face, which was a lucky thing, because the multitude of images that one sentence conjured was astounding and dangerous. I was unprepared. I opened my mouth to say something casual like Yeah, go for it, but if anything at all came out, it was most likely every thought-producing brain cell I had.

I blinked down at my hands and pretended to study the grouting tool intensely—like it was suddenly the most fascinating thing I’d ever seen. But I’m pretty sure that every nonplatonic feeling I had was now flashing neon across my face.

That had to stop immediately.

This just friends thing would work fine so long as everyone was in agreement. But if one person started having thoughts, the whole mess would come down like the house of cards that it was.

When Selene and I’d first met, I had the same reaction to her that any other warm-blooded male might have: she was fucking beautiful. And a badass with a jack. And yes, I flirted a little; she flirted too. And if I were back home under normal circumstances, there is no question I would ask her out, and I’d take things as far as she’d let me. A night? Longer if she wanted?
But we didn’t meet under normal circumstances, and I wasn’t in any position to be starting something with her. A little flirting was fine, but I definitely couldn’t let it go any further than that.

The problem was that finding out about her father changed something for me. It was a reflexive thing, an impulse that couldn’t have felt more natural. My protectiveness cut through the very separation I was trying to maintain. I knew there were plenty of good reasons to be cautious, but I couldn’t help but to want to be there for her. To hold her when she’d needed it, and to just listen, if that’s the only thing I could do.

Still, sitting there at her table as I watched her turn and walk down the hallway to her bedroom, a familiar sense of wariness took hold in my gut. The more time we spent together, the more aware I became of how risky that impulse was, given the chemistry we shared. Our friendship sat like a lush oasis on the threshold of an abyss—a beautiful place for my mind to go when I needed it, when she needed it.

But pass beyond friendship, and there be dragons.

Science teachers are supposed to be nerdy, combed-over and, quite frankly, a little dull. They’re not supposed to be like him. And while he may be the ideal person to help 22-year-old Sarah Kyle nail her scholarship essay for Stanford’s master’s program, he may also be far more life changing than she bargained for.

Daniel Moore is certain he would never date a former student. No question. Still, he’s not quite prepared for the schooling he’s about to receive from that four-chambered muscle in his chest that is suddenly adapting to an entirely new mandate. Yep, evolution is a bitch!

Because life is only one part science; the rest is art. And life can turn on a dime; they both know that, all too well. In their own ways, they both live with the enduring effects – the ripple effects – of sudden loss. This powerful connection draws them together in the unspoken understanding of things that are just hard to explain. But will it ultimately prove to be the bond that unites them or the force that tears them apart?

RIPPLE EFFECTS is a standalone dual POV adult contemporary romance that contains no twenty-something-year-old billionaires, no private jets and no bedroom accouterment. It does contain the first reference to dinoflagellates in women’s literature (full disclosure: this may not be true), an ardent love affair sparked by the misuse of a hyphen (that is true), and a heartfelt and generously humorous journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and the restorative quality of love.

What is YOUR passion?

When an uncharacteristically rash decision lands law school graduate Melody Grayson in San Francisco’s dicey Tenderloin District, she comes face to face with a dangerously tempting man who embodies every mistake she swore she would never repeat. Passionate, sexy, and far more insightful than she’d care to admit, he causes her to question everything she thought she knew about her future. Now she’ll have to decide where the bigger risk lies: in the prudent path she has been working tirelessly to pursue, or in the intriguing but uncertain one he’s offering.

Up-and-coming, Irish-born musician Jamie Callahan is no stranger to chaos; he’s lived a lifetime of it. But in the fall of 2004, when the music industry is on the verge of massive upheaval, the life he aspires to could come at a heavier price than he’s prepared to pay. And while Melody may be the ideal person to help him navigate the gambles he must take, a relationship with her might be his biggest gamble yet.

SOUND EFFECTS is a standalone dual POV adult contemporary romance that captures the gloriously unpredictable nature of life, in which the path from who you are, to who you’re meant to become may not be a straight one. It may also have a few bumps. Sexy, humor-filled, and relatable, Sound Effects is a story about living passionately, staying true to yourself, and finding that one magic person who makes the journey of self-discovery an adventure worth taking.

LJ Greene is a self-professed obsessive multi-tasker who writes really boring stuff by day and lets her inner romantic fly by night. This California native is married to the most amazing man and has two beautiful children, not old enough to read her books. (They probably wouldn’t want to anyway on account of the “Ew, gross” factor.) She’s an avid reader of all genres with an embarrassingly large ebook collection, and a weird penchant for reading the acknowledgements at the end of a novel. She's also a music lover with no apparent musical talent, a travel enthusiast, and a cheese connoisseur.